As the name suggests, multivitamins are synonymous with multiple nutrients, containing at least the 13 vitamins and 16 minerals necessary to maintain health
These nutrients are necessary for the body’s various enzyme reactions, or as hormones, signaling molecules, or structural elements to grow, maintain or regulate physiological responses
Do you know what are the benefits of taking multivitamins?
Table of Contents
- Which ethnic groups need multivitamins?
- What are the benefits recommended for multivitamins?
- 1. Prevent cardiovascular disease
- 2. Beneficial cognitive function
- 3. Beneficial macular degeneration (Age-related macular degeneration)
- 4. Breast cancer incidence
- 5. Increase anti-stress
- 6. Beneficial for chronic fatigue syndrome
- 7. Improve cancer survival
- 8. Prevention of cataracts (age-related cataracts)
- Are there any side effects of multivitamins?
- The following will teach you how to choose multivitamins
- Where can I buy the most recommended multivitamins?
Which ethnic groups need multivitamins?
As of now, there is no evidence to recommend that everyone should supplement vitamins, but some ethnic groups may lack certain nutrients under physiological conditions or dietary changes, so proper supplementation can bring benefits.
Seniors: Digestion and absorption will gradually weaken at this stage, especially vitamin D, calcium and B12 deficiency are the most common.
Vegetarians: Some nutrients are mainly found in animal foods, and vegetarians are most likely to lack vitamin B12, calcium, zinc, iron, and vitamin D.
Pregnancy or lactation: This stage requires a lot of nutrition to support the growth of new life, but also to avoid the harm caused by excessive nutrition (such as excessive folic acid and vitamin A may have a negative impact on the fetus).
What are the benefits recommended for multivitamins?
1. Prevent cardiovascular disease
The heart and blood vessels are one of the vital organs that support life. Generally speaking, the baby’s heartbeat can be heard from the 7th week of pregnancy, and the pulse of life begins to unfold.
However, with the increase of age, organs will inevitably age, and factors such as smoking and poor drinking habits will make the cardiovascular age early and increase the risk of morbidity.
An observational study pointed out (over a period of 18 years, a total of 10,196 adults), women taking multivitamins (more than 3 years) can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease death by 35% (but men do not have the same results).
Another double-blind controlled study (11-year, 13316 male doctors) pointed out that compared with placebo, after excluding the difference in basic nutritional status between individuals, it was found that long-term use of multivitamins could not prevent major cardiovascular events, Such as myocardial infarction and stroke, need to be confirmed by more experiments in the future.
*Conclusion: multivitamins may have an effect on reducing cardiovascular disease in women, but men still need to observe.
2. Beneficial cognitive function
Improving cognitive function and slowing cognitive degradation has become one of the most interesting topics in human society, because having a good memory, attention, creativity, and wisdom is what everyone wants, and is a key factor for success and self-improvement.
A meta-analysis (10 studies, 3,200 participants) pointed out that supplementing multivitamins can improve the ability of immediate free recall memory, but it has no obvious help in other cognitive fields (such as delayed memory recall).
Another meta-analysis for children under 16 years of age (meta-analysis, including 20 studies) pointed out that supplementing multiple micronutrients may help improve fluid intelligence (the ability to solve new problems) and academic performance.
*Conclusion: The effect of supplemental multivitamins on improving cognitive function is limited, but it may be related to the nutrient dosage and the subject’s own nutritional intake level, which needs to be verified by more studies.
3. Beneficial macular degeneration (Age-related macular degeneration)
Aging-related macular degeneration, mainly caused by the degradation of pigment epithelial cells in the central part of the retina, is the main factor that causes the loss of vision and blindness in elderly people over 60 years old. The prevalence rate is as high as 35% over 80 years old. , Gender, hypertension, genetics, diet, and sunlight.
A Cochrane Review (contains 5 studies involving 76,756 participants) pointed out that supplemental vitamin supplementation cannot prevent or slow the occurrence of aging-related macular degeneration.
Another Cochrane Review (contains 19 studies) pointed out that for patients with age-related macular degeneration, supplementing with multivitamins can slow down the rate of disease progression.
*Conclusion: The effect of ingesting multivitamins on preventing macular degeneration is not obvious, but it may slow down the deterioration rate of those who already have the disease.
4. Breast cancer incidence
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, mainly occurring in the inner layer of the breast duct or the lobules of the breast in breast tissue.
The occurrence of breast cancer is related to genetic and non-genetic factors. In addition to BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, non-genetic factors include menarche age, age of childbirth, number of breastfeeding, smoking, radiation exposure, oral contraceptives, and postmenopausal hormone use, high-fat diet and obesity.
A population observation on Swiss women pointed out that the use of multivitamins may increase the risk of breast cancer.
However, another meta-analysis with sufficient evidence (meta-analysis, including 27 studies, 355,080 participants) pointed out that supplementing multivitamins does not significantly increase or decrease the incidence of breast cancer, and there is no significant difference between the two. Related.
*Conclusion: There is no causal relationship between comprehensive vitamin intake and breast cancer events, but the results still need to be verified by more cases or randomized controlled studies.
5. Increase anti-stress
People face different kinds of stress every day, whether it is from work, family or interpersonal, or even the pressure generated by emotions.
Everyone has different feelings about stress and different ways of influencing us. Some people can perform well at critical moments, but most people often feel afraid when they are under stress, and even affect normal performance. The best way to deal with stress is to adopt a Proactive approach to decompress yourself.
A double-blind controlled study pointed out (for 8 weeks, the object is 50 men), oral multivitamins help reduce the overall score of stress, anxiety, and depression. In addition, alertness and daily happiness have also improved.
Another controlled study pointed out that (for 4 weeks, the subject was 76 women), oral multivitamins can improve depression, anxiety, and stress scale (DASS) scores, of which stress improvement is the most significant.
*Conclusion: multivitamins can reduce the stress index, but the results still need to be confirmed by more large-scale experiments.
6. Beneficial for chronic fatigue syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome has a medical definition, that is, continuous fatigue of unknown cause for more than 6 months, and is often accompanied by headache, arthralgia, gastrointestinal discomfort, sore throat, lymphadenopathy, cognitive impairment, and paresthesia.
Although there are many hidden pathological mechanisms of chronic fatigue, among them, the increase in oxidative stress and low-grade chronic inflammation is the most accepted.
An observational study pointed out (targeted at 38 women of childbearing age) that in addition to multivitamins help improve fatigue and quality of life-related questionnaire scores, including reducing fatigue, sleep disorders, autonomic nervous system symptoms, headache frequency, and intensity, Infection problems.
It can also increase the level of antioxidants: superoxide dismutase may be a safe and easy-to-access adjuvant therapy option.
*Conclusion: Comprehensive vitamin may have the effect of improving chronic fatigue syndrome, but more large-scale experiments are still needed to confirm.
7. Improve cancer survival
Malnutrition is a common problem for cancer patients, affecting more than 85% of patients, and about 20-40% of cancer cases are caused by malnutrition, not cancer itself.
Under certain severe conditions, malnutrition may progress to cancer cachexia, with symptoms such as weight loss, muscle wasting, impaired immune function, weakness, and anorexia.
Malnutrition also often affects the ability of patients to withstand treatment and fight infection, so establishing a complete nutritional care plan and actively supplementing nutrition are also the keys to improving survival.
An observational study pointed out (tracking period of 7.1 years, the target is 7,728 patients with aggressive breast cancer), compared with non-users, taking multivitamins (containing minerals) can help reduce cancer mortality by 30%.
*Conclusion: Observational studies have found that multivitamins may reduce breast cancer mortality, but the author mentions that the relevant results are still to be further verified in the future.
8. Prevention of cataracts (age-related cataracts)
A cataract is currently the leading cause of vision loss and loss of vision. It is also the highest medical cost of all eye diseases (about 60% of total eye disease-related expenditure).
Cataract-related pathogenic factors include smoking, diabetes, sun exposure, body mass index, drug use, and estrogen replacement therapy.
It is estimated that more than 20 million people suffer from cataracts in the United States alone, and will grow to 30 million by 2030.
A systematic literature review and meta-analysis (including 12 studies), taking multivitamins can help reduce the risk of senile cataracts, which is more pronounced in subjects with longer duration and older age.
*Conclusion: For the elderly, multivitamins can reduce the risk of cataracts.
Are there any side effects of multivitamins?
For people with good general health, it is very safe to take an appropriate dose of multivitamins without side effects, but possible adverse reactions include gastrointestinal discomfort, diarrhea, and constipation.
Although it is not common to suffer from allergies after taking multivitamins, if there is rash, itching, swelling (especially on the face, tongue, or throat), dizziness, and breathing difficulties, please seek medical treatment immediately without delay.
Safety Precautions
Before using any multivitamins product, if you want to take any medicine or unilateral health food, please be sure to confirm with a medical professional to reduce possible interactions or overdose.
E.g:
Iron cannot be used with antacids, bisphosphonates, levodopa, thyroid preparations, and certain antibiotics
Folic acid cannot be used with antiepileptic drugs
The following will teach you how to choose a jar of vitamins suitable for you
Confirm the instructions on the label (three main points)
1. Nutrients contain the correct amount:
A jar of high-quality multivitamins must contain at least vitamin C, B1, B2, B3, B6, folic acid, B12, B5, biotin, A, E, D, K, potassium, iodine, selenium, borate, zinc, calcium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, beta-carotene and iron, confirm whether there is 100% Daily Value (recommended daily intake), which can be found on the label on the can.
Calcium and magnesium depend on each brand and usually do not reach the recommended intake value of 100%, because calcium and magnesium have a large volume, and adding a sufficient amount will make the pill too large and difficult to swallow.
2. The composition of various nutrients
The type of nutrients can see the quality and absorption rate of a jar of multivitamins. The absorption rate refers to how many of these ingredients can be used by the human body after entering the gastrointestinal tract.
Vitamins, like medicines, are divided into natural and artificial ones. The absorption rate of vitamins from natural sources must be higher than that of synthetics. The human body is very smart and can accurately distinguish which ones are synthetic. Natural nutrients are easily absorbed.
In recent years, some studies have often pointed out that the use of certain vitamins has caused an increase in the incidence of certain diseases, such as the use of vitamin A and vitamin E to increase the risk of cancer, and in-depth exploration of the reasons. Most of these studies use synthetic nutrients. These Artificial nutrients may not only cause human rejection, but also may cause immune reactions, and negative effects are inevitable.
3. Is there any unnecessary synthetic additives
Most friends seem to think that as long as the ingredients listed in health foods are safe and wholesome, but this does not seem to be the case, healthy foods often add some excipients during the manufacturing process.
(Excipient) usually includes various chemical additives, preservatives, and pigments. Most of these ingredients are used to effectively combine various raw materials to speed up the manufacturing process, not for the sake of consumers. Some additives may also cause allergies.
Synthetic vitamins are derived from coal tar (petroleum by-product) through a series of chemical steps. The raw materials are cheap and easy to mass-produce. They are widely used in health foods and cosmetics. It is unknown whether they are used in the human body. You have to be careful before buying.
Where can I buy the most recommended multivitamins?
In recent years, food safety problems in various countries have exploded, and it is not healthy but black-hearted products that everyone spends on. Therefore, European and American products with relatively strict quality control have become popular products.
And iHerb.com is a large-scale medical cosmetics e-commerce company in the United States. It has a high satisfaction rate of 97% in the evaluation of Google customers. It provides global home delivery so that you can buy it without risking buying fakes through purchasing high-quality health products.