Heather Bedard, C.H.E.
Whether or not to take supplements is probably one of the most popular questions that I’m asked consistently. It can often be one of the most difficult things to get people to let go of as well! The vitamin and supplement sector brings in over 30 billion dollars every year. This space increases at 12% a year as well. As you can see, things are pumping for this industry.
Let’s talk about why this is such a big deal. On one hand I think that deep down people really do want to do what’s best for their bodies. Especially if you go to a natural health practitioner, you will be told that supplements are one of the best ways to do this. It all sounds good, right? “You seem to be a little low in magnesium.” Or, “We know that magnesium helps with such and such. So here’s a $50 bottle that will help you.” “You seem to be low in vitamin D. Here’s a great vitamin D supplement to help get your numbers up.” Unfortunately, in much the same way as the mainstream medical doctors push drugs, natural or alternative medicine doctors push supplements. The unfortunate thing is that there are is either no benefit, little benefit, or danger to some of these supplements that people just aren’t told about.
One of the eye-opening things for me, was learning about how the body processes and interacts with supplements. Let’s go through the top four things to know before considering any supplement:
1. Most supplements are not “natural”. In a growing sector such as vitamins and supplements, the demand is too great to get these from natural sources. And, while you can extract vitamins and minerals from natural foods, the process is long and expensive. Most vitamins are synthetic and are created through chemical processes that are molecularly similar to vitamins but aren’t absorbed as well in the body.
a. Here are a few facts: Vitamin A contains acetone and formaldehyde.
b. Niacin is a waste product of nylon 6,6, a synthetic chemical used in carpets, airbags, and conveyor belts.
c. Thiamin contains chemicals from coal tar.
d. Synthetic vitamin C is made from commercially made sorbitol which is fermented with bacteria into what is called sorbose. This is then converted into 2-ketogenic acid. This then is treated with hydrochloric acid to form crude ascorbic acid. The crude ascorbic acid is filtered, purified, and turned into a white powder which is used to make pills or used to fortify your food. That’s just about the furthest thing from natural that I can think of. Many processed foods are fortified with these synthetic vitamins as well. These synthetic chemicals do have an effect on the body which brings me to the next point…
2. If there is an effect, there is a side effect. This goes for supplements as well as pharmaceuticals. While some side effects can be worse than others, it is important that you know the side effects of the supplements you are taking. Just because your body does need certain vitamins, doesn’t mean that 600mg of that vitamin all at once is the best thing for you or that it only does good things in your body. This is not how real food works!
3. Some supplements may have a label that states that there are no studies that show adverse effects from taking them – or something to that effect. Because there isn’t a lot of money in researching products that cannot be patented, this statement can mean that safety studies have not been done, not that there are no risks from taking the supplement.
4. Nutrient levels change nano second to nano second. Your body tightly controls the amounts of vitamins and minerals that it extracts from the foods that you eat and each of these amounts affect other processes in the body. Your body is not designed to consume large amounts of vitamins and minerals in isolated form without all of the other essential vitamins and minerals that help with the absorption of the specific one you are trying to increase. There is one particular study, that I’m thinking of, that tried to show the efficacy of consuming the nutrients that you would find in cruciferous vegetables, but in supplement form. They found that there is an enzyme in the whole food form of broccoli that is not found in the supplement. It is called myrosinase. This enzyme helps the body to absorb higher levels of sulforaphane and erucin, which help to fight cancer. People who took the supplement absorbed 5x less sulforaphane and 8x less erucin. The supplement was not found to be as effective as the whole food.[1] There are many other studies who show similar things.
“But”, you might be thinking, “I took supplements and the numbers on my blood test looked better!” And no doubt this is true. Many studies do show that taking some supplements can result in some good changes in surrogate markers like cholesterol level or even in symptoms like pain. However, the thing to remember is that drugs also do this, but short-term changes do not always translate to better long-term health. Who care if your blood test looks good if the root cause of your issue continues to go undiagnosed wreaking havoc on other systems in your body.
In some cases, it does make sense to take a supplement for various health conditions. However, just as with drugs, this should be on a case-by-case basis and should eventually be discontinued if possible. You should also be sure that the supplement can, and will, do what the makers are claiming it can do. If you are a vegan, the one vitamin supplement that you should take is a B12 since you won’t be getting that from your diet.
There are some supplements that come as whole food concentrates. Those would be the best solution because they contain the properties of the whole food instead of just one isolated nutrient. Just be sure that the benefits are not being over-sold to you and that you understand what they can and cannot do for your body.
Let’s look at just a few isolated nutrient supplements that are out there.
Number one, and you’ve probably heard me talk about this before, is vitamin D. Technically, it is not a vitamin, it is a type of steroid hormone. It often acts as an immune suppressant which is one of the reasons that people typically get sick less in the summer as their skin is exposed to more sunlight giving them the opportunity to make more D. Your body doesn’t make it in-house; your skin synthesizes it as a response to sunlight.
You’ll probably hear from both mainstream doctors, and natural medicine doctors as well, that most people are deficient in vitamin D. This, however, is rare and there are a lot of variables that go into this. Reference ranges for vitamin D were changed about 10 years ago increasing the amount of people diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency. According to UW Health, “Currently, there are no consensus guidelines for targeting plasma 25-hydroxy vitamin D concentrations and no studies addressing the outcomes of long-term vitamin D supplementation in general populations.”[2] On top of this, Vitamin D supplements are not the same as the vitamin D that your body makes from the sun[3]
I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea that vitamin D isn’t all it’s cracked up to be as far as supplementation goes. Most likely, if you have “low” levels, you have some kind of infection or sickness your body is fighting, or your reference ranges have been changed.
Calcium is another popular supplement that people take. One of the main risks of calcium supplementation is the risk of kidney stones. It is thought that high levels of dietary calcium can offer protection from developing kidney stones. However, high levels of calcium from supplementation may promote stone formation because they increase the amount of calcium that is excreted in the urine.
Women who participated in the Woman's Health Initiative, and who took the calcium–vitamin D combination, had a 17% increase in kidney stones than those who got the placebo. These participants took 1000mg of calcium and 765 IU of vitamin D daily.[4] There is also an increased risk of heart attack with calcium supplementation. In 2010, calcium supplements were linked with an increased risk of heart attack in an analysis of 15 randomized controlled trials.[5] Researchers believed that the higher risk was due to blood coagulation and calcium buildup in the walls of the arteries. From this study, they concluded that if 1,000 people took calcium for 5 years, 26 fractures might be prevented but 14 additional heart attacks would occur.
Vitamin C supplements can also cause a two times increased risk of kidney stones.[6] The researchers state in this study that there is no known benefit from vitamin C supplementation, and it should be avoided by people who are at risk of kidney stones. The risk is not present when eating whole foods that are high in vitamin C.
Researchers have also found that taking low doses of vitamin E is most likely safe but also useless.[7] I would much prefer taking my money and using it to buy quality foods that I know are going to improve my health status.
I know that this probably flies in the face of much of what you’ve heard before, but I think it is interesting information that we would do well to dig into even more. From what I see in the research, you should take great care in analyzing the risks as well as the benefits of taking any isolated nutrient supplement. If you are taking supplements daily, thinking that doing that is going to increase your health, while not changing other diet and lifestyle factors, the supplements really aren’t going to help you much. No supplement is a supplement for eating an optimal dietary pattern and you may also be harming more than helping yourself.
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[1] Clarke JD, Ried K, Bella D et al. “Comparison of Isothiocyanate Metabolite Level and Histone Deacetylase Activity in Human Subjects Consming Broccoli Sprouts or Broccoli Supplement.” Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry Published online ahead of printDoi: 10.1021/jf20287g
[3] “The vitamin D questions: how much do you need and how should you get it?” J Am Acad Dermatol. 2006 Feb;54(2):301-17
[4] Wallace RB, Wactawski-Wende J, O'Sullivan MJ, et al. Urinary tract stone occurrence in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) randomized clinical trial of calcium and vitamin D supplements. Am J Clin Nutr. 2011;94(1):270-277. doi:10.3945/ajcn.110.003350
[5] Bolland MJ, Avenell A, Baron J et al. “Effect of calcium supplementation on risk of myocardial infarction and cardiovascular events: meta analysis.” BMJ 2010;341:c3691
[6] Thomas L, Elinder CG, Tiselius HG, Wolk A, Akesson A. “Ascorbic Acid Supplements and Kidney Stone Incidence Among Men: A Prospective Study.” JAMA Internal Medicine published online ahead of print, doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.2296
[7] Abner, EL, Schmitt FA< Mendiondo, JL, et al. “Vitamin E and All-cause Mortality: A Meta-Analysis” Current Aging Science Vol. 4, No. 2