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Vitamin Supplements: Hype or Help?

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Vitamin Supplements: Hype or Help?

More than half of American adults take a dietary supplement every day as society

becomes dependent on vitamins to sustain its unhealthy lifestyle. However, numerous journals,

studies, and experiments are showing that vitamins are actually detrimental to human health. As

Dr. Darwin Deen, clinical professor in the department of family medicine in New York, says,

“People are looking for help with what they believe is a problem but are trying to solve it the

wrong way.” A healthy diet enriched with fruits and vegetables is a better alternative to a meal

replaced by nutrients densely packed in the form of a pill (Conley).

The hype about vitamin supplements began with Denham Harman, who proposed in the

1950s that aging and disease, such as heart disease and cancer, are caused by free-radical activity

molecules, which are made when one exercises and converts food into energy. In laboratory

experiment, Harman proved that free radicals can be inhibited by antioxidants (Walker). As a

result, antioxidant supplements flew off the shelves as manufacturers loaded pills with mega

doses of nutrients. In 2010, the vitamin industry grossed $28 billion, up 4.4% from 2009,

showing a definite upward trend in vitamin supplements (Offit).

However, contrary to what Harman believed, Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten represent

the general opinion of most scientists when concerning vitamin supplements, “It is clear that it is

no longer science but market forces that are driving the macabre antioxidant industry”

(Atkinson). The problem with the hype over vitamins is that emerging science is showing that

free radicals are actually vital to our health, as they help the immune system fight infection and

stop growth of cancer cells. Thus, large doses of vitamin pills that inhibit free radical activity are

detrimental to human health (Matten and Goggins 20).

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For example, the researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center concluded in

1996 that among those at risk of lung cancer, patients who took large doses of beta carotene pills

were 28% more likely to die from cancer and 17% more likely to die from heart failure. The

Journal of American Medical Association published in 2007 that after evaluating 9,000 people

who took high-dose vitamin E to prevent cancer, those who took the additional vitamin

supplements were more likely to develop heart failure than those who didn’t (Offit).

Humans need vitamins to survive, as vitamins convert food into energy, but we have to

limit our nutrition intake before the additional supplements start adversely affecting the delicate

chemical balance in our bodies between free radicals and vitamins. As Goggins and Matten point

out, “Not only are the intervention studies showing no positive effects from antioxidant

supplementation, but they are also causing scientists to worry about the harmful effects of

vitamins” (Atkinson).

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Works Cited

Atkinson, Louise. "Ignore All That Hype about Antioxidant Supplements: Why Daily Vitamin

Pills Can INCREASE Your Risk of Disease." The Daily Mail Web site. 21 May 2012.

<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2147771/Ignore-hype-antioxidant-

supplements-Why-daily-vitamin-pills-INCREASE-risk-disease.html>.

Matten, Glen, and Aidan Goggins. The Health Delusion: How to Achieve Exceptional Health in

the 21st Century . London: Hay House, 2012.

Conley, Mikaela. "Vitamins and Vitamin Supplements: Use Increases in America."ABC News

Web site. 13 Apr. 2011. <http://abcnews.go.com/Health/vitamins-vitamin-supplements-

united-states/story?id=13359944>.

Offit, Paul. "The Vitamin Myth: Why We Think We Need Supplements." The Atlantic Web site.

13 July 2013. <http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/07/the-vitamin-myth-

why-we-think-we-need-supplements/277947/>.

Walker, Michael G. “Anti-oxidants.” Walker Biosciences Web site.

<http://walkerbioscience.com/Aging%20Brain/Antioxidants.pdf>.