Are Vitamin Supplements Effective?

Vitamins are a type of substance that helps grow, develop and give benefits to your body. Having an insufficient supple of vitamins could lead to health problems, diseases or in rare cases, death. There are certain types of vitamins, each with their own role of supporting and developing your body. Vitamin products mostly composed of organic compounds mixed with electrolytes, vegetable or fruit extract, or sometimes with artificial ingredients, etc. Consumers may have their own view that vitamin supplements are essential for their daily needs and for a healthy lifestyle; others may oppose that vitamins are a waste of investment or could cause side effects to their body. However, the main subject that concerns the society and the scientific community is whether vitamins supplements are effective or not. Is it essential to take multivitamins daily or is it just an open door to health problems?

Having a daily rate of vitamin products may provide benefits or adverse effects to the human body. In society and the scientific community, debates on whether vitamins can be effective or ineffective to the human body. This question leads to a comparison of people with vitamin deficiency and daily basis consumption of multivitamin products. Thinking about this comparison shows one type of people not taking vitamins and the other taking vitamins. This comparison also explains to society that vitamins may prove beneficial but not to the scientific community as evidence must be needed. However, scientific research provides evidence that multivitamins commonly containing folic acid, vitamin D, etc. all with their own roles of giving benefits to the body. If regular consumption of vitamins truly provides real health benefits, we should be able to validate that studying the health benefits and effects in large population of people that took multivitamins for years. The method to prove vitamins aren’t beneficial could be: overdose of multivitamins, misleading use or premature use without contacting their doctor. However, in some scientific findings and research, a few vitamins cause risk to the human body such as early death (mortality), increases chance of lung cancer and breast cancer from some vitamins. Therefore, there is evidence that regular consumption of multivitamin products has health benefits and reports that this practice could cause harm.

Taking vegetable extracts proves to be better than eating vegetables. Evidences with vegetable extracts proves to be better than eating vegetables showing, “Juicing has been credited with alleviating everything from skin diseases and immune disorders to cancer and high blood pressure.” (Ko, 2011) Having vegetable extract at liquid state maybe easier to digest in the stomach and less energy used when digesting in liquid form whilst heating or cooking them will destroy or reduce some enzymes content meaning getting less nutrients if cooked. Juicing can be an advantage when it comes to digestion and nutrient supports in the human body at the same time. Therefore, vegetable extracts are proven to be better and beneficial than eating vegetables.

Situations and conditions with overdose and vitamin deficiency could be possible and could cause illness to the human body. Suffering from vitamin deficiency will lead to certain sickness, diseases, possibility of cancer or nutritional disorder. An example of a certain vitamin deficiency case study is vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D mostly comes from the sun and some of our daily meals like milk and fish. After several surveys and research from Australian Bureau of Statistics and Australian Health Survey with Biomedical Results for Nutrients shows evidence that people with low levels of Vitamin D has a risk factor for other conditions like, heart and kidney disease, osteoporosis in which case the body’s bone may fracture or break easily and cancer or even mortality. If there is a situation of a patient suffering from Vitamin deficiency, they may be suffering from health problems like fragile bones or several diseases. For the patient to survive and fight this type of condition, they should contact their doctor, take high or rich calcium food products, increase exposure to sun with high UV times like mid-morning till mid-afternoon, increasing physical activity or any Vitamin D supplements. However, patients with moderate to severe deficiency may have a blood test and high Vitamin D supplements. This research proves and validates that vitamin deficiency is a real possibility of most situations and conditions. Overdose with vitamins causes a lot of health problems like diabetes, obesity, or even death. With researches provided, large dosages of Vitamins can cause problems, even standard dosage can affect their health with certain prescription medicine. This results with people suffering from adverse effects from too much calcium or iron intake. This proves and provided evidence that vitamin overdose is a possibility and the conditions to treat overdose are almost similar to people suffering vitamin deficiency. This concludes that vitamin deficiency and overdose are a possibility as they could cause harm and health problems.

Vitamin supplements are proven and validated to be effective with correct use and daily recommended dosages. They may cause harm varying on what health problems people have or taking overdose. As mentioned “For a healthy adult, if supplements are used, they should generally be taken at levels close to the recommended dietary intake (RDI). High-dose supplements should not be taken unless recommended under medical advice.” (betterhealthchannel, Victoria government, 2012)