Vitamin supplements, big, big business these days.
But what are they actually doing for us and could they be doing more harm than good?
I didn't expect harm, I expected that I might waste my money.
What I want to know is, are vitamin pills worth the money?
So I, as a doctor, know just how important vitamins can be,
I know they can be important for connective tissue production and
your skin, your hair, pretty much all the functions in the body need good vitamins.
But do we need to take supplements at all?
Scientists have been taking a closer look at our food, and you'd
be surprised how many different vitamins can be found
even from your classic takeaway, you get quite a few micronutrients from this.
You get quite a few micronutrients from this.
So you need 40 milligrams of vitamin C and this gives you 13.
So you see this almost a third of your vitamin C in one of your three meals, perfect.
You get a lot of fibre in this meal.
You do get some iron, actually.
You get some calcium from that meal.
So really, this is giving you a broad range of micronutrients.
Those curly fries gave her almost 50 percent of her daily folate.
So it just goes to show that you can get vitamins from almost every
type of different food, you don't need an incredibly healthy diet to get these vitamins.
You can find them in some foods that you'd never expect.
So do we really need to bother supplementing our diets with pills?
I categorically do not think the UK population as
a whole should be taking multi-supplements as a nation for most micronutrients.
When you look at our blood levels, in particular, if you exclude
certain high risk groups like adolescents, we are meeting the
needs of our body.
And there is no evidence that once you meet those needs, more is better.
But even though we may not need them, a number of us are
taking multi vitamins and vitamin supplementation for a number of different reasons.
Vitamin A hoping to improve your vision,
vitamin B 12 of it to boost your energy, and even vitamin C, hoping to get better skin.
So for some reason, a lot of us are actually buying into this.
So the question is, is it legit or is this all just hype?
So I have a few supplements here, let's see what they say.
Wellman oOiginal, 29 nutrients to help maintain health and vitality,
which supports normal energy release for a hectic lifestyle.
And who doesn't want to look like David Gandy am I right?
Floradix: liquid iron and vitamin formula contribute to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue.
Super antioxidant, supporting the normal function of a healthy immune system.
But what does all this stuff actually mean?
The reason some of the terms are so vague is because these are
actually food supplements, not medicines, which means companies
can use some pretty clever wording to tell us what they actually mean.
Contribute to normal means that you're having an effect there
if your particular measure or your particular health
relationship is abnormal.
The consumer may not get an effect of these if they are already replete
and have enough of the vitamin or mineral already.
But this box here has been updated and now says it helps to maintain
health and vitality, but that's still pretty vague.
We can't argue that a lot of the time vitamins can be a good thing.
So if you're lacking vitamin D, supplementing it with vitamin D
supplements or if you're becoming pregnant, taking folic acid,
we know helps development of an embryo in normal pregnancy.
However, these vitamins and supplements are best used when
you're actually lacking or deficient in them.
And for many of us, even myself and I'm a doctor, you don't know
what you're deficient in. So in theory, to actually get the best
benefit of vitamins and supplementation, we don't need to
be having regular blood tests and have our own nutritionist.
And how many of us have one of those?
So if you have a good diet and you're not low in these vitamins,
then taking them could actually be pointless and you could be
wasting your time and money.
But can these vitamins be hurting more than just your pockets?
Can these vitamins actually be dangerous?
So green tea, we've all heard of this being good for us,
it contains stuff like antioxidants which can help prevent cell damage
and even reduce the risk of potentially getting cancer.
So by getting this in a higher dose and taking it as a supplement,
That seems like a good idea, no?
Well, unfortunately for 54 year old Jim McCants in Dallas,
the promise of these supplements actually turned into a nightmare.
My dad had a heart attack at age 59 and did not make it.
And I was determined to do what I can to take care of myself as best
I can so that I don't miss out.
And then I saw an article on green tea extract and started taking them.
Three months later, Jim's wife noticed something very worrying.
She looked at me and said, do you feel ok?
Yeah, I feel fine, why?
Oh your face is yellow, your eyes are yellow, you look terrible.
No, I feel fine.
And then when I looked in the mirror it was shocking.
The next day, Jim was actually admitted to hospital and they found out it was liver damage.
For the last 30 years, I drank maybe a six pack of beer a year, no wine.
So alcohol was not a big part of my life.
And then hepatologist drilled into, 'okay, what about any over the counter supplements?'
The presumed cause of his liver injury was actually the green tea supplement that Jim had been taking.
Supplements can contain vitamins in higher concentrations.
I didn't expect harm, I expected that I might waste my money.
OK, I may take these and they don't do a bit of good.
I can accept that risk.
But the risk that it could cause my liver to fail,
cause my kidneys to be damaged, that's that's a risk that's too high
for somebody to take.
Now, this is a rare case, and unfortunately, Jim was actually
taking the supplements in large doses, but that's the thing with
these supplements, your'e actually getting the vitamins in a much
higher concentrations than you normally would.
So the difference between getting these vitamins in food or in pill form
can actually be quite important.
I know it might sound boring in many ways
supplementation isn't harmful and can be beneficial, but if you're
in any sort of doubt, you should be discussing it with your doctor,
possibly seeing what you're deficient in or what you don't actually need.
As long as you're getting a balanced diet and your regular 5 a day
Eat your vegetables, kids and everything should be good.