AURORA | The vitamins and supplements you’re using to counteract a deficiency in your body’s nutrients might be doing little else than depleting your bank account, doctors at the University of Colorado Hospital say.
Doctors and nutritional health coaches are at odds about the effects of vitamins and nutritional supplements. Specialists say that a balanced diet is a much more effective way of getting the proper balance of nutrients and minerals than through vitamins and high doses of nutritional supplements.
When it comes to nutritional supplements like beta-carotene, selenium and folic acid, the dangers may be much more severe than wasted money. According to Tim Byers, a professor of epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health, nutritional supplements taken in high doses could be linked to cancer. In a commentary recently published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Byers points to studies that show a greater risk of cancer for those taking nutritional supplements in extreme doses.
“We reviewed the dozen or so large trials that have been done over the past 20 years. If you squint your eyes and look at the whole body of work … it’s easy to see the main findings have been on the hazards side,” Byers said. “What we’ve tended to do in our prevention trials is use doses that are in the order of 10 times or more. It’s at those kinds of levels that we’ve proven that there can be harm.”
At such extreme levels, Byers said, nutritional supplements can take on the quality of a dangerous drug with long-term side effects.
“We now have objective evidence that even these vitamins that are essential … we now have subjective evidence that if you take 10 times or more, you can actually cause harm,” Byers said. “That’s my concern.”
Even at doses that are less extreme, Byers said many vitamins and supplements are unnecessary, adding that, “When we take a ‘one-a-day’ vitamin, usually those are minerals and vitamins that are there in about the same equivalency as what we would get in our diet. The regular dietary intake levels don’t seem to be a problem.”
Proponents of vitamins have a very different take.
Marianne McLaughlin, a nutritional health coach at Vitamin Cottage in Aurora, said the store’s customers rave about the positive effects of vitamins.
“Every day I come into this store I have people come in and tell me their remarkable stories of healing,” she said.
Vitamin Cottage promotes core supplements like a multivitamin, vitamin D, fish oil, vitamin K, probiotics and coconut oil. McLaughlin also cites research by integrative cardiologist Stephen Sinatra, founder of the New England Heart Center and one of the most notable doctors who promotes supplements for heart health.
But Bonnie Jortberg, assistant professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, says the body doesn’t absorb the nutrients in vitamins in the same way it absorbs nutrients from food.
“Your body needs micronutrients in order to be healthy and function properly but where the main benefit comes is when you obtain them from your food,” she said.
Vitamin D, potassium and phosphorous can be absorbed in the body by eating dairy, and zinc and iron can be found in meat, she said.
“Basically every study that has come out has shown really no benefit of taking vitamins,” Jortberg said.
Many of her patients spend hundreds of dollars on vitamins when she believes they could be spending their money more wisely.
“You’re much better off spending that amount of money on really good-quality food,” she said.
Jortberg said there are some universal truths about when it is beneficial to take vitamins. For example, she said, older adults who are homebound and don’t get out in the sun very often should take a vitamin D supplement. Children who are breastfeeding also may need more vitamin D than what breast milk provides. Strict vegans who don’t eat dairy may want to consider taking calcium and iron supplements.
Jortberg said it’s important for people to know that the vitamin industry isn’t regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
“They’re not doing anything illegal, but people really need to be aware that they’re not held to the same standards or scrutiny like a food (or drug),” she said.
According to the FDA’s website, there is no law that allows the FDA to approve dietary supplements for safety or effectiveness before they reach the consumer.
Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, the FDA has to show that the dietary supplement — once it’s marketed — is unsafe, before the administration can restrict the product’s use or remove it from store shelves.
McLaughlin said if the FDA had more oversight, it would cause havoc for people who regularly take vitamins.
“We think it will bottleneck the industry beyond reason and remove people’s rights to something they may have been taking for years successfully,” she said.
McLaughlin became a nutritional therapist five years ago after she left her career as a regional vice president of a wireless company.
She completed her education at the Nutrition Therapy Institute in Denver, and takes vitamins for brain and bone health.
“I’m healthier now than I was 10 years ago, I’m sure,” she said.
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.