Faith-Based Vitamins

As a regular consumer of Men's One-a-Day vitamins, I'm a little bit shamed to learn that there is no evidence that they do me any good:

Popping the daily multivitamin is as routine as the morning cup of coffee. Multivitamins are cheap and easy to access, giving people the quick gratification that they've taken a small step towards protecting their well-being.

Yet the goodness is an article of faith. A multivitamin is not an insurance policy against disease or a guarantee of longevity. It may, in fact, be little more than just another substance for the body to excrete, at least for a healthy adult.

Much of the current literature on vitamins focuses on testing whether a specific nutrient has any effect on a particular condition. Some evidence suggests a regular multivitamin may offer some benefit to subgroups of patients who have chronic conditions, and there's solid evidence that the folate in a multivitamin benefits women and their fetuses during pregnancy.

But for healthy adults, the jury is out. Whether a daily multivitamin provides any clinical benefit to the average healthy American depends on whom you ask.

The article goes into further details on different aspects of the vitamin question, but here are the key paragraphs for those of us who like a little scientific support behind our medical choices:

There are no randomized, double-blinded, controlled studies comparing a multivitamin with a placebo in healthy individuals to determine whether there's any tangible health benefit. Such a study would be costly and time-consuming. Experts on both sides of the issue agree on this point.

Where experts begin to disagree is whether the kind of evidence that currently exists on vitamins show any clinical benefit. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force doesn't seem to think so.

In the July 1, 2003 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, the task force said that "the best studies suggested no clear benefit of taking vitamins" and there was "insufficient scientific evidence to recommend vitamin supplements as a way to prevent cancer or heart disease." Their conclusions were based on a review of the literature.

The benefits of vitamin supplementation for the general population, said Janet Allen, Ph.D., R.N., vice chair of the task force, "remain uncertain."

But the task force noted that taking vitamins according to the recommended daily allowances "does not cause harm."

Well I'm glad to know that I'm not actively doing harm to myself by taking vitamins, but that's not really the result I have been going for. I am pretty uncomfortable with the idea of consciously taking part in what could be little more than the greatest placebo effect of all time.