People often question if taking multivitamins have a positive impact on their health or if they are just flushing their money down the toilet.  It’s a controversial topic since most medical trained professionals have little training in the field of nutrition. In the article titled, “ADA responds to med school nutrition failings“, the American Dietetic Association shows that medical schools often fail to give adequate nutritional education to doctors.  So who do we ask for advice if we can’t rely on our trusted family medical professionals?  I’d like to believe that the average consumer these days are smarter than they were 20 years ago. We have access to knowledge at our fingertips and with knowledge we make intelligent decisions.  When you dive down deep into multivitamins, you find that there are conflicting studies; so how do you sort through them?

Sorting through Different Vitamins

I’m hoping to make it easy for you.  In an article written in the journal “Appetite”, they discussed the effects of multivitamins on mood and general well being measured in adults.  They found a possible benefit of decreasing stress, anxiety and physical fatigue in a home setting when supplements were consumed as normal.  In another study published in the journal “Ophthalmology” , they studied the effects of multivitamins on cataract and age-related macular degeneration in male physicians, I particularly like this study since it was conducted with doctors, helping lend better credibility to the results.  In this study they showed that the incidents of cataracts were reduced while taking a multivitamin regularly; however, age related macular degeneration was not affected.  I think the biggest problem with the negative reporting on multivitamins are that they select particular studies that may disprove certain claims that people make about multivitamins and make wide negative assumptive remarks that cover proven positive benefits.

One of the best articles written to support the benefits of supplements is found in “NutraIngredients-usa.com” showing exactly why most studies and articles written disproving the effects of supplementation are faulty by design.  Multivitamin supplements are not meant to cure disease; they’re meant to help support your body’s ability to fight off disease.

Nutrition in a Capsule

We know that people don’t have perfect diets, we know that most people don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables to keep their immune system in order, that’s what multivitamins are intended to do, fill the gap of missing nutrition.  So go to the health food store, buy that multivitamin, and feel confident that you are taking a proactive step towards improving your health.