I have not attempted to read the study itself, but I will say that disease prevention != health optimization. Just because I’m not ill doesn’t mean I can’t be healthier, and I would be surprised if my diet (varied s it is) had everything in optimal proportions.
Here’s an infographic that sorts supplements by worth-it-ness, based on published studies.
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What do you mean? Those have fruit right in the name. I know I should definitely eat more from the fruits and vegetables category. Fruit By The Foot just isn’t enough.
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HOLY FUCK IS THAT WHERE THEY CAME FROM!?
How do you know that’s where they’re made? I ate them in Australia (and they were good).
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I’m with you Xeni: D3, every day.
As far as the multivitamins: I have a sister who’s a nurse working in a geriatric hospital. They’ve found that patients who took multivitamins for a long time tended to have failed kidneys by the time they were in or near their eighties. Yep, all that money wasted on vitamins just made your kidneys work harder to produce expensive pee.
The article makes not a single mention of the fundamental distinction between fat solubles (vitamins A, D, E and K) and water solubles (vitamins C and the B-complex) yet it mentions the known long-term risks of fat solubles as a generality, so once again it looks and feels like lazy journalism.
Excess fat solubles get stored in the body for a very long time, countries with vitamin A rich diets, such as Finland, have pervasive health problems with their middle-aged population. As for water solubles, the body has to make no extra effort to rid itself of any excess and it is suggested that they be replenished daily.
For the record, I take a sub-lingual B-complex liquid supplement, since I’ve read multiple times that the stomach destroys the delicate B-12 molecule, so it’ll make it into the bloodstream if you keep it under the tongue for a minute or two before swallowing. Also, I take Emergen-C during winter and spring, studies suggest vitamin C won’t prevent allergy and flu, but it will help with the symptoms.
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As someone who has such a poor appetite that I’ve actually developed muscle twitches from calcium and magnesium deficiencies, I can attest that micronutrient supplementation has definitely worked for me and I suspect it’s probably still a good therapy for certain at-risk populations (as other commenters have pointed out).
I’ve yet to read the original studies and reviews (I know, I know— bad commenter! No likes for you!), but I’m curious to see if they address the confounds of (a) which forms of micronutrients were taken (e.g. mag oxide vs mag citrate) and even more importantly, (b) whether these supplements were being taken with the appropriate foods. Sautéed kale is a wonderful (and delicious) accompaniment to just about any micronutrient supplement and has a staggeringly high nutrient-to-calorie ratio— a nice bonus if you have a poor appetite.
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Sorry, this is from CBS News, and I no longer trust their reporting.
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That’s pretty somber reckoning; I think on the contrary that chemists who take their CoQ11 from lab to lab get their mixology right for having written up their breakfast (and/or a cell line they were curious about) from time to time. Variously sourcing the feedstock per peer tests (is this off? Is it 06:10 already?) helps too. The wrap article sure is hard on E and beta carotene (as harmful if anything.) I would identify their sources as fish oil and carrots, but the market-dominating source the study framework worked out has only upgraded as far as perhaps sunflower seed oil and sugar beet leavings (from indigenous interments in mixed-afterworld sources?)
They are doing a brilliant job of reading annals.org and interpreting it on the case, having cited the source bits in order to amaze us. Throw them a festivus cookie if you like cited sources with sparing paywall issues; it beats reading ingredient lists (…blah blah mixed arsenic tocopherimides…err?) at the market?
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It is impossible to prove that bigfoot does not exist, because wherever you look, he could always be in a different place. Same with supplements; anyone who claims to prove that something does not exist (like benefits from supplements) isn’t talking scientifically.
This study seems to be a case of scientific reductionism being used to attempt to discredit scientific reductionism.
Aye, that’s the ones.
So what you’re saying is there’s a lot of people who took multivitamins who made it into their eighties…
Some of 'em made it to their eighties…
Despite what the article header here says, if I’m reading the editorial and summary of the studies correctly, they DO NOT suggest that supplements (not specifically multivitamins) do not help your health. They suggest that supplements do not prevent or reduce the risk of specific diseases or medical conditions; to wit, taking a vitamin supplement will not affect your chance of a heart attack or cancer.
That’s a direct refutation of quack claims made by some manufacturers, to be sure. But interpreting that data with the broad statement that they have no value and do not help your health is a bit of a reach. They can be useful to people who for whatever reason are not regularly getting their recommended daily doses of specific vitamins. Vitamins D and C being big ones, afaik, though I’m sure there are others. Do we require all of these vitamins all the time? Likely we don’t need them most of the time, if at all. But there is a value there…for continuing regular health to address nutritional deficiencies, just not as a magic bullet to cure cancer or counteract bad habits that lead to diseases or physical defects.
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Actually, that’s just the B-vitamins. For REAL fun, put a few drops of pharma-grade Methylene Blue in the office coffee pot. . . .
. . . and wait for people to freak about their now BLUE urine. . .
(and yes, this was done to me. I paid the joker back with Ex-lax in his hot cocoa. . . )
I couldn’t help myself; after reading the piece about the NSA on “60 Minutes”. Personally, I have a vitamin D2 deficiency, so I take an Rx supplement for that once a month; as a peri-menopausal female who doesn’t want to take hormone replacements, the nurse-practitioner I’ve seen told me to try evening-primrose oil and black cohosh (still pricey, but not as much as HRT). I’m of the mind if it works for me, I’ll continue. I’m almost 50 years old and in pretty good shape considering I don’t eat right, but I do take a multivitamin/mineral supplement. Did they even consider women’s needs when it comes to at least iron?
No offense, but that sounds like a pulpy wet mass of disgustingly clashing flavors. I think a lot of people would rather take a daily multivitamin and a fiber supplement than drink that. 
That and the difference in cost is huge - nuts and fresh fruits and vegetables are some of the most commonly marked-up foodstuffs in many places. Even if you live somewhere that can grow them locally and don’t have to foot the bill for their being shipping halfway around the world or at least across the country, they still cost substantially more than a couple bottle of pills, even if they are somewhat more efficacious than processed pills.
Again, the poorest segments of society are the ones most likely to not be able to afford fresh or even frozen produce. Their diets necessarily have to consist chiefly of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, and even if they do get a little extra money to feed themselves with, they’re more likely to spend it on eatting meat (compared to beans and other protein providing plants), rather than springing for fresh veggies.
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Well, it tastes like a fruit smoothie. Fruits like oranges and apples tend to overpower almost anything else you put in. And the pulp gets dispersed by the blender and gives the drink its smoothie-like consistency.
It’s certainly hard to beat 9¢ a day for a multivitamin (Costco price). But now we’re getting back to that statistic that it costs an extra $1.50 a day to eat healthy food. If you can’t afford that, then by all means take multivitamins. I was really addressing the average Boing Boing reader, who I’m guessing can afford that.
Even if the average BB reader can afford better, isn’t it worth discussing the many millions who can’t? Awareness of economic privilege and all that. 
