Conscious Living Counseling & Education Center: A Closer Look at Vitamin Supplements

Americans love their vitamins. Sales have grown annually by 4 percent in the past decade and about half of all adults take a daily multivitamin. A struggling economy may have helped these numbers as consumers try to stave off medical bills by adding a vitamin regimen. Doctors continue to recommend vitamins, and more foods are being fortified to increase the consumption of needed nutrients.

In researching this article, it began as a search to recommend the best vitamin supplements to take and the best brands on the market. Instead, it became a look into the controversy surrounding the vitamin supplements on the market. Recent research has indicated that taking a multivitamin will not protect against heart disease and cancer, and experts maintain that people do not need vitamin supplements when they have a healthy diet. Moreover, if you are consuming high levels of fortified foods, taking a daily multivitamin can give you too much of certain vitamins.

But what about those who do not eat a balanced diet or are chronically stressed? There may be some benefits for certain groups to take specific supplements, like folic acid or omega-3 fatty acids.

If you are concerned about the vitamins you take, this article will focus on some issues regarding the vitamin industry, controversy and recent research surrounding a few popular vitamins, and then give some recommendations for you as a consumer.

Let’s start at the beginning: looking at those who manufacture your vitamins.

The Supplement Industry Controversy

The FDA regulates the nutritional supplement industry, but it does not test vitamins before they go on the shelves. Instead, the manufacturers are responsible for making sure their products are safe, so there is no government agency testing to assure quality. ConsumerLab.com independently tests hundreds of vitamins each year, but those products are already on the shelves. There is no way of knowing, outside of independent testing, whether your supplements contain what they say on their label.

For a report in 2011, ConsumerLab tested 38 multivitamins and found that 13 of them either had too much, too little, or an incorrect listing of the ingredients. One supplement tested, Centrum Chewables, contained 173 percent of the vitamin A that its label specified, which should be alarming considering that too much vitamin A can be toxic to the liver. Children’s multivitamins were not immune with one exceeding the Institute for Medicine’s recommendation for vitamin A for children ages 1 to 3. They even tested several pet supplements and found one containing unhealthy levels of lead. A vitamin industry trade group member responded that the FDA allows for a certain amount of variation so that the level on the label will be maintained even at the end of its shelf life.

If you are looking for a good brand of multivitamin, One-A-Day Women's, Centrum Ultra Women's, and GNC Women's Ultra Mega are at the top of the list for best brands for women along with Centrum Silver, Jigsaw Complete Essential Daily Packets, and GNC Mega Multivitamin as the best brands for men.

Not only can the industry itself be controversial, but vitamin supplements are receiving greater scrutiny and testing.

Conflicting Results on Supplement Studies & Testing

Vitamin D is one vitamin that has shown great promise. Humans have evolved to acquire vitamin D levels through exposure to the sun and our modern world prevents many of us from getting all that is needed, especially those of us in northern states who have longer winters. All the tissues of the body have receptors for vitamin D and need it to function properly. Studies indicate that higher blood levels of vitamin D can reduce the risk of everything from high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, and heart disease, to some cancers, immune-system abnormalities, and even falls caused by age-related muscle weakness. When the sun is the source of the vitamin D, there is a built-in cutoff, but when it is taken as a supplement, it goes right to the liver. Too much vitamin D can cause toxicity and there is debate as to the safe upper limit. A recent study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism updated these limits, and the study’s researchers are concerned that supplementing everyone with vitamin D may push some at the higher end of this range beyond it and have a significant effect on public health. But Vitamin D is not the only supplement affected by recent testing.

In a study reported in 2011, researchers found a 17 percent increase of prostate cancer cases in men taking vitamin E over those taking only a placebo. Ironically, the study was created to test how vitamin E might decrease the risk of developing prostate cancer.

In 2008, Harvard Men’s Health Watch published a study suggesting that high levels of folic acid can be linked to prostate and colorectal cancers. In the mid-1990s, food companies began fortifying grain and cereal products with folic acid, which may have contributed to the increased cases of colorectal cancers.

Omega-3 fatty acid supplements are ingested to aid in heart health, but a recent study of close to 70,000 people showed no statistical risk reduction in heart attacks, strokes, or other heart-related deaths. One doctor “disheartened” by the results suggested that food sources of omega-3 may be a better choice than supplements.

These are just a few examples of the vitamin supplement controversy; others include vitamin A, beta carotene, and recent studies on calcium supplements.

This doesn't mean that all supplements will prove to have a null or negative effect on the human body. It means that the vitamin supplement industry is fairly new, so there will need to be further testing to better understand each supplements' impacts. The effects of too little of a vitamin are well known (beriberi, scurvy, rickets), but there has not been the same amount of study on the effective upper limits of vitamins and minerals.

Articles focused on supplements nearly always point toward a healthy, balanced diet as the best source of these nutrients. We highly recommend incorporating more fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and other whole foods to get as many of your daily vitamins as possible. For a great resource on balanced eating, we recommend Clean Living Magazine.

Along with eating a balanced diet, make sure you are aware of the amount of fortified foods you are eating, so you are not overdosing on vitamin supplements.

If you would like recommendations on which vitamins you should be taking, we would refer to you to Dr. Weil's website. When choosing vitamin brands, make sure they are brands that are labeling their vitamins correctly. Check them out on ConsumerLab.com if you have questions.