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Vitamin Supplements: Hype or Help?

2 Vitamin Supplements: Hype or Help? More than half of American adults take a dietary supplement every day as society becomes dependent on vitamins to sustain its unhealthy lifestyle. However, numerous journals, studies, and experiments are showing that vitamins are actually detrimental to human health. As Dr. Darwin Deen, clinical professor in the department of family medicine in New York, says, People are looking for help with what they believe is a problem but are trying to solve it the wrong way. A healthy diet enriched with fruits and vegetables is a better alternative to a meal replaced by nutrients densely packed in the form of a pill (Conley). The hype about vitamin supplements began with Denham Harman, who proposed in the 1950s that aging and disease, such as heart disease and cancer, are caused by free-radical activity molecules, which are made when one exercises and converts food into energy. In laboratory experiment, Harman proved that free radicals can be inhibited by antioxidants (Walker). As a result, antioxidant supplements flew off the shelves as manufacturers loaded pills with mega doses of nutrients. In 2010, the vitamin industry grossed $28 billion, up 4.4% from 2009, showing a definite upward trend in vitamin supplements (Offit). However, contrary to what Harman believed, Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten represent the general opinion of most scientists when concerning vitamin supplements, It is clear that it is no longer science but market forces that are driving the macabre antioxidant industry (Atkinson). The problem with the hype over vitamins is that emerging science is showing that free radicals are actually vital to our health, as they help the immune system fight infection and stop growth of cancer cells. Thus, large doses of vitamin pills that inhibit free radical activity are detrimental to human health (Matten and Goggins 20).

3 For example, the researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center concluded in 1996 that among those at risk of lung cancer, patients who took large doses of beta carotene pills were 28% more likely to die from cancer and 17% more likely to die from heart failure. The Journal of American Medical Association published in 2007 that after evaluating 9,000 people who took high-dose vitamin E to prevent cancer, those who took the additional vitamin supplements were more likely to develop heart failure than those who didnt (Offit). Humans need vitamins to survive, as vitamins convert food into energy, but we have to limit our nutrition intake before the additional supplements start adversely affecting the delicate chemical balance in our bodies between free radicals and vitamins. As Goggins and Matten point out, Not only are the intervention studies showing no positive effects from antioxidant supplementation, but they are also causing scientists to worry about the harmful effects of vitamins (Atkinson).

4 Works Cited Atkinson, Louise. "Ignore All That Hype about Antioxidant Supplements: Why Daily Vitamin Pills Can INCREASE Your Risk of Disease." The Daily Mail Web site. 21 May 2012. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2147771/Ignore-hype-antioxidantsupplements-Why-daily-vitamin-pills-INCREASE-risk-disease.html>. Matten, Glen, and Aidan Goggins. The Health Delusion: How to Achieve Exceptional Health in the 21st Century. London: Hay House, 2012. Conley, Mikaela. "Vitamins and Vitamin Supplements: Use Increases in America."ABC News Web site. 13 Apr. 2011. <http://abcnews.go.com/Health/vitamins-vitamin-supplementsunited-states/story?id=13359944>. Offit, Paul. "The Vitamin Myth: Why We Think We Need Supplements." The Atlantic Web site. 13 July 2013. <http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/07/the-vitamin-mythwhy-we-think-we-need-supplements/277947/>. Walker, Michael G. Anti-oxidants. Walker Biosciences Web site. <http://walkerbioscience.com/Aging%20Brain/Antioxidants.pdf>.