Take vitamins or no? Controversy supercedes the studies

by
in science on (#2S5R)
story imageEmily Oster covers an old topic that's still controversial:
Many medical studies show positive health effects from higher vitamin levels. The only problem? These studies often can't tease out the effect of the vitamins from the effect of other factors, such as generally healthy living. Studies that attempt to do this typically show no impact from vitamin use - or only a very tiny one on a small subset of people. The truth is that for most people, vitamin supplementation is simply a waste of time.
[Author note: The article avoids what I'd consider the main question: since these studies are not exactly new, why does my doctor still recommend a multivitamin every time I visit? And what other things does our society universally accept that might be pointless?]

This is Five Thirty Eight Now? (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-09-08 21:34 (#2S60)

I know they "pivoted" to include sports and other things even more trivial than politics, but I expected a little more... meat on the bones for a 538 article.

Anyway:

1. Yeah this is old news, and

2. "Supercede" is not quite the word you were looking for.

3. Your doctor sucks. :)
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