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?]

Re: I'm still okay with taking them (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-09-08 23:23 (#2S65)

But those extra few seconds (increasingly rare in medicine) are far better spent advising exercise and losing weight, no? Even just "eat more vegetables" has got to be FAR more beneficial than mentioning vitamins, I would guess. Might as well be recommending horoscopes or chiropractic if you're going to waste time talking about vitamins.
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