I try to eat fairly health meals, but have the occasional vitamin tablet as a pick-me-up. Now comes the news that vitamin supplements are either useless or can kill you. Your thoughts?

Source

Vitamins supplements increase death risk

Popular vitamin supplements designed to prevent disease may actually increase the risk of death, a landmark international study has found.

Vitamin A performed worst in the 68-trial review, with the supplement said to lift mortality risk by 16 per cent.

A closely-related nutrient, beta carotene, had a seven per cent rise.

Vitamin E supplements were associated with a four per cent increased risk, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The Danish researchers found the top-seller, vitamin C, had no effect - positive or negative - on survival. The researchers also cleared the trace mineral selenium of increased risks.

They concluded "the public health consequences may be substantial" given that 10-20 per cent of western adults swallow supplements regularly in the belief they're preventing disease.

The review examined the effects of beta carotene, vitamins A, E and C and selenium on the death of more than 230,000 adults involved in trials.

When looking at both low and high quality studies, they found no significant association between vitamin use and mortality.

But high-quality results analysed alone showed an average five per cent rise for the three supplements, vitamins A and E plus beta carotene.

Australian expert Luis Vitetta, from the Centre for Complementary Medicine and Research, said the results were "very concerning" and added strength to evidence that vitamins can do more harm than good.

"There's a billion dollar vitamin industry based on this idea that people can prevent disease when they're actually just putting themselves at extra risk," said Prof Vitetta, from the University of Queensland.

Supplement manufacturers claim these products have an antioxidant effect, essentially eliminating free radical "messenger molecules" that are responsible for the so-called oxidative stress which has been linked to disease.

But critics doubt whether oxidative stress even exists, with this research saying that killing off free radicals only interferes with some essential defensive mechanisms which affect survival.

Prof Vitetta said smaller studies had shown that those who "mega-dosed" on vitamins had the most heightened risk, and called for "very, very prudent" consumption.

He said doctors needed to be able to offer more concrete advice on vitamin intake, a call supported by the Australian Medical Association's John Gullotta.

"These results show this is an area of real concern that we should be looking at further," Dr Gullotta said.

The Complementary Healthcare Council (CHC), which represents the industry, said the results were based on old data and included trials which allowed doses of vitamins not accepted in Australia.

CHC executive director Tony Lewis would not comment on the study's claims but said the evidence was "weak".

taking vitamins in megadoses is as much dangerous as having not enough of them in the foods.

the best is to have a balance diet, rich in all nutrients, with vitamins being released into the digestive system slowly from the digested foods - tablets are released rapidly and are not as easily absorbed by the body.

if we have a balance diet we need a vitamins boost only when we are ill and recovering from the illness