A daily intake of essential vitamins and minerals is crucial for the body to function optimally. While these nutrients are typically obtained from diverse food sources, maintaining a consistently healthy diet may not be feasible for everyone every day. This intermittent availability can lead to a deficiency in the required elements. To address this shortfall, multivitamins are a valuable supplement, providing a convenient and effective way to stabilize nutrient intake and support overall health.
Multivitamins have become one of the most widely used supplements, but there’s a growing concern about potential misuse in recent times. Despite being integrated into various drink bottles, the pills are often consumed in excess. This trend may be attributed to misleading claims on packaging and health rumors circulating among users. These misconceptions include believing multivitamins can replace a balanced diet, reduce the risk of chronic diseases, enhance hair and nail growth, and treat skin problems. Consequently, many individuals regularly take multivitamin pills without proper medical guidance. This article aims to provide comprehensive insights into daily multivitamin consumption, shedding light on its benefits and potential side effects associated with excessive use.
What are Multivitamins?
Multivitamins mean multiple vitamins; they combine various nutritional elements to supplement the inadequate vitamin and mineral supplies from the food you consume. Multivitamins are taken to ensure you have the daily required nutrient value for optimal health (1).
These multivitamins are produced for easy consumption, including capsules, tablets, chewable gummies, liquids, and powders. Every multivitamin, irrespective of its form, comes with recommended dosage and guidelines, which should be followed meticulously. They are usually available at local stores and sold over the counter (2).
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What Does a Multivitamin Supplement Contain?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has no statutory regulatory measure for dietary supplements, as much as it does for prescription drugs. Hence, the multivitamins may contain
- Varying amounts of vitamins
- Macrominerals such as calcium, potassium, phosphorus
- Trace minerals such as iron, copper, iodine, and zinc (3)
- Fatty acids
- Herbs
- Amino acids
You may need to discuss drug interactions with your medical expert before taking any multivitamin supplements.
Why Do You Need Multivitamins?
Your daily vitamin and mineral intake requirement can be obtained from food sources. However, for some reason, this intake from food sources may not be adequate, resulting in the need for multivitamin supplements. You may need an extra multivitamin supplement if
1. You are on a weight loss diet.
2. You are on a gluten-free diet. You may need more vegetables, fruits, and multivitamin supplements to replace the required nutrients.
3. You are obese and overweight. Being overweight may expose you to the risk of vitamin deficiencies.
4. You take alcohol excessively. Then, most of your food calories may be from alcohol than foods, resulting in vitamin deficiency (4).
5. You are pregnant. Vitamin B is critical, especially during the first few weeks of conception. Therefore, prenatal multivitamins containing Vitamin B and other essential nutrients are highly recommended during pregnancies.
6. You are a senior citizen. As you age, you may experience difficulty chewing, unpleasant taste bud changes probably caused by medications, and decreased appetite. These factors may lead to vitamin deficiency.
7. You suffer from malabsorption. These conditions interfere with food digestion processes and reduce the absorption of essential nutrients. Malabsorption may be triggered by ulcerative colitis, surgeries, or illnesses that cause diarrhea and excessive vomiting.
8. You are taking certain medications, especially those prescribed for low blood pressure, acid reflux, and Parkinson’s disease. Such medications often deplete the body’s store of essential vitamins and minerals (5).
Facts About Multivitamins Supplement
- The human body requires a daily dose of essential vitamins and minerals for optimal health and body performance.
- These vitamins and minerals may be obtained by taking multivitamin supplements.
- Some multivitamin products do not contain the required dose intended for consumption.
- The multivitamin supplement does not function in stamina building, muscle building, or weight loss.
- Continuous consumption of non-recommended multivitamins over long periods may pose health threats.
- Consuming excessive multivitamins does not increase the activity or function in the body but may increase the risk of health problems.
- Eating healthy meals daily may give you all the essential vitamins and minerals and need not require multivitamins (6).
- Direct food sources provide your body with the best supply of vitamins and minerals.
The Best Source of Vitamins and Minerals
- Have regular supplies of fruits and vegetables. If you have fruits and vegetables within sight, you’ll probably grab them more often.
- Cook your greens tenderly. Overcooking your greens may eliminate the essential nutrients.
- Consume whole foods. Whole grains, nuts, vegetables, etc., contain more vitamins and minerals than processed foods.
- Make meal prepping a habit. Prepare healthy snacks and easily accessible food. Ensure that each time you need to grab food, you have a healthy option to reach for (7).
Benefits of Multivitamin Supplement
- It improves short-term memory. An adequate supply of Vitamin B has been known to improve short-term brain function (8).
- It reduces anxiety and stress. In addition, vitamin B performs various bodily functions, such as helping the nervous system achieve efficiently, converting consumed food into energy, etc.
- It reduces the fatigue rate and increases the energy level.
- It may improve poor mood and ease symptoms of depression (9).
Precautions
- Combining different multivitamin products may be dangerous and pose health threats. If you have to take them, ensure you consult your medical expert.
- If you have a specific nutrient deficiency, consult your doctor for an appropriate recommendation for multivitamins. This will ensure you do not take unnecessary doses of unrequired vitamins.
- Ensure you take your multivitamin supplement as prescribed or according to the recommended dosage.
- Please take prenatal-recommended multivitamins if pregnant and consult your medical expert. (10)
- If you have any form of salt sensitivity, kindly consult your doctor before taking multivitamins.
- Avoid taking multivitamins with dairy products, including milk and other calcium supplements. Calcium may interfere with your body’s absorption of multivitamins.
- Do not take excessive doses of fat-soluble vitamins; they may accumulate in the liver and trigger adverse health conditions. These vitamins include Vitamin A, D, E, and K.
Also, Read – Vitamin E Face Packs- Say Goodbye To Aging, Acne Scars & Stretch Marks
Possible Side effects
Multivitamins mean multiple vitamins. Hence, a supplement may contain varying measures of various vitamins, and one may take more than the required amount. Possible side effects include
- Excessive consumption of vitamin C may cause diarrhea, stomach cramps, and nausea.
- Excessive intake of zinc and selenium may result in fatigue, hair loss, and gastrointestinal upset (11).
Sometimes excessive consumption may trigger allergic reactions such as
- Swelling of the face, tongue, lips, or throat
- Hives
- Stomach upset
- Unusual taste in your mouth
- Headache
- Tooth staining
- Stomach bleeding
- Increased urination
- Uneven heart rate
- Limp feeling and muscle weakness
- Confusion (12)
- Lung cancer (13).
- Constipation
- Nausea and vomiting
Summary
The shortage of nutrients supply in the body may be stabilized by using multivitamins. However, multivitamins are not the best solution to insufficient intake of vitamins and minirals. Taking a multivitamin may offer benefits such as improved moods, brain function, and energy performance level. However, excessive doses of multivitamins may pose health challenges such as swelling of the face, tongue, lips, or throat, diarrhea, nausea, hair loss, hives, stomach upset, unusual taste in your mouth, headache, tooth staining, etc. The best way to supply your body with the essential vitamins and minerals required for optimal health and performance is by taking healthy diets. If your diet does not match up to the required standards, then you may supplement your meals by taking multivitamins.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can I take multivitamins every day?
Yes, you may take multivitamins daily. First, however, you must ensure that your medical expert recommends it and follow the recommended dosage meticulously.
What happens when I take multivitamins?
When you take a multivitamin supplement, the varying vitamins and nutrients contained in the supplement function to ensure your body performs at an optimal health level. They are not a replacement for food.
What happens when I take an excess dose of multivitamins?
This is a common scenario. Eating healthy meals containing essential vitamins and nutrients and multivitamin supplements makes it easy to have excess vitamins in your body. This excessive intake does not improve metabolism in the body; instead, it may result in health conditions such as Vitamin D toxicity, vitamin A toxicity, hair loss, diarrhea, and stomach upset.
Do multivitamins contain minerals?
Most multivitamin products contain iron, calcium, zinc, potassium, and magnesium. However, an excessive intake of these minerals may pose serious health problems such as stomach bleeding and uneven heart rate.
Can multivitamin supplements help my hair growth?
Vitamin B6 and B12 are significant and may be helpful for hair growth. The activities of the vitamins facilitate the transportation of oxygen and nutrients to the body cells, including the hair cells, which may encourage hair growth. Also, hair loss caused by iron deficiency may be resolved by consuming multivitamins containing iron.
Can multivitamins be harmful to the body?
Yes, excessive intake of fat-soluble vitamins may be harmful to the body. When water-soluble vitamins are consumed in excess, they may be excreted via body fluids. However, fat-soluble vitamins accumulate in the body and may cause damage to the liver.
References –
- “Do multivitamins make you healthier?” – health.harvard.edu
- “What are multivitamins?” – healthline.com
- “Minerals” – medlineplus.gov
- “Dr Art Mollen: Pros and cons of taking vitamins” – azcentral.com
- “Should I Take a Daily Multivitamin?” – hsph.harvard.edu
- “Is There Any Benefit to Multivitamins” – hopkinsmedicine.org
- “Should You Take a Multivitamin?” – clevelandclinic.org
- “Neurocognitive effects of multivitamin supplementation on the steady-state visually evoked potential (SSVEP) measure of brain activity in elderly women” – ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- “Understanding nutrition, depression, and mental illnesses” – pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- “Teratogenicity of high vitamin A intake” – pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- “Getting Too Much of Vitamins And Minerals” – webmd.com
- “Multivitamins” – drugs.com
- “Beta-carotene in multivitamins and the possible risk of lung cancer among smokers versus former smokers: a meta-analysis and evaluation of national brands” – pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
