Episode 67 Are Multivitamins Worth the Investment?

Can multivitamins really add years to your life, or are they just another health myth?

In this episode, I explore the controversial findings from a recent study involving 400,000 adults. I delve into the undeniable benefits of targeted supplements designed to address specific nutritional gaps. 

I discuss the risks and benefits of taking supplements and explore the reasons why you may need them. I also discuss the evolving nature of supplement recommendations, using the changing recommendations of calcium supplements as a prime example. Listen to find out if you may benefit from taking supplements.

Learn more about booking a nutrition consultation with Fiona: https://informedhealth.com.au/

Learn more about Fiona's speaking and media services: https://fionakane.com.au/

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Credit for the music used in this podcast:

The Beat of Nature

Music by Olexy from Pixabay

Transcript

Fiona Kane: 0:32

Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection Podcast. I'm your host, F fiona K ane. Today I'm going to be talking a little bit about vitamins and minerals supplements. I see that there is a new study out that is being reported where they were talking about multivitamins and whether or not they're helpful. Essentially, it says that there's no proof that taking a daily multivitamin will help you live any longer. They did a study of 400,000 adults and the adults here had people with no major long-term diseases. It was a health record for nearly 400,000 adults with no major long-term diseases yet. So it was a health record for nearly 400,000 adults with no major long-term diseases yet to see whether the multivitamins reduced their risk of death. So it was very specific about reducing the risk of death and it didn't see that and I wouldn't really necessarily expect it to see that. So, anyway, so it didn't help with the risk of death. They did say that some people were more likely to die in that time, but it's one of those things that there's so many. The problem with these kinds of studies are observational. Right, they're observational studies, so all they're doing is observing what happens and there's so many variables, so I doubt that multivitamins would be an issue of any kind.

Fiona Kane: 2:00

It's all about the quality of the multivitamin, but I do agree where it sort of says pretty much what does work? Is taking supplements sort of really sort of targeted supplements the right one for you, based on if you have a nutritional deficiency or something like that? And that is we very much know that there's very great benefit in that. You know, for starters, you know vitamin C deficiency is scurvy and so we know that that makes a big difference, that when you take vitamin C for that it makes a huge difference. The same with vitamin D deficiency, which is really really common, unfortunately. But we also see I see a lot of my clients really benefit from taking magnesium, and iron is a really common deficiency, same with many B vitamins and vitamin A that I've talked about before as well.

Fiona Kane: 2:49

So there are a lot of nutrients where, if you do have a deficiency, it is really worth taking it, and I would say that a multivitamin would be particularly useful in the case of if you do have a deficiency, it is really worth taking it, and I would say that a multivitamin would be particularly useful in the case of if you're on lots of medications, because sometimes medications can cause nutrient deficiencies so you don't take it at exactly the same time as a medication, you take it away from it. But certainly a multivitamin can help in that case. I would say also, if you are on, say, like a vegan diet or a very sort of restricted diet where you're not having much nutrition, of course we absolutely know that multivitamins are essential for preconception and for pregnancy, breastfeeding, that kind of thing, so we know, for mums it's really really important. So there's times where we absolutely know the benefit is amazing and we really really need to be taking multivitamins. Other times, not so sure. But I do recommend taking supplements because I see a lot of benefit in it.

Fiona Kane: 3:54

If someone doesn't need them and if you are really healthy and doing well and you are absorbing the nutrients from your diet and you have a really healthy diet, well, that's brilliant. Of course, I'm not going to necessarily prescribe supplements to that person, right? So ideally, that is what you do. Ideally, you get the nutrients you need from your diet, you have a lovely broad diet and you're absorbing all the nutrients. You've got a good, healthy gut and you're able to digest and absorb nutrients right. So that's the perfect situation, the ideal situation. Unfortunately, we have a lot of less than ideal. So we have a lot of people on less than ideal diets and we have a lot of people with absorption and digestive and gut issues right. So in those situations it can be really really useful and important to take a multi or to take some particular supplements, depending on what's going on for that person and, like I said, if you have nutrient deficiencies as well.

Fiona Kane: 4:48

Now the thing about taking supplements is what I recommend is that you actually get them, have your supplements recommended by a health practitioner. So that's something that I'm qualified in and can help with, because if you don't have the health practitioner prescribe them, you won't know if you're on either the right one for you or even just a good quality supplement. So I hear a lot of people say that supplements are just expensive urine, and they're not necessarily, but they can be. So there are some really poor quality ones where I look at the ingredients in them and the ingredients are really they're kind of synthetic versions of vitamins or types of minerals that you just can't absorb and that you just can't use. So sometimes the quality of the vitamins or minerals that are just can't absorb and that you just can't use. So sometimes the quality of the vitamins or minerals that are in a supplement are really poor quality, unlikely that your body can use it and absorb it. And also, the other thing I see quite commonly is supplements can often have way more excipients than actual ingredients and excipients all of the extra things that makes make the supplement up. So it might be the you know what's used to make the tablet white or to make the capsule or to to get the consistency right or keep it fresh or whatever it is. But there sometimes some brands have so many excipients and you know it's taking. When we take a lot of supplements and there's lots of excipients as well, there's lots of, lots of things there that you can be taking that might be a problem for you also, too.

Fiona Kane: 6:22

A lot of people take just lots of different things. I had a client come in once and I think she had I can't remember I counted at the time but it was something like 30, 30 plus supplements that she was taking and I I went through them all, but most of them were out of date. So I actually threw them away and just most of them were poor quality, were things that she didn't really need and weren't worthwhile. And it's funny because people say supplements, like, I said, expensive urine, they don't do anything. But then the next breath they say they're dangerous and so they can't be both. They can't not do anything and be dangerous, and the truth is they can do something, so they can be dangerous, right the same as medications. Medications can do something and therefore they can be dangerous. They could also be really helpful. So supplements fit in the same category where they have active things that they do, and that does mean that maybe you can have too much, or maybe it can react with your medication, maybe it's contraindicated for the health issue that you have.

Fiona Kane: 7:30

There's a whole bunch of reasons why you might react badly to a vitamin, or it might not be suitable for you or safe for you, and the same one might be perfectly safe and actually really beneficial for a whole bunch of other people. So the idea of supplements being safe or bad they're not one or the other. It just depends on the supplement, depends on the individual, depends on lots of things, the same as medications. So basically, when you take a medication, whether it's in the form of a supplement or a vitamin, mineral, that kind of thing, or a herb, or if it's in the form or if you take like a medication. As in a prescribed medication, you have to always just be aware of what you're taking, and when you take a prescribed medication or a medication, you would usually talk to your doctor or pharmacist. So with supplements, I would advise the same thing that you talk to a nutritionist or, at the very least, your pharmacist or someone or doctor or someone who knows what they're talking about. Because, yes, you want to know that what you're taking is the right thing for you, has the right ingredients in there, and even just simple things like whether or not you absorb it might be depending on whether or not there's something else in there with it. So iron can be absorbed better with vitamin C, but particularly when it's a vegetarian source of iron the animal source of iron you can absorb quite well without vitamin C. So it just depends on the actual sources of these supplements, and there are certain B vitamins that work better with other B vitamins. There's B vitamins that can hide deficiencies of other B vitamins or other minerals. So the supplement thing is a complicated question and so the answer is a complicated answer.

Fiona Kane: 9:21

In my opinion, supplements can be very, very useful, and when they're targeted, when they're specific and when the person is taking the thing that's appropriate for them and safe for them and has been checked with their medications, and you understand their health issues and you're managing all of those things. Supplements can be great. They're life-changing. They've been life-changing for me and I see them as being life-changing in my clients. I see it every day. So supplements have great value and can be really really good. They can also be expensive, waste of money and they can be detrimental depending on what it is and the situation. Waste of money and they can be detrimental depending on what it is and the situation.

Fiona Kane: 10:07

So, please, everything that you take, whether it be a medication or a supplement, please get the right advice, please know what's safe for you. Please be aware of what's safe with medications you might be on and, in actual fact, sometimes people don't like taking supplements. If they're on medication which is fair enough and you've got to be safe and, in particular, like if you're on warfarin, there's almost nothing you can take when you're on warfarin. So there are situations where you yes, you absolutely have to be really careful. But, as I was saying before, though, there are a lot of medications that cause nutrient deficiencies. So, in fact, the fact that you're on medications might actually mean that you're more likely to need supplements. It's just about the timing of when you take them and taking the right thing and the right dosage and all of that. And a big example of that is people on statin medications for cholesterol lowering. Those medications will reduce your coenzyme Q10 and your magnesium, and they're both really, really important nutrients for your heart and for your overall health and for things like you know. One of the reasons that when people are on statin medications the cholesterol medications they get really sore muscles and things and they get really tired and fatigued is because of those two nutrients that you become deficient in when you're on that medication. So, in fact, if someone's on medication like that, it actually would be ideal to be taking supplements with that, but it's just about the timing, the right dose and the right thing for that person. And if you're on more than one medication, then you have to consider about the other medication as well.

Fiona Kane: 11:38

Blood pressure medications can cause a lot of nutrient deficiencies. So can things like antidepressants and most definitely any kind of acid blocker, so anything that is an antacid or to reduce the stomach acid. They absolutely cause nutrition deficiencies because you need stomach acid to absorb nutrients. So if you reduce that, you need stomach acid to absorb nutrients. So if you reduce that, you're going to absorb less nutrients. So I just wanted to.

Fiona Kane: 12:05

In regards to supplements, there's all sorts of things that you see in the news and I think it is important to you know. The daily multivitamin thing yeah, maybe not everyone needs to do that, but if you take it and you feel better for it, that's great. Just make sure you get a good quality one, and a hint is that that might not be the cheap one you get in the supermarket. It's probably not the best quality one. However, what I think usually works better unless, like I said, in that situation where it's pregnancy and preconception that kind of thing, in which case and that's preconception for someone wanting to have a baby it's really, really important that that woman is taking a multivitamin that includes active versions of folate and it's really really important that she's taking that before she gets pregnant, because that is vital for the brain health and the nervous system health of the baby. So in those cases, multi is absolutely required and really, really important For the everyday average person. Look, if you're generally healthy, you probably don't need it. If you take it. It makes you feel better, great.

Fiona Kane: 13:18

But for generally speaking, in my experience, the people who really benefit from supplements are the people who are having various symptoms, various deficiencies, various health issues or, like I said, on medications that cause deficiencies. They are the people that can really really benefit from taking supplements, but targeted, specific and really prescribed well. So that's who I would recommend in regards to taking supplements daily people that will really benefit from it. I'll be back in a moment. I'm back. So if you're one of those people who is taking lots and lots of supplements, spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars, it is well worth seeing a nutritionist and getting support around that and getting advice around that, because it can save you an awful lot of money because maybe you were taking something too much of something, not enough of something, not the right type of something, and it makes a big difference if your prescription is really really targeted. So I advise you do that.

Fiona Kane: 14:24

The other thing, too, is I often do get concerned when people are taking multi-level marketing vitamins and things and they get prescribed by their hairdresser or their mortgage broker or their next door neighbor and everybody benefits from taking this, this, this and that and they're taking all of these supplements and that's you know your neighbor doesn't know what's the best supplement for you to be taking, or that it's safe for you and it's a lot of money, and so I would recommend that you don't take supplements that way. Honestly, it's really worth just getting advice, even if you're talking to your pharmacist, your GP, whoever it is, but ideally, someone who has learned a lot about how to prescribe supplements, which nutritionists like me has learned how to do Naturopaths are also taught how to do that but it's going to save you so much money and make it much safer for you. But it's going to save you so much money and make it much safer for you. And the other thing is, too, that we keep up to date with new information, and so sometimes we will realize that something that we were doing in the past is maybe not a good idea, because new information comes out. And an example of that is taking calcium.

Fiona Kane: 15:32

Taking calcium, you know it's beneficial for some people, but it's about the form that you take. It's about what you take with it. But what we do know is just going out and just get yourself on a calcium supplement. That calcium doesn't necessarily get absorbed into your bones and it often ends up sitting in your arteries in places where it shouldn't be causing you health problems, right? So calcium is one that we've realized that, yes, there are reasons to prescribe it and it can be beneficial for certain people with osteoporosis, osteopenia, but you really have to prescribe it with the right other co-factors with it to ensure that that gets into your bones. And so just going and taking a calcium supplement because you heard that that's a good idea is not a good idea. And as people who are trained like me, who are up to date in that information and know that, okay, that might've been something that we used to think that was good, but now there's been a lot of studies and we know it's not right. So your neighbor doesn't know that, but your qualified health professional does. So someone who keeps up to date with those things is really, really important, someone who knows how to prescribe safely.

Fiona Kane: 16:42

So if you're taking a whole bunch of supplements, honestly it's not worth the money unless you get advice around what is right for you, and so many things are doubled up and which is where often people end up with situations where they end up with taking too much of something. So you'll often find that B6 is really easy to overdose in. Now you won't necessarily die from an overdose of B6, well, you won't but you'll have some pretty nasty symptoms and they could be. For me, I get really anxious. I've overdosed myself on B6 before. It makes me really really anxious. For some people they get neurological symptoms, like they'll get hand pain, and it could be quite nasty.

Fiona Kane: 17:24

And B6 is one of those things that is really useful and sometimes you really need to take it. But it's in a lot of supplements because it's sort of a cofactor for lots of things, and so it's in lots of different supplements. So if you're taking six different supplements, it could potentially you might be taking six lots of B6. So just little things like that that people like me know that you don't know because it's not your job, and so if you're going to take supplements, if you're going to spend money, they are quite expensive. So my advice is to get advice to support you to take the right supplement for you, the right dosage, the right type of supplement. Someone who can monitor that in regards to your medications, in regards to your health, monitor your symptoms and I can recognize if you're having too much B6, what those symptoms might look like, or if you're having not enough of something, or if a symptom is masking something, and also how to read blood tests to know what is the appropriate prescription for you.

Fiona Kane: 18:21

So should everyone take a multi? Not necessarily, but certainly anyone. Any woman who's planning on getting pregnant or pregnant, they should definitely be taking one. Are supplements useful? Absolutely. Can they be a waste of money? Absolutely. Can they be beneficial? Yes. Can they be bad for you? Yes. All of those things, one of those things, a lot of things are true at the same time. So get advice on what's right for you. Don't just take any old supplement, and it's worth investing in someone to support you and teach you how to do that. So you can book in with me at informedhealthcomau. So you can book in with me at informedhealthcomau. Now, the other thing too. I just wanted to say please don't forget to like, subscribe, share and if you are on YouTube or if you're on Rumble, then you can reply as well, comment and let me know what you think or what's going on for you, and also anything that you'd like to hear about in upcoming podcasts. Anyway, thanks for your time. I hope you have a great week and talk to you again soon. Thanks, bye.