Many people ask about taking dietary supplements, vitamins, minerals, and various natural compounds to improve their pain and their life. These are not officially regulated as far as how well they work. They are regulated only to the level that they cannot be toxic when ingested and they have become a billion dollar business.
Are They Effective?
Recently, a large study was done with regards to multiple dietary supplements, with an extra emphasis on medications with claims of helping with heart disease and natural degeneration caused by aging. Simply put, nothing had any positive impact on health for any of the compounds being pushed. The study was published in JAMA in January 2019 and looked at many different compounds. Included were ginkgo balboa, coenzyme Q10, coral calcium, and many others. These are all found in the vitamin and supplement aisle of many stores. None of these promoted items had any impact on cardiac health, dementia, cognition or any general component of health. Basically, none of these vitamins, compounds or minerals made a difference.
The answer of what really works is eating healthy. All these various compound are found in our fresh foods. Eating fresh food provides nutrients in a way through the gut that the appropriate vitamins and minerals are absorbed correctly and can be used by the body. In pill form or other concentrate, the body often will not be able to utilize the compound successfully. Many times the form of the compound in a pill is not absorbed or is destroyed by the body’s digestive processes. When we eat our food, our digestive system can find the nutrients and make sure they travel to the correct areas of the body. All the studies show that nutrients that come from eating a good diet are helpful, and adding a variety of supplements shows no benefit.
The best suggestion based on all these medical studies is save the money spent on supplements and spend the money on eating a healthy diet with fresh fruit and vegetables and low fat protein. Highly processed foods with high carbohydrate loads often do not have a high nutritional value. Develop a diet that comes from the outer aisles of the grocery where the fresh foods are found. None of the claims for supplements have really be proven, so save your money for now.