Talk:Vitamin and mineral supplements

RW is not an encyclopedia
...so in the spirit of scientific falsification and debunking, I think we should focus more on ruling out various spurious/crank claims about vitamin supplements (which there are a million of), rather than cherry-pick various sources to try to highlight any "positive" sides of supplement usage. RW, never mind an encyclopedia, is not the place to go for such advice. Go to http://www.examine.com if you need supplement advice — we shouldn't be near-giving that. What we can do is refute bullshit statements, hype and woo about vitamin supplements. But we certainly shouldn't do exactly what bogus asshole gym supplement sites are doing — which is, dig up various studies that seem to fit the conclusion we want to draw. That's very easy to do. We don't provide meta-analyses here, nor could we. So let's forget giving any positive side on vitamin supplements (to the extent that there is one), and focusing the article entirely on what is patently untrue about vitamin supplements. Deal? Reverend Black Percy (talk) 01:18, 27 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Sounds good, RBP. I'll add this to my mental to-do list.
 * Dope. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 02:03, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

Iodine
... may be something of a special case (historical causes of goitres). Anna Livia (talk) 16:01, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

B12
I read a popular vegan magazine which claimed that B12 mostly comes from soil and carnivores don't get enough B12 these days because animals and people don't eat soil. Nonsense? --Annanoon (talk) 22:38, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

Zinc
Not all vitamin supplements are bad. B12, calcium, vitamin D and zinc are safe in moderation. Zinc is not usually described as a vitamin, it is a mineral but zinc supplements have proven benefits Darklord (talk) 18:10, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

Vitamin C benefits bone health Darklord (talk) 18:39, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
 * This article does not claim vitamins are bad. --Andrew5 (talk) 20:18, 11 January 2022 (UTC)


 * The vitamin C review you cited did not just look at vitamin supplementation, most of the studies were from dietary. Humans are not carnivores, it's well known that we need vitamin c. Your other claim is not entirely true. If we are talking calcium and vitamin D (which are often put together in supplements) it may not be a good idea long-term. A recent umbrella review found taking that calcium and vitamin D together increase stroke risk for by 17%. There are also studies concluding it may increase cardiovascular effects,  although this is disputed by others . My point is they have not proven to be safe, we don't yet have full data on long-term use. I have noticed that vitamin D supplements often contain very high dosages. Boar (talk) 22:36, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Here is an umbrella review that looked at 107 systematic literature reviews, 74 meta-analyses of observational studies and 87 meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials of vitamin D supplementation. The overall conclusion was there is no strong evidence for vitamin D and any health outcome "highly convincing evidence of a clear role of vitamin D does not exist for any outcome". There is hardly any convincing evidence for any vitamin supplement. Apart from B12 or Omega 3 which have been well documented they are a waste of time. The biggest con is the "multivitamin", there is no strong evidence at all they work and less than 10% of the vitamins are absorbed into the body. Boar (talk) 22:54, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

Wow
This is 'rational' ? ... Seems pretty stupid. Yes, you do need vitamins and minerals... that's why you eat food. Multivitamins are fine. There are exactly 2 professional athletes that do not use them. Again, wow... now we're attacking vitamins and minerals? OK.
 * Eat food then. Stop wasting money on multivitamins and other supplements. This really is the consensus these days. There are occasions where it might be good to supplement when you have low, but not dangerously low levels of a vitamin in your blood (see vitamin D. I say "might" because even on this subject, the data is kind of inconclusive right now on what level is "too low" and even on whether supplementation works well.) If you don't have a blood test showing a deficiency handy, you are definitely wasting money. PanGalacticGargleBlaster (talk) 21:48, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Fehmgericht, "multivitamin" supplements are not fine, it is all marketing. The long-term use is not known but only about 10% of the vitamins in these supplements are actually absorbed into the body, so what is the point? It is a marketing game. Also they do not decrease cancer or heart disease risk . As for energy drinks fortified with massive amounts of b vitamins they are also a waste of time, because most of that will be lost in urine. Yes minerals and vitamins are very important but the best way to obtain them (in most cases) is from food, in this case you have the best chance of absorption. There is also the fact that not all vitamins work well with each other when taken at the same time. Large doses of minerals can compete with each other to be absorbed. For example, calcium, zinc, or magnesium should not be taken at the same time in supplement form but are often contained in the multivitamin together in massive amounts. Boar (talk) 02:24, 7 February 2022 (UTC)

Nicotinamide riboside and cancer
New research showing nicotinamide riboside (NR), a form of vitamin B3 increases cancer risk, , Thewikiman (talk) 16:22, 14 November 2022 (UTC)
 * That was a high-dose study in animals, which is important for research. There are other B vitamins that are known to cause cancer in humans at high doses (B6 and B12), as noted in the table. Bongolian (talk) 18:36, 14 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Also it should be mentioned that folic acid and b12 combined in supplement form increases the risk of colorectal cancer, it looks like the folic dosage was 400 μg which is high but such a dosage is often found in many vitamin multi-supplements. It's also been found that folic acid supplements increase risk of prostate cancer 134.122.104.0 (talk) 15:20, 19 November 2022 (UTC)