# Do vitamins actually do anything?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vitamins-actually-do-anything/26530
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 23, 2000, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vitamins-actually-do-anything/26530 "2000-07-23T07:10:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@APB9999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB9999)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2000, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vitamins-actually-do-anything/26530/21 "2000-07-24T23:51:34Z")
I didn’t realize that. Interesting.
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### Author:  [@jcamacho66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jcamacho66)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2000, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vitamins-actually-do-anything/26530/22 "2000-07-25T01:21:34Z")
My uncle sells feed to cows, pigs and horses. These animals are getting way more nutrition than the average human. Why? Because the farmers have to keep their livestock healthy, they can’t afford to lose any to sickness. My daily supplements: Vit E, Vit C, calcium, selenium, l-carnitine and a multi-vitamin.
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### Author:  [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2000, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vitamins-actually-do-anything/26530/23 "2000-07-25T02:08:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by APB9999 \*
> \*\*
> The restricted diet of sailors has led to the discovery of other vitamin deficiency diseases as well. The Japanese Navy in the first part of the twentieth century started suffering from a disease called beri-beri. Although this started around the time they started eating shelled rice (a new form of processing), this connection was missed and the disease was thought to be contagious for quite awhile. Eventually someone figured it out: there’s a B vitamin (I forget which - 12, I think) in the rice hull, but only in the hull. Since japanese sailors ate mostly rice, when they switched to shelled rice the deficiency started to appear. \*\*
[http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/01367.html](http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/01367.html)
Actually B-1. Thiamine.
B-12 is the one that us vegetarians have trouble with. Of course I really pity the vegans, they can’t even get their b-12 from milk n cheeses, they have to stick with supplements.
Come to think of it, the other sources of b-12 for vegetarians are miso, tempeh, and seaweed, and that’s only cause of bacteria. Can vegans eat bacteria?
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### Author:  [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2000, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vitamins-actually-do-anything/26530/24 "2000-07-25T03:12:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> ## Bear\_Nenno wrote: Quote:
>
> ## They were all suffereing from something until they started bringing oranges on the long trips.
>
> Then CurtC says:
> According to the delightful little book Longitude, what they started taking on long trips was sauerkraut. Lots of vitamin C, and it doesn’t go bad. Or depending on your tastes, doesn’t get any worse.
Hey, I learned it in public grade school. I also learned that Columbus “Discovered” America and became best friends with the Natives. Lets not even get started on Thanksgiving.
Thanks for the TRUTH . . .
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2000, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vitamins-actually-do-anything/26530/25 "2000-07-25T05:25:54Z")
activgurl, I presume that you’re somewhere between puberty and menopause? Women can lose a lot of iron in menstrual fluid-- Try having it checked at different times of the month, and eat more than the USRDA, which is averaged for all Americans, male and female.
Incidentally, the easiest way to supplement your iron is to regularly cook acidic foods like tomatoes in cast-iron cookware: A little of the iron leeches out into the food, at just about the right dosage.
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### Author:  [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2000, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vitamins-actually-do-anything/26530/26 "2000-07-25T06:51:56Z")
All,
Thanks for the info. A lot of good stuff here. A question I should have been more specific with in the OP:
What is the take of medical professionals on multi-vitamins? Is taking them regularly recommended by any respected bodies? How does it compare to other “health-related” activities, like diet, excercise, drinking, smoking crack, etc.
For many activities, there are well-understood benefits. For example, if you stop smoking at age X, you’ll gain an average of Y years to your life. Are there estimates of average benefits of taking multivitamins? (If any)
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### Author:  [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2000, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vitamins-actually-do-anything/26530/27 "2000-07-26T15:42:29Z")
**Bill H.**
> [@](#):
>
> What is the take of medical professionals on multi-vitamins? Is taking them regularly recommended by any respected bodies? How does it compare to other “health-related” activities, like diet, excercise, drinking, smoking crack, etc.
I am not a doctor. But I’ll go out on a limb and say that no respected bodies recommend smoking crack.
As for vitamins, I’ve recently become a student of [life extension via caloric restriction](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568580495/qid=964625559/sr=1-1/103-0070525-5603859), as described by [Dr. Roy Walford](http://www.walford.com) of the Biosphere II project.
You may make your own judgment as to his qualifications or distinction, but he seems (to me) to be on solid scientific footing. He recommends the following daily supplements:
a multivitamin containing 50% RDA of standard vitamins and minerals
300-400 I.U.'s of Vitamin E
500 mg Vitamin C
25,000 I.U.'s of beta-carotene (which the body converts to Vitamin A on demand)
100 mcg selenium
I take all these except the selenium, because I haven’t yet found a drugstore that sells it in 100 mcg capsules. I’ve found 200 mcg, but I couldn’t remember to take it every other day instead of daily.
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### Author:  [@KeithB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KeithB)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2000, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vitamins-actually-do-anything/26530/28 "2000-07-26T18:06:44Z")
Just to clear some things up, though IANAD.
Vitamins are complex chemicals (not minerals) that the body _cannot_ synthesize. If you do not get them in the right amount (whatever that is), you will get some vitamin deficiency disease and die.
They are pretty sure that there are no other vitamins, since comatose patients can be kept alive for years with sugar, the known vitamims, and trace minerals. (Sorry, no cite.)
Whether _excess_ amounts of _some_ vitamins cause other health hazards and benefits is a horse of a different color, and I won’t get into it.
One important vitamin for expectant and trying mothers is folic acid to prevent neural tube defects in babies.
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### Author:  [@KeithB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KeithB)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2000, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vitamins-actually-do-anything/26530/29 "2000-07-26T18:13:39Z")
I decided to go to the horse’s mouth. (What is it with all the horse analogies, already?)
Here is a link to what quackwatch has to say:
[http://www.quackwatch.com/03HealthPromotion/supplements.html](http://www.quackwatch.com/03HealthPromotion/supplements.html)
Though this is about all supplements, I think the advice is sound.
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