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75%+ of American adults take supplements, and that’s just one of many different self-directed medical activities that people practice.

arcticbull 6y ago
I think you're unintentionally proving my point. Dietary supplements largely don't work, at all, and some of them are outright harmful. They basically do nothing, at best. So 75% of America probably, er, shouldn't. This is something a medical professional might tell you if you asked them. This visualization should help you understand the magnitude of just how little dietary supplements do -- it came up here on HN a while back as an example of a beautiful visualization [1]. Most multivitamins are totally worthless unless you're eating an incredibly poor diet. There's actually an association between multivitamin use and an increase in all-cause mortality [2] with a more pronounced effect in smokers [3]. So, I re-iterate, there's a reason these people went to school to become doctors. [1] http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/snake-oil-supplements/ http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/snake-o... [2] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1105957 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullar... [3] https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/152/2/149/87699 https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/152/2/149/87699
- Alex3917 6y ago
  > I think you're unintentionally proving my point. My point was that the majority of American adults practice their own medicine, which is factually correct.
  - arcticbull 6y ago
    Again, in context, what I said was that there's a big difference between first aid and supplementation and a diagnostics and treatment. Nobody is arguing people don't take supplements and that probably technically counts as medicine, however it's clear in context that's not the kind of medicine I was referring to. Also, people are by and large bad at it, and shouldn't.

arcticbull 6y ago

I think you're unintentionally proving my point. Dietary supplements largely don't work, at all, and some of them are outright harmful. They basically do nothing, at best. So 75% of America probably, er, shouldn't. This is something a medical professional might tell you if you asked them. This visualization should help you understand the magnitude of just how little dietary supplements do -- it came up here on HN a while back as an example of a beautiful visualization [1]. Most multivitamins are totally worthless unless you're eating an incredibly poor diet. There's actually an association between multivitamin use and an increase in all-cause mortality [2] with a more pronounced effect in smokers [3]. So, I re-iterate, there's a reason these people went to school to become doctors. [1] http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/snake-oil-supplements/ http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/snake-o... [2] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1105957 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullar... [3] https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/152/2/149/87699 https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/152/2/149/87699

Alex3917 6y ago
> I think you're unintentionally proving my point. My point was that the majority of American adults practice their own medicine, which is factually correct.
- arcticbull 6y ago
  Again, in context, what I said was that there's a big difference between first aid and supplementation and a diagnostics and treatment. Nobody is arguing people don't take supplements and that probably technically counts as medicine, however it's clear in context that's not the kind of medicine I was referring to. Also, people are by and large bad at it, and shouldn't.