4 ms·

I'm more interested in finding out if multivitamins improve quality of life and reduce instances of disease. You can have both and not have an increase in longe

by relyks 2y ago

I'm more interested in finding out if multivitamins improve quality of life and reduce instances of disease. You can have both and not have an increase in longevity. For me, I feel as if I need multivitamin I take daily or I don't feel as well mentally or physically.

chii 2y ago
> I feel as if I need multivitamin I take daily or I don't feel as well mentally or physically. which might be enough reason to keep buying and eating it, esp. if the cost isn't that high. Even if it is a placebo effect, it has genuinely improved your health.
wodenokoto 2y ago
> ... improve quality of life and reduce instances of disease. You can have both and not have increase longevity. You can, but wouldn't we expect them to be correlated? E.g., better health and less disease should lead to a longer life (as we assume all non-health related deaths to be random and not correlated to health)
- Milvaedd_ 2y ago
  I don't think I've seen this suspected correlation receive a lot of credit. A lot of deadly health issues are not correlated to your nutriments intake. Cancer for exemple, thyroid issues, and many others. You would need to take lifestyle into account to even start assessing how multivitamins could potentially increase life expectancy. Take two groups of people who live active lifestyles in non polluted areas, who don't smoke and don't have any other health issues (including mental health issues because a lot of them are correlated with a shortened lifetime). Give placebos for one of these groups. This study would help a bit, but would be impossible : we don't have enough people who live this lifestyle and are available for long testings on multivitamins. They may also change their lifestyle, get into an accident, develop mental health issues, travel...Which would poison the results. I think no one should take multivitamins expecting to live longer. Take them for the other proven benefits - they counteract deficiencies, that's all. My blood tests already show this, I take a blood test before an Iron Supplementation Cure and after, the benefit is clearly visible on the test.
- peebeebee 2y ago
  I do think my vitamins cause me to have less small sicknesses, or make them less worse. Like, less common colds etc.
safety1st 2y ago
The debate over multivitamins tends to miss the forest for the trees, in my opinion. One, there is no real downside to taking them other than their cost. Two, there are definite and dramatic benefits to taking specific vitamin supplements if you're deficient. E.g. if you don't get enough vitamin C in your diet a supplement will protect you from getting scurvy. A more modern example is iron deficiency, a third of American women are iron deficient. Vitamin D supplementation is recommended in the winter, etc. So the idea behind the multivitamin is it may help you out with stuff you don't know you need, basically, and also it may not, but you have nothing to lose by taking one. To date I haven't come across a study which attempts to frame the issue in this light. A study about longevity doesn't really change my point of view: I take them after a night of drinking where a hangover is probably incoming and god knows precisely what I'm deficient in the next day. The medical system's only advice is don't drink and I already blew that one :)
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 2y ago
  There was an article about vitamin d supplement might not improve anything, popped recently on HN. Sorry I can't find a link right now. The idea is that the vitamin d improves, but it's not capturing the actual benefits of sun exposure

by relyks 2y ago

chii 2y ago

> I feel as if I need multivitamin I take daily or I don't feel as well mentally or physically. which might be enough reason to keep buying and eating it, esp. if the cost isn't that high. Even if it is a placebo effect, it has genuinely improved your health.

wodenokoto 2y ago

> ... improve quality of life and reduce instances of disease. You can have both and not have increase longevity. You can, but wouldn't we expect them to be correlated? E.g., better health and less disease should lead to a longer life (as we assume all non-health related deaths to be random and not correlated to health)

Milvaedd_ 2y ago
I don't think I've seen this suspected correlation receive a lot of credit. A lot of deadly health issues are not correlated to your nutriments intake. Cancer for exemple, thyroid issues, and many others. You would need to take lifestyle into account to even start assessing how multivitamins could potentially increase life expectancy. Take two groups of people who live active lifestyles in non polluted areas, who don't smoke and don't have any other health issues (including mental health issues because a lot of them are correlated with a shortened lifetime). Give placebos for one of these groups. This study would help a bit, but would be impossible : we don't have enough people who live this lifestyle and are available for long testings on multivitamins. They may also change their lifestyle, get into an accident, develop mental health issues, travel...Which would poison the results. I think no one should take multivitamins expecting to live longer. Take them for the other proven benefits - they counteract deficiencies, that's all. My blood tests already show this, I take a blood test before an Iron Supplementation Cure and after, the benefit is clearly visible on the test.
peebeebee 2y ago
I do think my vitamins cause me to have less small sicknesses, or make them less worse. Like, less common colds etc.

safety1st 2y ago

The debate over multivitamins tends to miss the forest for the trees, in my opinion. One, there is no real downside to taking them other than their cost. Two, there are definite and dramatic benefits to taking specific vitamin supplements if you're deficient. E.g. if you don't get enough vitamin C in your diet a supplement will protect you from getting scurvy. A more modern example is iron deficiency, a third of American women are iron deficient. Vitamin D supplementation is recommended in the winter, etc. So the idea behind the multivitamin is it may help you out with stuff you don't know you need, basically, and also it may not, but you have nothing to lose by taking one. To date I haven't come across a study which attempts to frame the issue in this light. A study about longevity doesn't really change my point of view: I take them after a night of drinking where a hangover is probably incoming and god knows precisely what I'm deficient in the next day. The medical system's only advice is don't drink and I already blew that one :)

Fire-Dragon-DoL 2y ago
There was an article about vitamin d supplement might not improve anything, popped recently on HN. Sorry I can't find a link right now. The idea is that the vitamin d improves, but it's not capturing the actual benefits of sun exposure