Not All Vitamins Are Equal

A recent U.S. national survey has shown that at least 78 million Americans use multivitamins on a regular basis. That provides a huge market for manufacturers and suppliers of nutritional supplements. Imagine how large the market must be on a global basis. Consider the revenue that must be generated for these manufacturers and suppliers.

A question that has often arisen is, “Are people getting a good product for their money when they buy these supplements?”. I’m not referring to the need for vitamin supplements – I believe that has well established by scientific and medical research. I’m referring to the fact that in such a huge market, competition becomes steep. Price becomes a prime factor in such competition. This is especially true in a market where the end user is not educated as to product differences and really has no way of knowing the differences between products. We’ve all heard the adages, “ A vitamin is a vitamin” or “it just produces expensive urine anyway”. There appears to be either a general belief that companies will produce a good product or a general resignation to he fact that you take what you get. In either case, price and marketing strategies become major determinants as consumers decide what products they will buy.

Who Do We Trust

We all know of unscrupulous corporations. The news keeps us aware of the fact that corporations don’t always have the best interests of the end user in mind. Is it any different in the manufacture and supply of nutritional supplements than it is in other industries? Can the general public be confident that the product they pick up form the shelves will give them the best benefit. Considering that they are usually uninformed in this area, they rely heavily on the information provided by the manufacturers and suppliers. Can the end users be confident that they will derive any benefit at all from the nutritional products they purchase?

According to many studies, the answer is no. There are studies that indicate that such confidence on the part of the public may be false confidence. Consider the following:

"Multi-vitamins are some of the worst offenders. In a recent study, Linda Shaffer and Michelle Fairchild of Yale New Haven Hospital, evaluated 257 brands of vitamins bought off the shelf at pharmacies, grocery stores, and health food stores. Many were incomplete or had too little or too much of one or other nutrient. Only 49 were considered adequate..." Dr. Michael Colgan, Optimum Sports Nutrition

"...since the nutritional supplement industry is now largely unregulated, you can't be sure of product purity or the amount of active ingredient in a supplement - even from one package to the next of the same product." Buyer Beware, Mayo Clinic, June 1997

“This study showed that there are products sold on the Canadian market
which use statements on their label which are difficult to define. However,
such terms and statements seem to be used to add pseudoscientific and
unjustified value to the product; such statements should be avoided.
Today’s customers cannot assume that the product they buy will have an acceptable quality with regard to the disintegration behavior.” Investigation of vitamin and mineral tablets and capsules on the Canadian
market: J Pharm Pharmaceut Sci (www.cspsCanada.org) 9(1):40-49, 2006

A study published in the Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association addressed the failure of prescription prenatal vitamin products to meet USP standards for folic acid dissolution. The results of the study were that only three out of nine multivitamin products met USP specifications for folic acid release. Most missed by a wide margin; folic acid dissolution from two products was less than 25%. J Am Pharm Assoc (Wash). 1997 Jul-Aug;NS37(4):396.


“The potency and purity of dietary supplements can vary widely... Doctors at Duke University recently examined 12 bottles of L-carnitine and found that most samples contained 60 percent or less of the substance. More than half of the brands were indigestible by humans; in other words, it was going in one end and out the other.”

“In the marketplace today, the general public doesn’t know what brand to trust, and what not to trust.” Dr. Jess Thoene, University of Michigan
Quotes from Newsweek , "Industry Unmonitored"

The following quote sums it all up. The purpose is to make money; not to necessarily have a product that is useful to consumer. This is scary.

"When I first got into the dietary supplements business, I thought you needed some sort of expertise in this field . . . boy, was I wrong. Most vitamin manufacturers have “house blends” of certain types of products that you can simply “private label”.

All vitamin companies have their own diet pill blends . . . their own arthritis blends . . . etc. All it takes is a brand name and a label and you’re in the supplement business.

I made up a name for my new product and had labels made for the product through the pill manufacturer. Viola! My very own, trademarked brand name dietary supplement in less than a week’s time." Vincent James, The 12 Month Millionaire

All companies are not as blatant about the profit motive and all show such diminished concern for the consumer. But the reality is that the profit motive is what drives the supplement industry and very few companies produce a quality product. Marketing plays a large role in convincing consumers to purchase products and consumers often purchase dietary supplements based on inaccurate or incomplete information.

So, is there anybody you can trust in this industry? The answer is yes. There are some companies that do produce good products. The next post will address an in depth study of the supplement market which pinpointed the companies that do make nutritional supplements that do promote health.

Vitamins are Necessary

The following is a summary of an article that was published in the October 2007 issue of the British Journal of Nutrition. This article points out the necessity of fortifying our bodies with vitamin and mineral supplements.

Although this article does not directly address the issue of some supplements not being adequate, other research and articles do. Comparison guides have been produced and research has been conducted by Pharmaceutical and forensic companies showing that not all supplements are created equal. The studies have shown that some brands of supplements do not have the ingredients stated on the container; some brands contain such a large quantity of waxes and bindings that the body cannot dissolve them and some brands use lower end raw materials. The studies have shown that few companies manufacture their own supplements. At times, some companies will contract out the production of their products to the lowest bidder.

This research reinforces two reports, published in the June 19, 2002 edition of JAMA in which the authors conclude that the current North American diet, while sufficient to prevent vitamin deficiency diseases (such as scurvy and pellagra), is inadequate to support the need for optimal health.

Insufficient vitamin intake is apparently a cause of chronic diseases. Recent evidence has shown that sub-optimal levels of vitamins (below standard), even well above those causing deficiency syndromes, are risk factors for chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and osteoporosis. A large portion of the general population is apparently at increased risk for this reason.
Dr. Robert Fletcher and Dr. Kathleen Fairfield

The researchers base their guidance on the fact that more than 80 percent of the American population does not consume anywhere near the five-per-day servings of fruits and vegetables required for optimal health.

All of us grew up believing that if we ate a reasonable diet, that would take care of our vitamin needs. But, the new evidence, much of it in the last couple of years, is that vitamins also prevent the usual diseases we deal with everyday - heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and birth defects.
Dr. Robert Fletcher

Following is the summary of the current article.

In order for the immune system to function properly and efficiently, your body requires adequate amounts of micronutrients. This can be provided to your body by taking a good multivitamin/mineral. This will enhance the immune system by supporting your body’s natural defenses on both the structural and cellular levels.

A recent article published in the British Journal of Nutrition summarizes the roles of selected vitamins and trace elements in immune function. The article points out that adequate intakes of micronutrients are required for the immune system to function efficiently.

Why is an adequate supply of such nutritional elements so important? A micronutrient deficiency suppresses your body’s immunity by affecting antibody responses. Thus results in an imbalance in the immune system. When this happens three is an increase in your body’s susceptibility to infections. This, in turn, increases disease and death risk.

In addition, infections aggravate micronutrient deficiencies by reducing nutrient intake, increasing losses, and interfering with utilization by altering metabolic pathways. Inadequate intakes of micronutrients are common in people with eating disorders, smokers (active and passive), individuals with chronic alcohol abuse, certain diseases, during pregnancy and lactation, and in the elderly.

Micronutrients contribute to the body's natural defenses on three levels: by supporting physical barriers (skin/mucosa), by promoting cellular immunity and increasing antibody production. Vitamins A, C, E and the mineral zinc assist in enhancing the skin barrier function. The vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, E and folic acid and the minerals iron, zinc, copper and selenium work in synergy to support the protective activities of the immune cells. Finally, all these micronutrients, with the exception of vitamin C and iron, are essential for the production of antibodies.

Overall, insufficient and inadequate intake of these vitamins and minerals may lead to a suppressed immune system. This will increase your body’s risk of infections and will further aggravate and increase malnutrition. Therefore, supplementation with a multivitamin/mineral that includes these micronutrients can support the body's natural defense system by enhancing all three levels of immunity. Br J Nutr. 2007 Oct;98 Suppl 1:S29-35