When do supplements become harmful?

Some people accept vitamin tablets and nutritional supplement pills without consulting a doctor. What are nutritional supplements? And when is it useful? And when does it become harmful?

What are nutritional supplements?

Dietary supplements are products given in the form of pills, capsules, tablets or liquid, and containing vitamins, minerals, herbs, enzymes, amino acids or other food ingredients, and includes the concerned ingredient in a concentration or quantity greater than what comes in its natural form in the food.

A medium orange, for example, contains about 70 milligrams of vitamin C, while one tablet of vitamin C supplements may contain 500 milligrams.

What are the best nutritional supplements?

The best nutritional supplement is the one that the person who needs it takes on the advice of a doctor; This means that a person must have a deficiency, for example, in vitamin D (D) to take supplements that contain it, and must take it in an appropriate and safe dose.

Although dietary supplements are available for sale over the counter in a pharmacy, you should always check with your doctor before taking any product, as some supplements can cause side effects, or interact with other prescription or over-the-counter medications or supplements or supplements you are already taking. .

For a woman, it is especially important to ask her doctor about taking a supplement if she is pregnant or breastfeeding, about to have surgery, or has high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes.

And according to a report on the WebMed website , you should also avoid giving your child nutritional supplements without checking with their health care provider.

Benefits of nutritional supplements

Dietary supplements are useful when taken to fill a specific deficiency in the substance (such as taking iron to treat anemia), and according to the doctor's instructions.

Folic acid, for example, is prescribed by a doctor for a woman who wants to become pregnant to reduce the risk of her newborn having neural tube defects, and calcium supplements may help reduce the risk of osteoporosis.

The benefit of supplementation is conditional on treating a deficiency in a particular vitamin or mineral, and a person is unable to obtain it in the appropriate amount by natural methods.

Are nutritional supplements harmful?

If the nutritional supplement is taken incorrectly, or without a need for it; It may cause some serious damage.

In a report published by WebMD, a researcher in the Office of Dietary Supplements of the National Institutes of Health in the United States Joanna Dwyer says, "Most people do not realize that there is no real advantage to taking more than the recommended amounts of vitamins and minerals, nor do they realize that there may be Disadvantages".

In this table, we present the effects of an excess of some vitamins and minerals on the body:

A 2015 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that adverse effects of the supplements were responsible for an average of about 23,000 emergency department visits per year.

In this 10-year study, researchers studied observational data from 63 emergency departments in hospitals in the United States of America to estimate the annual number of emergency visits associated with adverse effects of nutritional supplements.

The study authors defined dietary supplements as herbal or supplement products, vitamins or amino acid micronutrients, and the average age of patients visiting the emergency department with symptoms related to supplement use was 32 years.

Although the study results are annual estimates based on emergency department visits in a relatively small number of hospitals, they reflect the increasing use of nutritional supplements.

There is no doubt that some nutritional supplements can be beneficial; As these products contain active ingredients; Like molecules that interact with receptors in our body and cause physiological changes. However, as they contain active ingredients, they can also cause undesirable effects; Such as high blood pressure, a fast or irregular heartbeat, headache, dizziness, or gastrointestinal symptoms, according to Harvard University.

And in 2018, a scientific study conducted by a team of American researchers at New York University found a relationship between the use of nutritional supplements and an increased risk of lung cancer.

The study was conducted on a group of 118 participants, ages 50 to 76, including 808 lung cancer patients, who took daily doses of vitamins B6 and B12, for 10 years.

The analyzes showed that men who took these nutritional supplements without medical advice became more likely to develop lung cancer, with rates ranging between 30 and 40%.

It was noted that these percentages doubled among men who took more than 20 milligrams per day of these vitamins during the ten years preceding the results of the study, especially among smokers.

What types of nutritional supplements?

Supplements come in a variety of forms, such as:

-Disks

-Capsules

-Chewing gum

-Powders

-Drinks

-Energy panels

Do you have to take nutritional supplements daily?

This depends on the type of supplement, how deficient you have, and you may have to take it daily or weekly. Consult a doctor and adhere to his instructions.

What questions to ask the doctor about taking supplements?

Ask your doctor if you need the supplement based on your current diet and health. Ask your doctor about the benefits and risks the supplement can carry, how much you need and how long you should take it.

Can taking too many vitamins be deadly?

Although it's extremely rare to die of a vitamin overdose, deaths linked to vitamin toxicity have been reported, according to a report in Healthline.

For example, hypervitaminosis A can be caused by taking a single large dose of more than 200 milligrams of vitamin A, or continuing to take more than 10 times the recommended daily intake.

The toxicity of vitamin A can lead to serious complications, such as increased spinal fluid pressure, coma, and fatal organ damage.

The recommended daily intake of vitamin A for adults 19 years of age and older is 3,000 IU for men, and 2,333 IU for women.

For example, taking large doses of vitamin D of more than 50,000 international units per day over long periods can lead to high levels of calcium in the blood; Which may lead to death.