Vitamin and mineral supplementation finally received endorsement from "mainstream" medicine when researchers from Harvard Medical School published a review article in Journal of the American Medical Associated that concluded, "Most people do not consume an optimal amount of all vitamins by diet alone... It appears prudent for all adults to take vitamin supplements."
Long-term nutritional insufficiences experienced by "most people" promote the development of "long-latency deficiency diseases" such as cancer, neuroemotional deterioration, and cardiovascular disease.
Impressively, the benefits of multivitamin/multimineral supplementation have been demonstrated in numerous clinical trials.
Mutlivitamin/multimineral supplementation has been shown to improve nutritional status and reduce the risk for chronic diseases, improve mood, potentiate antidepressant drug treatment, alleviate migraine headaches (when used with diet improvment and fatty acids), improve immune function and infectious disease outcomes in the elderly (expecially diabetics), reduce morbidity and mortality in patients with HIV infection, alleviate premenstrual syndrome and bipolar disorder, reduce violence and antisocial behaviour in children and incarcerated young adults (when used with essential fatty acids), and improve scores of intelligence in children.
Vitamin supplementation has anti-inflammatory benefits, as evidenced by significant reduction in C-reactive protein, (CRP) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. The ability to safely and affordably deliver these benefits makes multimineral/multivitamin supplementation an essential component of any and all health-promoting and disease-prevention strategies.
The Vitamin Myth
We have been told that you can get all you need from your diet. This is wrong, delusional and quite frankly a dangerous notion (sorry to all the GPs that still preach this). Most people don't even know what a good diet is, let alone eat one. It is impossible to get all the nutrients you need from your diet - particularly if you eat commercially grown food.
The essential mineral we need for good health are not spread around the earth's crust in even amounts. They are placed in the coils like "veins" of gold. So if the market garden you buy your food from do not have enough selenium then you miss out. (Selenium is a very important mineral that helps prevent cancer by the way.)
Most farmers only use 3 minerals to help their plants grow. It is called super phosphate and contains "NPK" (sodium, phosphast and potassium). Only some organic farmers may use other minerals. So even if you have a good diet, but eat commercially grown food you will never get all the nutrients you need for optimal health.
If you are active, play sport, have a manual job, get stressed, sweat, have an illness or skip meals etc. then you will definately need to supplement. It is the cheapest health insurance you can buy!
Harvard Medical School (one of the most prestigous Medical Schools in America, if not the world) has produced research showing that we all should take a mutlimineral and a multivitamin.
They believe that it would help to prevent cancer and heart disease, save millions of lives, and reduce the burden on the health system. Sounds to good to be true!
The Harvard Medical School states that the older you get the more important it is to use a multimineral and multivitamin. As your digestive ability decrease with age, so does your ability to absorb the essential minerals and vitamins.
