I’ve been told that you just pass them through your digestive system like a seed by some and then that they are critical to your health by others.
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Vitamins in a multi-vitamin pill can be used by the body, so, in that sense, they work.
However, because you need such tiny amounts of them and they are found in most foods, very few people have diets bad enough that their body needs extra vitamins beyond what they already get from eating food.
Taking extra vitamins when you already get plenty in your food does absolutely nothing to improve health. The vitamins that dissolve easily in water are simply peed out. The ones that dissolve in fat tend to hand around longer. Too much of certain vitamins can be harmful, but most vitamin pills don’t have enough that you will get sick from them if you take them according to the directions on the label.
The old adage that vitamin pills don’t make you healthier, but make your piss more nutritious is pretty accurate.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mens-health/do-multivitamins-make-you-healthier#:~:text=But%20there%20is%20still%20limited,a%20one%20daily%20standard%20multivitamin.
This was the most concise statement regarding the meta analysis of the topic.
Say pretty much if you’ve got the money it probably won’t harm you but for most people it’s not doing much.
If you think you’re vitamin deficient then you need to go to your primary care physician and have them test you.
If you’re malnourished due to poor diet, they can help in the short term.
But most of what you’re taking is just surplus to requirements and excreted, and if you ate vaguely properly they would be entirely unnecessary.
If you eat healthy (fruits and veggies), then no they don’t really do anything for you. They just pass through, harmless.
But if you’ve got a hole in your diet, like you just don’t get enough…. Potassium, the multivitamins make that available for your body.
They’re good for people with junk food diets or those who can’t get enough good food. A bowl of rice and a multivitamin is surprisingly viable. ( But there’s protein and fat-based vitamin issues, oh God please no, stop the knee-jerk fad-diet hatetrain)
Some multivitamins really do pass through your system, undigested. This used to be very common, but eventually there was an exposé, and some companies got ~~better~~ less dishonest about what they were selling.
Look for the terms “release assured” or “proven release” to indicate that your body can actually digest the pill and extract nutrients from it.
ELI5: Yes, multivitamins are digested and your body does absorb some of the vitamins in them. So in that sense, yes, they work.
Whether or not a person NEEDS them is a completely different story. MOST people do not need multivitamins. If you’re deficient in something you’d know it and you could get tested for it.
If you’ve got money to burn, they won’t hurt, but you very likely do not need them.
I like this question. Simply because “vitamins” have been a thing recognized and targeted for so long, long before current molecular science and electron microscopes, that I wondered how sound that science actually is? We’re constantly learning things about bacteria, the body, the biome, the effects of dna, various medications, etc.
Vitamin supplements are good for you. Some absorb better than others. Your typical calcium supplement does not absorb well because it’s basically a rock. Some vitamins don’t absorb unless they are in contact with fat. B vitamins absorb pretty well. A multi vitamin will have some benefit. How much benefit will depend on if you have any deficiency and what kind
For the vast majority of people who are on somewhat balanced diets, the vitamins won’t help because you already have plenty. You’ll digest the supplement, but then your body can’t store what it can’t immediately use and you’ll usually just pee the vitamins out. But they’re cheap enough and generally harmless enough that people with enough expendable money will go “why not?” and take them just in case. Hence why it’s such a huge market.
If you have vitamin deficiencies a multivitamin can help.
My lousy diet was lacking several things. When I started taking a multivitamin I felt SO much better.
YMMV
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