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 are important and you can argue about absorption and deficiency all day, but it helps to think of them like keys to a door. Without the a key the door stays locked, but having ten keys doesn’t help any more than having one.
There are two answers.
The answer for five year olds is: no, multivitamins do not work and the reason they don’t work is you don’t understand what you need, what you’re getting, and what the effects of those vitamins are.
The answer not for five year old is: yes, multivitamins do work, but to make them work you have to really understand what you need, what you’re getting, and what the effects are. Basically you need serious knowledge that a five year old is not going to have. And yes, vitamins are critical to your health – that’s why they are called “vitamins” (from latin “vita” meaning life – “amine” is because they were originally thought to contain amino acids).
I’ll give two easy examples, but keep in mind that these are just easy examples and the subject matter is far more complex and difficult to evaluate.
1. Calcium: most multivitamins give you Calcium Carbonate, which is rocks, difficult to absorb and goes through your system.
2. Vitamin C: most multivitamins give you Ascorbic Acid, which is not a complete Vitamin and will pull the complete Vitamin out of your body when it leaves your system (ascorbic acid may still help you fight off a cold).
These are just two examples where the vitamins and minerals in a multivitamin might not be working to help you.
But, the kind of knowledge that you need to really understand multivitamins is vast and complex. For example, there are 12 different “B vitamins”, B1, B2, B3, all the way up to… B12 and each B Vitamin may have multiple forms and the effect of each B vitamin in your body varies slightly. There are many Vitamins and minerals to understand. In theory, if you did understand it, then you would understand multivitamins.
You might think that you just need to take the ones that you have less of. It’s not that simple. it turns out that the various Vitamins and minerals and other compounds within the body interact with each other like five seperate orchestras playing at once. You might think you need Calcium and discover you need Vitamins K and F and something else too and that you need to take Magnesium to balance the Calcium and etc. Your medications can affect your vitamins and minerals. Eating the wrong things can affect your vitamins and minerals, eating the right things can affect your vitamins and minerals, the amount of sun you get each day can affect your vitamins and minerals.
Sure… there is *some* mix of vitamins and minerals that is best for you, but you need some serious knowledge to really understand what you are getting and what it is doing inside your body.
They make lots of money for the share holders, and do very little for you unless you are extremely unhealthy eating wise.. think, “I only eat packets of chips and drink coke”
There are allways various reasons why someone might need them, but for the vast majority who take them, it’s a nothing pill that is urinated out a few hours later.
I mean, yes and no.
So do multivitamins work? Yes.
Do they pass through your digestive system? B, C, B12, B6, Biotin,, Thiamin, Folate, Niacin and Riboflavin, these last 5 are just vitamin b, to mention some, does on account of being water soluble, so what it cant use, is sent out with the waste.
However, A, D, E and K, are fat-soluble, and needs to be taken up via aa different procces to do so efficiently they need to be taken with fatty foods, your body still picks it up, just not as well, as if you had eaten it from say, a fish instead, its also stored in your fat, so taking too much of these is also bad.
To little vitamin A, cause cause night blindness and blindness, as well as thick skin, while to much causes hypervitominosis a, which is lucky to fix, just stop the intake of vitamin A, and ya gucchi.
too little vitamin B, causes various skin issues, as well as anemia, while to much vitamin b3 can cause liver damage, too little C causes scurvy which opens up old wounds, while to much causes you to shit your guts out, too little vitamin D, causes bone issues, too much causes hypervitaminosis d, too like E can cause blood issues, but is hella rare to happen, and too much can maybe possible, not sure, cause heart failure, to much or too little K can cause blood issues.
Before taking vitamins, its best to have a blood test to get them checked, which will tell you which you are getting enough, too much or too little, and adjust what kinda vitamins you take.
No harm in taking one ifnyour deficient in something itll give it to you but your body doesnt overproduce things just cause it can besides fat lol so any excess vitamin you dont need just gets passed through and expelled as waste
It depends on what you mean by “actually work”…
They are real vitamins, and not getting them *is* something you can die of, but if you have a normal diet you should be getting all the vitamins you need. And for the most part, your body has no ability to use “extra” vitamins.
They don’t harm you, most people won’t get any benefit from them either.
Think of vitamins as building materials on a construction job.
If you don’t have enough materials, work goes slowly because you have to wait for them.
If you have enough materials, work goes quickly, because there is no waiting.
If you have an excess of materials, work doesn’t go more quickly, because the work takes the same amount of labor.
So multivitamins “work” in the sense that you will absorb some of the vitamins, although not all, because your GI tract is no where near 100% efficient.
But consuming an excess of vitamins and minerals offers absolutely no health benefit whatsoever.
nope, at least not when taken every morning.
Save them for when you actually feel a bit sick.
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