What Does Research Say About Multivitamin Usage in Men?

By Arthur Kavanaugh


Hey men, what's your viewpoint on men's multi-vitamin supplements? Good, bad or useless? Many males are querying their daily practice of supplementing with a men's multivitamin because of the study that appeared in "Journal of the North American Medical Association".

Called "Physicians' Health Study II", male volunteers were given either a multivitamin or placebo and monitored from 1997-2011. Investigators discovered that men that received multi-vitamins were as subject to heart issues as the group who took placebos.

The object of the trial study was to collect data on whether or not a men's multi-vitamin reduced the danger of "site-specific cancer incidence or mortality". The doctors who participated in the study 1) ate balanced diets 2) body mass indexes were low 3) exercised regularly 4) took baby aspirin daily.

Or, as Duffy MacKay VP Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, Council for Responsible Nutrition summed it up, "The undeniable fact that the volunteers were already engaging in these healthy behaviours would have made it extra hard for a multi-vitamin to meaningfully contribute towards reducing any significant likelihood of heart disease. "

Nonetheless the researchers reported an 8% reduced risk on all cancer types for study participants who took a men's multi-vitamin. The study centered only on linking men's multi-vitamins with reducing risks of cancer. Though discoveries show vitamins do not "meaningfully" make a contribution to reducing risks of heart problems, it did not address the vital reason for supplementing with multiple vitamins.

Fundamentally, vitamins take up the slack caused by nutritional deficiencies. Were you aware that an insufficiency in one vitamin can endanger your total body?

It is possible you eat the "right" foods as a part of a well balanced diet. If that's the case it's possible you get all the vitamins you need. Possible but not likely, as most people eat out regularly eat processed foods and snack on junk foods. Only a few people have the time or drive to monitor every mouthful they eat!

How about Enriched Foods?

Do you actually know what enrichment of foods really means? It means some nutrients are put back into the foods that were removed through processing! However not especially well. Take processed flour as an example. Of 22 natural nutrients that were removed as a result of heat, storage, etc. "enrichment" replaces them with vitamin D, three of the B vitamins, calcium and iron salts. You do the maths!

Any Guidelines for the Best Multivitamins for Men?

To avoid vitamin toxicity, don't supplement with more than 100% of daily recommended requirements of any single vitamin. Your multi should not contain iron. Men only need about 8 mg iron and almost always get enough from eating meat.

If you're employed in an office, you may not get enough sunlight; make certain you get 1,000 IU vitamin D each day. For a healthy heart, men need 400 mcg (micrograms) of folate daily. For brain health, the recommended amount of B12 is 2.4 mcg. For vision and to support your immune system, 3,000 IU of Vitamin A is advised. Men need 90 mg of the antioxidant , Vitamin C daily.

These are bare bones of contents in the best multivitamins for men. The final word is: regardless of studies, most males will get advantages from a men's multivitamin.




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