Dietary supplements are often Nepp

Dietary supplements often do not make sense

03/10/2014

Many people in this country resort to dietary supplements such as vitamin tablets or fish oil. Consumers are often told that small health workers can not hurt. But that is not always the case.

Unmanageable big market
Some press releases include alleged facts that you can only get sufficient vitamins with the help of tablets. Vitamin D for the bones, C for the defenses and various B vitamins for the skin and hair. In addition, it is sometimes said that certain capsules can also help the sick, such as fish oil for cardiovascular complaints, St. John's wort for depression, evening primrose oil for atopic dermatitis or ginkgo against premature oblivion. „The market is unmanageably large and continues to grow, for example, double digits for vitamin C.“, said Hans Hauner, nutritionist at the Technical University of Munich „web.de“. „There is a fantastic return in it. Many vitamins cost only a few euros a ton in production today.“

Three quarters of Germans take supplements
According to the National Consumption Study, three-quarters of Germans take any dietary supplement. Vitamins C and A as well as the minerals calcium and magnesium are particularly popular here. If these extras were really healthy, there would be no objection, but Hauner says „99 percent are pure voodoo. The promises of salvation are not scientifically proven.“ For example, the international research network Cochrane Collaboration has confirmed the claim that vitamin C, E and beta-carotene are particularly good for the eyesight, using the example of cataracts. The verdict was so clear that no further research was needed. Thus, 120,000 subjects from nine studies, with or without tablets, developed the age disease just as often. Neither could they see better through the vitamins, nor could the creeping loss of vision be slowed down.

Unhealthy lifestyle is not healthier with vitamin pills
Some people also believe that vitamins can protect against cancer, and it was said in October 2012 that they had succeeded in proving that taking a multivitamin daily reduces the risk of cancer. In one study, about 15,000 physicians had taken either a drug or a placebo for ten to thirteen years. The people in the vitamin group fell slightly less likely to cancer. Relative to this was expressed by Hans Konrad Biesalski, author of the study and nutritionist at the University of Hohenheim: „It is the only study showing a benefit of multivitamin tablets in healthy people. It is questionable whether the effect can be confirmed.“ Other studies have shown that vitamins only help those who already have a deficiency. But in this case, the handle to the pill according to Biesalski the worse choice. „An unhealthy lifestyle is not healthier with vitamin pills“, so the expert.

Too much calcium can be dangerous
Emeritus professor Edzard Ernst, the first ever to hold a chair in alternative medicine, is now critical: „Although thousands claim the opposite, dietary supplements are useless for preventing cancer and heart problems.“ Sometimes these remedies can even become dangerous. For example, a Swedish study published in early 2013 showed a significant increase in the number of deaths in women who consumed more than 1400 milligrams (mg) of calcium daily through their diet and supplements. Excessive calcium intake may increase the risk of heart attack.

Chinese have been using ginkgo for millennia
Controversial is also the effect of Ginkgo, whose leaves have been used by Chinese for millennia for wound healing. Ginkgo should also help with dementia. However, Steven DeKosky, a health researcher from the University of Pennsylvania, believes this is wishful thinking. He said he and his team were disappointed when they concluded in 2008 the largest ever study on the impact of ginkgo on mental degradation: „Nothing would be better than having a remedy that is so cheap and free of side effects also helps.“ The study with 3,069 participants over the age of 75 would have shown that dementia after the daily intake of ginkgo occurred no less frequently and did not lead to a better mental state. However, other studies, such as those from the German manufacturer Dr. Willmar Schwabe, who offers ginkgo preparations, is certainly the result of the positive effect of the plant. And also French researchers who published data from a study in 2010, which says that taking a particular Ginkgo extract for four years almost halves the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. The Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) also considers ginkgo therapy to be effective at a dose of 240 mg per day.

Many remedies do not keep their promises
Many dietary supplements would not be able to keep their health promises and often their effects were not clearly proven. Therefore, be „Scientifically unfounded“ the most common judgment of the European Food Authority (EFSA) in Parma in northern Italy, which has been reviewing health claims for food since 2008. The manufacturers have to prove this in studies on humans. So far only 251 out of more than 3,000 examined applications have passed their health promises. „With a harder test much more would have failed. The agency is just trying to intercept the grossest lies“, Hauner said. EFSA had waved through vitamins and minerals without systematically testing them.

Vitamin D through sun exposure instead of pills
Also on the topic of vitamin D, the ghosts are different. Some people say that it is good for a healthy body and the muscles or that it can protect against diabetes or cancer. But a French researcher doubts the effect of vitamin D. He and colleagues came to the conclusion that a lack of vitamin D is not the cause, but the result of certain diseases. Some experts advise against taking the vitamin artificially. The human body forms it when sunlight strikes the skin. Only a couch potato, heavily veiled persons and dark-skinned and over 65-year-olds could help a drug, says Helmut Heseker, President of the German Nutrition Society.

Best to eat healthy and varied
The reasons why so many people resort to dietary supplements are manifold. For some, it seems more convenient to swallow a few pills instead of changing your lifestyle. For others, simply the positive image of the means counts. „Many consumers are also subject to the fallacy 'much helps a lot'“, says Klaus Richter from the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment. „On the contrary, one runs the risk of disturbing the finely balanced balance between different nutrients and of damaging oneself by supplying nutrients artificially“, so judge. According to studies, high-dose beta-carotene would have increased the risk of cancer. With this knowledge, the findings of the National Consumption Study appear in a very different light, because especially in beta-carotene, the Germans in high doses to. And zinc too much in itself entails risks because it then interferes with the uptake of the trace element selenium. Basically, most people would do best to eat healthy and varied, says Richter. Only a few sections of the population are advised by doctors to use such resources.

Fish oil capsules prolong pregnancy
Folic acid often supplements the diet. For example, women who want to have children should take folic acid, as this substance helps to develop the nervous system and prevents a neural tube defect, a scant malformation of the child. „You have to start with it before you get pregnant“, said Hauner. „Most do not take it until the second or third month. Then it does not bring much.“ Instead expectant mothers eagerly grab other tablets. „Since everything is swallowed, what the pharmacists think so. Fish oil was popular for a long time“, so Hauner. Studies have shown that women who ate a lot of fish, particularly clever children. But until today the connection is not clarified. Hauner pointed out that those who eat more fish are often better educated and more health-conscious. According to research by Hauner, after taking fish oil capsules, the pregnancy lengthened and birth had to be initiated more often artificially. He mean: „You should really let that happen.“ (Sb)

Picture: Martin Berk