Thanks for this valuable research! I read Kevin and Yvain’s reports with my multivitamin’s label at hand. From Yvain’s report:
Because of the high potential for manganese toxicity, and continuining uncertainty over possible cover toxicity of relatively low manganese levels, manganese supplementation is probably a bad idea.
From the label:
Manganese 4mg 200%
Well, that’s going straight in the trash and getting replaced with something different. Wtf?
Have you considered not taking anything? Most studies show multivitamins have somewhere between no effect and a slight negative effect except in groups with special nutritional issues. It might be possible to optimize further with the right combination (if the lack of effect from multivitamins is because they include both beneficial and harmful chemicals with a net zero effect) but I don’t really think we know enough to do that right now.
It seems lots of supplement manufacturers just kind of make it up as they go along.
Other warning signs that should get you to throw out particular multivitamins—Vitamin E as d-alpha tocepherol only rather than mixed tocopherols, and selenium as a single form such as selenomethionine rather than selenium yeast or selenium amino acids.
I also suspect Vitamin A is similarly harmful in isolated form compared to the much more complex natural sources of it but don’t really have any evidence on that.
I also suspect Vitamin A is similarly harmful in isolated form compared to the much more complex natural sources of it but don’t really have any evidence on that.
I would bet against the specific prediction without rejecting the principle. That is, I expect when maximising a given function along the lines of “useful when you don’t have enough and minimally harmful when you have more than enough” there is a specific isolated form that is better for supplementation than complex natural sources. Where my in principle agreement comes in is that I consider it highly unlikely that the actual isolated form used in an arbitrary multivitamin supplement to be the most desirable one.
The most obvious reason I would expect to find that at least one of the forms of Vitamin A to be better supplemented in isolation than just adding more of a combination is that some of the forms are largely inactive until they are converted by the suitable enzymes. That gives you a potential rate-limiting buffer in the case where you are already eating too much of the stuff and adding more would otherwise be bad.
Thanks for this valuable research! I read Kevin and Yvain’s reports with my multivitamin’s label at hand. From Yvain’s report:
From the label:
Well, that’s going straight in the trash and getting replaced with something different. Wtf?
Here’s what it says on the label of mine:
Manganese 2.3 Mg 115%
Anybody want to plug a one pill supplement a middle class American could find easy?
Have you considered not taking anything? Most studies show multivitamins have somewhere between no effect and a slight negative effect except in groups with special nutritional issues. It might be possible to optimize further with the right combination (if the lack of effect from multivitamins is because they include both beneficial and harmful chemicals with a net zero effect) but I don’t really think we know enough to do that right now.
Every multivitamin I’ve had is at least 2mg Manganese/pill. Cut the pill in half and it’s half as bad for you?
It seems lots of supplement manufacturers just kind of make it up as they go along.
Other warning signs that should get you to throw out particular multivitamins—Vitamin E as d-alpha tocepherol only rather than mixed tocopherols, and selenium as a single form such as selenomethionine rather than selenium yeast or selenium amino acids.
I also suspect Vitamin A is similarly harmful in isolated form compared to the much more complex natural sources of it but don’t really have any evidence on that.
I would bet against the specific prediction without rejecting the principle. That is, I expect when maximising a given function along the lines of “useful when you don’t have enough and minimally harmful when you have more than enough” there is a specific isolated form that is better for supplementation than complex natural sources. Where my in principle agreement comes in is that I consider it highly unlikely that the actual isolated form used in an arbitrary multivitamin supplement to be the most desirable one.
The most obvious reason I would expect to find that at least one of the forms of Vitamin A to be better supplemented in isolation than just adding more of a combination is that some of the forms are largely inactive until they are converted by the suitable enzymes. That gives you a potential rate-limiting buffer in the case where you are already eating too much of the stuff and adding more would otherwise be bad.
IIRC at least some multivitamins contain at least part of their Vitamin A as carotene rather than retinol.
Yup, definitely, many multivitamins (particularly at the higher end) also contain complex forms of Vitamin E and selenium.