Is taking a multivitamin just a way to have expensive urine? In other words: if instead of individual supplements and responsible dosing we put everything in one box - will it make sense? Yes and no - let's see.
The multivitamin supplement business in the US alone (in 2021) exceeded £50 million! These companies spent £900 million on marketing. So there are countless articles and studies on this topic. An important meta-analysis by Cameron et al. used 84 randomised, placebo-controlled studies. It found that multivitamins do not reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, or overall mortality. On the contrary, overuse of multivitamins or complete vitamins can cause certain problems (e.g. overuse of medication and vitamin C can cause kidney stones)...
So is this a stop sign for supplements? Here, as in everything, everything in moderation! multivitamin preparations that senselessly combine groups of substances that go directly against each other. Some sellers nonsensically high dosages. Some products are just very poor quality. I should point out here that this is particularly relevant to the US market where this business is really quite, much more demanding The European Union protects us very vigorously indeed in this and literally every single product sold has to be tested and certified.
Another fact against the thesis is that you lack certain vitamins depending on what you are doing. Different groups need different vitamins in summer and winter. If you are an active athlete, your vitamin requirements increase and decrease depending on your training and the number of competitions... Yes, these are all good arguments for why it is better to buy each vitamin separately and dose it separately. Is there any reason for taking a multivitamin at all?
Of course, that reason has a name: the common man. A person who goes to a regular job, doesn't go to the gym in the evening, but sits in front of the TV, occasionally comes in for a beer and "he's not twenty years old anymore"... So it's about having enough population. For this man there is no point in investigating which vitamin he is currently lacking, he is not preparing for peak performance, nor is he recovering after an ultramarathon. However, because of the common foods he eats on a daily basis, he will be lacking a number of substances and vitamins. I'm sure you know the drill: sometimes you get heavy, have an injury, or just have a bad period. These are the few moments when we quickly start to take care of our health. If we are fine - we don't deal with anything.
Here we see a place for a set of vitamins, especially if they are responsibly selected and mixed in optimal proportions. Classic vitamin C, a set of B vitamins (B complex B1, B2, B3, B6, B9 and B12), vitamins A and E. Vitamin D3 together with magnesium, zinc and selenium. This is the optimal mix that can restore the balance of these elements in the body. Of course, the purpose of this selection is also efficiency. You don't have to buy 12 different vitamins and take them occasionally; for a tenth of the price, you get a vitamin complex that, if taken in the right doses and not overdone, can significantly contribute to your health.
Despite the reservations listed in the introduction, a multivitamin is probably the easiest way to do something for your health. In fact, I don't know anyone around me who takes 10 different vitamins on their own, exactly as they should be taken. A multivitamin is definitely a solution that even the laziest individual can use. And the phrase: doing at least something is always more than doing nothing at all.
