Should You Really Be Taking a Multivitamin?
It seems like common sense that taking a multivitamin on a daily basis is a smart move if you’re looking to stay healthy. A quick stroll down any pharmacy aisle will turn up a dazzling array of bottles proclaiming to help with everything from anti-aging to cancer prevention. But how many of us really know if we truly need to take a multivitamin? Should everyone be taking one, regardless of age and health status, or are these tablets only providing us with a false sense of security about our health? And how do we even go about the process of choosing the right vitamin for our needs, if we do decide to go the supplement route? We tapped Baltimore-based internal medicine physician, Vivek Cherian, MD, to gain some insight into the complicated multivitamin conundrum.
Are multivitamins actually good for you? Nearly half of adults in the U.S. take a daily multivitamin, and that number increases to 70 percent for adults over 70 years old. But does that mean a daily multivitamin should be part of everyone’s health regimen? According to Dr. Cherian, the answer isn’t as clear-cut as a simple yes or no.
Excerpted from Real Simple
