Are Over The Counter (OTC) Vitamins Bad for Health?

I’ve recently read articles that say over the counter vitamins are not good for you and may, in fact, be bad for you. A FRONTLINE program was aired a few months back, proving through testing done at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, that vitamins, as we know them, are dangerous. Any thoughts?

My thought is if we eat veggies from our garden, fruits from the trees and meat we raise, why do we need a vitamin created mainly for someone’s profit? The same for most modern medications.

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General Health 2 Answers 2270 views 1

Answers ( 2 )

    1

    If you’ll put your ‘vitamins’ in a glass of very warm water, the ones that don’t break down are definitely a waste of time and end up getting passed (or stuck) whole. The vitamins being bad thing might have had to do with overdose of certain vitamins (happen to my grandma with iron and taking a regular one a day), but some people have such bad deficiencies that they can’t consume the amount they need from food, or like my husband when he was shot he had colon surgery years ago, he just can’t absorb something’s well.

    The only one she took was in a multivitamin, but her body “holds ” iron more than others or something, I think other things are going on, she’s suddenly become allergic to a lot of things lately, like Neosporin.

    Also if you have kidney or I think liver issues, multivitamins and those “detox cleaners” can be really bad for you.

      0

      I’d completely agree, but everyone buys them anyway, thinking they “need” them. Truth is, they NEED fresh fruit and vegetables. But yeah one has to be very careful with iron, that’s for sure. The back of the bottle of iron say to take one tablet daily, but that’s 3 times more than the daily recommended amount! :O

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      Neosporin (ALLERGIES) are common in people who have used it for many years. Actually its a tolerance build up in the body. It’s best to alternate between Bacitracin (double antibiotic ointment) & Neosporin (triple antibiotic ointment). This statement is meant for those who insist on using OTC products for health care. The body can become tolerant to anything not natural given enough exposure!

    2

    That’s not necessarily so, Freda. The ph level of the stomach is a lot more acidic than water. A better test would be to put it in orange juice or tomato juice and see if it breaks down. Vitamins have to break down in the stomach, yet remain soluble in the intestines (much lower acid level – closer to water than the stomach). This is where food is actually absorbed (into the bloodstream).

    The problem with most vitamins is that they crystallize when they reach the intestines – this causes more damage than the vitamins can actually repair. What causes this is that most (especially otc) vitamins are composed of insoluble ingredients. In other words, they’re made of ingredients that our bodies were never designed to consume nor absorb.

    That’s why the general agreement that we’re better off consuming our vitamins & minerals through our food, and the fresher/less processed, the more it remembers where it came from, the better. Of course, that means we have to eat a LOT of food to get the nutrition we actually need. Next, best is to find some plant-based vitamins/minerals or a brand that is created to mimic the way plants deliver their nutrition to us.

    I remember doctor OZ saying to break them in half and take 1/2 am, 1/2 pm because you pee out a lot of extra stuff anyway and you absorb it better.

    And a lot of times, the manufacturer KNOWS that only about 25-50% of the nutrients are gonna be absorbed. Sure it has 500-1,000% of the USRDA of the nutrient… but your body won’t absorb it. Even if our bodies could absorb more of the water-soluble nutrients, we’d just pee it out. It’s the fat-soluble ones you really have to be careful with!

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