Q: After hearing forever about how good vitamins are for me, now I hear that taking vitamins can be dangerous - even kill me. Who's right?

A: A vast amount of resources have gone into convincing me that we absolutely cannot take the very best care of our health unless we regularly take vitamins/supplements. These were largely prior to any formal medical education and, frankly, funded by vitamin/supplement sales.

There are people for whom taking them is critical - those individuals with an actual diagnosis of a deficiency really do need to take their supplements. For example, iron-deficient anemia is properly treated with iron supplements.

However, this whole supplement/vitamin thing is out of control and overdone. There is evidence that routinely taking vitamins can be dangerous.

A recent study indicated that pregnant women taking folic acid supplements, now added to many common foods, may cause an increased risk of asthma in the baby (1).

[Conversely an American study found the opposite.(2)]

Yet, this study found that a lack of folic acid is associated with an increased risks of birth defects(3). Wait... this one was not so conclusive(4).

What should the policy on folic acid be? That is a difficult question. As of this writing, it remains as a food additive by law.

The point is, we can't assume that consuming a vitamin/supplement is automatically good for our health. And it gets worse.

In medical school (University of Illinois, Chicago), we were taught that the fat-soluble vitamins (D,A,K and E) are lethal at high enough dosage; that's common knowledge. Now, however, there is growing evidence of harm that can be attributed to vitamin E at even over-the-counter vitamin/supplement amounts.

Did you see on TV that prostate health requires gulping Selenium, vitamin E or both? This study (5) not only shows no benefit from either, but it actually revealed an increase in cancer risk, albeit slight. Well, I had suspected we were being "sold" for profit.

Just think about it for a moment: health problems in the USA are typically due not to a shortage of anything, but rather, an excess of everything.

Yes, there are exceptions, and you should not begin or stop taking any vitamins or supplements without first talking it over with your Doctor. But in general, vitamins and supplements are entirely overused, and may even do great harm to an individual.

One more: We've been bombarded forever with commercials touting the need for iron supplements in women. Yet a recent study of older women (6) suggests that people's lives are cut short by taking popular supplements, especially iron.

Then again, I witnessed a patient who was told by a physician that her iron levels were normal; her chronic absence of energy was completely turned around - once she got the proper diagnosis of iron-deficient anemia.

But one cannot draw conclusions from any kind of "I knew one person who..." story. This is known as "anecdotal evidence" and can be quite misleading. A man just ate a chocolate bar, then drove off the road and crashed. Does this imply cause - and - effect? This is easy to see thru; Other false associations are less obvious.

My money is on consuming a balanced, healthy diet that includes all the nutrients required for total health... and no more.