Do You Need Vitamin Supplements? Top Medical Journal Professor Speaks

Only 1% need vitamin supplements. The good news is that food and sunlight do provide enough vitamins for 99% of the vast majority of people. The bad news is that supplementing the same people with extra vitamins (in a jar) may increase mortality.

Retired Professor Lin Qingshun of UCSF School of Medicine, has 40 years of medical research experience, has published nearly 200 research papers, and serves as a reviewer for more than 60 world-renowned medical journals. He believes that

Lin Qingshun said that there are not many people who really need vitamin supplements, only about 1%. For example, people who eat vegans (don't eat eggs) need vitamin B12 supplements. Although most vitamin B12 supplements on the market are synthetic, they are effective (Note 1).

Also, people who live in areas with insufficient sunlight, especially developing children, need to take vitamin D supplements (even so-called synthetic ones are effective). That is,

Lin Qingshun emphasized that the reason why he is so sure is that in the past 100 years, research on vitamins has accumulated more than 300,000 papers, and most of the researches are made on synthetic vitamins. (After all, natural vitamins are not easy to obtain). If there's anything wrong with synthetic vitamins, it's only when they're abused. Unfortunately,

An article published by Harvard Medical School titled "The Best Source of Vitamins"? Your plate, not your medicine cabinet> (Note 2). Lin Qingshun said that for readers who still have questions about vitamin supplements, the title of this article has drawn a good conclusion. Finally, the papers on the increase in death caused by vitamin supplements over the years are attached. Interested readers can refer to the supplementary information at the back of the book (Note 3).

●There are 13 kinds of vitamins, all of which are "micro" nutrients. A balanced diet for three meals a day is enough. If you take supplements with pills, it is easy to exceed them, and it is harmful to your health.

●Vitamin and mineral supplements are not only unhelpful in the prevention or treatment of cardiovascular disease, but in some cases are harmful. For example:

●Strictly speaking, all natural vitamins exist only in food (vitamin D comes from sunlight), and once they are extracted, they are no longer natural.

Note 1: Types of Vitamin B12

Note 2: Harvard Medical School

Note 3: Five papers over the years that found that vitamin supplementation increases mortality:

2000: Multivitamin use and mortality in a large prospective study

2005: Meta-analysis: high-dosage vitamin E supplementation may increase all-cause mortality

2007: Mortality in randomized trials of antioxidant supplements for primary and secondary prevention: systematic review and meta-analysis

2011: Dietary supplements and mortality rate in older women: the Iowa Women's Health Study

2014: Antioxidant supplements and mortality

◎ This article is excerpted from / "Pseudoscience at the Dining Table: Professor of the University of California School of Medicine Debunks Hundreds of Health Myths and Deep-rooted Medical Myths" by Lin Qingshun ◎ Image source/Provided by Dazhi Image/shutterstock

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