Vitamins have gone from unknown to a billion dollar industry within a century! In the previous episode we covered the basics of what vitamins are and how they were discovered. During this episode, we'll focus on how vitamins and supplements, the broader class of dietary additives, are marketed, evaluated, and regulated. It may shock you to learn that supplements are not routinely evaluated by the FDA! That's right, being in pill form does not make supplements equal to the level of scrutiny that we place on medicine and drugs in this country. If you use/need supplements, please check out our sources and listen for some strategies that you can use to research reliable sources of supplements!
Sources:
Vitamania book: https://www.amazon.com/Vitamania-Vitamins-Revolutionized-Think-About/dp/0143108158
Vitamin A toxicity: https://www.healthline.com/health/hypervitaminosis-a#causes
History of vitamin advertising: https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/vitamins-come-to-dinner
FDA regulation of vitamins: https://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/30/us/diet-supplements-attacked-by-fda.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/06/supplements-make-tobacco-look-easy/488798/
NIH Dietary supplements: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/DietarySupplements-HealthProfessional/
Vitamin C commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F_ZZvdHqPM
EMS: https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/eosinophilia-myalgia-syndrome/
St. John’s-Wort drug interactions: https://www.drugs.com/drug-interactions/st-john-s-wort.html
Plant vs animal vitamins:
https://www.kevinstock.io/health/vitamins-and-minerals-plants-vs-animals/
Harvard – best foods for certain vitamins: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-best-foods-for-vitamins-and-minerals
Identifying safe vitamins: https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/107141/
https://www.consumerreports.org/supplements/how-to-choose-supplements-wisely/
USP:https://www.quality-supplements.org/verified-products/verified-products-listings#list3
NSF: https://www.nsf.org/about-nsf/
ConsumerLab: https://www.consumerlab.com/
NatureMade: http://www.naturemade.com/about-nature-made/science-based
Ritual website: https://ritual.com/products/essential-for-women-multivitamin
Ritual clinical trial:https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03828097?term=Multivitamin%2C+Auburn+University&draw=2&rank=1
Ritual partnership with Auburn university: http://www.education.auburn.edu/news/roberts-masl-lab-complete-large-scale-clinical-trial-in-partnership-with-ritual/