Vitamin\Mineral Suppliment

[AmithS]

Hello Everyone,

I am looking for some advice on what are good vitamin\minerals to take on a daily basis.

I not looking for an energy booster, but rather something that will help my body to function correctly under long hours and stress on a daily basis if that makes any sense!

Thanks,

[AndyD]

Any brand-name multivitamin once every day or even two days is as good as it gets. There are risks involved, it's surprisingly easy to overdose on iron for example which is very toxic in high doses. As for whether they do any good there's evidence both ways. I would take them if I thought I needed them but I'd rather eat a good diet.

[Newretailer]

I was listening to the Naked Scientist on 702 a week ago and apparently taking vitamins is one of the worse things you can do for yourself. He mentioned 2 different studies where scientists wanted to check the effectiveness of anti-oxidants on the prevention of cancer. In the one study, they had to abandon the study as the people receiving the vitamins was more than a 100% likely to get cancer than the control group. There was another study confirming this results.

I still wanted to some more research on this, but the thought crossed my mind whether our attachment to vitamin pills are a contrinuting cause to the incidence of cancer just escalating out of control? I believe the latest figure is something like 1 out of 3 people will get some form of cancer in their lifetime.

Edited: I just want to add that vitamin intake through diet does indeed seem to help with cancer prevention, whereas the risk was only with taking a pill. I don't know if this is true, I just thought it was very interesting.

[Citizen X]

I too have fallen prey to the vitamin market. I taken vitamins religiously for several years. Initially centrum and then bestum. I was particularly stressed during this exam period so I found myself mesmerized by all the vitamin packages on the shelves. They seemed to say exactly what you want to hear i.e will improve your memory, concentration and vitality. I bought none and still functioned admirably in my exams. I agree that a well balanced diet is important