Older Americans Are 'Hooked' on Vitamins

A 2013 Gallup poll found more than 50 percent of Americans take vitamin supplements, including 68 percent of those age 65 and older, reports the New York Times . A 2017 study published in the Journal of Nutrition found 29 percent of older adults take four or more supplements. The National Cancer Institute's Dr. Barnett Kramer notes people who take vitamins tend to be healthier, more affluent, and better educated than those who do not, and they also are less likely to die from heart disease or cancer, whether they take supplements or not. These trends can skew research results, making supplements seem more effective than they really are. Taking megadoses of vitamins and minerals, using amounts that people could never consume through food alone, could be even more problematic. "There's something appealing about taking a natural product, even if you're taking it in a way that is totally unnatural," says journalist Catherine Price. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Eric Klein cautions that "Vitamins are not inert. They are biologically active agents. We have to think of them in the same way as drugs. If you take too high a dose of them, they cause side effects."