More than half of Americans take daily multivitamins and dietary supplements, but doctors and pharmacists say many of them are a waste of money.
In a TikTok, Pharmacist Amina Khan told her 271,000 followers there are three types of supplements she would never take, including the hugely popular gummy vitamins.
These gummies have several shortcomings, one of which is that they are often sweetened with sugar, around three to five grams.
It might not seem like much, but the recommended dosage is two gummies per day, and the American Heart Association recommends no more than 25 grams of sugar for women and 36 grams for men daily.
Ms Khan said: ‘These are basically just a sugar pill — you might as well go have a sweet.
‘They can be very easily over-consumed and can lead to mineral toxicity.’
Ms Khan also said multivitamins are not worthwhile as some researchers say they often contain negligible amounts of crucial vitamins and minerals.
Similarly, supplements aimed at improving hair, skin, and nail health, made popular via social media, are ineffective, Ms Khan said.
Gummy vitamins are often loaded with sugar. The levels of vitamins and minerals in them are also too low to have much of a benefit
Gummy vitamins have broad appeal, often presenting and tasting more like candy than a health supplement, Dr Khan said.
According to doctors at UCLA: ‘Even if your gummy vitamins are sugar-free, they likely contain other sweeteners, such as high-sugar fruit juice or sugar alcohols, which can cause unpleasant digestive issues.’
They taste good, are easy to take, and don’t have the signature vitamin smell.
They’re especially appealing to children, who may be averse to swallowing or unable to swallow pills.
But gummies owe their taste to several grams of sugar.
Dr Zariah Chappell, a family medicine physician at Scripps Coastal Medical Center San Marcos in California, said: ‘It’s like having a sugar pill or candy 365 days a year.
‘That’s a lot of sugar that can add up quickly. Children in particular may eat more than the recommended dose because the vitamins taste so good and even look like popular candies.’
Second, Ms Khan spoke about multivitamins, which ‘have a bit of everything in them.’
‘Some of the doses of each nutrient are so low they’ll hardly have an effect on you. Also, you don’t need all the vitamins in the multivitamin.’
Multivitamins are said to contain a little bit of everything, meaning the concentrations of vitamins and minerals are too low to have a measurable benefit
A Johns Hopkins study, which included 450,000 people, found multivitamins had no beneficial effect on preventing heart disease.
Another study looked at roughly 1,700 people who had previously suffered heart attacks. They were told to take a multivitamin or a placebo twice daily for five years. Their findings showed taking the multivitamins did not affect heart attack or mortality risk.
Dr Edgar Miller, an internal medicine specialist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said: ‘Study after study comes back negative — yet people continue to take supplements, now at record rates.’
Studies showing their inefficacy have not impacted the marketplace. The global vitamins and supplements market size was $146.14 billion in 2023.
One population that would still benefit from a multivitamin is malnourished or pregnant people.
Finally, hair, skin, and nail supplements are equally as ineffective, Ms Khan said.
People would be better suited taking a single-focus supplement, rather than one designed to target all three.
An effective supplement is targeted to a certain issue, such as vitamin B8 for hair thickness and vitamin D for skin cell regrowth.
The better route to improving the health of each is to take supplements specifically targeted to help each individually.
Ms Khan said: ‘Hair, skin and nail multivitamins, what do these focus on? Hair, skin or nails?’
Hair, skin, and nail supplements do not adequately target the areas it’s designed to improve. The best supplements, pharmacists say, and those that individual target each problem area rather than lump ingredients together to weakly target several
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Most people are not deficient in the vitamins included in the supplements, such as antioxidants like vitamins A, C, and E, or Coenzyme Q10, and biotin, a B-complex vitamin.
And for those people, there is no clear evidence that the supplements make a difference.
Dr Pieter Cohen, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an expert on dietary supplements, told Consumer Reports: ‘I’m not aware of any robust data suggesting that any supplements can treat natural, aging-related hair loss or nail damage, or give you healthier skin.
‘It’s nothing that would ever lead me to recommend it to any of my patients.’
Many supplements and vitamins aren’t regulated by the FDA, so it is hard to know if you are getting what is advertised on a supplement’s packaging.
Additionally, the lack of oversight means manufacturers can include substances not declared on the label and some could interact with medication.
The federal agency only gets involved when a product has been shown to cause harm, though it does inspect facilities where supplements are made.
