In the mid 90-ies of the last century in the US was a real vitamin boom. Americans, spurred on by advertising, eagerly consumed vitamins and minerals in amounts exceeding the recommended doses of 10 or even 100 times. So people tried to get rid of colds , obesity, cardiovascular and skin diseases, periodontitis and even cancer. But the results of mass vitaminization were somewhere ridiculous, and somewhere dangerous.
I must say that many vitamin complexes and nutritional supplements containing useful microelements were originally developed to counteract such diseases as scurvy and beriberi (lack of vitamin B1, leading to polyneuritis, loss of sensitivity, delirium). One capsule a day and these diseases receded. However, instead of malnourished beggars with these "diseases of the poor" began to fight quite well-off people.
A cold shower for Americans was the article by the medical columnist of The New York Times, Jane Brody and Dr. Stampfer, a professor at Harvard Medical School. The main thing that bothered the authors is that the recommendations for taking vitamins are based on "negligible evidence of their benefits," which are rarely 100% true.
In addition, the amount of vitamins that must be taken by adults and children depends on many factors, including age, gender and health status. The matter is complicated by the fact that some of the microelements are able to interact with each other inside our body, and not always with benefit for him.
For example, vitamin C, which is considered a recognized antioxidant that saves cells from damage, in the presence of iron turns into an oxidant with the opposite effect. All this, according to Brody, makes us, "consumers, volunteers a poorly controlled experiment."
The daily dose of beta-carotene is not determined, since it is included in the dosage of vitamin A. But at a high dose it can cause yellowing of the skin. Some experts are inclined to suspect him of provoking a number of cancers.
Vitamin C is usually recommended at a dose of 60 mg per day. But when this threshold is exceeded, it begins to interact with certain drugs from cancer. It interferes with the diagnosis of colon diseases.
Vitamin E is a daily dose: 8 mg for women and 10 for men. High doses, 50 times the standard, can cause bleeding in people taking drugs to "dilute" the blood.
Vitamin B6 is a daily dose of 1.6 mg for women, 2 mg for men. At excess of a dose in 500 times it is capable to damage nerves.
Calcium, if taken more than 1 gram per day, causes constipation and kidney dysfunction.
Iron in a daily dose of more than 15 mg for women and 10 mg for men increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Zinc, if there is more than 12 mg for women and 10 mg for men per day, causes irritation of the intestine and undermines the immune system .