[Narona]

Originally Posted by Kakashi

Vitamin supplements tend to just be filtered out by the kidneys in most cases because the body can only absorb so many, which is nowhere near the overly high concentrations vitamin tablets offer, and which would have already been absorbed from a normal healthy diet.

A person is probably wasting their money buying them and they're overhyped - most health professionals who know what they're talking about will tell you that. But they won't do you any harm either, unless used as substitutes rather than supplements, so no one can be bothered to call them out on it. There's also no evidence to suggest that someone who takes these vitamins will outlive someone who doesn't.

It's not proven that you will live longer (actually, a study seems to have demonstrated that taking "enormous" doses of antioxidants can have the opposite effect. The doctor Michel Brack also commented on that, "that it can be dangerous"), but there are studies that demonstrate that it helps to live better, and to prevent some diseases, if you don't do it wrong. What about those? For example, given some studies, antioxidants kind of proved their usefulness against the free radicals. Plus, it is very hard for a person to get all what the body needs to not be affected by the bad environments in which we live in despite eating healthy (I start to think that there might be no report in great britain about the bad products and environment? Even some fruits and vegetables that are in sales in the supermarket are not that good for the health. There is also the pollution, in cities in particular). As Brack points out in an interview, a person would need to eat a lots and lots of fruits and vegetables to get what he/she needs (and i guess he doesn't talk about products like polluted strawberries from spain (Source of that comment: A big French documentary/report that aired a few month ago.) or soy from "monsanto"), and lots of fishes (he also pointed out that only the wild fishes are good in Omega3 while nowadays, most people mainly eat farmed fishes). And that, most people don't do it right, or can't do it.

But, he also points that it could be dangerous if a person does it wrong. In his personal opinion, he also thinks that people should come see him or other doctors to see precisely what they actually need.

I'll add that's not because a person feels good that for instance, he/she doesn't start to stock oxidizing agents or dangerous fat in his/her body that will start to cause him problems way later in his life (and by problems, I don't mean necessarily diseases that will make him/her die, but it's proven, for instance, that's the free radical make people's skin ages faster). People are imo too focused on how they feel "now". For instance, in France, there were reports of cases of people who feel super good, and are diagnostized with a disease during casual examinations like compulsory examination for their job.


That said, actually, last week, there was a Tv progam (C dans l'Air) about that (Kusa-san watched it too). There were three doctors, and while they repeated many times that people should be carefull about the supplements (they were quite against the fact that people can freely buy them without the opinions of doctors. So, they were all but the dogs of what-know companies), they :

- Quite admitted that it is very hard for a normal person to have all the necessary vitamins, minerals, trace element per day. That taking things that you don't need is not useful and can be dangerous if you do it wrong, but that lacking things, is not good either; because the body will start to wear down slowly, very slowly (the doctor used the example of a car and oil). I don't know if Kusa had the same feeling as me, but it felt like what got on their nerves the whole time is that people can take enormous doses of supplements if they want. As if everybody were morons who can't actually read the instructions and norms from the EU and french medical center that are on each box of supplements. They kind of forgot that people can also freely buy Aspirin and kill themselves by taking 50 pills at once if they want to destroy their body. Kind of hypocritical.

- When the fourth person brought quotes of some studies that demonstrated with numbers and results that some (I don't remember the exact quote for that) supplements can be of any help, they mainly "shut up".

About other studies and evidences, for example there is a big study that got published in the september 2006 entry of the Annals of Internal Medicine magazine. They studied a lot of serious studies, and demonstrated that for example the selenium and the Vitamin A helps to prevent cancers (mainly cancers of the digestive system). There is also the French study SUVIMAX about the antioxidants.

Now of course, on the opposite, you have the american study Lancet that says to have demonstrated that the vitamin A, E and the beta-carotene are useless to prevent cancer, but even that study said that the Selenium does help to prevent cancer. Lancet also demonstrated that it can be dangerous to take the beta-carotene + V-E/A. But as pointed out by a nutritionist, that study was about people who took "punctually" enormous amount of those supplements. And that the doses they used wasn't conform to the norms of the european union. Further, the scientists (Danish if i recall correctly) who did that part even admitted themselves that their works were about enormous doses punctually given to people, and that it can't be compared to the supplements that are sold to the people, and instructions from the EU.

There are more to say about, for instance, the trace elements, but since what I took time to write might be just disregarded, I feel lazy to continue.


People are free to do what they want to do, but it's kind of harsh to believe a study or one health professional's opinion/researches/results while disregarding the others.

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

That "die anyway" means that whatever you do you will still die. Death is inevitable, so if you are trying to avoid early death by "staying healthy" it is like rounding up sheep just to cuddle them.

Can you quote who in this thread said that he/she does things to avoid death? You could also say that I could die today in a car accident, so I should do nothing of my life since i could die today. Or that staying healthy to be able to work hard for a good life is useless since we'll all die. Or why not that having a baby is an aberration since she/he will die too. Etc. Why not doing right now an animesuki mass suicide since we're all walking dead corpses?

Joke aside, if people do things like eating well, sport, eating supplements (for some) or herbal teas, and what-not; it's to be and stay healthy, and for most, that has nothing to do about avoiding [early] death. Staying healthy helps to enjoy life, and to live properly to begin with.

Personally I would suggest constant hydration. Drink lots of water, that smartens up your complexion better than any beauty product.

Beside that is true that people shall drink, spouting lazy-short comments about beauty products without explanations nor facts has no value.