Health and wellness has seen a surge in the past few years. The pandemic has forced people to take action on their health and, as a result, they are looking for products that are easy to buy and implement.
This has led to a dramatic increase in interest in vitamins and supplements: Dietary supplement sales increased by 50% in the United States between 2018 and 2020, with sales exceeding $220 billion in 2020, according to a 2023 study published in the journal Nutrients.
Additionally, online health influencers often promote supplements as a one-stop shop for curing specific ailments.
“Social media heavily influences people’s interest in taking various vitamins, with influencers frequently promoting new ‘it’ vitamins and making strong claims about the health benefits of supplement regimens,” Caroline Thomason, a Washington, DC-based nutritionist, tells USA TODAY. “This constant promotion raises awareness of trends, but it can also lead to misinformation, unnecessary supplements and even harmful health risks. Influencer recommendations often prioritize trends, social engagement and popularity over scientific evidence, making them blanket statements that may not be appropriate for everyone.”
While vitamins and supplements, if used correctly and taken correctly, can be a beneficial addition to one’s health and wellness routine, some health experts are concerned that online influencers recommending specific vitamins to achieve specific health outcomes could lead to people trying to fix what’s not broken, or even worse, actually creating new problems.
So how should we navigate the world of vitamins and supplements? Here’s what health experts recommend:
“What vitamins should I take?”
Unfortunately, there’s no single answer, and this question is best answered by discussing it with your doctor, who can check your vitamin levels with a blood test in the first place. He or she, or a licensed nutritionist, can give you individualized advice if you have a vitamin deficiency.
“There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to vitamins, and if someone makes this claim as if it were true, that’s a big red flag,” Thomason says.
Unless your doctor tells you that you’re deficient in a specific vitamin, it’s best to aim to get important nutrients from your diet first, rather than from supplements, notes the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements.
“If you don’t have a deficiency, by making varied food choices you can meet your vitamin and mineral needs without taking supplements in your diet,” Thomason added.
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What vitamins should you not take every day?
Too much of a good thing can be bad, and health experts urge consumers to be careful about regularly taking supplements that a medical professional hasn’t told them they need.
Certain vitamins, such as the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, minerals like iron, and electrolytes like potassium and calcium, should not be taken regularly without consulting a nutritionist or doctor due to the risk of toxicity or harmful interactions. This is not to say that they are inherently dangerous; they are all necessary for the body, but they can be dangerous if not naturally deficient.
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“Depending on the type of vitamin and the amount taken, taking too much can lead to serious health problems,” says Thomason. In addition to the toxicity mentioned above, there are also risks such as liver damage, dangerously high calcium levels, bleeding, and kidney stones. It’s also important to check with your doctor to make sure any supplements you add won’t interact negatively with any medications you’re taking.
