Vitamins and supplements: what you need to know before taking them

IF you were to open your medicine cabinet right now, there’s a fair chance that you’d find at least one bottle of vitamins alongside the painkillers, plasters and cough syrup.

After all, people are definitely buying vitamins: in 2020, the global market for complementary and alternative medicines, which includes multivitamin supplements, had an estimated value of US$82.27 billion (https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/complementary-alternative-medicine-market). The use of natural health products such as minerals and amino acids has increased (https://journals.lww.com/nutritiontodayonline/Abstract/2007/03000/Why_People_Use_Vitamin_and_Mineral_Supplements.4.aspx) – and continues to rise, partly driven by consumers’ buying habits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

People sought out (https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/companies/healthcare/2021-02-08-native-sales-of-sas-vitamins-and-nutritional-supplements-boom/) vitamins C and D, as well as zinc supplements, as potential preventive measures against the virus – even though the evidence (https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/do-vitamin-d-zinc-and-other-supplements-help-prevent-covid-19-or-hasten-healing-2021040522310) for their efficacy was, and remains (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35888660/#:%7E:text=Concluding%2C%20available%20data%20on%20the,trials%20(RCTs)%20are%20inconsistent), inconclusive...

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