Look Who s Taking Supplements: You and Your Doctor

February 13, 2007

Posted by Carey Rossi

Dietary supplements have gone mainstream! According to some recent studies, more than 50 percent of the U.S. population takes a multivitamin, which explains why sales of these types of supplements grew about 4% over the past year. This data backs up what many nutritionists and scientists now believe — without a multivitamin we wouldn’t get all the nutrients we need. Not to mention, the benefits of taking a multivitamin are numerous, one dose can:

• Provide folic acid to maintain brain function;
• Provide vitamin E to improve heart health;
• Provide enough vitamin C to boost your immune system to ward off colds;
• Provide selenium to reduce colon cancer risk;
• Provide magnesium to decrease overall inflammation and risk of diabetes and heart disease;
• Provide vitamin D and calcium to maintain bone health;
• Provide vitamin A and lutein to help with eye health;

That’s better than most of diets provide. And it isn’t just the general population supplementing their diets, 51 percent of health care professionals are too, according to a Harvard Medical School survey. Of the 1249 health care professionals surveyed, the following percentages reported to taking herbal supplements:

• 63% of nurse practitioners;
• 59% of clinical nurses;
• 52% of health-care profession students;
• 48% of physicians;
• 40% of dieticians; and
• 37% of pharmacists.

What does this survey tell us? The people who have the most contact with, access too and knowledge of pharmaceutical drugs are turning to dietary supplements to help keep them young, which was the number one reason these professionals reported for taking supplements. And what do they take most? Green tea, according to the survey. This is no surprise as countless credible studies have shown that green tea:

• helps ward off old age;
• provides large amounts of antioxidants; and
• helps with weight loss.

Looking at these surveys, we can’t help but wonder that when these percentages are expanded to the US population, it could mean millions of people are experiencing benefits from supplementing their diets. It’s about time.

Reference:

Rock CL. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jan; 85(1):277S-9S; Gardiner P, Legedza A, Woods C, Phillips RS, Kemper KJ. J Herb Pharmacother. 2006; 6(2):51-64.)