![[Myths about Nutritional Supplements Episode 4] Do Nutritional Supplements Really Work? | Dr. Esther Yeo](http://esther-mall.com/cdn/shop/articles/61_9c3d8a38-40ea-4085-a9f5-4aa6de153edd.jpg?v=1734118940&width=480)
The results of research on the efficacy of nutritional supplements are very confusing. This is because some studies say it works, while others say it doesn't. Why?
First, in general, nutritional supplements require a much longer intake period to achieve a disease-preventing effect. This is because they do not directly intervene in the metabolic processes of the disease, as drugs do. For example, if a patient with low bone density is given vitamin D for a month or two, the effect will not be immediate.
Secondly, many factors are involved in the death of a person. These include genes, smoking, exercise, sleep, underlying diseases, pollution, and more. Decades of these complex factors add up to death. Therefore, it is unlikely that eating one or two specific nutrients will significantly change mortality.
Two findings from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health are instructive. In 2012, an average of 11 years of taking a multivitamin reduced the risk of various cancers by 8 percent, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In 2014, a study published in the British Journal of Cancer Society showed that vitamin D supplementation reduced cancer mortality by 12% after taking vitamin D for 2~7 years. That's why a group of Harvard University members recommended multivitamins and vitamin D separately in their food pyramid.
Professor Richard Wurtman of MIT in the U.S. asked patients with early dementia to drink nutritional juice containing 11 nutrients such as DHA, EPA, folic acid, vitamin B6, and choline, which are known to help brain function, every day for 3~6 months. As a result, a statistically significant improvement in cognitive functions such as memory was observed in the group of dementia patients who drank juice every day for 3~6 months. Don't get me wrong. Drinking this juice does not mean that dementia has been prevented and cured. What I want to emphasize is that just by taking nutrients without taking chemically synthesized drugs, we were able to slow down the progression of dementia, which is known as an incurable disease, to some extent in the early stages.
As I always emphasize, I am wary of saying that nutrient A is good for disease B. This is because the treatment of diseases is the domain of drugs, and it is not right for nutritional supplements to compete with drugs to treat diseases. However, I would like to emphasize that, as Professor Wortman's dementia research shows, when multiple nutrients are evenly integrated, the body's function is improved, which can be expected to prevent or slow the progression of the disease. This means that if you make up for the lack of nutrients with nutrients, it can help prevent and treat diseases, albeit indirectly.
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