Multivitamins are the safest things that anyone can take – and are even safer than drinking coffee, an expert panel has discovered. Its findings are revealed at a time when American regulators are taking the lead from their European counterparts and are seeking to control the supply of vitamins in the States.
By comparison, the panel revealed that 784,000 Americans die each year from drug reactions.
They also discovered that 59 Americans died from aspirin use, two died after drinking coffee, three died after using dishwasher detergent, and one woman died after applying a makeup lotion.
“Over half of all Americans take vitamins every day, and one cannot help but ask, where are the bodies?” said Andrew Saul of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine.
Well, bodies there are none, according to the panel, which comprised university faculty, medical researchers and physicians. They based their findings on the annual statistics of the American Association of Poison Control for 2003.
One panel member, Dr Michael Janson, commented: “In decades of people taking a wide variety of dietary supplements, few adverse effects have been noted, and zero deaths as a result of dietary supplements. There is far more risk to public health from people stopping their vitamin supplements than from people taking them.”
The report is unlikely to halt the impetus for vitamin control that’s coming from the US National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration. Regulators are concerned that vitamins, especially at higher doses, are dangerous. They point to the overuse of iron supplements, which, according to the expert panel, accounted for two deaths. Trouble is, iron isn’t a vitamin.