Micronutrient deficiencies, vitamin pills and nutritional supplements

In the 21st century, it is hard to reconcile the concepts of the ‘Western’ diet and overconsumption with the risk of micronutrient deficiencies. However, deficiencies can arise from poor dietary intake, alone or combined with physiological or metabolic injury. Micronutrients are essential to fulfil...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medicine (Abingdon. 1995, UK ed.) UK ed.), 2019-03, Vol.47 (3), p.145-151
Main Authors: Combet, Emilie, Buckton, Christina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antioxidant
deficiency
evidence
micronutrients
MRCP
recommendations
supplementation
vitamin
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In the 21st century, it is hard to reconcile the concepts of the ‘Western’ diet and overconsumption with the risk of micronutrient deficiencies. However, deficiencies can arise from poor dietary intake, alone or combined with physiological or metabolic injury. Micronutrients are essential to fulfil a broad range of biochemical and physiological functions, and are tightly regulated by homeostatic processes. Diagnosis of deficiency is complex and requires the use of separate investigations (dietary, functional, biochemical). Although the role of micronutrients in preventing or treating diseases (including cancer and type 2 diabetes mellitus) is of interest, a key driver for the vitamins and supplement market is their advertised potential to optimize health and performance in healthy individuals. The evidence so far indicates that multivitamin supplements offer no health protection, and increase all-cause mortality, as well as risk of cancers in some subgroups. A nutritionally balanced diet is a safer way to achieve sufficiency.
ISSN:1357-3039
1878-9390
DOI:10.1016/j.mpmed.2018.12.004