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Originally Posted by Hoover  Am I just pissing away any benefit these supplements might offer? |
Yes. When you take in more B vitamins than you need, you'll pee them out. Most of these B vitamin supplements will have a gross excess of the amount that you actually need... 200%, 500%, even more. The RDA is already set to accommodate about 97% of the population.
There's no need to take B vitamin supplements unless it is advised by your doctor. Some people are deficient or have greater needs, for one reason or another. If for example you have a disorder called pernicious anemia, you need to get regular B12 shots because your body is unable to absorb B12.
There are those on the internet who will tell you the wonderful advantages to taking excess vitamins. The reality is that regardless of vitamin intake, vitamin deficiency is very rare in the developed world. This is due to several factors. One, the body is actually quite good at surviving for long periods of time with poor nutrition. Mechanisms will kick in to prevent breakdown/excretion of vitamins so that you can generally survive for many months, if not longer before you start seeing symptoms. Two, many foods today are fortified: cereal/grains are loaded with vitamins, milk has vitamin D, and fluorine is very often found in processed foods/drinks. Three, hardly anyone in this country is starving - and even a big mac has
some grain, vegetable, fruit, etc.
One can see that despite fearmongering over nutritional deficiencies, even those with unusual diets such as vegans or bic mac addicts rarely get pellagra, wernicke's encephalopathy, megaloblastic anemia or any other disorder associated with B vitamin deficiency.
So who does get these diseases?
Typically the very poor (especially in third world countries), people with wacky diets, children who are severely deprived, alcoholics/drug addicts, and those with medical conditions that make them more susceptible.
Who else needs extra B vitamins?
Pregnant women, for example, are encouraged to take Folic acid supplements to reduce the risk of spina bifida.
etc. (various medical conditions)
edit: I should add, for the majority of people, good diet alone will provide all the vitamins you need. For those who are concerned about not getting quite enough, there's always multivitamins. Looking at my Centrum, it has 100% of most of the important B vitamins, amongst others. You don't even have to take Centrum every day! But it won't hurt either, and you won't be pissing out too much excess vitamins.
