Taking excessive supplements is bad: know the health risks

In an attempt to improve health care, many people have turned to supplements as a solution for tiredness, memory loss, lack of energy, and also to strengthen the immune system. What most people don’t know, however, is that an excess of these vitamins can pose health risks.

The alert comes with the high rate of searches for vitamin supplements on the internet. According to data from Google Trends, in the last five years, interest in this topic has increased by 102% in Brazil.

For the endocrinologist André Vianna, this scenario is a reflection of a false belief that vitamins are a type of natural medicine. “People use these as if they were medicines, natural medicines to improve various aspects of health. When in fact this is all a big myth, a big market that has the ultimate goal of raising millions, billions of dollars from the sale of these supplements.”

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In addition to being a financial expense, which ends up being in vain as excess vitamins are discarded by the body in feces and urine, this supplementation without medical recommendation can be toxic to the body. “An example of this is excess vitamin A which can lead to acute toxicity, causing symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, irritability and even liver damage. Now imagine this added to so many other vitamins that a single person can take every day”, explains the doctor.

Consume more food and fewer pills

According to the professional, there are few people who really need a replacement of vitamins and minerals, such as bariatric patients or those who, for some reason, have a deficit – which should be done with the indication and supervision of a doctor or nutritionist and for a set period of time until the index is normalized.

Vianna explains that a lack of vitamins is very common, but with a good diet it is possible to guarantee all the necessary nutrients. “Most of the elements we need, vitamins, chemical elements such as vitamins from complex B, A, D, which are widely used, magnesium, iron, collagen, among others, we find in sufficient quantities in our diet. The food we eat, having a healthy diet, is enough. Our body takes what we need from there. So, supplements are not necessary. Only on very rare occasions,” he says.

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The nutritionist Natalie Marques comments that the secret is in a healthy and varied diet. “Eating monotony ends up greatly harming the supply of other nutrients. To consume what we need, we need to have at least 5 to 6 meals a day and these meals must be very varied”, he explains.

Dark green vegetables, for example, are rich in many vitamins, mainly calcium, iron, magnesium and vitamin C. Fruits such as acerola, guava and strawberries are also rich in vitamin C.

“Around 150 ml of acerola juice would provide an ideal amount of vitamin C for the day. Red meat, rich in vitamin B12, other proteins such as eggs, vitamin E, vitamin B complex. By consuming and eating in a healthy and varied way, there is no need to use supplements”, says the nutritionist.