Dietary Supplements Do Not Improve Public Health

Even though half of the general population in the United States consumes dietary supplements, no noticeable increase in public health has been recorded in the country over the past few decades. These pills apparently have no role in improving individual health statuses, a new study indicates.

In fact, it would seem that consuming them has a negative influence on other health-related behavior, scientists say. The pills provide people with an unjustified sense of health security, which they believe gives them the right to act inattentive under other health-related circumstances.

The end result of this is the spread of poor health practices among Americans who consume dietary supplements regularly. The study that arrived at these conclusions was led by investigators in Taiwan, led by expert Wen-Bin Chiou, PhD.

Details of the work are scheduled to appear in an upcoming issue of the esteemed journal Psychological Science, PsychCentral reports. The study includes two separate investigations.

“After reviewing the literature of the prevalence of dietary supplement use, it seemed to show that use of dietary supplements is increasing, but it does not appear to be correlated with improved public health,” Chiou explains.

In one of the studies, participants were divided into two groups. People in the first were asked to take a multivitamin pill, whereas the others were given a placebo. In fact, scientists gave all of the participants placebo pills.

They then analyzed the behavior of those who believed they were administered supplements, and found that the test subjects in essence felt invulnerable to any factors that may affect their health. As a result, they tended to engage in health-risk behaviors more than their peers did.

Overall, those who believed they were taking the actual pills walked less than those in the control group, tended to have a less-healthy diet, and manifested a much lower desire to exercise.

As such, those who consume such pills “may pay a hidden price, the curse of licensed self-indulgence,” Chiou explains. He adds that taking the supplements always needs to be doubled by other healthy behaviors as well.

Otherwise, he adds, patients risk making poor health decisions without even knowing it. And this would literally defeat the purpose for which they take the supplements, which is to get better.