The Vitamin Verdict

00:00:37
Sarah Lando: What do you think, Kaylee?

00:00:39
Dr. Kaylee Byers: I’m just kind of thinking, “What’s going on here exactly?”

00:00:43
Sarah Lando: April fools.

00:00:44
Dr. Kaylee Byers: You mean there’s no Gene Juice?

00:00:47
Sarah Lando: Sadly, no. But it is a great way to segue into today’s topic: vitamins and supplements. Are they really worth it or are they just as much of a joke at Gene Juice?

00:00:58
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Good question. Let’s get into it. Welcome back to Gene Shorts, our bite size dose of genomics.

00:01:10
Sarah Lando: I would say for magnesium bisglycinate, it’s like $30 time three.

00:01:14
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Okay, so you spend $90 on that. You might be wondering what exactly we are trying to calculate here.

00:01:20
Sarah Lando: And then, collagen in my coffee. I think I spend $180 on that.

00:01:24
Dr. Kaylee Byers: $180 a year?

00:01:25
Sarah Lando: A year, a year.

00:01:26
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Sarah and I are looking at how much money we’ve spent on multivitamins in a year. If you’re like me, well, it’s probably close to zero to maybe $30 a year. But if you’re like Sarah-

00:01:37
Sarah Lando: Melatonin on those nights that you just need a little extra help, I would say that’s $40 for the year.

00:01:42
Dr. Kaylee Byers: All right. Grand total, as I press the equal button on my phone.

00:01:46
Sarah Lando: Drum roll.

00:01:47
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Get ready, $350. Wow.

00:01:51
Sarah Lando: Less than a dollar a day. I’m not too upset about that.

00:01:55
Dr. Kaylee Byers: So vitamins are a multibillion dollar industry. So yeah, Sarah don’t feel too bad about your $350 a year. So what can you tell me about vitamins?

00:02:04
Sarah Lando: So here’s some background. Like we just saw from our own spending habits, it is a multibillion dollar industry in the US. Roughly half of Americans use them, and there are multiple reasons why people may opt to take multivitamins, for general health benefits, if you have sleeping problems, if you want your hair and nails to grow stronger. But when you look at the evidence, for an average healthy person taking vitamins might actually not make that much of a difference.

00:02:30
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Wait, so you’re telling me that the Flintstone vitamins that I took as a kid didn’t do anything? Because that’s going to be traumatic for me. Whenever my mom went out of town, fun story, we all panicked because my dad, it was his turn to make lunches and he would make us baloney and mayonnaise sandwiches and he would hide a Flintstone vitamin under the bread, so we didn’t see it.

But by the time we got to our sandwiches, the Flintstone vitamin would have leaked into the bread, so we’d open it and it’d just be a pink circle on the top of our sandwiches. Are you telling me that was for nothing?

00:03:02
Sarah Lando: Okay. There’s so many things I want to say about this story, but I will refrain for now. While they might not have been hurting you, necessarily, if you eat a balanced diet, vitamins don’t really do a whole lot either.

A recent study published in The American Medical Association Journal put this to the test and analyzed the health records of 400,000 people with no long- term diseases. They found that the claim that daily multivitamins help you live longer was not supported, showing that multivitamins don’t reduce your risk of things like heart disease or mental decline. But, I mean, this isn’t to say that all vitamins cannot be helpful.

For example, folic acid has been shown to be really beneficial, especially in those early child bearing stages and during early pregnancy. In terms of any other effective examples, just to list a couple other common ones, if you’re vegan, vitamin B12 might be a good idea. There’s been a lot of talk about magnesium recently in helping with sleep and things like migraines. That makes me feel so much better about my magnesium bisglycinate. But really, the bottom line is, if you eat enough magnesium rich foods, like nuts and leafy greens, you don’t actually need the extra magnesium.

00:04:15
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Yeah, and there’s also the whole you take some of these vitamins, but it’s also helpful sometimes to take them with others, too. So iron supplements, I think you’re supposed to take with vitamin C, because it helps with absorption, so sometimes even just taking them on their own, you’re not getting maximum benefits. And like you said, if you already eat a balanced diet, they’re not necessarily improving your health. Although, if I was just eating baloney and mayonnaise, maybe that Flintstone vitamin was going some pretty heavy lifting for me. Could there be any harm in taking these?

00:04:42
Sarah Lando: So there actually could be, even taking iron supplements. That is extremely popular. There can be some major side effects, such as constipation, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal discomfort, heartburn, and headaches.

00:04:55
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Wowie.

00:04:56
Sarah Lando: Some studies have suggested an increased risk of cardiovascular issues, diabetes, and dementia from too much iron. But to complicate things a little more, there are conflicting studies that are testing the validity of those claims.

Also, some other vitamins have been linked to other disease. Beta- carotene, when found in food, totally okay and can protect against certain cancers. However, taking beta- carotene supplements has been linked to raising the risk of other cancers, like lung cancer and heart disease, specifically with people who smoke. Also, a lot of supplements aren’t necessarily regulated.

00:05:32
Vitamin Spokesperson: Introducing Gene Juice.

00:05:33
Sarah Lando: So you might not know exactly what’s in the little pills you’re taking every day. So moral of the story is ask your doctor before taking any vitamins or supplements.

00:05:43
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Who knows what’s in that Gene Juice?

00:05:44
Sarah Lando: Exactly.

00:05:45
Vitamin Spokesperson: It’s mostly cat food.

00:05:46
Dr. Kaylee Byers: You know what I’m going to ask next. What about genomics? Can vitamin supplements effect our genes? Is there any interaction there at all?

00:05:55
Sarah Lando: Well, Kaylee, I am so glad you asked. Yeah, some scientists suggest that vitamins could act like a genomic switch. As we know, the effect of epigenetics is that it switches your genes on and off without altering your DNA. So I’m going to talk to you about nutrigenomics. It’s a relatively new field in genomics, and it studies nutrition and gene expression.

So this field is based on the idea that what we eat doesn’t just fuel us, it can actually influence our gene expression. And so, by sequencing our own DNA, nutrigenomics, in theory, could one day enable personalized diet plans tailored to our DNA, helping us optimize our health, reduce disease and targeting specific genes with the right nutrients. Think of 23andMe, but instead of finding your relatives, you are discovering which foods best support your unique genetic makeup.

00:06:47
Dr. Kaylee Byers: I don’t know. I worry about the ethical implications about doing something like that.

00:06:51
Sarah Lando: I feel the exact same way. Nutrigenomics has potential, in theory, but we are still a ways away form a foolproof way to get personalized diet recommendations that are suited to our DNA. But it is really interesting.

So final takeaway is we’re not saying don’t use vitamins, full stop. Some could be beneficial if you have a certain deficiency or a certain health condition. Again, ask your doctor. But if you’re a relatively healthy person, you might want to think about how much money you’re spending and evaluate if it’s actually worth it for you. You might get all the same benefits from just eating a healthy diet.

00:07:27
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Well, Sarah, always a delight chatting with you and seeing that actually we do have some overlap in our magnesium intake.

00:07:34
Vitamin Spokesperson: Magnesium.

00:07:35
Dr. Kaylee Byers: And thanks for coming on the show.

00:07:38
Sarah Lando: My pleasure, Kaylee. Thanks so much for chatting with me.

00:07:41
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Thank you all for listening to this Gene Shorts episode. We hope it got your Gene Juices flowing.

00:07:48
Vitamin Spokesperson: Gene Juice.

00:07:48
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Until next time.

00:07:51
Vitamin Spokesperson: May cause temporary loss of genes and is not suitable for anyone.