Megavitamin therapy

Megavitamin therapy
ClaimsHealth effects from very high doses of vitamins.
Related scientific disciplinesvitamins, dietary supplements
Year proposed1930s
Notable proponentsFrederick Klenner, Linus Pauling
(Overview of pseudoscientific concepts)
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Megavitamin therapy is the use of large doses of vitamins, often many times greater than the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) in the attempt to prevent or treat diseases. Megavitamin therapy is typically used in alternative medicine by practitioners who call their approach orthomolecular medicine.[1] Vitamins are useful in preventing and treating illnesses specifically associated with dietary vitamin shortfalls, but the conclusions of medical research are that the broad claims of disease treatment by advocates of megavitamin therapy are unsubstantiated by the available evidence.[2][3] It is generally accepted that doses of any vitamin greatly in excess of nutritional requirements will result either in toxicity (vitamins A and D) or in the excess simply being metabolised; thus evidence in favour of vitamin supplementation supports only doses in the normal range.[4][5][6] Critics have described some aspects of orthomolecular medicine as food faddism or even quackery.[7][8][9] Research on nutrient supplementation in general suggests that some nutritional supplements might be beneficial, and that others might be harmful;[10][11][12] several specific nutritional therapies are associated with an increased likelihood of the condition they are meant to prevent.[13]

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  2. ^ Aaronson S, et al. (2003). "Cancer medicine". Cancer medicine 6 (Frei, Emil; Kufe, Donald W.; Holland, James F., eds). Hamilton, Ont: BC Decker. pp. 76. ISBN 978-1-55009-213-4.
  3. ^ Nutrition Committee, Canadian Paediatric Society (1990). "Megavitamin and megamineral therapy in childhood. Nutrition Committee, Canadian Paediatric Society". CMAJ. 143 (10): 1009–1013. PMC 1452516. PMID 1699646.
  4. ^ "What Does Your Body do to Excess Vitamin B or C That You Might Consume?". 16 June 2012.
  5. ^ "Vitamins & Supplements Center – Nutritional, Herbal, Dietary, and More - WebMD".
  6. ^ Novella, S: Medical Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths: What We Think We Know May Be Hurting Us, The Great Courses
  7. ^ Jarvis WT (1983). "Food faddism, cultism, and quackery". Annu. Rev. Nutr. 3: 35–52. doi:10.1146/annurev.nu.03.070183.000343. PMID 6315036.
  8. ^ Jukes TH (1990). "Nutrition Science from Vitamins to Molecular Biology". Annual Review of Nutrition. 10 (1): 1–20. doi:10.1146/annurev.nu.10.070190.000245. PMID 2200458. A short summary is in the journal's preface.
  9. ^ Braganza, S.F., Ozuah, P.O. (2005). "Fad Therapies". Pediatrics in Review. 26 (10): 371–376. doi:10.1542/pir.26-10-371. PMID 16199591.
  10. ^ "NIH State-of-the-Science Conference Statement on Multivitamin/Mineral Supplements and Chronic Disease Prevention". NIH Consens State Sci Statements. 23 (2): 1–30. 2006. PMID 17332802. Archived from the original on 2009-02-21. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
  11. ^ Huang HY, Caballero B, Chang S, et al. (2006). "The efficacy and safety of multivitamin and mineral supplement use to prevent cancer and chronic disease in adults: a systematic review for a National Institutes of Health state-of-the-science conference". Ann. Intern. Med. 145 (5): 372–385. doi:10.1001/archinte.145.2.372. PMID 16880453.
  12. ^ Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Gluud LL, Simonetti RG, Gluud C (2012). "Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in healthy participants and patients with various diseases". Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012 (3): CD007176. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD007176.pub2. hdl:10138/136201. PMC 8407395. PMID 22419320.
  13. ^ Satia JA, Littman A, Slatore CG, Galanko JA, White E (2009). "Long-term Use of {beta}-Carotene, Retinol, Lycopene, and Lutein Supplements and Lung Cancer Risk: Results From the VITamins And Lifestyle (VITAL) Study". American Journal of Epidemiology. 169 (7): 815–828. doi:10.1093/aje/kwn409. PMC 2842198. PMID 19208726.