It’s a commonly known fact that the United States is not only one of the most overweight nations in the world, but one of the most nutritionally undernourished as well.

Lacking the necessary vitamins and minerals in their regular daily dietary intake routine, many Americans have turned to taking vitamin supplements in order to ensure that they receive the nutrients that their bodies require to sustain various bodily functions, maintain energy levels and to ward off a variety of seasonal and chronic diseases.

However, a recent study indicates that high vitamin supplement intake, especially over a prolonged period of time, may possibly create more health problems than it alleviates, especially with vitamin supplement overdoses.

Overall, the study’s findings suggest that while vitamin and mineral supplements have their appropriate uses, the best way to receive proper nutrition and nourishment is still through regularly consuming highly nutritional, well balanced whole foods.

Bad News for Dietary Supplements

The study was conducted at the University of Minnesota, where researchers tracked the health data of over 38,000 women over the course of nearly two decades. All of the women were approximately 62 years of age in 1986, when the study first began tracking data. The study asked the female participants to report their supplement use three times: in 1986, 1997 and 2004.

After adjusting their data to account for factors such as caloric intake, age and other potential health identifiers, the researchers found that women who regularly took vitamin supplements were 2.4% more likely to die during the course of the study than women who didn’t.

Jaakko Mursu, the study’s leading author and an epidemiologist, said that men and women alike should “reconsider whether they need to use supplements,” and that people should examine and modify their diets to receive proper nutrition with less supplementation. He also said that his study and others have shown “very little evidence” that popular dietary supplements ward off chronic diseases.

No Specific Cause

Mursu was quick to point out that the study’s design rendered researchers incapable of identifying specific causes for the increased mortality rates in women who regular used supplements. However, the study did conclude that individual minerals and vitamins taken during a vitamin supplement overdose, such as copper, zinc, iron, magnesium, folic acid and vitamin B6, could be linked to slight increases in death rates.

Daily multivitamins were found to be a potential culprit as well. Over the course of the study, 40.8% of the 12,769 multivitamin users died, while 39.8% of the 10,161 non-multivitamin users met the same fate. It could be argued that a difference of 1% is not statistically significant, especially considering the inevitably differing lifestyles of the women involved.

Compounds can Accumulate in Your Body

Mursu said that ultimately, the reason behind the data isn’t that certain vitamins and minerals once thought to be beneficial are actually dangerous. Indeed, all of the aforementioned compounds provide health benefits, at least when they’re taken in the proper quantities.

Instead, Mursu said that the likely culprit is that many vitamin supplements contain significantly higher amounts of a given nutrient than what your body truly needs, and what you’d intake naturally through a balanced diet. When you take multivitamins regularly and on a permanent basis, and especially when you combine them with additional supplementation, the compounds can accumulate in your body and become toxic, posing significant health risks.

One Important Exclusion

The researchers said that one supplement in particular was exempt from the increased mortality trend: calcium. In fact, women who took calcium supplements over the course of the study had a 3.8% lower mortality rate than those who did not. Current science indicates that taking between 1200 and 1500 milligrams of calcium per day can prevent and treat osteoporosis.

Keep in mind that high levels of calcium are typically found in common antacids such as Tums and Rolaids, so purchasing an expensive calcium supplement is largely unnecessary. And don’t overdo it – calcium supplementation in daily doses above 1500 mg can indeed be toxic, just as with other compounds.

Vitamin Supplement Overdose: The Bottom Line

Dr. Christian Gluud and Dr. Goren Bjelakovic of Copenhagen University Hospital’s Center of Clinical Intervention Research in Denmark agreed that the typical “more is better” approach to supplementation is indeed faulty. However, they were quick to point out that when it comes to any individual micronutrient, “too little” is just as dangerous as “too much.”

Your best bet is to analyze your current diet. Find out whether you’re missing out on a certain vitamin or mineral, whether it’s calcium, zinc, iron, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C or some other nutrient(s). Next, seek out foods that naturally contain the nutrients you’re missing and incorporate them into your regular diet.

If that proves impossible, choose a targeted supplement that focuses specifically on the vitamins and minerals you’re missing, and resist the temptation to add additional supplements to your regimen just because they’re advertised as the “next big thing.”