Posted on February 19th, 2010 by Craig Maltby, Editor
Taking supplements: How many is too many?
When I was on the staff of a nutritional ingredient company several years ago, I observed a marketing focus group in 
Chicago in which a panel of 12 or so people were asked about their intake of dietary supplements. One woman in the focus group said she took 30 supplements a day. What??!!! That kind of blew me away. That is until a senior scientist at another company told me he takes 60… yes 60… supplements a day. I rattled of about every supplement type I could think of…CoQ10, Hawthorne berry extract, flaxseed oil, ginko, SAM-e, saw palmetto–and the answer was always, “Yep, take that one.” Every day.
I’m interested in this only because my daily supplement inventory is growing. I’m taking a high-quality (high absorption) multivitamin, lutein, EpiCor, fish oil, chromium and saw palmetto. I’d like to try some others perhaps, but then I start thinking that this is getting to be too many to keep track of and take every day.
Also, I’m wondering: If someone is taking 30 to 60 supplements a day–and not taking more than the RDA or the manufacturer’s suggested dosage for each capsule or pill–can that huge mix be harmful in the long run?
What do you think? There have been a number of studies and commentaries on long-term vitamin intake, most of which I think are pretty thinly supported, performed in the wrong context (vitamins don’t make you live longer) and mostly rubbish. And I’m not talking megadoses of supplements, for which there is research on toxicity and potential damage (e.g. 3000 mg of C every day is not good). I’m talking mega numbers of pills.
Here’s one piece that touches on the topic but doesn’t have strong thesis one way or another. Any other informed opiners out there who want to chip in?
