EVERY human being needs a lot of vitamins and minerals to live, and they need to receive them daily, regularly, in good quality and in the right quantities, or they will get sick and even die.
And it's clear that the most natural and desirable source for them is a good diet which, combined with other healthy lifestyle habits, will allow them to be properly absorbed and metabolized, as well as the elimination of excesses.
The problem is that most people don't eat properly and therefore depend on adequate and well-targeted supplementation.
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Ideally, good supplementation should be based on as comprehensive a clinical picture and complementary tests as possible. However, it can be very expensive (and most health insurance companies refuse to cover the cost) to dose all the minerals and vitamins needed to guide this premium supplementation. What's more, for some vitamins/minerals, there's no way of measuring them reliably.
For this reason, most supplements are based mainly on the clinical picture and the knowledge/experience of the health professional who recommends and monitors the process. As they say, “the clinic is sovereign”.
This is also why many health professionals prefer to rely on multivitamins (also known as polyminerals). It is extremely rare for people to have just one nutrient deficiency, and the body with reasonably adequate lifestyle habits has the potential to eliminate any excesses of vitamins and minerals.
In terms of how this is done, it is always best to use a manipulated vitamin and mineral formula, which will then have these prescribed in their best quality forms and in the quantity and dosage appropriate for the patient (again emphasizing here the importance of the experience, knowledge and common sense of the health professional accompanying the patient). However, there are many patients who don't want to be forced to take several sachets and capsules throughout the day, as gradual administration and absorption are often desirable for these patients. Yes, for multivitamins/minerals, it is usually better for the body to have the opportunity to absorb them several times a day, as taking them in very high doses too few times tends to be seen as excess and eliminated, resulting in “the world's most expensive urine and feces and your money being thrown away”.
These patients often prefer the practicality of “commercial” multivitamins, which are indeed of lower quality than those that are manipulated (according to each patient's needs), but are usually cheaper and easier to take. And it's clear that, for a patient who needs vitamins and minerals (the majority), between one who won't use vitamin/mineral formulas and another who will only use them if they're commercial multivitamins, most of the sensible professionals I know take the second option.
What about the criticism that vitamins and minerals “occasionally receive”: that they “don't do any good”, that they are a “waste of money”? Almost all of them are based on the “evaluation” of one or other vitamin (and mineral) in isolation and, for this reason, most of them no longer deserve the slightest credibility, for the simple fact that in the body NEVER does a single vitamin or mineral act in isolation for an effect: there is always an interaction of several of them, in various systems of the body and mind (in other words, for each symptom or disease in the body there will always be several associated disorders, such as deficiencies, intoxications, oxidative stress, etc.). - (in other words, for every symptom or disease in the body there will always be several associated disorders, such as deficiencies, intoxication, oxidative stress, etc.); valuing these criticisms would be like looking at a stalled car and believing that the problem is just a lack of fuel: there could be mechanical problems and the need to repair a multitude of parts.
In the following videos, we'll go into more detail about supplementation: who needs it, when, how and for how long. What are the best supplements? And which ones are recommended? We'll also cover myths and truths related to the subject.
VIDEO 1:
In this Live, recorded in September 2018 for the https://www.facebook.com/DrIcaroAlves, I covered all these topics and much more, discussing various supplements such as: multivitamins and polyminerals, omega-3, CoQ10, probiotics, vitamin D3 + K2, magnesium, iodine, B-complex, iron, zinc, vitamin A, C and E, digestive enzymes, resveratrol, lycopene, energy drinks, teas, collagen and many others.
VIDEO 2 - Watch the following video to find out more about the possibility of supplements such as green tea and others causing liver damage.
Português do Brasil 
English 