McGill OSS Article: Andrew Huberman Has Supplements on the Brain

from the article said:
The US Preventive Services Task Force has stated that it recommends against taking beta-carotene and vitamin E supplements to prevent heart disease or cancer, and that the evidence is insufficient to recommend taking any other vitamin supplement without a demonstrated deficiency. Supplementing with vitamins as a form of health insurance can make for expensive urine, as excess water-soluble vitamins are peed out, or it can cause harm if high enough doses of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) are consumed.
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Vitamin E supplements are not all equal. According to wikipedia "Vitamin E is a group of eight fat soluble compounds that include four tocopherols and four tocotrienols." Many vitamin E supplements just contain alpha-tocopherol. Some people swear by supplements that contain just the tocotrienols, some people take all eight compounds. Some take only alpha and beta-tocopherol. I haven't done any research into all the various forms of vitamin E and I don't take it. But I doubt that any research will be done into it to find out what benefits the various forms gives to those with low (but not deficient) levels, given that vitamins can't be patented.

Beta-carotene is a provitamin not a vitamin. It has to be converted into vitamin A before it can do it's job as a vitamin. Some people can't do the conversion very well, and they can go orange if they take beta-carotene, particularly on the soles of the feet and the palms of the hands. I don't take vitamin A or beta-carotene either.
 
Good article about supplements and the hype machinery that promotes them.

It makes the point about plant supplements that they can vary a lot in active ingredients from season to season and plant to plant. Even remedies that have been used for thousands of years can be problematic, because they have not been explicitly tested for long term effects. Some can cause liver damage.
 
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