\u201cI think people are quick to grab them off the shelf and be like, it\u2019s my insurance policy for keeping myself healthy.\u201d <\/p>\n
Evidence on multivitamin use is mixed, with long-term research showing little difference between those who take multivitamins and those taking placebos.<\/p>\n
Instead of relying on a one-size-fits-all solution, O\u2019Hara suggests supplement use should be based on diet quality, health status and specific deficiencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question I would usually ask someone is, why are you wanting to take supplements? Are you looking at some sort of symptoms that you\u2019ve got? Or do you have a medical condition you\u2019re wanting some extra support with?\u201d<\/p>\n
She adds that taking supplements could put extra pressure on our liver and kidneys, which are responsible for processing and clearing them from our bodies. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Hara recommends getting basic testing on blood, liver and kidneys to see if there are deficiencies that need addressing, then looking at potential changes to diet and lifestyle before reaching for supplements.<\/p>\n
Wasting money on something you don\u2019t need and increasing the pressure on your organs aren\u2019t the only risks of taking supplements unnecessarily. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Hara says it\u2019s also important to know the effects of the interactions between different supplements you might be taking. This also applies to interactions between supplements and medications.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre [supplements] going to be helping the medications work better or are they actually going to be doing more harm than good, and maybe making the medication not even work? Which is not something you want to be doing if you\u2019ve got a chronic health condition.\u201d<\/p>\n
While O\u2019Hara has concerns about the needless use of supplements, she believes there is a place for them if required.<\/p>\n
\u201cSupplements should be something to create change in the body to bring you back to optimal health, rather than having a supplement plan… that you take for the rest of your life to stay healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the episode, O\u2019Hara talks about quality and labelling issues associated with supplements, what she believes to be outdated regulation in New Zealand, and her views on specific supplements including protein powders, collagen and electrolytes.<\/p>\n
Listen to the full episode of The Little Things<\/a> for more<\/p>\n The Little Things is available on iHeartRadio<\/a>, Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts. The series is hosted by broadcaster Francesca Rudkin and health researcher Louise Ayrey. New episodes are available every Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI think people are quick to grab them off the shelf and be like, it\u2019s my insurance policy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[25235,64,63,55905,55902,1298,55904,49214,137,55900,1633,55897,532,1787,55898,2652,55899,55903,6195,3209,41442,320,44944,4987,55901],"class_list":["post-71227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-according","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-compensate","tag-deficiencies","tag-diet","tag-dont","tag-erin","tag-health","tag-helpful","tag-little","tag-naturopath","tag-nutrition","tag-of","tag-ohara","tag-on","tag-risks","tag-short","tag-supplements","tag-taking","tag-term","tag-the","tag-they","tag-things","tag-treat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}