Users' views of dietary supplements
One article on PainSci cites Blendon 2013: Vitamins, Minerals & Supplements for Pain & Healing
PainSci commentary on Blendon 2013: ?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided wherever possible.
Blendon et al. did a survey of 1579 adults looking for users of dietary supplements (but not vitamins or mineral): 38% of those took some supplement in the past two years, and 13% took a supplement regularly, with fish oil topping the chart. Their reasons for taking supplements included: “to feel better” (41%), “improve energy levels” (41%), “boost your immune system” (36%), “digestive issues” (28%), and “lower cholesterol” (21%). Incredibly, only a quarter of them thought they would pass on supplement if a trial concluded it was ineffective.
related content
Specifically regarding Blendon 2013:
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- Cannabidiol (CBD) products for pain: ineffective, expensive, and with potential harms. Moore 2023 J Pain.
- Inciting events associated with lumbar disc herniation. Suri 2010 Spine J.
- Prediction of an extruded fragment in lumbar disc patients from clinical presentations. Pople 1994 Spine (Phila Pa 1976).
- Characteristics of patients with low back and leg pain seeking treatment in primary care: baseline results from the ATLAS cohort study. Konstantinou 2015 BMC Musculoskelet Disord.
- Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of universal school-based mindfulness training compared with normal school provision in reducing risk of mental health problems and promoting well-being in adolescence: the MYRIAD cluster randomised controlled trial. Kuyken 2022 Evid Based Ment Health.