Millions of us take vitamins and dietary supplements hoping, to achieve better health. On May 31st 2011, an NHS 'Behind the Headlines' report on supplements, that looked at a selection of reviews and studies revealed that nearly one third of people in the UK take some sort of vitamin, mineral or dietary supplement.

However with the market for supplements being so large, and with an ever increasing amount of conflicting messages in the media, the NHS looked into this further.

The report revealed that women, older people and those in poorer health are more likely to take supplements, while more than 50% of children are likely to be given vitamin supplements.

Specific research in 2009 revealed that 36% of all supplement sales were for products taken to improve joint health, 19% for heart health, 9% for bone health and 9% for immunity.

A more specific review by the Cochrane subfertility group, using 34 studies in more than 2800 couples, revealed that women may be more likely to have a pregnancy if her partner took an antioxidant supplement such as vitamin E or Zinc.

Another review by the Cochrane Collaboration revealed that 15 trials suggested that taking a zinc supplement within 24 hours of cold like symptoms starting may reduce the duration of a cold by approximately 1 day. Another review by Cochrane revealed that taking Vitamin C supplements halved the risk of catching a cold in those undergoing physical stress.

There were many other vitamins that were scrutinised, although with some of these the evidence was not of a high enough standard to support its claims. The article concluded by saying, 'As we’ve said before, some supplements do have benefits and may be of use to you depending on your personal circumstances. We can’t tell you how to spend your money, but we do recommend that you look at the evidence and seek reliable information, including your doctor’s advice, before you splash the cash.'

The full article can be seen at http://www.nhs.uk/news/2011/05May/Pages/supplements-special-report.aspx