Self Medication in the IT crowd: Are Supplements replacing doctor visits

By : Dr. Suchismitha Rajamanya Lead Consultant & HOD – Internal Medicine, Aster Whitefield Hospital.

Does multivitamin come under the food or medicine category in India ? How is it regulated?

Multivitamin tablets in India come under the food category. These tablets are not regulated unlike the other medications in India.

When should we take multivitamins?

Multivitamins are usually prescribed when patients have signs of deficiency,  when they are not able to take optimal nutritional diet, when they are recovering  from any sickness, during demands of high growth like adolescence or pregnancy or during lactation. These are the situations where multivitamins are usually prescribed.

Do we need a prescription?

Multivitamins usually do not need a prescription, but if there are any specific symptoms troubling you, or if there's a specific deficiency, it's always better to consult with a doctor first and then decide which is the best multivitamin appropriate for you.

Should it be sold over the counter and now even in fast food centres?

Multi vitamins are currently available over-the-counters, but, uh, it is not something which can be swallowed, has a fast food, uh, component because it's not for a single dose. It needs to be taken consistently to have, uh, any kind of impact. Uh, it would not be correct to say that it has a fast food option.

Are there any case studies where overdose of multivitamins has happened?

There have been a few case studies with, uh, multivitamin, uh, over dosage. This has been due to accidental ingestion, especially in children, or sometimes, uh, following suicidal tendencies. Uh, multivitamins which contain iron, calcium, vitamin A, or vitamin D can cause, uh, toxic symptoms, especially gastrointestinal symptoms, and, uh, most of the patients will recover with supportive treatment.

Multi-vitamin pills are usually, made up of capsules. Now, uh, the gelatin capsules are usually from animal source, so nowadays capsules are also being made using vegeta- vegetable cellulose, uh, for the capsule, uh, which makes it a purely, uh, vegetarian source, so patients, if they have any kind of, uh, uh, religious sensibilities, uh, they prefer taking the vegetarian only pills where the capsule is made up of vegetable cellulose.