i dont have to read any of this cuz my doctor told me i need more vitamin D so i just listen to him

Yes, I think vitamins help when they are making up for deficiencies. I take reasonable amounts to make up for deficiencies in the diet. You can, with substantial money, eat a healthy diet, but that is uncommon, and would involve much more than just eating a few vegetables each day.

People often cite one or two studies that show "vitamin pills" as useless, and they often involve perfectly healthy people with no notable deficiencies. However many people do have deficiencies, and it is a serious issue.

The Linus Pauling Institute, at Oregon State University, has a website about vitamin supplementation. Each vitamin or mineral has a page explaining the function of that vitamin or mineral in the body, and problems associated with deficiencies. It also states what it believes to be the toxic amounts, and the optimum amounts;
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/

If you are going to eat a regular diet, take a look at the Nutrition Facts. For example, count all of the Vitamin A that you are eating. Does the percentage get near even 60 percent of the Recommended Daily Value? I doubt it does for most people.

Vitamin D is particularly a problem in areas that don't get much sun.

EDIT: Here is the part of the Linus Pauling Institute website that has vitamin information;
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic

What's really scary is that most of these articles almost seem self-serving in how they're all intertwined and rely on each other to back up their circular reasoning yet they're still published by major news sources. Maybe that's a bit judgmental but I mean I don't think any of them actually used any studies backed by accredited journals

http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g2035.full

"Conclusions Despite a few hundred systematic reviews and meta-analyses, highly convincing evidence of a clear role of vitamin D does not exist for any outcome, but associations with a selection of outcomes are probable."

http://www.gwern.net/Longevity#vitamin-d

"The short answer: No. If vitamin D were all that harmful, Spector would be able to point at increases in all-cause mortality from the meta-analyzed RCTs, the same way he could point at some other vitamins I won't mention, not grab a few cherry-picked endpoints like fracture from a few small studies while ignoring the implications of consistently lower all-cause mortality in vitamin D groups."

I always tell people to eat balanced diets instead of eating poorly and take supplements

Slowbro says

please stop the sun from beaming down the deadly vitamin d

The title of my thread is slightly misleading - this is about supplements not the vitamins in general

Slowbro says

please stop the sun from beaming down the deadly vitamin d

jokes on u i dont go outside

"One study based on the large SELECT trial suggested that supplements such as vitamin E and selenium actually increased prostate cancer in some men. And last year massive analyses combining 27 studies on half a million people concluded that taking vitamin and mineral supplements regularly failed to prevent cancer or heart disease. Not only are they a waste of money for the majority of us – but if taken in excessive quantities they can actually hasten an early death, increasing your risk of heart disease and cancer."

http://www.cancer.gov/types/prostate/research/select-trial-results-qa#2

"According to The Times, scientists involved in the study, which was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, concluded that companies selling supplements were fuelling false health anxieties to offer unnecessary cures. The industry in the UK is thought to be worth more than £650 million annually."

not vitamin D pills but i take fish oils and other supplements

please stop the sun from beaming down the deadly vitamin d