Every morning, BC resident Mark Reed takes a multivitamin with his daily juice. He does it for health reasons, citing studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association that suggest a "multi" wards off chronic disease.

This reasoning is often echoed by other Canadians who take natural health supplements. But another important question to ask is: How much money do we save-or could be saved-for the
healthcare system?

Consider the case of the common cold.According to NDMAC, the Canadian selfcare health product association, during a year, roughly a quarter of Canadian cold sufferers will go to a doctor about a cold. The other 75 percent will address it independently or ignore it. Of the quarter of people who visit the doc, one in five will receive a prescription. Three in five will use a self-care health product. The final one in five will rely on home remedies or no treatment.

Obviously, healthcare decisions are personal. But for those who don't go to the
doc yet pick up a self-care product, institutional user fees are avoided. People who go
to the doc but still use a natural or self-care product avoid often pricier medication costs.

And those medication costs are a doozie.

Drugs a healthcare doozie
Healthcare spending in general represents no small chunk of change at $129 billion in 2005, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Included in this is the $42.2 billion we spent on hospitals and another $24.8 billion on drugs.

Estimates for 2006 suggest that our drug spending pattern of the past 20 years
has continued its upward trend another 6 percent. We spend $21.1 billion on prescriptions
and $4.1 billion on non-prescription medications for a total of $25.2 billion.

Drugs now munch up 17 percent of each healthcare dollar.

In contrast, Canada's growing self-care products industry-including sunscreens,
over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, vitamins and other natural health products-generates
about $4 billion in annual sales. It's usually us consumers who're paying these costs out
of pocket, with natural health products generally considered a non-legitimate medical
expense for tax purposes (although a May 2007 ruling in Quebec suggests this federal
tune may be changing).

Putting aside the issue of who should pay for it, a growing body of research suggests
that the regular use of nutritional supplements can save the healthcare system
billions of dollars not only short-term but also in the long-term by possibly preventing
medical conditions that would require expensive treatment.

A dollar of prevention
Let's look at heart disease, for example. In a 2002 Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
report on functional foods and natural health products, Dr. Bruce Holub wrote that
with the daily use of a natural plant sterol to decrease the risk of heart disease by 20
percent, we could save $3.26 billion annually in healthcare costs. Daily consumption of
omega-3 essential fatty acids, flaxseed and folic acid in the treatment of cardiovascular
diseases such as atherosclerosis, hypertension and stroke could result in $6 billion annual
savings, the same report suggests.

The Lewin Group has conducted some groundbreaking American studies that show how relatively inexpensive preventive supplementation can result in big savings. A 2004 study showed
that daily use of a calcium supplement with vitamin D amongst those 65 and older to prevent hip fractures could mean US $13.9 billion in net savings over five years. These researchers also reported that if more American women of childbearing age took folic acid to prevent neural tube defects, savings over the same time period would be US $1.3 billion.

Another 2005 report, from the Lewin Group found that if adults 65 and older took omega-3 essential fatty acids and lutein/zeaxanthin (antioxidants to prevent free radical-related
degenerative diseases), the US could save US $5.6 billion. If these aren't enough zeros for
you, the Dietary Supplement Education Alliance (DSEA) released updated research earlier this year. Using the Lewin Group's original data, the DSEA reports that if those select populations took calcium with vitamin C, folic acid, omega-3 EFAs and lutein with zeaxanthin, the combined savings would be more than US $24 billion.

We're talking simply dollars here, and not even getting into other pretty important factors like better health in general and improved (and extended) quality of life!

Well, healthcare consumer Mark Reed doesn't have to be convinced. He was already sold on the health benefits of supplements even before the potential healthcare savings were pointed
out to him. He did wonder, however, why federal health movers-and-shakers weren't encouraging everyone to take at least a multivitamin. A good question.

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