A Vox reader asks: How do I know which vitamins and supplements are right/safe for me?

I feel inundated by the vitamin craze these days. When I’m scrolling Reddit, I frequently see promotions for the Hims brand that sells pills for erectile dysfunction and hair loss; I guess the algorithm has figured out I’m middle-aged. I hear ads for supplements on my NBA podcasts all the time. (To be honest, I try to skip ahead.)

The vitamin business is booming: As my former colleague Katlin Tiffany wrote in 2019, vitamins have become cool and trendy over the past decade. You see lifestyle influencers, like Gwyneth Paltrow’s company Goop, selling vitamin packs these days along with the rest of their inventory. Our new health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is a big fan of vitamins and supplements. Supplements have invaded our grocery stores, our social media feeds, and even our podcast routines.

By one estimate, some 70 percent of Americans take a dietary supplement. So yours is a natural question. Everybody seems to be taking either vitamins, like vitamin B capsules, or supplements that combine a few different vitamins or minerals. They must be getting something out of it, right? Shouldn’t I take something?

Well, it’s a little more complicated than that.

There are two distinct parts to your question: Which vitamins are........

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