The tide of healthcare treatment is changing. An issue of the 1997 Western Journal of Medicine published a study which looked at "relative-risk estimates" for birth defects, premature births and coronary heart disease associated with vitamin intake. The study evaluated the potential cost savings for U.S. hospitalization charges.
The results suggest that annual hospital charges could be reduced for birth defects by 40%, low birth-weight/premature births by 60% and coronary heart disease by 38%. For these conditions alone, nearly $20 billion in hospital charges were potentially avoidable with daily use of folic acid and zinc-containing multivitamins by all sexually active women of childbearing age, and daily Vitamin E supplementation by men and women over 50.
Keep this study in mind the next time the FDA tries to pass legislation in Congress to move free access for vitamin purchases to "by medical prescription only."