Which is not to say there aren't good vitamins. It's also not to say that there aren't good vitamins that can help you and will do great things for your overall health. But they're hard for you to buy them - on purpose - because if it has an effect, overusing it can have a negative effect.

Yeah and this is where a lot of the problem is. So many vitamin peddlers try to convince people that they don't need doctors' advice on these matters. If someone is anemic or has rickets or scurvy (picking on the obvious ones, certianly there are many disease states caused by nutrient defficiencies; hell, vitamin A deficiency is world's leading cause of blindness, I believe), obviously the best solution is supplements. It's an inexpensive and effective treatment for a lot of specific diseases. But where the US goes entirely wrong for vitamins, OTC drugs and, most importantly, prescription drugs, is in our unwillingness to regulate their marketing. Why the fuck should you or I be able to go into out doctor's office and demand Lipitor, because we saw on TV that it makes the salt and peppery hair guy smile more when he's on the beach? It's insanity. We got rid of tobacco ads, because they were deemed to be harmful. That was only possible once public opinion was so strong against tobacco companies that it was more expeditious for politicians to not take Philip Morris' giant bags of money. The same thing needs to happen with drugs. Unfortunately, drugs (and vitamins) are way harder to deal with, because they do help people, a lot of people. I think the regulatory structure needs to change, and change dramatically. People can't be blamed for not being that well informed. The personal responsibility argument only goes so far. After all, if advertising didn't work, nobody would do it.