Trying to find a way to cut back on your spending, maybe you can save on all those vitamin supplements you’ve been buying. Doctor Tim Johnson has a new prescription for your physical and financial health.

24-year-old graduate student Ashley Mason is the picture of health. She does everything possible to stay that way. She watches her diet, exercises everyday. And she takes supplements to prevent health problem as she gets older.

Stop wrinkles before they start. Take these pills before you get sick. And it all sounds like a very good idea to me.

In fact, Ashley takes nearly a dozen different pills everyday.

Every week, I sort them into this sorter.

But Ashley is not a finale. Millions of people follow a regiment like this. Last year American spent 22.5 billion dollars on dietary supplements, hoping to buy a protection against the whole range of illnesses. This is what Ashley is counting on to keep her healthy. A multi-vitamin, fish oil, flaxseed oil, calcium, B-vitamins, magnesium, glucosamine and vitamin E. It’s expensive, but she believes it’s an investment in her health.

It’s a lot of money for a graduate student to be paying every month for medication, while it’s not even really medication, I’m not sick.

Physically, Ashley feels fine. It’s her pocketbook that hurts. A student on a tight budget, she's scraping together a thousand dollars a year for all her supplements. And since the manufactures don’t have to prove to consumers that any of this stuff actually works, 20/20 set out to see if taking all these pills is smart medicine.

Doctor Eric Rimm of the Harvard School of Public Health says a simple multi-vitamin can provide a sort of safety net against the less-than-perfect diet.

If you’re really on a generic mouthful vitamin which I think is probably enough for most people if you’re taking a supplement. The only thing where I would think there may be benefit would be taking from...er, will be taking vitamin D.

Vitamin D, the so-called sunshine vitamin because it’s made when sunlight gets your skin.

Every tissue and cell in your body needs vitamin D for maximum health.

要想法縮減開支，也許購買維生素添加品的錢全部可以省下。提姆約翰遜醫生開了個方子，可以讓你保持健康同時縮減支出。

24歲的研究生Ashley Mason身體健康。她還想方設法保住身體的健康狀態。她注意飲食，每天運動。她還吃一些食物添加品來預防隨著年齡增長而出現的健康問題。

在皺紋出現前就消滅他們。得病之前先吃藥。在我聽來，這些都不錯。

事實上，Ashley每天要吃大約12種不同的藥片。

每周，我把它們分門別類整理到這個分類盒子里。

但是，Ashley不是最后一個這樣做的。有上百萬的人也在這樣做。去年，美國人花在食物添加品上的錢高達兩百二十五億，他們花這些錢是希望買到一種對多種疾病的預防。這也就是Ashley希望得到的健康保證。多種維生素，魚油，亞麻籽油，鈣片，維生素B，鎂，葡萄糖胺，還有維生素E。這樣做雖然昂貴，但是她當作是對健康的投資。

對一名研究生來說，每月花這么多買藥真是不少，而這甚至不是真的藥品，我沒生病。

從身體上講，Ashley覺得挺好。有問題的是她的皮夾。作為一名學生，她的經濟是相當緊張的。而她每年還得湊出一千美元來買這些食物添加品。并且，因為制造商們并不需要向消費者證明這些產品的效用，20/20節目現在來看看吃這些藥片是不是好主意。

哈佛大學公共健康學院的Eric Rimm博士說，僅僅是多種維生素就足以彌補食譜中不完美的部分了。

如果要吃食物添加品，那么我想，對大多數人來說，吃上一口仿制維生素（與品牌維生素同種成分的維生素）就足夠了。我覺得這其中唯一對身體有用的，應該是吃維生素D。

維生素D，它是當陽光曬到皮膚時生成的，所以叫做陽光維生素。

你身體的每個組織，每個細胞，都需要維生素D來最大程度地保持健康