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.

要想法缩减开支，也许购买维生素添加品的钱全部可以省下。提姆约翰逊医生开了个方子，可以让你保持健康同时缩减支出。

24岁的研究生Ashley Mason身体健康。她还想方设法保住身体的健康状态。她注意饮食，每天运动。她还吃一些食物添加品来预防随着年龄增长而出现的健康问题。

在皱纹出现前就消灭他们。得病之前先吃药。在我听来，这些都不错。

事实上，Ashley每天要吃大约12种不同的药片。

每周，我把它们分门别类整理到这个分类盒子里。

但是，Ashley不是最后一个这样做的。有上百万的人也在这样做。去年，美国人花在食物添加品上的钱高达两百二十五亿，他们花这些钱是希望买到一种对多种疾病的预防。这也就是Ashley希望得到的健康保证。多种维生素，鱼油，亚麻籽油，钙片，维生素B，镁，葡萄糖胺，还有维生素E。这样做虽然昂贵，但是她当作是对健康的投资。

对一名研究生来说，每月花这么多买药真是不少，而这甚至不是真的药品，我没生病。

从身体上讲，Ashley觉得挺好。有问题的是她的皮夹。作为一名学生，她的经济是相当紧张的。而她每年还得凑出一千美元来买这些食物添加品。并且，因为制造商们并不需要向消费者证明这些产品的效用，20/20节目现在来看看吃这些药片是不是好主意。

哈佛大学公共健康学院的Eric Rimm博士说，仅仅是多种维生素就足以弥补食谱中不完美的部分了。

如果要吃食物添加品，那么我想，对大多数人来说，吃上一口仿制维生素（与品牌维生素同种成分的维生素）就足够了。我觉得这其中唯一对身体有用的，应该是吃维生素D。

维生素D，它是当阳光晒到皮肤时生成的，所以叫做阳光维生素。

你身体的每个组织，每个细胞，都需要维生素D来最大程度地保持健康