OT: Vitamins you take em?

[Faldoe]

Ok this is quite the ridiculous thread but what the hell. Do you take vitamins or anything to improve your health?

 

What is a good multivitamin? One with good sustain....

[JBecker]

Eat right-- it's a lot better way to accomplish the same thing.

 

Closest thing to a multivitamin I take is I like to eat Total Raisin Bran.

[Lanefair]

I take a multivitamin and some glucosamin? I think, for joints daily. Can't say I felt a difference really, not near as much as just eating healthily.

[bieke]

I don't take em
I try to eat fresh vegetables each day, not that much fruit either
unless cherry beer counts

[fadedjoy]

Eat right-- it's a lot better way to accomplish the same thing.

 

 

if we felt like eating right we wouldn't have invented vitamins in the first place.

[frankiej]

only like those one a day things but i always forget to take them but everyonce in awhile i do. used to take B12 pills in the morning everyday when i was younger, dont know why.

The only med i use is Advil right before i go running so my knee doesnt give out on me.

[cloudscapes]

Eat right-- it's a lot better way to accomplish the same thing.

 

 

+1

 

although understandible sometimes you need a little vitamin boost

 

vitamins aren ot meant as a total replacement to real food, obviously. you'll find a ton of minerals and fibers in real fruit, veggies and meat that wont be in pills. make it a habit to eat at least a couple fruit a day, some grains, nuts when you need a snack, etc. I could go into mroe detail

[TweedBassman]

yeah i take a multi-vitamin every day. i rarely get to eat right. if i don't, i get RLS at night and can't sleep. sucks.

[HeartfeltDawn]

I have to take them. After a horrible relationship break-up coinciding with 60 to 80 hour work weeks for best part of a year, I ended up with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The medical advice from the GP was the usual 'try antidepressants' schtick which annoyed me. Depression and CFS feel so much different. I've never been in the position where I can't physically get up as I did for a while because of the CFS. I didn't play guitar for a while because it was impossible to play. My motor control was so {censored}ed that I could barely fret a G chord. A year on I'm still recovering/getting better but figuring out a lot on my own through online forums has been invaluable.

I take one multivitamin in the morning along with fruit for breakfast. If you're going to do one thing decent for yourself, at least have something decent for breakfast. Even a legendary drug fiend like Hunter S Thompson believed in a good breakfast with plenty of fruit.

In addition to the multivitamin, I take fish oil capsules twice a day. These have really helped shift so much of the 'brain fog' you get with CFS. Recently I started taking 2 to 4 grams of Vitamin B12 per day. Some anecdotal evidence suggested that CFS sufferers respond to B12 injections. Not wanting to {censored} around any further with the doctor, I went for the supplements instead. I'm trying 2 grams per day now, generally 1 gram in the morning and 1 gram in the early afternoon around lunchtime and it really has made a huge difference to my energy levels. It's helped so much that I've even started going to the gym again properly. Gotta shift some of this weight! I'm not overweight but spending so much time inactive does make me fele like a whale right now and that's hard for someone who was very athletic in the past.

Shifting any sort of processed crap out of my diet has also helped. White bread is evil. All the snacky type products are evil. I still eat chocolate but it's balanced by more vegetables and decent things. Fortunately my addiction to sushi is not affected

[FedExPope]

flintstones vitamins

[fist]

a multi vitamin every morning. but yeah, some people are under the illusion that they are magic pills containing all the 'good stuff' your body needs, when actually, they're supposed to be just a supplement to your diet.

[kismet78]

Most of them are sham. There's no regulation. When they actually DO contain all of the things they say they do, it's usually in much much smaller amounts than listed and a lot of times in forms that aren't readily digestible by your body, as they are from whole food. A vitamin is not a vitamin. They have to be presented to your body in a soluble form that it can work with, otherwise they just pass right through your anus and your wallet.

[Jarrizle]

I take 2 GNC Mega Mens Sport a day.

[Welladjusted]

It's healthier to use a multivitamin than to pick and choose, I was told.

 

They have a one-a-day multi with green tea stuff to assist weight loss. I take those off and on.

[Agreed]

I take Centrum Complete multivitamins, garlic, and fish oil. Does it do anything? What the hell is it supposed to do, besides provide basic nutritional requirements? It helps me not be malnourished regarding vitamins, minerals, garlic (? why do I take garlic? don't ask me, it was cheap), and omega fatty acids, haha.

Edit: I went through a period after I hurt my back where I had extreme disassociative panic disorder, and I started taking a bunch of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids in the form of fish oil supplements. It seemed to really help then. Since then, I've gotten back into a normal mental rhythm, and I go for a month or two sometimes where I forget to take them, no "relapses" or anything like that. I can't even say with any sort of empirical certainty that the omega fatty acids caused me to feel better. Could have just been placebo. Still, whatever it was, it was nice not to be living in a {censored}ed up mental hell. And fish oil is good for the heart, so take it, chumps.

[attic]

Vitamine supplements don't do anything.

I'm not talking about my opinion.

It is a fact.

 

You're better off eating garlic, tomatoes,...

[TheGareth]

I take Pharmaton multi vitamins and have been for the last year or so. Last January I had pneumonia and was kinda run down after it so I took vitamins to help me.

[goodhonk]

I take Centrum Complete multivitamins, garlic, and fish oil. Does it do anything? What the hell is it supposed to do, besides provide basic nutritional requirements? It helps me not be malnourished regarding vitamins, minerals, garlic (? why do I take garlic? don't ask me, it was cheap), and omega fatty acids, haha. Edit: I went through a period after I hurt my back where I had extreme disassociative panic disorder, and I started taking a bunch of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids in the form of fish oil supplements. It seemed to really help then. Since then, I've gotten back into a normal mental rhythm, and I go for a month or two sometimes where I forget to take them, no "relapses" or anything like that. I can't even say with any sort of empirical certainty that the omega fatty acids caused me to feel better. Could have just been placebo. Still, whatever it was, it was nice not to be living in a {censored}ed up mental hell. And fish oil is good for the heart, so take it, chumps.

 

i read recently that fish oil is good for hair loss. it encourages new growth.

[attic]

Why is fish oil so popular?

 

Because researchers saw that people living near the sea had a higher average IQ than people not living near the sea. Why? Because they eat lots of fish, which is able to make them concentrate better. (blame it on the omega B)

 

This does NOT make them smarter. This makes them better test-takers (because of the concentration) and gives them higher IQ scores.

[Agreed]

Vitamine supplements don't do anything. I'm not talking about my opinion. It is a fact. You're better off eating garlic, tomatoes,...

 

 

It isn't true that they "don't do anything." They don't offer clinical benefits in already-healthy adults receiving a nutritionally sufficient diet, that much is well established. However, for many chronic conditions they have some demonstrated clinical benefits, and they're definitely useful in prenatal care and in individuals with marked, established deficiencies. They cause no harm at the at which they're delivered (especially now that they've cut the fat soluble vitamin content to well below the 100% daily recommendation), and in cases where one's diet does not necessarily meet one's nutritional needs, there's no contraindication and they could offer some benefit (unfortunately, there is not yet sufficient study on that particular topic, perhaps because it seems self-evidently true, though that doesn't excuse the lack of data).

 

Edit: As to fish oil, the jury's very much still out on whether it does anything significant to the brain. The studies so far have been flawed or inconclusive. There is some exciting research being done, following up on earlier works that were insufficiently rigorous (for example, a placebo controlled single-blind study of depressed participants found that a significantly higher number of individuals experienced no relapse into depression over a long period taking high omega-3 fish oil compared to placebo), but we can't say yet what benefits it might have for the brain, other than to point to largely useless anecdotal evidence and conjecture based on our proposed evolutionary diets. There is some evidence, though not conclusive, that it offers benefits for the smooth muscle of the human heart, and I believe there is more work being done on that now.

[Jarrizle]

Omega 3's are the only thing around to supposedly promote growth of grey matter of the brain. In many european countries (Spain especially) when someone has a severe head injury they are many times prescribed Omega 3's, which have had outstanding results.

[Welladjusted]

Why is fish oil so popular? Because researchers saw that people living near the sea had a higher average IQ than people not living near the sea. Why? Because they eat lots of fish, which is able to make them concentrate better. (blame it on the omega B) This does NOT make them smarter. This makes them better test-takers (because of the concentration) and gives them higher IQ scores.

 

 

That's weird. I rarely eat fish, but my IQ could get me on the Mensa shortbus.

[HeartfeltDawn]

Vitamine supplements don't do anything. I'm not talking about my opinion. It is a fact. You're better off eating garlic, tomatoes,...

 

 

 

There were headlines recently saying vitamin supplements taken over a long period of time could be harmful. Sadly this was another case of 'Newspaper {censored} headline' syndrome, in which the big headline cuts out some of the facts.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7349980.stm

 

We've seen plenty of studies that have cherrypicked statistics in order to back up an idea. Indeed, the pharmaceutical companies have made it into an art form when it comes to antidepressants, antipsychotics and other medications of a similar nature. But hey, the 'Vitamins are {censored}' headlines pop up from time to time. Must have been a slow news week. I mean, take this from a few years back:

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2003/may/08/food.medicineandhealth

 

 

Professor Michael Langman, of Birmingham University, who chaired the group, said: "Although the highest doses of many substances currently exceed the levels now recommended, the risk of immediate harm is minimal. "Continual long-term exposure could nevertheless pose risks." Sir John Krebs, chairman of the food agency, said: "While in most cases you can get all the nutrients you need from a balanced diet, many people choose to take supplements. But taking some high-dose supplements over a long period could be harmful."

 

 

 

Yes it is better to take in vitamins from food sources. I totally agree with you there. You can't live on McDonalds and vitamin supplements. But saying vitamin supplements do nothing for you is wrong. I can't tell you how frustrating it's been to have this illness. To then start to see some real changes through fish oil capsules and vitamin supplements, particularly vitamin B12, has been pretty incredible.

[HeartfeltDawn]

Why is fish oil so popular? Because researchers saw that people living near the sea had a higher average IQ than people not living near the sea. Why? Because they eat lots of fish, which is able to make them concentrate better. (blame it on the omega B) This does NOT make them smarter. This makes them better test-takers (because of the concentration) and gives them higher IQ scores.

 

 

But you're complaining about how fish oil has been promoted rather than its actual viability as something that aids concentration. Take this webpage for instance (http://www.netmums.com/h/n/FOOD/HOME/ALL/322//).

 

There's a question set with the headline "Can taking fish oil supplements really make my child smarter?" It's obviously stupid when you look at the answer given:

 

 

The answer is yes! Fish oils, taken in the right quantities, improve children's concentration, communication, reading and writing. This has actually been proven in several scientific studies where primary school children were tested by experts in a before and after scientific experiment (scientists call them Double-Blind Placebo tests). The results were televised on BBC.

 

 

Improving concentration is one thing: claiming fish oil makes them smarter is another. Through increased concentration, the child may develop a greater intellect but you don't just take a pill and get smarter. It's poor use of language, it's a cheap easy headline designed to grab the eye.

[goodhonk]

 

Yes it is better to take in vitamins from food sources. I totally agree with you there. You can't live on McDonalds and vitamin supplements. But saying vitamin supplements do nothing for you is wrong. I can't tell you how frustrating it's been to have this illness. To then start to see some real changes through fish oil capsules and vitamin supplements, particularly vitamin B12, has been pretty incredible.

 

 

 

my father was recently diagnose with M.G. it sounds exaclty like what you are describing. check it out if you haven't already.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myasthenia_gravis