Vitamins/supplements

[flowerseverywhere]

How do you chose which ones to take? Are you sure.the vitamins are as advertised and can be absorbed by the body?
these questions come as a result of a discussion with some friends. They were all about this subject, but no one could answer my questions. For instance fish oil. Is it from farmed fish? Produced in a lab?

Are calcium, vitamin C, magnesium etc given in a form the body will benefit from and absorb?

[bae]

I just eat food.

[littlebittybobby]

okay----9 out of ten tv mds being interviewed proclaim that you should not waste money on vitamins if you consume a well-balanced diet. as if mds are experts on not wasting money. ha look at the homes and vehicles they buy, and vacations they take. but yeah---i go ta walmart & get a big jar o vitamins formulated for old people like mee, and take one just about every day. see? i may or may not have a 'well-balanced diet" so i'm hedging my bets. hope that helps you kids some. thankk mee.

[catherine]

i go ta walmart & get a big jar o vitamins formulated for old people like mee, and take one just about every day. see? i may or may not have a 'well-balanced diet" so i'm hedging my bets. hope that helps you kids some. thankk mee.

I do buy the Nature's Bounty multi-vitamin gummies and take them every day for bobby's reason... I'm an erratic eater, and, just as he said, I'm hedging my bets.

[pinkytoe]

I stopped taking all supplements years ago. They are way too expensive, effects are dubious and who knows what country ingredients are from or what regulations they go through. Just my 2 cents.

[ToomuchStuff]

Relatives with the same cholesterol issues switched to over the counter fish oil for better luck at a cheaper price then prescription. If I could stand the taste, I probably should.
Years ago, multiple people I know said for the most part, vitamins that you take over the counter, verses food, are just pee'd out. Generally the exception is if some doctor tells you to take something for a reason (like bones if there is a history of osteoporosis, or B something vitamin for Chemo in my case, where it will help with one thing, or just be pee'd out).

[ApatheticNoMore]

My doctor prescribed vitamin D because of a deficiency, so I'm taking the darn thing (and adding K2).

But I don't really believe in vitamins all that much, kind of because I've taken a nutrition class. They tend to be super concentrated (unlike food) so that one vitamin can affect the absorption of other vitamins, it seems half the class was about how one vitamin upsets the balance of another . It's an ecosystem and vitamins are ... I don't know fossil fuels, but a super charged external stimulus upsetting the balance, is what I'm getting at. Some even speculate vitamins super concentrations of nutrients can feed cancer. I don't believe this is proven with any certainty.

Today I read some article saying niacin contributes to heart disease, ha after all our food is already fortified with it (white flour is anyway). It's true you can get pellagra from a niacin deficiency, which was once a problem, but who has that nowdays anyway? We aren't starving and don't lack for a variety of foods. Niacin was once believed to benefit the heart, now it causes heart disease. That's another thing about vitamins, if you pay attention long enough, they go through trends, vitamin A and E were supposed to be antioxidants protecting our body, then they cause cancer and we shouldn't supplement. Maybe vitamin D will be out of style in a decade or so. But if the doctor wants me to take prescription vitamin D I guess I will, but otherwise generally I'd even opt for pharma over vitamins if needed, at least meds go through clinical trails and are regulated.

[rosarugosa]

Vitamin D is the only supplement I take. I had read enough positives to convince me that it was probably worth my while.

[iris lilies]

Nearly everyone is supposed to take Vitamin D. It became a big thing in my oeer group, what, 15 years ago? i assume there was a study of some kind that pushed family physicians to talk to their patients about it.

So, I take Vitamin D and a multi-B vitamin.

[jp1]

I only take magnesium. I started because a friend randomly mentioned that it helps with the twitchy leg thing when going to sleep. Since I'd had that problem off and on for years, and it was currently on when he mentioned this I tried it. After a few days the problem went away. A couple of weeks later I stopped and after a few days the twitches came back. So I started taking it again and the twitches again stopped. Not had them since other than very randomly once in a blue moon and it's been three years. The kind I take is cheap drugstore brand, the formulation of which is apparently less well absorbed than other more expensive ones from what I've read, but it must be well enough absorbed that I'm getting as much as I need since it's doing what I want it to do. Either that or it's a placebo effect in which case I"m still pleased since it's doing what I want it to do.

My mom was a big fan of packaged foods. So of course she was also a fan of packaged vitamins. As a kid I always took a Flintstone's chewable every morning. Since going to college I've never felt the need for that. I just eat a variety of food.