Short version: Has anyone out there ever had vitamin pills cause painful urination?
Long version: My wife’s doctor recently suggested that she take some extra vitamins, specifically anti-oxidants and B-complex supplements. Soon after, I began to hear stories of day-glo urine. I’ve been there, excess vitamin C makes mine look like Mountain Dew.
Part two of the equation is that my wife is the main source of food for our 5 month old, and lately her milk has taken on a decidedly golden hue. Today I get a call telling me that our little doodles is screaming whenever she has to pee.
I don’t think it’s the vitamins themselves, probably a dye used in the manufacturing process. When she had an ear infection, the baby antibiotics were bright pink and caused similar problems. My wife is going to stop popping the pills until she can talk to our pediatrician, but I’m just wondering how common this is.
Bright yellow color is generally imparted to the urine by riboflavin (B2), present in most b-complex supplements. It’s actually caused by the vitamin itself, not a dye. I wouldn’t doubt that it can find its way into mother’s milk, too, and impart a yellow cast.
I haven’t heard of vitamins causing painful urination, but I could imagine it. My WAG would be that a lot of vitamin C could do it by increasing acidity.
I was taking a tablet that was a vitamin C & E combo.
These were mega doses, about 3000% of the USRDA. They gave me terrible pains in my stomach and when I urinated it was like uranium in the toilet. Now I take smaller doese of C & E and I don’t have those problems. Check your doses.
Excess vitamins can cause quite a few symptoms, but burning when you pee sounds more like a urinary tract infection or STD. Don’t be fooled by a link that ain’t there.
First off, anti-oxidants are anti-oxidants and vitamins are vitamins. No connection, other then may share a shelf in a drugstore. Unlikely, though, A and V, if they store them alphabetically.
Explain to your wife and to the pediatrician, that, unless your wife is a food freak, say a strict vegetarian, she has no risk of having hypovitaminoses. It’s true, that most vitamins are excreted if taken in excess, but some may hurt in large doses. Almost everything from her body may get to her milk. A pill a day of standard multivitamins or even one pill every one/two/three days will keep any (highly unlikely) imbalance away. Rarely, hypovitaminoses may occur, but because of a disease, not because of low intake. If her or baby doctor suspect anything specific, vitamin assay can be done.
Try to keep your body clean, as intended. Do not put more chemicals into it, you get enough via pollution. If you eat standard American diet, you’ll be OK.
Thanks for all of the input. Our little one is much better now. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a UTI or STD, although UTI would have been #1 on my list if we hadn’t run this gauntlet before with the dye in the antibiotics.
And BTW, the anti-oxidants in question were a mix of Vitamins A, C, & E plus a dose of Zinc. She did not take them on a whim, but has been extremely fatigued lately (more than normal with a 5 month old) and the doctor thinks it may be a late case of post-partum. She got blood taken to rule out anemia and thyroid problems, and her doc suggested the anti-ox and B-complex supplements.
Pcubed, are you telling us about all this because you’d like ad advice/encouragement/discoutagement? Sympathy? Or for no particular reason, “just having fun on the web?” I’am asking because I do not think that everything is right, although nothing looks dangerous.
Just looking for anyone else that may have had a simliar problem, and trying to get an idea of how common this may be. I realize that if I searched the net (or read Mothering magazine :)) I would come across a lot of stories about how evil non-organic/non-all-natural supplements are, but I was trying to get a more balanced view. And the Teeming Millions seemed like an appropriate place to go.
No offense to anyones lifestyle choices was intended, and I apologize if it seemed like I was trolling for a fight.
Pcubed: I asked because I thought that your wife is changing oil in her car twice a week. No harm will apparently be done (apart from wear and tear of the bolts and nuts).
Seriously, though, all this is not neede.
Um… no. The vitamins were defined long before we knew anything about what anti-oxidants were or did. So, yes, vitamin E is generally considered an anti-oxidant; vitamin A (along with its cousin beta-carotene) is considered an anti-oxidant; and I’m pretty sure (don’t quote me) that vitamin C is an antioxidant.
I have to take issue with this “advice,” for several reasons.
First, “chemicals” are what your body is made of. They are not man-made; water, frex, is a chemical. Therefore, when you eat or drink, you’re putting chemicals into your body. I can’t fathom the logic of someone who compares pollution to vitamins.
Second, the standard American diet is far from being healthy, as evidenced by the high percentage of overweight people in the U.S. Most of us get more than enough vitamin C and enough of many B vitamins, but lack in A and D (which is why the U.S. government decided they should be put into milk) as well as some of the other B vitamins (strict vegetarians, as well as those who don’t eat enough meat, run the risk of pernicious anemia, from B[sub]12[/sub] deficiency). Taking a multivitamin is not a bad idea; taking some extra vitamin E is not a bad idea; for women especially, taking calcium and iron, and folate for those planning a pregnancy, are very good ideas. (And, frankly, most men could benefit from a calcium supplement).
Laz, as usual, I was rushing and skipped a lot.
You are mostly correct, and I’ll try to explain my points.
Anti-oxidant properties of some vitamins were recently discovered. By classical definition, we will die without vitamins. There are enough antioxidants in our body, from internal and external sources. Nobody will die without anti-oxidant suppliments.
By warning against unnecessary chemicals I did not warn about vitamins, etc. As I said, in most cases, excess vitamins (or anti-oxidants) will be excreted from the body, so the harm is more to the pocket than to the body. I meant all these dyes, emulsifiers, detergents, etc. listed under “inactive ingredients”. They are “inactive” because they do not effect the function/reaction the “active” incredient is supposed to effect. But they could be very active otherwise. E.g., they may act as allergens. There was a tremendous (manyfold) increase in asthma and other known allergic conditions. Some of it was, probably, due to the environmental pollution, and some to … what?
These “inactive” ingredients are taken with every pill. They do not cause any overt harm, they are supposedly approved by the FDA, after all. But one thing is to take them with a prescription life saving heart medication, and another as a ballast with OTC vitamins, the OTC intake of which is questionable in the first place.
It’s questionable because of the following reasons:
A standard balanced American diet contains enough of all vitamins and minerals and anti-oxidants and anti- everything the drug industry may come up with. The reason for obesity is not lack of vitamins, but overeating. Do you treat obesity with multivitamins?
Vitamins A and D are added to milk by government fiat not because cows lack them. Vitamins A and D are fat soluble and are removed with fat during delipidization (low-fat milks). Pernicious anemia is an autoimmune disease. The main feature is a lack of intrinsic factor and vitamin B12 deficiency is intrinsic, i.e. internal, as opposed to external B12 deficiency, rarely observed in strict vegetarians and anorectic patients, but we are talking people here, not patients.
Vitamin B12 is rather an exception: it is not present in plants. Most other vitamins are pretty ubiquitous. Although some foods may contain large amounts of a particular vitamin, even avoiding a whole classs of foods, such as dairy products, frex., would not lead to hypovitaminoses. Laz: Taking a multivitamin is not a bad idea; As a general statement, this is not wrong. But why to take them? As I said, it won’t hurt (hopefully), but you have to keep in mind that a nursing mother may be the only source of all nutrition to her baby. On the other hand, the “inactive” ingredients may be “inactive” for an adult and quite active to a young unexposed body.
Finally, remember that sufficient intake (in physiologic or recommended doses) will not necessarily provide the chemical in question (Calcium, for instance) if it’s absorption or metabolism is impared.
OK, I’ll buy that. Of course, we’ll all die eventually… but that’s not what you meant
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This is, IMO, a pretty shaky argument. I’ll admit I don’t know what all are listed as inactives, but I suspect they’re not as bad as you say they are, unless you have an allergic reaction to them. Most of them, like fiber, probably pass right through your system.
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That’s what I said. I didn’t say cows lack them; I said people lack them in their diets, and thus the government decree.
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Damn… I knew I’d been forgetting something. Yes, you’re absolutely right there.
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This is definitely true and very good advice–especially for someone whose doctor has recommended, say, calcium supplements, and who isn’t getting better, and the doctor hasn’t ordered a thyroid hormones check.
Laz: That’s what I said. I didn’t say cows lack them; I said people lack them in their diets, and thus the government decree.
It is a minor point. We both can go to an appropriate web site or directly ask the government. I say that A and D are added not because we lack them (first of all, speak for yourdelf: you may lack them, I get plenty; secondly: since when the gov gives us what we lack? I lack money, so what?)
These vitamins are added because they were already removed. Only to replace what was taken, to restore the wholesomeness of a widely consumed product. Some baby food is “fortified” with XYZ; this is different.
As to the “harm” of the “inactive incredients”: I’m not saying that they necessarily hurt, especially a healthy adult. A very rare person allergic to a particular component, would probably know about it. What I say is that we do not know what may be allergogenic for a baby and that a sensible judgement should be exercised before that run to the corner drugstore, for uncertain benefits. If I may draw a quick analogy: if you have a heart condition and your doctor told you that you may take a drug or, instead, you may run two miles/day, what would you do?
If I lived in San Diego, I would run, perhaps three miles a day, it wouldn’t hurt. If I can’t run, because of … , I would choose the drug, if I have to. Again, if you like them, or own company stock, or for any other reason, take them! As I said, hypervitaminoses are very rare and easily treated.
