What Multi-vitamins, dietary supplements do you take and why?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Just that.

based on your lifestyle, age and history what do you find is helpful to your wellbeing.

I am looking to garner opinions as to the relative benefits of supplements specifically where your lifestyle, or condition does not guarantee you can eat a balanced diet where supplements may not be required. Also where a balanced diet may not give you adequate nutrition for tasks your body is to under take.

As a starter, it is accepted medical concensus that older mothers need a pre course of folic acid to help a pregnancy produce a healthy fetus.

2

I take vitamin D drops because I am as pale and get as much sun as a vampire. Haven’t seen much of an impact.

3

MichaelEmouse what do you hope to gain from Vitamin D? Isn’t calcium deemed an essential to facilitate Vit D absorption? Or is it the otherway round?( Sorry, this is only just what I have heard I have no knowledge on vitamin D)

4

I take a prenatal vitamin because I’m breastfeeding, and I take an iron supplement because I am chronically anemic.
Pre-baby, I took a multi-vitamin sporadically but didn’t notice a big difference in how I felt. I notice a HUGE difference if I slack on taking the iron supplements, though.

5

Vihaga Congratulations on your new “mouth to feed” You are supplying him/her witha great start in life.

What exactly is the huge difference you feel if you don’t take your iron? How is your anemia demonstrated ?

6

Somepony told me it improved her mood and made her feel better generally and, short of mania, that’s always good.

I do eat cheese once in a while.

7

None. I don’t put a lot of stock in supplements.

8

I tend to get muscle cramps more often if I do not take potassium. I think.

(and vitamin D facilitates calcium absorption, manila)

9

I do tend to go along with this train of thought.

But my OP posited the scenario where your diet was restricted in some way, or the demands of your body were out of your normal routine.

In pursuit of my ridiculous high salary I normally find myself in conditions where the food is inedible, or poor quality, or working conditions are such that when you take off your coveralls you notice that they are always encrusted in dried salty sweat marks. That salty deposit must mean my body is losing minerals and It seems obvious that they need to be replenished.

okay full disclosure

On my last job in Africa the food was inedible or cooked to the level that along with destroying the bacteria, the essential nutrients also were destroyed.

I tried a low calorie diet. Essentially, I ate nothing but fresh fruit (mango, apple, orange and pineapple) twice a week I ate meat and fat of allegedly ovine origin but I reckon it was goat. No alcohol in the jungle and kept well hydrated. I was hungry 24/7 but never succumbed to snacking except for eating another slice of orange. 2weeks I lost 2 kilo!!! wtf!

When I got back home I received an email from my prospective employer that following the results of my medical test, and notwithstanding they had previously accepted me, had now, decided on the basis of me only having one kidney, wanted a kidney sufficiency test looking at Creatinine Urea, Nitrogen and electrolytes.

Dammit! But really I wasn’t too surprised as normally new employers want a cat scan to see if the cancer bitch has returned home. A blood test is easy.

My test results for kidney sufficiency were normal. Albeit in the nominally high side of normal. No big deal.

But I took the opportunity to actually get a full chemical 23 analysis of my blood. (hell they were going to pay for the test so why not.)

I sent off my kidney sufficiency results and was medically accepted, am soon off to my next assignment.

But other results came back that need addressing I THINK.

My lipid profile is crap! cholesterol 205 Triglycerides 301 HDL cholesterol 51 Aldl 117

This is a typical range for me for years. Even though I am mainly vegetarian. ( I will eat meat if I cant find anything decent veggie)

I take statins for the cholesterol. but cant get it below 200.

My uric acid was high again. 8.4 as opposed to 7.0 accepted normal max.

My mainstay of eating when I am home is lentil soup, curried lentils, mongo bean stew, and similar stuff if I am just cooking for myself. My alcohol consumption is higher than average. ( brit syndrome)

If you have read this long thank you.

I blame my diet. I am likely to face another such post in the future so was trying to gauge people’s experience through a variety of non-normal living conditions what I need to consider as supplements.

sorry its long

10

I take a few things, mostly because I’m trying to lose weight and fix my cholesterol/lipid numbers.

Red Yeast Rice - I take 2 capsules 3 times a day
Psyllium Fiber - 1 heaping teaspoonful in water 2 or 3 times a day (I think that’s about 12g insoluble fiber, but I’m too lazy to go check)
Inulin (chicory based, I think) Fiber gummies - 2 gummies, once a day (I think that translates to 4g soluble fiber)
Gymnema leaf - not extract, but the dried ground leaf compressed into a pill - 2 pills, 3 times a day
Cinnamon - again, not extract, just cinnamon in a capsule - 2 caps 3 times a day
Caffeine - 400-800mg per day, depending on how I feel, in pill form. I wish I could get into the habit of coffee instead, but it’s just not my thing.
Fizzy Vitamin-C and other Stuff (generic Emergen-C) - 1 packet in the morning
Calcium/Vitamin D chew - 500 mg calcium, not sure how much D - 1 chew at night, as far away from all that fiber as possible.

Along with a very low calorie (~800 calories a day) diet, this has helped me lose 18 pounds since the beginning of May without going insane from hunger. Now I’ve plateaued, but I’m trying not to panic.

I’ll get my next lipid panel at the end of the summer and see if it’s working or if I need to start a pharmaceutical statin.

ETA: The red yeast rice and psyllium are the primary cholesterol related ones, if you want to talk to your doctor about supplements for cholesterol lowerin’.

11

Jack3d before my workouts, protein shakes after. A multivitamin (well, really two because the serving size is two) in the evening.

I’ve been doing recreational bodybuilding for a few years, so I’ve dabbled in (legal) supplementation, but found that an awful lot of supplements make no appreciable difference in my health. Some supplementation I’ve used in the past that didn’t make much difference: CLA, iron, thermogenics, appetite suppressants, glutamine.

12

I only take two, and that’s only because the doc told me to.

Vitamin B-12, because I’ve got an autoimmune issue that causes me not to process Vitamin B-12 very well.

Vitamin D, because my doc tested me for it and found I was slightly low, so I take these big-ass green gel caps once a week for 3 months to see if it fixes it.

13

**[/whynotB] good luck with your diet, 18 pounds? that’s what about 8 kilo? that’s in my ball park figure too. BMI tables suggest I should lose 15 kilo but the last time I was that weight I was ill and I looked just gaunt.
What’s the Gymnema for? and the cinnamon?

As an aside I don’t drink sodas I hate plain water so I just pop a flavoured fizzy vitamin C tablet into water if I want a thirst quencher

14

Every time I find an article on vitamins/supplements that I feel good about being reliable, they only recommend a multi-vitamin (I use one formualted for men) and Fish Oil. I take 1 vitamin and 1000 MG of whatever that positive oil is in Fish Oil.

There isn`t any single source I base that on. I read it a few different places I consider reputable which is why I feel secure I’m not missing out on anything that would actually benefit me.

15

Prenatal vitamin: because we’re working on having a #2 kid
Fish oil: because it’s good for the same thing, I guess, I read somewhere on the internet…
B12: because I had a deficiency, and the supplement is correcting that
C: every time my daughter brings home a new bug from daycare I start taking this every day

16

I take a multi vitamin formulated for women every day + additional iron. This is in addition to eating red meat and spinach regularly and potatoes occasionally. I’ve had significant iron issues due to fibroids in the past and I’m still a little paranoid every time I find myself tired with no immediate explaination.

17

Moonlitherial An ex of mine had/has fibroids to the extent that giving birth was a case of now or possibly never. We decided to split only because I don’t want kids and she was a much younger woman and wanted a family. She has a cool as fuk baby boy now. How do fibroids impact iron bases (or vice versa)

18

Well, it’s demonstrated by testing low on hemoglobin unless I take supplements religiously. How can I tell day-to-day? I have severe, unrelenting fatigue and my pulse rate increases.

19

Mine were large enough to cause excessive bleeding. Unfortunately the bleeding escalated gradually enough that I didn’t even consider it a symptom just how things were and that extended the time to diagnosis and surgery. By the time we figured it out I had a stored iron level of almost zero and my blood iron level was extremely low as well. I was able to stop the prescription level iron supplements a few months after surgery but my levels are still a little on the low side so I continue with the highest OTC levels I can find.

20

None. I just try to eat healthy in general.