Multivitamins? Yes or No

ConnieT1030

I absolutely take a multi. I dont often eat that balanced or as much veggie as I should, so I can use the vitamins & minerals. I wouldn't bother though if it was the cheap off the shelf stuff that uses forms that your body can't do much with. Basically, if youre going to do it, you may as well do it right.

tomteboda

CynthiasChoice wrote: »

I've heard that supplementing with Vitamin D is not helpful unless you also supplement with Vitamin K, Calcium and Magnesium.

I've also heard that too much Folic Acid during pregnancy can cause autism in the child. There's so much we don't know, so we can't say for sure if Vitamins are helpful or harmful.

If you take a multivitamin, you're getting all three.

As far as the folic acid thing goes, I think the evidence points exactly the opposite direction: folic acid can protect against development of autism, particularly in people with certain gene mutations that lead to deficient folate metabolism.

In children whose mothers took folic acid, 0.10% (64/61 042) had autistic disorder, compared with 0.21% (50/24 134) in those unexposed to folic acid. ...

Use of prenatal folic acid supplements around the time of conception was associated with a lower risk of autistic disorder in the MoBa cohort. Although these findings cannot establish causality, they do support prenatal folic acid supplementation.


Surén, Pål, et al. "Association between maternal use of folic acid supplements and risk of autism spectrum disorders in children." Jama 309.6 (2013): 570-577.

In this population-based case-control study, reported maternal periconceptional prenatal vitamin intake was associated with reduced risk for autism. In addition, the combination of specific gene variants within one-carbon metabolism pathways and a report of no periconceptional prenatal vitamin intake was associated with significantly greater risk for autism in the child compared with either exposure alone.

Schmidt, Rebecca J., et al. "Prenatal vitamins, one-carbon metabolism gene variants, and risk for autism." Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) 22.4 (2011): 476.

Mean (±SEM) folic acid intake was significantly greater for mothers of TD children than for mothers of children with ASD in the first month of pregnancy (P1; 779.0 ± 36.1 and 655.0 ± 28.7 μg, respectively; P < 0.01). A mean daily folic acid intake of ≥600 μg (compared with <600 μg) during P1 was associated with reduced ASD risk (adjusted OR: 0.62; 95% CI: 0.42, 0.92; P = 0.02), and risk estimates decreased with increased folic acid (P-trend = 0.001).

Conclusions: Periconceptional folic acid may reduce ASD risk in those with inefficient folate metabolism.

Schmidt, Rebecca J., et al. "Maternal periconceptional folic acid intake and risk of autism spectrum disorders and developmental delay in the CHARGE (CHildhood Autism Risks from Genetics and Environment) case-control study." The American journal of clinical nutrition 96.1 (2012): 80-89.

larry_world

I do two multivitamins everyday. One in the morning and one mid afternoon.

rainbowbow

Taking a multivitamin is an excellent way to ensure you are filling any nutritional gaps that might exist in your current diet.

Don't worry, if you're deficient in anything you can always get a blood test and take an additional supplement as well. I personally take my multi and another vitamin d and b vitamin supplement as i'm chronically low in these.

To anyone who said they are "toxic" I would highly disagree. Often a simple high-quality multivitamin is the difference between a nutritionally inadequate and adequate diet. While vitamins and supplements aren't undergoing the same rigorous testing as other medications; there are plenty of brands which have had 3rd party testing to ensure their quality.

In any case, I think it's safe for everyone to take a multivitamin.

Tacklewasher

Multi, vit D and omega 3. Nothing that will harm and mostly just in case, but this seems to be a pretty standard regiment.

Peregrymj

Yeah if I don't take vitamin D supplements in the winter I go weird. I get depressed, paranoid and prone to randomly bursting into tears over nothing. Good ol' Seasonal Affective Disorder.

TonyB0588

lynnskaggs wrote: »

I take an iron (because I have always been anemic) and Centrum energy....I've seen good results and have never heard anything bad, it's what my pharmacist suggested

Same here. Centrum multivitamin/multimineral supplement, and Iron tablets