MFP, I'm taking too many pills at once... HELP!

IVMarkIV

So I have a lot of vitamins I like to take daily bit I'm not sure what the best time of day/combinations are. I'm tired of taking most of them in the morning and ending up with a stomach ache. I'll run you down the list. Please help with how to break these up!

Niacin
Sam-e
5HTP
Cinnamon
L-Cartinine
L-Glutamine
Caffeine
Fiber
B12
Fish OIl
Magnesium
CLA
Multivitamin
Vitamin C
Calcium


Any help is appreciated.

Calcium should ideally be taken before bedtime and divided in doses no greater than 500mg ELEMENTAL Calcium due to saturate able absorption. Your MVI should be taken with your largest meal which must contain fat (for absorption)...niacin at bedtime with a low fat snack (assuming prescription, OTC must be divided based on the daily dose). Fish oil (assuming OTC) 2 caps 3 times daily. Your water soluble acsorbic acid and b12 can be dosed anytime. Taking magnesium and calcium at he same time might interfere with absorption since these are both divalents and chelating (upset stomach too).

Yes, I agree with others on having way too many supplements and buying into Dr. Oz supplements. Keep it simple, it's hard to go wrong with an MVI + fish oil + 2000iu cholecalciferol (d3) in any healthy person; water soluble B and C vitamins can't do much harm either but aren't necessary for most. Any medical history would also gauge which are needed as well

kait_fitzpatrick

So I have a lot of vitamins I like to take daily bit I'm not sure what the best time of day/combinations are. I'm tired of taking most of them in the morning and ending up with a stomach ache. I'll run you down the list. Please help with how to break these up!

Any help is appreciated.

Cinnamon -- Just add some real cinnamon to something you eat during the day.
Caffeine -- WHY????
Fiber -- Eat some berries every day (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries)
B12 -- Are you a vegetarian? If not, this is likely not necessary.
Vitamin C -- The berries and a raw tomato in a salad will cover more of this than your body can process.
Calcium -- Do you eat dairy? If so, likely you don't need this, either.

If she has both Type II Diabetes *and* GI issues or other digestion issues, that might be a reason for a cinnamon supplement instead off eating cinnamon.

But I'm not a doctor.

Also, GIT irritation can be greatly helped by taking powdered glutamine.

I do like how so many people tell her what she needs or doesn't need, and how few actually asked her about her health, goals, or whether she has had discussions or advice from a doctor or health professional.

For the OP, you can get a B complex vitamin with C in a timed release forum. And yes, peanut gallery, if she's not vegan she probably gets enough baseline B vits to meet the RDA, but that wouldn't apply if OP has a high stress job, works where there's high exposure to the common cold (schools and hosptitals, etc.), or trains heavily. That combines the B12, Niacin, and C in one pill.

You should take to your doctor or a health professional about what to take when, and with what. Generally, there's no need to take all of your vitamins at once and it probably is lessening efficacy in addition to unsettling your tummy. Take your 5-HTP before bed. Take your B complex with C on an empty stomach in the morning with your Sam-e which needs B to work. Take the multi and fish oil with breakfast. Dont take the calcium with your multi if it has iron, because calcium impairs iron absoprtion and use. Take your CLA and carnitine before lunch and/or dinner.

It may look like a lot of supplements, but depending on the OPs health status and goals, it may or may not be and still may be preferable to multiple prescription medications.

I appreciate this response. Really helpful. I actually do work in an emergency room and a pediatricians office... Very prone to catching something I don't want!

jonnythan

So I have a lot of vitamins I like to take daily bit I'm not sure what the best time of day/combinations are. I'm tired of taking most of them in the morning and ending up with a stomach ache. I'll run you down the list. Please help with how to break these up!

Any help is appreciated.

Cinnamon -- Just add some real cinnamon to something you eat during the day.
Caffeine -- WHY????
Fiber -- Eat some berries every day (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries)
B12 -- Are you a vegetarian? If not, this is likely not necessary.
Vitamin C -- The berries and a raw tomato in a salad will cover more of this than your body can process.
Calcium -- Do you eat dairy? If so, likely you don't need this, either.

If she has both Type II Diabetes *and* GI issues or other digestion issues, that might be a reason for a cinnamon supplement instead off eating cinnamon.

But I'm not a doctor.

Also, GIT irritation can be greatly helped by taking powdered glutamine.

I do like how so many people tell her what she needs or doesn't need, and how few actually asked her about her health, goals, or whether she has had discussions or advice from a doctor or health professional.

For the OP, you can get a B complex vitamin with C in a timed release forum. And yes, peanut gallery, if she's not vegan she probably gets enough baseline B vits to meet the RDA, but that wouldn't apply if OP has a high stress job, works where there's high exposure to the common cold (schools and hosptitals, etc.), or trains heavily. That combines the B12, Niacin, and C in one pill.

You should take to your doctor or a health professional about what to take when, and with what. Generally, there's no need to take all of your vitamins at once and it probably is lessening efficacy in addition to unsettling your tummy. Take your 5-HTP before bed. Take your B complex with C on an empty stomach in the morning with your Sam-e which needs B to work. Take the multi and fish oil with breakfast. Dont take the calcium with your multi if it has iron, because calcium impairs iron absoprtion and use. Take your CLA and carnitine before lunch and/or dinner.

It may look like a lot of supplements, but depending on the OPs health status and goals, it may or may not be and still may be preferable to multiple prescription medications.

I appreciate this response. Really helpful. I actually do work in an emergency room and a pediatricians office... Very prone to catching something I don't want!

Ask the attending at the ER what he thinks about your list of supplements.

Greytfish

Ask the attending at the ER what he thinks about your list of supplements.

The pediatrician would actually be a much better source in this particular area than a trauma attending.

kimosabe1

damn-that's a lot of pills! You do eat real food though right? U aren't one of those bishes on 500 calories a day diet?

mortuseon

If you ARE eating a balanced diet and have no known deficiencies, you realise that too much of these vitamins can be really, really bad for you...? I'd track your vitamin intake on here with your food so you know what you really need. Anything in excess is bad news and the likelihood is that you can get enough of most of those supplements from your diet.

broox80

So I have a lot of vitamins I like to take daily bit I'm not sure what the best time of day/combinations are. I'm tired of taking most of them in the morning and ending up with a stomach ache. I'll run you down the list. Please help with how to break these up!

Niacin
Sam-e
5HTP
Cinnamon
L-Cartinine
L-Glutamine
Caffeine
Fiber
B12
Fish OIl
Magnesium
CLA
Multivitamin
Vitamin C
Calcium


Any help is appreciated.

Step 1: Throw all those pills away.
Step 2: There is no step 2.

Seriously. There is absolutely no need in the world for any of those, and you are suffering ill health effects from them. These are clearly not good for you. Stop taking them. You don't need any of them.

For some of us, there is a strong need for several of them, actually. I take a lot of the ones on her list to help with my depression, and they work. Don't write something off just because you personally don't need it.

No one in the world needs to take all of those.

I take some supplements. Because I need them. If she has some serious need for one or two of them then by all means. But there is no way she needs all of those.

Especially the carnitine and glutamine. Those are common amino acids. No one in the world needs to supplement with common amino acids.

And no one needs 5-HTP either. It's another amino acid sold as an appetite suppressant.

And cinnamon? Who has a medical need for a cinnamon supplement?

OP is clearly not taking these for medical reasons. She's just taking a boatload of supplements.

broox80

So I have a lot of vitamins I like to take daily bit I'm not sure what the best time of day/combinations are. I'm tired of taking most of them in the morning and ending up with a stomach ache. I'll run you down the list. Please help with how to break these up!

Niacin
Sam-e
5HTP
Cinnamon
L-Cartinine
L-Glutamine
Caffeine
Fiber
B12
Fish OIl
Magnesium
CLA
Multivitamin
Vitamin C
Calcium


Any help is appreciated.

Step 1: Throw all those pills away.
Step 2: There is no step 2.

Seriously. There is absolutely no need in the world for any of those, and you are suffering ill health effects from them. These are clearly not good for you. Stop taking them. You don't need any of them.

For some of us, there is a strong need for several of them, actually. I take a lot of the ones on her list to help with my depression, and they work. Don't write something off just because you personally don't need it.

No one in the world needs to take all of those.

I take some supplements. Because I need them. If she has some serious need for one or two of them then by all means. But there is no way she needs all of those.

Especially the carnitine and glutamine. Those are common amino acids. No one in the world needs to supplement with common amino acids.

And no one needs 5-HTP either. It's another amino acid sold as an appetite suppressant.

And cinnamon? Who has a medical need for a cinnamon supplement?

OP is clearly not taking these for medical reasons. She's just taking a boatload of supplements.

Yep!! Take the ones you need and ditch the ones you dont. My dr has me take a multi with extra D and B12 and I take fish oil for my cholesterol and thyroid. Dont take any for appetite supression or caffeine.

Greytfish

Most people taking 5-HTP aren't actually taking it as an appetitie suppresent. It stimulates serontonin production and so can have an effect on appetite, but that's not necessarily why the OP is using it. Be careful before you advise someone not to use something if you don't even know why they are taking it.

Fullsterkur_woman

So I have a lot of vitamins I like to take daily bit I'm not sure what the best time of day/combinations are. I'm tired of taking most of them in the morning and ending up with a stomach ache. I'll run you down the list. Please help with how to break these up!

Any help is appreciated.

Cinnamon -- Just add some real cinnamon to something you eat during the day.
Caffeine -- WHY????
Fiber -- Eat some berries every day (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries)
B12 -- Are you a vegetarian? If not, this is likely not necessary.
Vitamin C -- The berries and a raw tomato in a salad will cover more of this than your body can process.
Calcium -- Do you eat dairy? If so, likely you don't need this, either.

If she has both Type II Diabetes *and* GI issues or other digestion issues, that might be a reason for a cinnamon supplement instead off eating cinnamon.

But I'm not a doctor.

Also, GIT irritation can be greatly helped by taking powdered glutamine.

I do like how so many people tell her what she needs or doesn't need, and how few actually asked her about her health, goals, or whether she has had discussions or advice from a doctor or health professional.

For the OP, you can get a B complex vitamin with C in a timed release forum. And yes, peanut gallery, if she's not vegan she probably gets enough baseline B vits to meet the RDA, but that wouldn't apply if OP has a high stress job, works where there's high exposure to the common cold (schools and hosptitals, etc.), or trains heavily. That combines the B12, Niacin, and C in one pill.

You should take to your doctor or a health professional about what to take when, and with what. Generally, there's no need to take all of your vitamins at once and it probably is lessening efficacy in addition to unsettling your tummy. Take your 5-HTP before bed. Take your B complex with C on an empty stomach in the morning with your Sam-e which needs B to work. Take the multi and fish oil with breakfast. Dont take the calcium with your multi if it has iron, because calcium impairs iron absoprtion and use. Take your CLA and carnitine before lunch and/or dinner.

It may look like a lot of supplements, but depending on the OPs health status and goals, it may or may not be and still may be preferable to multiple prescription medications.

I appreciate this response. Really helpful. I actually do work in an emergency room and a pediatricians office... Very prone to catching something I don't want!

Probably for depression the important ones to take would be SAM-e, B complex, multivitamin/mineral, fish oil, 5-HTP and actually Vitamin D, which I didn't see listed. I don't do SAM-e and 5-HTP myself, but they might be helpful.

Charlottesometimes23

OP, it sounds like you are self medicating with some supplements that have the potential for some serious side effects. For example, 5-HTP can worsen depression symptoms and lead to other serious problems. Just because you can purchase it over the counter, doesn't mean that you should take it without strict medical supervision. Considering that you have asked MFP members about when to take your supps, I'm doubting that your medical practitioner knows the extent of what you're taking.

You need to discuss this with your dr, not MFP members.

MelodyandBarbells

Oh my goodness what a turn-out that was. Anyways, I appreciate all of your feedback and I will take into account everything you all said. Thanks to the people who genuinely tried to help/educate me about what I do and don't need. I'm not going to sit here and explain to you all why I take these supplements or prove to you that I have some sort of medical condition that requires them. I will say though that a few of them are related to treating my depression, and none of them have to do with gimmicks that I've fallen for while watching Dr. Oz. I've done my research on all of these vitamins/supplements and thought I had it all figured out. Finding out that I can eliminate some and reduce the amount of pills is definitely a good thing. I don't feel foolish for asking you all for this kind of advice so I'm sorry to the people who used their best attempts at making me feel like a big ole' dummy


And to the person who said how shocking it was that I didn't respond... Which do you think is more likely: Me being too afraid to respond to complete strangers posting on the internet or me being at work all day unable to respond?

If you're taking any of these for a medical condition you really should have specified that , or should be asking your doctor

However you made a post on MFP so I will give you my lay opinion: skip the middle man and just flush the pills down the toilet I mean for crying out loud , one of them was supposed to help digestion but instead your tummy hurts. What gives?!

Maleficent0241

That is quite a few supplements! Has your doctor approved you being on all of those at once? Are you sure each and every one is necessary? If you are getting undue GI distress, you can split your pills over the day and make sure to sandwich them between food (unless some of them are to be taken on an empty stomach). My "take with food" pills make me nauseous if I don't eat a bit, take the pill, then eat a bit more. It will come back up on me otherwise, though I also have some pretty serious GI issues. Also, the composition of the meal may make a difference in GI side effects. For example, food with a little bit of protein and fat in it may help you settle better than something that is mostly carbohydrate.

You may be able to pare some of those down by doing some multis or even eliminating them one by one to figure out what you really need, but only if your situation and your doctor's approval would allow for that. Also, for something like the caffeine, you could try just drinking tea or something in its place, as it may not disturb your system as much as the pill form does.

To answer other people's question on the cinnamon, some studies have found it to help stabilize blood sugars much in the way that metformin does for folks with insulin resistance. The effective dosage is a bit high to just eat instead - you'd have to be flavoring everything you eat with cinnamon

ninerbuff

So I have a lot of vitamins I like to take daily bit I'm not sure what the best time of day/combinations are. I'm tired of taking most of them in the morning and ending up with a stomach ache. I'll run you down the list. Please help with how to break these up!

Niacin
Sam-e
5HTP
Cinnamon
L-Cartinine
L-Glutamine
Caffeine
Fiber
B12
Fish OIl
Magnesium
CLA
Multivitamin
Vitamin C
Calcium


Any help is appreciated.

No need to take but 2 of those really. Fish oil and multi. The rest is just wasted because they can be attained through food.
I know this because I used to take up to 50 pills of supplements a day, until I researched it and found out that most supplements have very little effect overall.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

kdeaux1959

The multi-vitamin and the fish oil are the main ones you should take. Given the Sam-E, HTTP5, and B12, I am supposing that you may have some depressive tendencies. If this is the case, I highly recommend seeing a physician (better yet a psychiatrist) to get to the root of that issue -- no judgment from me on that issue... many of us have dealt with those matters before, but a health professional can better address this for you. Understand that if you are self-medicating for that and get in a crisis situation, they may not have all the information they need to help you... If you happen to be bipolar, you could actually trigger a manic episode through using these supplements in this way. Understand, that in most cases the depressive side tends to manifest before the manic side in bipolar individuals. I would recommend, at least seeing a nutritionist and help you regulate.

Also, some vitamins (oil solubles) are dangerous when taken in excess... Vitamin A and E come to mind. Water solubles may not be that dangerous, but overuse only means you are urinating them out when you get too much... and it does you no good in the long run.

Best wishes on your every success.

edit: I did just see that you are in fact managing depression through this; I would still recommend seeing a Dr. about this unless of course they have prescribed this for you.

Natmarie73

Wow that is a lot of pills.

Instead of all the seperate vitamin/mineral pills you could substitute with real, unprocessed food and a nutrient powder which you can add to a smoothie. That should give you all the vitamins and minerals you need and would be heaps cheaper too. I read somewhere that the human body can't process artificial vitamins in pills the same way it can digest real vitamins in food so be aware you might not be getting any benefit anyway.

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Vitamins_and_Mineral_supplements?open
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2078861/Taking-multi-vitamin-pills-does-health.html
http://www.growyouthful.com/tips/supplements-needed.php

I myself take krill oil, l-carnitine, creatine and a pro-biotic every day. I would definately recommend a good quality pro-biotic to add good gut bacteria and help increase absorption of essential nutrients.

neandermagnon

Personally I found that strenuous exercise and a balanced diet including omega 3s and fat soluble vitamins (i.e. from food and extra vitamin D from the sun) helped a lot in the treatment of PTSD/depression, although therapy was the main thing that helped (because it treats the cause, everything else only treats the symptoms). I wasn't recommended to take any supplements.

The only supplement I take is occasionally using protein powder (whey isolate) but that's just to ensure adequate protein intake because I do heavy lifting. I'd probably take a vitamin D supplement if I didn't live in such a sunny country because there is a link between low vitamin D and depression, but there's no need to take a supplement if you can get enough from food and sunlight. (where you live and your skin colour would determine whether you can get enough vitamin D from the sun). I've taken iron supplements in the past for clincially diagnosed anaemia, although i found that cooking meals with a lot of red meat, beans and green vegetables in boosted my iron levels better than the supplements did, but if you have a clinical deficiency, probably taking the supplement AND foods rich in that nutrient is the best advice, until your levels are back to normal, then discontinue the supplement while still eating the food. I find that real food works better than supplements, but supplements are helpful to give you what if you can't get it from food.

BTW that's my experience, don't stop taking any supplements that were prescribed by a doctor without talking to the doctor first!!

impyimpyaj

Sometimes a deficiency IS the cause of depression though -- therapy isn't always the answer. It is for a LOOOOOT of people, and I do believe that everyone who is depressed should give it a go. But it's not always the answer. There is no one-size answer for depression. There are many, many different causes of depression.

Me? I've had depression since toddlerhood. It's not rooted in anything in my life experience. It's just my brain. Things in my brain don't work properly, and I don't produce serotonin the way I should. So for me, therapy did nothing, because there wasn't anything to talk about. However, therapy was what gave me the courage to seek other treatments. So yes, I agree that anyone who is suffering from any emotional/mental issues should definitely seek therapy. But it might just be one step on the road to recovery. It might be all you need, and that's great! But sometimes you need it in combination with other treatments.

Greytfish

The multi-vitamin and the fish oil are the main ones you should take. Given the Sam-E, HTTP5, and B12, I am supposing that you may have some depressive tendencies. If this is the case, I highly recommend seeing a physician (better yet a psychiatrist) to get to the root of that issue -- no judgment from me on that issue... many of us have dealt with those matters before, but a health professional can better address this for you. Understand that if you are self-medicating for that and get in a crisis situation, they may not have all the information they need to help you... If you happen to be bipolar, you could actually trigger a manic episode through using these supplements in this way. Understand, that in most cases the depressive side tends to manifest before the manic side in bipolar individuals. I would recommend, at least seeing a nutritionist and help you regulate.

Actually, no. There is nothing about the small amount of two naturally produced substances (SAMe and 5-HTP ...or, :laugh: B12) supplementation that could trigger a manic episode in a Bipolar individualwho has thus far manifested only depressive symptoms. The effective difference is quite small. That can, however, happen with administration of a prescribed SSRI or the older MAOIs, which is why a doctor or pharmacists will advise you of that risk before dispensing those medications. The literature does suggest that someone with Bipolar would have increased symptoms during a manic episode from consumption of SAMe, but I've seen none that suggest it could trigger an actual manic episode. If you have, please share.