Supplements---What do you take?

JudyP0389

bump

lgstone

I have accumulated my supplements over time, trying things and seeing if they seem to help. I used to have terrible cold-sores in my mouth, for example. Discovered B12 every day radically improved that. I almost never get them, and when I do, they are much less severe and heal much more quickly. So for 25 years I've been taking B12 daily. I then found that "GCF Chromium" significantly helped me with sugar balance problems--that also was a dramatic change. Again, I tend to try these supplements on a 60 day trial, watching various aspects of my health, and then deciding if I can see any change.

I also take a sustained-release melatonin supplement at night--us middle-aged men tend to develop irregular sleep patterns, and this helps though I'm still in the trial phase.

I won't go over my whole list, though it's really not very long. I will say that despite being overweight, at 57 I take no prescription medication except for my ADD. No blood-pressure meds, though my parents did, and my dad died of a stroke-heart attack.

I think supplements can be very useful, but I also think the supplement industry is very exploitive. The key is to decide ahead, what is it that you think a supplement will do for you? Journal that aspect of your health for a couple months. Then start the supplement, and journal for another couple months, then stop for a while. See if you can really detect a change. Sometimes you have to try different brands. No chromium, for example, did any good for me, but then I tried "GCF Chromium" from one of the big supplement companies, and it had an impact. I am not naming the company but will respond privately, because I don't want to promote one company.

Thanks for this thread. Very instructive.

CurveAppeal86

I take:

Omega 3
Prenatal
Zinc
Vitamin C
B12 (I am very low B12, I used to need shots for this)
Vitamin D

Affluenzic

dont bother. it doesnt matter what your background is. these people love being slaves to big pharma.

Ooooh! Conspiracy theories. Gotta love it. Only you have it bass ackwards.

See, Big Pharma wants to have all supplements classed as drugs. It will put the mom & pop suppliers out of business and Big Pharma can charge more. Not to mention having to go through FDA approval which would mean taking many supplements off the shelves entirely.

The lack of cheap supplementation means that society is ill more often. Thus - more money for Big Pharma!

Another interesting angle.

Affluenzic

I actually work as a contracted writer and researcher for a supplements company, so I know my ****

Supplements work if you know how to use them.

I currently take:
Women's Multi
B Complex
Magnesium, Zinc, and Calcium

Don't forget to take your vitamins and supplements with lunch! Don't drink caffeine any time during or before you take your vitamins!

Didn't know not to take them with my coffee in the morning. What does it do?

I take muti silver morning and night. plus b complex once aday, magnesium once, and lectihin twice I would take cq 10 if I could offord to.

Interested in the caffeine angle too....

Affluenzic

omg, lol, people get so fired up on here and go to the extreme with the name calling and anger. Chill out, remember we are all here for the same cause, to improve our health. Have respect for others opinions and choose to follow the advice that you think is correct and best for you. OMG

Agreed!

lauest

Unfortunately, lots of women of menstruating age tend to be low in iron - not only vegetarians. Women need 18mg of iron a day - that can be difficult to get even with meat eating. You guys are more fortunate (in this respect) as you only need around 12mg.
I always try to look for iron fortified cereals/protein shakes and take a good women's multivitamin/mineral supplement (and eat very healthily) and I can't always get my full quota per day.
I think its unfortunate that vegetarianism gets a bad rap (because there are lots of positives to eating a healthy vegetarian diet), but iron and zinc are minerals that need to be carefully managed on a vegetarian diet.

AVinmill

multi, BCAA and whey blend

bekylouisex3

I take a daily multivitamin, two cod liver oil tablets and of course my sci-mx whey protein :P

LoveLivingHealthy

There is a reason the FDA does not put their stam of approval on vitamins. I believe most vitamins are processed junk and you can read a number of articles about it, here is one http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/news/20100401/multivitamins-linked-to-breast-cancer-risk

i was skeptical about vitamins too. If you read the ingredients on most over the counter vitamins there's a bunch of words that you cant even pronounce.. whether or not the words are really something good for you i dont know but i like to know what i'm putting into my body. the vitamins i take are whole food vitamins from an organic store. the bottle tells you which foods in the vitamin your getting your vitamins from.

mrseelmerfudd

i take protein shakes as my diet doesnt give me enough and i think its really helped boost my weight loss!

ceruleanarcher

I use chia seeds and fish oil capsules.

I used to use iron and other supplements, but they actually make me sick. My friend is a pharmacist and said this isn't unusual, sometimes that it happens. She did advise that many times when that happens, pharmacists will recommend taking prenatal vitamins. I'm considering trying that to see if it has better results.

margeauxhunt

I'm only on Fybogel because I have IBS and I only take it when I'm more irritated than usual. It's nasty.

soontobesam

Women's Multi and a B Complex - daily.

joankpoirier

I take Fish Oil. and Shakeology Topical Strawberry vegan..

jameshodge594

I like the natural prostate supplements like Super Beta Prostate Supplement that are free of side-effects. It's great because I get a dozen essential nutrients along with beta-sitosterol. http://www.newvitality.com/

Mads1997

Metamucil

CrazyTrackLady

Right now I'm taking---

Double dose of multivitamins
Fiber supplement ( not too keen on veggies or too many fruits that I would get a lot of fiber from)
Spirulina (nutrients from veggies that I don't eat)
L-carnitine
B-complex
Fastin XR (awesome appetite suppressant)

What do you guys take and why?

I'm trying to stay around 100g of carbs per day and was considering taking a carb-blocker too...

That adds up to some pretty expensive urine.

CrazyTrackLady

I take Fish Oil. and Shakeology Topical Strawberry vegan..

While on Christmas break, I caught a few seconds of Dr Oz before his latest shilliing of supplements got to me. It was all about fish oil. Apparently, farm raised fish lack the omega-3 fatty acids that fish are supposed to have, and humans are supposed to eat. Why? Because the farmers feed them a CORN based diet, which doesn't give them any oils. So, unless the fish oil is coming from wild born, wild caught, fish, it's ineffective and yet another scam by the vitamin companies.

slkehl

None. I should probably be taken some calcium with vitamin D sups since osteoporosis runs in the fam