Vitamins and health supplements? (Not diet pills)

Honestly, I don't know if my vitamins really help, but I take a multi vitamin and B complex every day.

I take a multivitamin, fish oil and a concentrated fruits and veggie everyday from Nutrilite. My husband introduced me to the brand about a year ago, and I love it! :-) It's the best of the best.

I take my b-12's everyday, I have severe b-12 problems and iron. I take an iron supplement as well because I don't eat meat so it's harder to get what I need. As a woman (lol) I take a lot of things depending on circumstances. It can be expensive but I dont go to the doctor at all so it's like 200 for my vitamins once every few months isnt tragic. Essential woman by barleans have fish oils. They are my life saver. I take two a day and living greens. They're liquids gels with vitamins and crucial oils inside. That's what's right for me but I suggest at least trying the essential woman! It's really made a diffference to my life.

they make liquid vitamins

i've started to take oil of oregano capsules since ive gotten a cold, and i can tell it's helping!

http://www.gnc.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3956769

oh heres the link just incase you want to check it out!

i take One-A-Day: Women's Active Metabolism...why i have no idea, but my mom told me i needed to take some vitamins lol

Thought this was relevant:

Snake Oil Chart Highlights the Worth (or Lack Thereof) of Supplements
http://bit.ly/bbw7Qs

I take a b-12, b-6 & folic acid supplement (b/c I try to eat vegan), vitamin D and vitamin C.

I've been taking a muti-vitamin from a company in New Zealand called Xtendlife.

I've been using it for almost three weeks now and I feel amazing.

I've seen an increase in my mood, less PMS symtoms this month, my skin and hair are amazing too. I am also using one of their creams called Active Defense Day Lotion. My skin has never been softer and between the two products I am noticing some of my loose skin is tightening and more elastic. So far the products are working awesome for me (after trying tons of other stuff!!). They do have a website and their products carry something like a 1 year money back guarantee!! www.xtendlife.com

OMG!! I just realized that I sound like a stupid infomercial!! I am sooo sorry. I'm not trying to sell these products, I just like the results I've seen so far..

Sorry about that guys & gals!!

I just take a centrum multivitamin and a vitamin D (1000) everyday. The vitamin D is mostly for the winter time, but I am taking it all year round, because it takes away my pms symptoms.

I take vitamin C (only if I'm feeling run down or when my kids are sick) to boost my immune system.

the best advice i've heard regarding vitamins and supplements came from, not surprisingly, michael pollan.

be the type of person who takes supplements but skip the supplements.

basically , do all the healthy things, eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, taking an active interest in your health, that that person would do but don't bother with supplements. unless you have an actual deficiency of some sort, supplements, while not generally harmful, are not particulary useful or effective.

I tend to agree with this. If I may, I'd also like to add to it by saying that generally there's 3 problems with vitamins.

1) people tend to take them as a fix for their deficiencies, which they shouldn't do, they should be thought of more as a supplement to "top off" your vitamins rather than to replace a whole meal's worth of micro nutrients.

2) When you take a supplement, think of it in a similar way to carbohydrates. If you eat all your carbs in one sitting, your body won't be able to use them correctly. Likewise, if you choke down a horse pill of micro nutrients, your body won't correctly distribute them throughout the day, better to take smaller amounts multiple times a day then all at once.

3) The supplement market has something called bio-availability. You should read up on it. Every vitamin has a level of bio-availability, and the higher the level, the better the quality and more benefit you will receive. No matter how good the supplement is, a portion of the nutrients in it will not be used by the body, the better the supplement, the more nutrients that will be available. OTC ones like Centrum and such have very low bio-availability, so what it says on the label isn't really what your body can use, it's just what's in the pill. NOTE that these companies won't generally make their bio-availability rating known to the general public, usually you have to get the results from 3rd party testing labs.

3) The supplement market has something called bio-availability. You should read up on it. Every vitamin has a level of bio-availability, and the higher the level, the better the quality and more benefit you will receive. No matter how good the supplement is, a portion of the nutrients in it will not be used by the body, the better the supplement, the more nutrients that will be available. OTC ones like Centrum and such have very low bio-availability, so what it says on the label isn't really what your body can use, it's just what's in the pill. NOTE that these companies won't generally make their bio-availability rating known to the general public, usually you have to get the results from 3rd party testing labs.

Banks- is this information available online some where? :huh:

kinda sorta. I know that's a crap answer, but the supplement industry is filled with horrible charletans, it's tough sometimes, to dig through all the crap to get to the gold. I'll see what I can find, but I promise nothing.

Basically my doctor recommended I take a multivitamin as long as I was on a calorie restricted diet just because he didn't believe it was possible to eat all the necessary vitamins on a restricted diet.

I took his suggestion and I feel almost 50% improved after the first few days. As soon as I'm on maintenance calories I will stop taking the multivitamin because I do agree with the idea that everything you need SHOULD be in your food (except food grown in nutrient depleted soil... which, means pretty much anything you buy in a super market. ).

I have to be careful which multivitamin I take because of allergies so I'm stuck with Centrum but it seems to be helping so whatever.

PS: Operating with a severe head cold here so I apologize ahead of time if I'm not making a lot of sense!