Multivitamins? Yes or No

cashidy wrote: »

On the same thread, do taking vitamins really reduce cravings because your nutrients are being met at a basic level?

There is little reliable evidence that cravings are linked to vitamin deficiencies (barring a few rare medical conditions).

me too....I don't take them over the weekend because I don't remember to....also too much iron messes with my thyroid meds....and I don't see a correlation between cravings and vitamins....last night I wanted something comforting but had taken vitamins all week so.....I doubt it.

My iron gets so low that my gold jewelry will turn my skin black, that's why I started my iron pills

I've started taking a multivitamin for the vitamin D.

Low vitamin D is linked to colon cancer. I had a medical exam that caught a problem before it turned into cancer, so I'm very lucky. I have a lifelong habit of not eating dairy. I still don't want dairy, but I can get the same vitamins in fortified plant milk (I like cashew) and other fortified food, plus I've started vitamin pills.

Any woman of childbearing age that's sexually active that might keep an accidental pregnancy should probably just take prenatal multivitamins. Something like half of pregnancies are unplanned, and the folic acid that is most of the point of prenatal vitamins is most needed most early on.

I still take them, despite being permanently done having children, as I donate blood and they have a good level of iron compared to other multivitamins. Plus I can get a big bottle cheap at Costco.

I don't think there's any magic to it - take it if you like, and don't spend too much money on anything fancy. If you're bothering with probiotics, the ones that are refrigerated are better than those just on the shelf, and fermented foods are better than either. Plus lactofermented veggies are delicious and inexpensive.

bpotts44 wrote: »

Everyone should have their blood serum Vitamin D tested and supplement up to 40 ug/l. This is going to involve supplementation of 1000-5000 IU for most people daily. Multivitamins will not have close to enough. You should probably take some A with the D especially if you don't get much A in your diet.

Ah yes, particularly if you live in a place where there is winter. I take 1000 IU Vitamin D/day from whenever I start wearing clothing that covers 99% of my body until I take it off in the spring. Plus what's in my multi. My doctor actually declined to test my levels and pretty much said everyone comes back low. I live in Canada - there's no Vitamin D being made in my skin from Oct - Apr.

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I take a basic multivitamin because it helps in case my diet isn't varied enough and because I'm a woman of childbearing age. I cared for a girl with spina bifida... Neutral tube defects can be prevented by proper folic acid intake, and they occur around day 10 of gestation, well before a woman knows she's pregnant.

I also take 5000mg vitamins D3 on my doctor's orders because I have very low serum D3. This is common for people who have Lupus, doubly so if you live in the north.

I take D3 supplement since I am in new England (no sunbathing this time of year! ha!) in addition to a fiber supplement. I am T1D and eating low carb.

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.

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.

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.

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.