Vitamin supplements

My other half laughs at my collection of pills, yet he's the one battling endless colds and coughs.

I take calcium/magnesium because I don't eat dairy. I also take a vitamin B complex for hormonal reasons (it does help!), two acidophilus and zinc for my skin.

I feel grand, but am I, as they say, creating very expensive pee?

g'em

does your pee tend to be extremely yellow, neon even??? If it is, that's just excess Vit and nothing to be worried about!

The Ca and Mg are probably a good idea if you don't eat much dairy, and nuts and seafood tend to be high in zinc so if you have those in your diet you probably needn't bother. Generally speaking vitamin supplements don't provide anything that a well-balanced diet won't, but if you like taking them there's nothing in there that'll cause any harm (if you stick to recommended dosages)

Thanks g'em. Yes, I have radio-active pee!
My diet isn't as brilliant as it could be, unfortunately very odd and long working hours dictate that to an extent.

ApeXaviour

Deleted User wrote: »

My other half laughs at my collection of pills, yet he's the one battling endless colds and coughs.

I take calcium/magnesium because I don't eat dairy. I also take a vitamin B complex for hormonal reasons (it does help!), two acidophilus and zinc for my skin.

I feel grand, but am I, as they say, creating very expensive pee?

I'd certainly advocate the supplementing of some minerals, over multivits which are barely absorbed. Of the above it's safe to say that Magnesium is the most important one you should be taking. With our modern diets we simply don't get enough. We evolved to have it in abundance, that's why we don't store it like we do calcium or iron.

With regard your pills... biochemistry is a complex dance:

Magnesium helps the absorption of calcium yet... calcium inhibits the absorption of magnesium. So what you end up with if you have a combi magnesium/calcium pill is just a better than average calcium pill. I'd recommend getting a stand alone chelated magnesium tablet. Take it just before sleep (preferably on a relatively empty stomach). You will notice a big improvement in your sleep, and your dreams get crazy vivid too.

Zinc is good, could never say anything bad about probiotics.

If I had to recommend one single thing extra to take, it would be fish oils. It's ridiculous how necessary modern diets (what we eat and what we feed the meat we eat) make omega 3 supplements necessary:

In addition to reducing the risk for heart disease, regular consumption of fish or supplemental omega-3 fatty acids may be helpful in preventing, treating, or improving a wide variety of diseases and disorders, including but not limited to virtually all inflammatory diseases (any disease ending with "itis"), rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disorders (Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis), periodontal disease (gingivitis), mental disorders (autism, depression, postpartum depression, bi-polar disorder, borderline personality disorder, impaired cognitive development in infants and children), acne, asthma, exercise induced asthma, many types of cancers, macular degeneration, pre-term birth, psoriasis, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, cancer cachexia, intermittent claudication, skin damage from sunlight, IgA nephropathy, lupus erythematosus, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and migraine headaches.

Now not cod liver oil necessarily (too much vitamin A can be damaging) but fish oil, it also tastes a whole lot better. You want to be looking at high concentration EPA and DHA ones. The capsule supplements are okay... bit expensive for very little. Better off getting a bottle of it like this (carlsons are especially good). Trust me it's not like cod liver oil, as in when you swig it you don't gag, it barely tastes of anything, just a mild fish flavour.

Thanks ApeXaviour. Is that fish oil available only online, or can you recommend a shop that sells it?

dudara

I don't personally have much faith in probiotics (overmarketed hype comes to mind), although there is some research pointing to the fact that they can help people sufferering from IBS and Crohn's disease.

I do take a multivitamin mineral supplement every morning though. My diet is pretty good overall, but I am a coeliac, so I take the supplement for reassurance that I am getting everything that I should. The upside - I'm rarely sick, even when everyone in the office is getting bugs and flus.

dudara

Deleted User wrote: »

Thanks ApeXaviour. Is that fish oil available only online, or can you recommend a shop that sells it?

Try a trip to your local Holland & Barrett, health food store or chemist. They will stock a good range of fish oils.

ApeXaviour

Aye, most health food stores like Holland & Barret will have them. Thing is though they tend only to have normal fish oils in capsule form (cod liver oil's a different story). But that will do I suppose, this one looks the best from holland & barret website. It's got 300mg of epa + dha per 1g capsule. It's good to take at least 1g a day of epa + dha, so about 4 capsules a day of these, after food should work wonders.

Actually, just as I was typing this I had a look at the fish oil (Health Essentials Omega 3 Fish Oil) I bought in Aldi yesterday. It's exactly the same concentration of epa/dha in the same size caps. 45 capsule costing €2.49, um... they're ingredients don't seem to list anything dangerous. Okay I'm going to Aldi more often!

eclectichoney

Interesting post Lots of info Apex, thanks. But I have heardthat the quality of EPA/DHA can actually make a difference (i.e. the purity of the fish oil) - I'm not saying the aldi ones are less good quality than H&B (in fact they are probably identical) but might it be worth checking out a higher quality fish oil to get the max benefit??

sarz55

what exactly does fish oil help with?
are the benefits noticable?

ApeXaviour

eclectichoney wrote: »

Interesting post Lots of info Apex, thanks. But I have heardthat the quality of EPA/DHA can actually make a difference (i.e. the purity of the fish oil) - I'm not saying the aldi ones are less good quality than H&B (in fact they are probably identical) but might it be worth checking out a higher quality fish oil to get the max benefit??

Hmm.. you make a good point. If EHA/DHA have gone (ironically enough) "fishy" flavour then it's gone rancid, and you should throw the packet away. You'll know what I mean, compare the smell of the fresh fish counter at superquinn to Moore st on a sunny summers evening. I just bit into my aldi ones and they seemed alright.

Still though, I will be buying the Carlsons off iherb.com, it works out cheaper over all and it's top top quality stuff.

Here's some extra reading on the performance menu forum, from people who really know their stuff:
http://www.performancemenu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1008&page=3

sarz wrote:

what exactly does fish oil help with?
are the benefits noticable?

Most of the research is focused on it's effects on the cardiovascular system. It lowers cholesterol, reduces risk of heart attacks, strokes etc. It's also been shown to reduce inflammation, which almost everybody has to some degree or another also.

The role of omega 3s in brain function is still not entirely clear, much like anything to do with the brain. From what can be told though, it's role appears crucial. For growth, development and maintenance. There is evidence to suggest it's improvement of cognitive ability, mood, mental disorders (anything from bi-polar to stress really). There are many other things it's indicative of benefiting. I quoted them in my initial reply, have a look there.

It's better not to think of omega 3s as a "wonder drug" or anything like that, it just happens to be the case that 95% or so of the population is deficient in their intake. This causes a multitude of minor problems we seem to attribute to bad luck or whatever, that can be fixed so easily. We evolved to have a high intake of omega 3 polyunsaturated fat, now we have a much higher intake of omega 6. It was about 2:1 of omega 6 : omega 3. In modern diets this is about 10:1. Of course this change is bound to cause all sorts of problems.

EileenG

Read an interesting piece by Damien Maher recently, who really seems to know his stuff. He said you can tell the quality of a multi-vit by the type of magnesium they use. if it's magnesium oxide, this is the very cheapest, lowest quality stuff possible. Same with calcium. Calcium carbonate is chalk, and is almost useless to the body. If they are cheap and nasty, chances are the rest of the ingredients will be too.

I spend a while reading labels in Boots one afternoon, and found that most of the Boots own brand and most of the big names like Sonatagen etc were all using magnesium oxide and calcium carbonate. In health food shops, you could get some that didn't, and the Tony Quinn vits didn't.

ApeXaviour

if it's magnesium oxide, this is the very cheapest, lowest quality stuff possible. Same with calcium. Calcium carbonate is chalk, and is almost useless to the body.

Ah now that's not true... Once you have some semblance of stomach acid, you'll easily break down and (thus absorb) calcium carbonate. The same for most other mineral salts.

Though you bring up a good point. The mineral salts are the cheapest way of getting minerals into you. A lot of the time they are quite effective too. However it is usually a better idea to get the chelated or colloidal minerals, they are often more efficiently absorbed, and they don't hinder each other's absorption. Zinc salts inhibit copper salt absorption for instance.

Just whatever you do, don't get chloride salts, potassium chloride is one that's bandied off on people a lot. Most people have too much chlorides from the amount of salt (as in sodium chloride/table salt) they ingest.

Personally, for a magnesium supplement, magnesium citrate (eg Natural Calm) just before bed I find to be very effective.

Edwardius

ApeXaviour wrote: »

However it is usually a better idea to get the chelated or colloidal minerals, they are often more efficiently absorbed, and they don't hinder each other's absorption. Zinc salts inhibit copper salt absorption for instance.

Differently absorbed. Ions are absorbed via the Ion channel in the stomach which is slow and depends on what else is in the stomach (competing ions etc). Chelated minerals are absorbed in the same manner as foods, which tends to be more efficient. I think the exception is when the salt to be absorbed tends to be in ion form in the body (potassium/sodium), but don't quote me on that!

Edwardius

eclectichoney wrote: »

Interesting post Lots of info Apex, thanks. But I have heardthat the quality of EPA/DHA can actually make a difference (i.e. the purity of the fish oil) - I'm not saying the aldi ones are less good quality than H&B (in fact they are probably identical) but might it be worth checking out a higher quality fish oil to get the max benefit??

ratio rather than "quality". You need the oil to be in the ratio 18:12 EPA/DHA for its effect to be optimal, apparently. Regarding the impact of it, do a google search on eicosanoids if you want to look at the relevance of Omega-3 oils.

louiseamd

Hi

Anyone ever taken or is taking FSC Head High pro amino for healthy hair? If so, were they any good?

Thanks.