Is there too much of a good thing: Binning the vitamins

rom

I am not asking for medical advise. So when I started running I started to take vitamins etc as I thought I needed them. The kind person in the health food was very good at recommending what I should take. So my daily list ended up being: Super One Multivitamin Cod Liver Oil 1000mg Arnica Double strenght glucosamine Sulphate 1000mg Super 8 Hi-Potency Probiotic Now this stuff aint cheap to be taking every day. I was talking to my local pharmacist about it as they sold some of this stuff and she told me that the cod liver oil and the multivitamin contain vitamin A which is this case is 200% my daily allowance and it can cause liver damage. Do I really need them or is it the placebo effect as I eat very healthy also. We are a society that thing that everything can be fixed with a pill. Sometimes these things should not be ignored like if have sore knees, cod liver oil may not be the answer but you are training wrong. I was taking them out of pure habbit. Reading the lable on the super one. I was getting over 2000% or the EC RDA for something. That sounds right. Lucky old bin. What do you take and do you really need it. Who says you do. Did they work in the shop. What do you think it does for you ?

Donelson

Vitamin d, and some calcium and magnesium if I feel my diet is particularly poor. The surprising thing I found is that most multi vitamins don't have minerals in them, and it's the minerals your most likely deficiency in.

robinph

I just got into the habit of taking a multi vitamin plus minerals one, no particular reason but figured it couldn't do me any harm. Just got started on some new prescription pills last week, which are working already (yay), but they apparently don't work so well if taken at the same time as anything containing some of the metals. Still taking everything when I remember, but just have to space them out through the day now which is trickier to get into the habit of.

Reading the labels is important, and check for any conflicts with other things if you are on them.

metamorphosis

Vit d3 tops the list (acts as a hormone in the body and effects most things). A good dose of at least 1-2,000 IU. You can get a blood test to see how deficient you are which most Irish people are unless you frequently visit a Tanning salon that has a UVB lights (most dont!)

This acts in sync with mag, fermented fish oil (CLO),

robinph

We probably do slightly better than the majority of the population in terms of vitamin D seeing as we get out from infront of the telly more than most, well unless you do all your miles on a treadmill. But this time of year daylight isn't going to be that easy to train in.

TFBubendorfer

It depends.

Vitamins A and E are stored in the body and an overdose (including accumulative overdose) can be serious, even lethal in extreme cases.

Most of the other vitamins are water soluble and simply get flushed out of the body if you take too much, e.g Vitamin C. It is almost impossible to overdose on those; taking too much of those might cause diarrhoea, but mostly it will simply be highly expensive urine.

The RDA figures can be utterly meaningless; 2000% of RDA doesn't mean much, it depends on the actual vitamin.