Do vitamin supplements work?

IvaBigWun

Or are they all scams and its all in the mind?

And if they are all fake how do Seven Seas etc get away with it?

Toby Take a Bow

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Or are they all scams and its all in the mind?

And if they are all fake how do Seven Seas etc get away with it?

Vitamins work. Vitamin supplements I would be more suspicious of.

Ideally you should get most vitamins from your diet rather than supplements, except vitamin D - we should really all be taking that.

IvaBigWun

Title fixed. Meant supplements.

Joe10000

You should at least check the spelling of what you're taking never mind the contents.

adam88

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Title fixed. Meant supplements.

What's the difference. I take berroca. Us that a supplement ??

dd972

I get a headache anytime I try Omega3 or Cod Liver Oil tablets, taken Centrums for years, no idea of their effects good or bad though, haven't taken them for nearly a year and feel no different.

wendell borton

Berocca makes my pee look radioactive, so in that respect yes it does.

Sauve

adam88 wrote: »

What's the difference. I take berroca. Us that a supplement ??

Yep, sure is.
A supplement it something extra to your regular diet.
So you (should) get most or all of what you need from your diet, but you can take a supplement to top up your vitamin/mineral levels.

I take 2500 mgs of primrose evening oil, fecking great for the skin.
I take Vitam D sups, cod liver oil with Omega three.

lkionm

These ones have cocaine in them

Pumpkinseeds

Deleted User wrote: »

Ideally you should get most vitamins from your diet rather than supplements, except vitamin D - we should really all be taking that.

I saw a dermatologist on some afternoon show talking about vitamin D, I can't remember what the dosage she recommended was but I remember being shocked at how high it was, def much higher than the dose on the bottle. I'll take her word for it though.

Pumpkinseeds

On a seperate note, it's really annoying trying to find a good veggie friendly supplement. I can't take the better ones like pharmaton etc as they all have gelatin in them. Thank God for Lidl sweets, at least some of theirs don't have pork or beef in them:D

bleg

No. They're actually bad for you.

kraggy

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

On a seperate note, it's really annoying trying to find a good veggie friendly supplement. I can't take the better ones like pharmaton etc as they all have gelatin in them. Thank God for Lidl sweets, at least some of theirs don't have pork or beef in them:D

Berroca are vegan. No film coating. They're effervescent.

Pumpkinseeds

kraggy wrote: »

Berroca are vegan. No film coating. They're effervescent.

Yeah, vitamin C goes right through me though:o

Sauve

bleg wrote: »

No. They're actually bad for you.

How so?

Shout Dust

I take fish oil supplements, don't know if they do me any good or bad, haven't noticed any difference, some study said they give an increased chance of testicular cancer. If I'm doing something strenuous or going heavy on the beer I usually take a multivitamin beforehand, I find it helps.

Some studies have said taking vitamins can shorten your life and increase cancer, think they were testing subjects using large doses of each vitamin. The theory was that too much antioxidants in your system is bad, that oxidation isn't actually as bad as companies would have you believe and is actually required to destroy cancer and other harmful cells

biko

A varied diet is all you need really.

Artful_Badger

I remember looking into it before and from what I gathered most people are lacking in one thing or another. Most of whats in those multi vitamins isnt needed or not needed at the levels thats in them by most people but you take what ya need and it fills in the gaps.

Mr. G

biko wrote: »

A varied diet is all you need really.

That's what I would have thought.

There's a lot of crap on the internet. Cancer has been "linked" to almost everything believe it or not.

byhookorbycrook

biko wrote: »

A varied diet is all you need really.

I disagree, so much of our food has been in cold storage/travelled thousands of miles/loses a lot in the cooking etc. I take vit D/B and Omega oils, as suggested by GP as I have MS and all three are thought to play a role.

JJayoo

Vit D3, Omega 3, Vitamin C, Curcumin

gg2

I was taking a vit b complex there for a while, my pee went the most unnatural colour I've ever seen!! Gave the goat up on that!!

rizzee

Multivitamins and omega 3, protein with extra multivitamins 5/6 days a week

numnumcake

Apparently too many vitamins are just as bad as not enough so it's hard to call. I do take an iron supplement but I wouldn't take it everyday and I wouldn't take any other vitamins or minerals unless my doctor thought I should.

Freddy Smelly

Jake1 wrote: »

I take 2500 mgs of primrose evening oil, fecking great for the skin.
I take Vitam D sups, cod liver oil with Omega three.

omega 3 actually increases the risk of prostate cancer in men

http://www.cancer.org/cancer/news/omega-3-fatty-acids-linked-to-increase-in-prostate-cancer-risk

Esoteric_

I get vitamin B12 injections because my body doesn't absorb B12, but that's it. The rest of my vitamins come from what I eat. That said, I haven't been bothered getting my B12 injections done for over a year now and it hasn't made a blind bit of difference. Apparently without it, you get really fatigued. Haven't noticed it.

pauliebdub

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Or are they all scams and its all in the mind?

And if they are all fake how do Seven Seas etc get away with it?

They seem to work for me, multivitimins that is. I find that my immune system is a lot stronger and i'm not picking up any colds.

Teyla Emmagan

I take vitamin D. The absolutely massive dose ones.

McTigs

A good balanced diet should negate the need for supplements.

A bit of research will tell you where to get all you need from real food ie fish , meat, eggs, veg, fruit, nuts, seeds etc. Reduce processed food to none if possible (i allow myself dark chocolate and sausages and gluten free pasta).

More benificial than supplements would be a food intollerance test. I gave up gluten and dairy earlier this year and i've never felt as good.

hoodwinked

biko wrote: »

A varied diet is all you need really.

McTigs wrote: »

A good balanced diet should negate the need for supplements.
.

thats all well and good for some cases but i don't like fish, i don't eat any kind of fish, so i take omega 3 supplements instead,

occasionally my iron levels tend to drop (i notice i am tired all the time and sleep quite a bit) but instead of taking supplements ill eat more fortified cereal instead, and have things like brocolli with my dinner and usually that works,


i take vit D as i feel i just don't get as much as i need with the irish sunshine, plus i am indoors often.

Wibbs

biko wrote: »

A varied diet is all you need really.

Yea B but very few people have such a thing. I'd take vit D, because I certainly don't get near enough sun exposure to generate it naturally(few do).

Padkir

pauliebdub wrote: »

They seem to work for me, multivitimins that is. I find that my immune system is a lot stronger and i'm not picking up any colds.

Yes, would agree with that. Have big exams coming up soon and have been on the berocca for the last month to try and ensure I don't get sick leading up to them, and it seems to be working.

Once exams are over, I'll be off it though, don't want my body to be dependent on supplements.

tigger123

Am on a phone so can't link properly, but Google "Killing Us Softly", its the name of a report on what multivitamins do to your body, and its pretty scary stuff. Was released about 6 months ago. I was taking vitamins everyday until I read about the reports content.

SweetPotatoes

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Or are they all scams and its all in the mind?

And if they are all fake how do Seven Seas etc get away with it?

The sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts (Dr. T. Colin Campbell, PhD). In other words vitamins seperated are nowhere as effective as eating them in their whole form such as in fruit and vegetables. The dynamics of nature.

The vitamin industry is generally a fake. :pac:

Wibbs

Oh I'd defo not chuck back large quantities that some seem to. Some vitamins can be very toxic in high doses and some can be bad for your health at low enough levels. EG smokers should avoid beta carotene supplements like the plague as they had to call a halt to a study on it when they noticed a dangerous increase in lung tumours in the subjects taking it. Interestingly smokers on a diet high in BC showed a protective effect. That's the problem with being too reductive in research(very common). In this case clearly the BC on it's own wasn't protective, quite the opposite. It seems it's all the other chemicals found in foods rich in it that have a cumulative effect. I'd suspect others like vit C to be similar. With something like fish oil you'd be getting more of these co factor chemicals as it's not reduced to one component part. Still, eating the whole fish is going to be better for you.

With supplements there's also the large placebo effect going on with people. I'd add some cases of food sensitivity to that too.

Shenshen

I've never taken any, to be honest.

But I did notice that they do seem to be very big business in Ireland, the US and the UK.

SweepTheLeg

I just take a general multi vitamin and fish oil tablets in the morning. My diet is pretty crappy so I think they help.

Keith300

tigger123 wrote: »

Am on a phone so can't link properly, but Google "Killing Us Softly", its the name of a report on what multivitamins do to your body, and its pretty scary stuff. Was released about 6 months ago. I was taking vitamins everyday until I read about the reports content.

Am on??

Terry1985

The daily recommended intake of vitamins takes the minimalist approach of only recommending the least amount required to avoid a deficiency on that vitamin.

So some vitamins could be beneficial in larger doses. But as Sheldon said in the Big Bang Theory, those vitamin supplements might just be the ingredients of expensive urine.

martinedwards

I have back problems and Cod liver oil helps, so I take that.

adocholiday

tigger123 wrote: »

Am on a phone so can't link properly, but Google "Killing Us Softly", its the name of a report on what multivitamins do to your body, and its pretty scary stuff. Was released about 6 months ago. I was taking vitamins everyday until I read about the reports content.

The author of this report was on the radio a few weeks ago (can't remember the show) and to be honest I would take what he says with a very large pinch of salt. He came across like a tin-foil hat wearer and when challenged, he couldn't back up a lot of the stuff he was saying and back-tracked on a lot of stuff.

Like anything else that is formulated in a lab, vitamin supplements can't replace the real thing obtained through food. The downside to this is by the time we actually get our food from when it was taken from the ground or killed, much of the nutrients are gone or diminished. Factor in the cooking process, especially with vegetables, and the nutritional value of the food is a fraction of what it is in its fresh, raw form. Steamed veg is great, and frozen veg can actually be more nutritionally valuable than 'fresh' veg from the supermarket.

I take a multi-vitamin every second or third day and a whey protein supplement after my gym workout. My diet is what you might call a 'clean' diet. I generally stick to whole, unprocessed foods. I eat brown/wholegrain alternatives to white when it comes to grains (e.g. rice/pasta). Eliminate processed refined carbs (sugar). Keep carb intake low and fibre intake high - half the portion of rice, double the portion of steamed green veg.

I am in very good health, never sick and have lots of energy. Use supplements as they are meant to be used - as a supplement to a good diet, not a replacement

Genghiz Cohen

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/play/snake-oil-supplements/

Wibbs

adocholiday wrote: »

Factor in the cooking process, especially with vegetables, and the nutritional value of the food is a fraction of what it is in its fresh, raw form.

Not really. Lots of dubious science behind that claim. Yes bioling veggies for hours and throwing away the soup left over is daft, but... Minerals are unaffected by cooking, unless you're cooking in a blast furnace. Even then what would be left would be the minerals. Vitamins? Most vitamins aren't destroyed by the temps involved in cooking. Even vit C is only reduced, not eliminated. Plus other vitamins are made more bioavailable by cooking, eg lycopene, niacin in corn and a few others. Carbs are made far more bioavailable by cooking. Yes cooking can disrupt enzymes in food, but there enzymes humans don't use in digestion. Cooking food was one of the biggest "killer apps" in human evolution. It externalised some of our digestion process, made far more foods digestable and the nutrients in them more bioavailable. It allowed us to go from a bipedal scavenger to walking on the moon.

Like I say going by actual evidence raw is not always better, in fact cooked is better most of the time. It's up there with some of the nonsense attached to the so called Paleo diet. Don't get me started on that BS.

adam88

I used to take centrum carry on in the morning but I used be wrecked come the evening. Now I take it late in the evening and I don't really get the 3 o clock slump ( note I used get this slump with out the vits as well)

I usually get a bad dose of cold sore and mouth ulcers every 2 to 3 months. Dr used to say it was because I was lacking in vitamins etc. never believed them. I'm now in them nearly a month and I had an outbreak of ulcers couple of days ago. Surprisingly they never really came to a head only seemed to linger there. So they definitely do something with regard to ulcers note I also take lysine

kylith

My general health has never been so bad as it was when I was taking a multivitamin; sniffles and feeling generally run down. I stopped taking them completely when I nearly choked on one of the capsules. Who the hells thought it'd be a good idea to make them so big?

adocholiday

Wibbs wrote: »

Like I say going by actual evidence raw is not always better, in fact cooked is better most of the time. It's up there with some of the nonsense attached to the so called Paleo diet. Don't get me started on that BS.

Ok fair enough, I'm not very up to speed on the research around this stuff so apologies if my post was misleading. It's true that the water soluble vitamins and minerals do move from the veg to the water though, so if you're boiling broccoli for instance and you throw out the water then you are losing some nutrients that you would otherwise save. And I am in no way advocating a raw food/paeleo diet. I enjoy a boiled spud and nicely cooked steak as much as the next man I cook most of my food.

Apologies if this is now moving OT

IvaBigWun

Shenshen wrote: »

I've never taken any, to be honest.

But I did notice that they do seem to be very big business in Ireland, the US and the UK.

A business that needs lots more regulating.

SEPT 23 1989

1000mg of Vitamin C a day keeps the doctor away

donegal_road

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

1000mg of Vitamin C a day keeps the doctor away

I take 1000mg of C most days. If you are in the early stages of cold or flu, take 6 x 1000mg C and it will kill it.

I also take Milk Thistle every day, and Omega 3.

Herbal tinctures are also very potent. I have taken Cleavers tincture before for glandular swelling and it worked really well.

Also, Hyssop tincture is great for any respiratory ailments or conditions.

You can buy them at any registered herbalists.