Do you take a multivitamin?

[David1961]

Any recommendations for a good multivitamin for a 51 old? I asked my doctor and he said something like it would be a good idea to take a multivitamin, but offered no recommendations. The advice out there is all over the place. Many folks still say a multivitamin is not necessary because your body does not absorb the nutrients well. Others say a multivitamin is necessary because there is no way we can get all the nutrients we need from food alone. Some say the pills you take go straight thru your digestive track and are not absorbed at all. I eat reasonably healthy and exercise moderately. I have taken multivitamins periodically in the past but have not noticed that I fell any better after taking them. Have also heard that the kind that you drink are absorbed better. I am definitely a LBYM'er, but the area of health is one area where I don't skimp.

[gerrym51]

I'm a pharmacist. there has never been any evidence that excess vitamins help.

Only shortage of minimumdaily requirements have proven to possibly cause issues.

if you have a varied(and good diet) you probably don't need a multiple vitamin.

[Tyro]

One problem with multis is that while some vitamins are best taken & assimilated with food, others (like B12) are better absorbed on an empty stomach.

That said, multis are cheap. Compare labels, make sure they have at least 100% of the RDA of most vitamins (it's hard/expensive to find one w/ 100% of everything). Note that the RDA is not what you need to be healthy; it's ususlly the amount to avoid symptoms of deficiency. If I were only taking a multi, I'd do it on an empty stomach, 1-2 hrs before eating. Right now I take 2 a day -- one before breakfast and one before supper, along with add'l supplements, but I have some known absorption & medical issues.

The downside is that everyone is different and has different nutrional needs and challenges. Absorption & requirements also change with age. The best solution is customizing supplements to your needs, but that can get expensive, and if you're in generally good health, a good multi may be fine. After that, tests may show where you're deficient, but that can add up too.

Tyro

Maybe this shoulda been posted on the health board...?

[grasshopper]

I take Vitacost Whole Food Men's Once Daily Multi-Vitamin -- 72 Vegetarian Tablets - Vitacost it is made from real food not chemicals.

I couldn't find a multi that had folate from food not folic acid, works for me.

[donheff]

Everybody says, "if you have a good diet they are unnecessary." But no one ever answers the correlary question, "what if you have a lousy diet?" I hate vegetables. In take a multivitamin every day and hope for the best but I can never get good feedback on whether I am wasting my time. A sanctimonious caution to eat veggies is useless - I have tried. I cook for the family and always include veggies and I have tried various recipes. None of them work for me.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerrym51 I'm a pharmacist. there has never been any evidence that excess vitamins help. Only shortage of minimumdaily requirements have proven to possibly cause issues. if you have a varied(and good diet) you probably don't need a multiple vitamin.

+1 I am not a pharmacist, but agree with gerrym51.

I don't take one, normally, because (unlike DonHeff) I really DO like vegetables and I even eat vegetables for my snacks. I eat healthy food in general but too much of it.

However, I just rejoined Weight Watchers and they require a multivitamin every day. So, I probably should go get some. They seem overly expensive to me. A doctor told me years ago that Centrum is a good multivitamin, so I will probably get Centrum Silver, I suppose. Seems like a waste of money to me so I am dragging my feet on this.

[Animorph]

Multivitamins cut about 20% of my achievable calorie burn when exercising. I haven't pinned it down better than it's a function of the vitamins, not the minerals. They make me tired. I do take D3 and B12, so it's not those.

Also, it looks pretty easy to overdose on iron when you're older. So don't take a multi with iron unless you specifically need it.

[eytonxav]

I believe that vitamin and mineral deficiencies can have some pretty dramatic health effects if they go on for very long. B-12 is a good example. Although I have not done this, it may be a wise investment to have your blood tested to see where you might be deficient and then supplement as needed to correct.

[HFWR]

Check out Costco for an over-50 multi.

May very well only give you expensive urine, but at least with Costco it's less so...

[donheff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Animorph Multivitamins cut about 20% of my achievable calorie burn when exercising.

How do you demonstrate this? I would think that x amount of effort uses x amount of energy, period.

[jclarksnakes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerrym51 I'm a pharmacist. there has never been any evidence that excess vitamins help. Only shortage of minimumdaily requirements have proven to possibly cause issues. if you have a varied(and good diet) you probably don't need a multiple vitamin.

When a pharmacist talks, I almost always listen. But, where is the science that says the RMDs are right? What I read recently about carbs it seems to me that the RMD for carbs is way too high. Having doubt about that standard I have to wonder if the other RMD values are right. I eat what I think is a healthy diet but it is lower in carbs and higher in protein and slightly higher in fat than the RMDs. Yes, I think it a healthy diet but I do not know that for sure. Back to the OP question. I take multivitamins. I take one GNC mega man energy and vitality in the morning and one GNC mega man prostate and virility in the evening. I also drink whey protein shakes and supplement the amino acids in them with a twice daily capsule of ornithine and arginine. Thanks to whoever it was who posted here the link to the Dr Oz article about taking a combination of lycine, glycine, arginine and ornithine to possibly naturally boost HGH. Not actually sure if it works but like the multivitamins it is what I think may be a good idea. I feel great but I do attribute that more to my workouts than the multivitamins and supplements.

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerrym51 I'm a pharmacist. there has never been any evidence that excess vitamins help. Only shortage of minimumdaily requirements have proven to possibly cause issues. if you have a varied(and good diet) you probably don't need a multiple vitamin.

I just had my annual physical and I am almost 70. There were no deficiencies in any of my tests. I take no vitamins and just eat a balanced diet, unless business travel interrupts that.

[gerrym51]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jclarksnakes When a pharmacist talks, I almost always listen. But, where is the science that says the RMDs are right? What I read recently about carbs it seems to me that the RMD for carbs is way too high. Having doubt about that standard I have to wonder if the other RMD values are right. I eat what I think is a healthy diet but it is lower in carbs and higher in protein and slightly higher in fat than the RMDs. Yes, I think it a healthy diet but I do not know that for sure. Back to the OP question. I take multivitamins. I take one GNC mega man energy and vitality in the morning and one GNC mega man prostate and virility in the evening. I also drink whey protein shakes and supplement the amino acids in them with a twice daily capsule of ornithine and arginine. Thanks to whoever it was who posted here the link to the Dr Oz article about taking a combination of lycine, glycine, arginine and ornithine to possibly naturally boost HGH. Not actually sure if it works but like the multivitamins it is what I think may be a good idea. I feel great but I do attribute that more to my workouts than the multivitamins and supplements.

let me rephrase. i said it to make a baseline. no study has ever shown excess vitamins to do anything. studies have shown that deficiencies can cause problems. however unless your constantly having blood tests run there is no way to know if you are deficient unless you are showing symptoms of a vitamin deficiency.

minimum daily requirements are just that and apply to the population as a whole not to a specific individual.

in general if you have a well balanced diet you are ok

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grasshopper I take Vitacost Whole Food Men's Once Daily Multi-Vitamin -- 72 Vegetarian Tablets - Vitacost it is made from real food not chemicals.

Real food is made entirely of chemicals. And the "real food" has thousands of unlisted chemicals. "Real food' contains known carcinogens. Real "organic" food contains pesticides.

[Alan]

To answer the question, no we don't take a multivitamin tablet.

We get annual bloodwork and a physical. No Doc has ever suggested we are out of range anywhere so I guess our lifestyle gets us all the vitamins we need.

DW had a bone density scan at age 50 because of family history, and had the early signs of ostiowhatsit. She took additional calcium daily and the vitamin needed to help metabolize calcium, started doing weight bearing exercise etc but it didn't help enough, so 3 years ago she went onto a monthly pill of Actonel. The last scan she had showed her bone density had increased (she thought that the best she could hope for was to slow down or stop the bone loss).

[grasshopper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by samclem Real food is made entirely of chemicals. And the "real food" has thousands of unlisted chemicals. "Real food' contains known carcinogens. Real "organic" food contains pesticides.

Not surprised by the response, coolwhip on your twinkies, for dinner.

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grasshopper Not surprised by the response

+1. Think what you want.

A snippet from this paper by Bruce Ames:

Quote:

99.9 percent of the chemicals humans ingest are natural. The amounts of synthetic pesticide residues in plant foods are insignificant compared to the amount of natural pesticides produced by plants themselves.48 Of all dietary pesticides that humans eat, 99.99 percent are natural: they are chemicals produced by plants to defend themselves against fungi, insects, and other animal predators.49 Each plant produces a different array of such chemicals. On average Americans ingest roughly 5,000 to 10,000 different natural pesticides and their breakdown products. Americans eat about 1,500 mg of natural pesticides per person per day, which is about 10,000 times more than they consume of synthetic pesticide residues. Even though only a small proportion of natural pesticides have been tested for carcinogenicity, 35 of the 63 tested are rodent carcinogens. Naturally occurring pesticides that are rodent carcinogens are ubiquitous in fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices.50 [See Appendix Table II.] "In a single cup of coffee the natural chemicals that are known rodent carcinogens are about equal in weight to a year's worth of synthetic pesticide residues."

Our world is awash in chemicals. In a multivitamin that us "built up" of chemicals it is possible to know what the pill is composed of, and that every chemical in it is believed to be safe for human consumption.

[Live And Learn]

I definitely have expensive urine, but it makes me feel better (call it the placebo effect that I try to forget about !). I take a 50+ multi for women along with a bunch of other magic vitamin and herb supplements.

[CoolChange]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 I just had my annual physical and I am almost 70. There were no deficiencies in any of my tests. I take no vitamins and just eat a balanced diet, unless business travel interrupts that.

I am 25 years(ish) younger and do the same with similar results, never any issues during physicals (which I am overdue for now).

When I travel for over a week at a time and am not watching my diet closely, I do take a multi every third or forth day as cheap dietary insurance hopefully without too much downside risk. (I am actually more concerned with getting too much of anything from supplementation than not enough.)

[freebird5825]

I have bought several brands of multivitamins over the years. I am very good about taking them for about 2 weeks, then somehow I forget to take them. Over the years, I have discarded bottles and bottles of expired vitamins.

So...I am using one craving that I can count on happening each day (see link). They are a bit pricey, but the net result is I am now taking my vitamins and calcium+D on a consistent daily basis.

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