Supplements

[Mill]

Do the supplements you take have a noticeable effect in the way you feel? example) give you more energy? make you feel more alert? whatever.


The "How many pills in your daily schedule?" thread got me thinking.

I am on no prescriptions, but Im only 31 so hopefully it will stay like this for awhile. I have recently become interested in supplements though, as I dont exercise much, and I eat unhealthy.

A buddy of mine swears that the combination of 1 multivitamin, 1 milk thistle, 1 garlic, and 1 ginkgo biloba makes him feel better and more energetic.

I tried that combination, and I noticed no effect.

But intreagued, I have recently added 1 Co-Q10, 2 st Johns Wort and 1 chromium to the mix.

Its been about a month since these additions and I still feel no effect. No better, no worse, no more or less energy, basically nothing. Not sure if Im wasting my money on supplements, or if the effects are not to be felt.

What is your experience?

(please keep this discussion to vitamins and supplements, no prescriptions)

 

[UserRequested]

but Im only 31 so hopefully it will stay like this for awhile.

Er , somehow I don't think that's how it works. You know you WILL be 32 next year

 

[Mill]

Er , somehow I don't think that's how it works. You know you WILL be 32 next year

I intend to stay 31 forever.

 

[MichaelB]

Er , somehow I don't think that's how it works. You know you WILL be 32 next year

+1

I am on no prescriptions, but Im only 31 so hopefully it will stay like this for awhile. I have recently become interested in supplements though, as I dont exercise much, and I eat unhealthy.

./.

Its been about a month since these additions and I still feel no effect. No better, no worse, no more or less energy, basically nothing. Not sure if Im wasting my money on supplements, or if the effects are not to be felt.

I'm not sure supplements can substitute a healthy diet and physical activity. They probably work more effectively as a complement.

 

[braumeister]

I take a multivitamin and a few other supplements, but I've always felt this to be merely an insurance policy to compensate for haphazard eating habits.

The one supplement I feel confident about is glucosamine/chondroitin. If I take it, my knees are fine when I run (which I do most days). If I skip it for a week or two, which I have done numerous times as an experiment, my knees get painful after a mile or two.

 

[Tigger]

My favourite supplement is vitamin D3. It shows in my blood work as more adequate vitamin D levels, which are associated with a lot less health trouble in the long run.

And that's what I'm shooting for. If I wanted to feel more energetic I'd get more sleep, get exercise or take certain recreational drugs.

I supplement for long term health and maximal lifespan. In addition to D3, I take a bunch of other supplements, but they don't make me feel noticeably different. Taking them is just educated guesses, hoping I'll be better off in the long run. There's always the risk that they will do more harm than good, which is why I'm VERY careful and selective, and get my blood work done regularly.

 

[donheff]

I take a multivitamin and a few other supplements, but I've always felt this to be merely an insurance policy to compensate for haphazard eating habits.]+1

The one supplement I feel confident about is glucosamine/chondroitin. If I take it, my knees are fine when I run (which I do most days). If I skip it for a week or two, which I have done numerous times as an experiment, my knees get painful after a mile or two.

May be a placebo effect according to the latest research which says it has no impact at all. I took it for years after my dog seemed to improve on it (no placebo effect there). But I stopped bothering a year ago after reading more and more debunking studies. I have noticed no change.

Just as an aside, everything I have read lately tells me that the better approach for problems (sore joints, IBS, etc) is to remove things from your diet to see if you can determine if you are eating something that is toxic to you rather than add new supplements to the mix trying to mask the symptoms. That worked well for me recently when I started getting IBS. Through trial and error I learned that I was taking too much magnesium (for me) that I had added as a supplement for restless leg syndrome. DW learned that long standing muscle pains that she and her doctors attributed to getting older were the result of statins.

 

[noelm]

If you are healthy, no diagnosed medical condition, eat healthy food and exercise enough, you do not need supplements. We have been brainwashed to use supplements as prophylactic but the fact is, the quality and amount that you will get from natural sources will beat the crap out of the supplements.

Believe me, the supplement industry works more by confusing you than educating you. I am a pharmacist by education (do not practice it though) and I myself get confused so many times by the supplement industry's 'education' that I spend hours digging stuff on PubMed that is not sponsored by the supplement industry. I can tell you, they do make life difficult to sift though sensible data.

That being said, I admit I take supplements. The reason, I have plethora of medical conditions and as a result of that my body can not absorb many micronutrients, like some minerals and vitamins. My wife is 33, healthy, no diagnosed condition, takes only Vit D because she is the kind who will not lie on the beach in her bikini. She has brown skin and we live in NY, that makes it hard for her to get enough Vitamin D. Thats about it.

If you ask me, I would tell you to spend that money on good quality unprocessed food, exercise regularly and laugh a lot.

 

[HFWR]

I intend to stay 31 forever.

I chose 21, because if you're old enough to drink, you're old enough...

 

[Tigger]

If you are healthy, no diagnosed medical condition, eat healthy food and exercise enough, you do not need supplements.

I almost agree, but there are exceptions. For example it is well documented that vitamin D deficiency is rampant, and eating healthy food and exercising don't protect against that.

We have been brainwashed to use supplements as prophylactic but the fact is, the quality and amount that you will get from natural sources will beat the crap out of the supplements.

Yes. I get my nutrients from real food when I can.

Believe me, the supplement industry works more by confusing you than educating you.

Oh yes. Like all industries who are trying to sell you something.

 

[Live And Learn]

I am amoung the brainwashed and I'm ok with that. As long as the supplements aren't harmful then its all good. And please, no links to how there are 'bad ingredients' in supplements. I take a multivit, CoQ10, Tumeric, Glucosime, Fish Oil, B 50 Complex, B-12, Biotin and Vit E. I think it has a very nice placebo effect on me.

(ETA: can't answer the poll as I dont know if I feel better --- I haven't been without these supplements)

 

[Mulligan]

I am amoung the brainwashed and I'm ok with that. As long as the supplements aren't harmful then its all good. And please, no links to how there are 'bad ingredients' in supplements. I take a multivit, CoQ10, Tumeric, Glucosime, Fish Oil, B 50 Complex, B-12, Biotin and Vit E. I think it has a very nice placebo effect on me.

(ETA: can't answer the poll as I dont know if I feel better --- I haven't been without these supplements)

I am with you on the CoQ10 and Krill Oil. Taking these won't make you feel better. It's just supposed to help the ol ticker keep working. Research says they have benefits, but I don't know. The hit to the wallet is minimal, so if nothing else, maybe I can humor myself with the stuff until I am old enough to not be able to remember to take it anymore.

 

[sengsational]

I am amoung the brainwashed and I'm ok with that. As long as the supplements aren't harmful then its all good.

Agreed. They are cheap insurance. I try to use things that have the best science behind them (but as we all know, that changes all of the time). D-3, Fish Oil, 83mg/day aspirin are a few with some decent science.

I have found side-effects and had to change or eliminate some supplements. The unnatural mix of tocopherols in vitamin e suppliments gives me PVC's (pre ventricular contractions), and Co-Q10 gives me digestive issues.

--Dale--

 

[sengsational]

If you are healthy, no diagnosed medical condition, eat healthy food and exercise enough, you do not need supplements.

Even the people that answered this poll that they don't take suppliments, actually do take them if they live in the US (maybe other countries too). In fact, rather than deciding on their own suppliment levels, they are supplimenting at a level defined by a bureaucrat from the 1930's, hehe. "Enriched" flour? Iodized salt? Fluoridated water? Pretty much every breakfast cereal? You're supplementing, just at a "disease prevention" level, rather than an optimal level.

I'll concede though, that if eating healthy food means no refined foods (no flour, no sugar, no rice, no other highly refined grains or things made with them, etc), then the chance of getting nutrients from food increases tremendously and supplements are not as necessary. Not many people I know eat like that, though. And some things, like vitamin D, just are not around in sufficient quantities from food, so without regular sun exposure (which has it's own risks), you're probably on the low side there. And we all probably get too much omega 6, so a little omega 3 to balance things out might be wise. There's lots of tweaks to the diet that science says are beneficial, so it's not all scare tactics.

--Dale--

 

[Chelhxi]

I take a multivitamin and a few other supplements, but I've always felt this to be merely an insurance policy to compensate for haphazard eating habits.

The one supplement I feel confident about is glucosamine/chondroitin. If I take it, my knees are fine when I run (which I do most days). If I skip it for a week or two, which I have done numerous times as an experiment, my knees get painful after a mile or two.

This. Except for me it was walking up stairs, not running. In my 20s my knees were starting to give me trouble - stairs, sitting too long with my knees bent - like on the city bus or at a desk. Glucosamine/chondroitin makes it so I hardly ever even think about my knees. If it's a placebo I don't care.

 

[SumDay]

Glucosamine/chondroitin makes it so I hardly ever even think about my knees. If it's a placebo I don't care.

+1

 

[samclem]

I take supplements, notice no health effects, and that doesn't surprise me a bit. I guess I just don't expect to notice the kind of subtle changes at the cellular level that come from variations in vitamins and minerals. If I have a "good day" or a "bad day" I'm more likely to ascribe it to any of the hundreds of other things that influence perceived well being (e.g. quality of sleep, stress, recent exercise, injury, natural injury recovery processes, immune responses to low-level infections, etc, etc). Many people claim to be able to tease out these various factors and to root out the underlying causative variable, but I take these claims with a boulder of NaCl.

 

[gerrym51]

+1

glucosamine/chondroitin is a natural anti inflammatory. helps some people-does not help some. can't hurt in general to take

 

[Rambler]

glucosamine/chondroitin is a natural anti inflammatory. helps some people-does not help some. can't hurt in general to take

Can't hurt...except in the wallet...I do take it, for the running knees, and the stairs. But it is pretty pricey.

I take about 10 supplements...a multi, fish oil, red rice yeast, niacin, b-complex, CoQ10, C, garlic, E, Glucosamine/chondroitin, and MSM (the E and MSM are also for the knees). Not sure I feel better, but I am trying to keep a bunch of borderline things from crossing the border (I.e., running along with CoQ10, niacin, garlic fish oil, red yeast rice etc for borderline cholesterol/BP/BG, and glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM/E for the runners' knees). If its not one thing, it's another...

R

 

[Animorph]

I don't feel a noticeable effect. But I do see a measurable effect in my blood tests. That has made the doc happy, so I guess it's a good thing.

 

[mickeyd]

Been taking 2000 IU of Vitamin D for abut 2 years because I do not get to spend much time in the sun due to my propensity to get skin cancer. I don't notice any effect and I still get the occasional skin cancer lesion that needs to be cut out. Vitamin D is pretty cheap and you can often get it as a 2 for one sale.

 

[HFWR]

I take supplements, notice no health effects, and that doesn't surprise me a bit. I guess I just don't expect to notice the kind of subtle changes at the cellular level that come from variations in vitamins and minerals. If I have a "good day" or a "bad day" I'm more likely to ascribe it to any of the hundreds of other things that influence perceived well being (e.g. quality of sleep, stress, recent exercise, injury, natural injury recovery processes, immune responses to low-level infections, etc, etc). Many people claim to be able to tease out these various factors and to root out the underlying causative variable, but I take these claims with a boulder of NaCl.

Hopefully iodized...

 

[RAE]

I take several supplements, and I don't really feel any immediate benefits from taking them - but that's not why I take them. Many diseases (cancer, heart disease, etc) develop over many years (decades), and my belief (based on a lot of reading I've done) is that taking certain supplements may help delay the onset and/or severity of these diseases. I may or may not be correct in this assessment, but I'm willing to take the supplements just as a sort of insurance policy. I don't see much downside, if any, so I see no reason not to take them. I should add that I also try to eat as healthy as possible (and exercise, etc), but let's face it, modern life exposes all of us to all sorts of substances every day that are toxic, so anything we can do to help counter those things should be of some help.