Vitamin pills in-take pre and post ER

[Moscyn]

Have there been any changes to your vitamin pills in-take pre and post ER? Well, for me - there have been. I used to take (1) multi-vitamins since I eat out often and may not eat a good diet, (2) sometimes I take B complex for stress relief, (3) Calcium and Vit D3, (4) Vitamin E and (5) Evening Primrose Oil. After ER, I continued with items (3) to (5) and take them 5 days a week as I take them under advice by my gynae eversince I menopaused. I don't take (1) as I cook a lot and eat healthily after ER. I don't take (2) as I have minimal stress after ER.

I wonder whether the calcium and Vit D3 pills I take contributed to a kidney stone. In my medical check up 5 years ago, I noticed I had a small kidney stone and thankfully, it has not grown for the last 5 years.

 

[REWahoo]

I've increased my in-take of vitamin Bud, does that count?

 

[Animorph]

Started D3 to compensate for staying indoors most of the time. Just stopped my multivitamin and mineral to avoid stomach pains. Maybe too much iron according to the web. I guess old folks don't need that, and too much iron is way worse than too little. I'll try a "mature" version without iron to see if that's OK with my digestive tract. Also need to watch my cholesterol now and added flaxseed oil for that.

 

[Mulligan]

Started D3 to compensate for staying indoors most of the time. Just stopped my multivitamin and mineral to avoid stomach pains. Maybe too much iron according to the web. I guess old folks don't need that, and too much iron is way worse than too little. I'll try a "mature" version without iron to see if that's OK with my digestive tract. Also need to watch my cholesterol now and added flaxseed oil for that.

Too much iron is definitely something you don't need. I've noticed before "over 50" vitamins don't even have iron in them, or at least the ones I have looked at.

 

[W2R]

When working I took a good multivitamin every day. I felt I had to, because I caught so many colds and flu-like illnesses. I wanted to do whatever I could to stay in top physical condition and stay healthy.

In retirement, I do not take vitamins at all. I get more sleep. I am not as tired and stressed, and I am not exposed to as many illnesses in retirement as I was while working. So, I no longer feel such a compelling need to take them.

 

[Moscyn]

I've stopped taking iron supplements for a long long time. Is flaxseed oil really good for cholesterol level? I have high cholesterol and the evening primrose oil and Vit E seems to help but I need more help. Try to eat oatmeal for breakfast but often it is too filling and I get distracted by other good things to eat for breakfast.

 

[Moscyn]

When working I took a good multivitamin every day. I felt I had to, because I caught so many colds and flu-like illnesses. I wanted to do whatever I could to stay in top physical condition and stay healthy.

In retirement, I do not take vitamins at all. I get more sleep. I am not as tired and stressed, and I am not exposed to as many illnesses in retirement as I was while working. So, I no longer feel such a compelling need to take them.

Good for you! Stay healthy!

 

[Alan]

When working I took a good multivitamin every day. I felt I had to, because I caught so many colds and flu-like illnesses. I wanted to do whatever I could to stay in top physical condition and stay healthy.

In retirement, I do not take vitamins at all. I get more sleep. I am not as tired and stressed, and I am not exposed to as many illnesses in retirement as I was while working. So, I no longer feel such a compelling need to take them.

That is exactly our situation. DW takes a daily pill for her allergies otherwise we take nothing now that we are retired.

 

[donheff]

I take multivitamins every day and hope they actually get into my system. I eat virtually no vegetables despite heroic efforts to try to like them. I'm the cook and have tried every approach but nothing makes them attractive.

 

[rescueme]

I have not changed my OTC drug regimen since retirement.

Still the Fish Oil caps (per recommendation of my heart care doctor), along 81mg aspirin.

Add to that a Centrum (or generic equivalent) vitamin daily dose completes the mixture.

Does it work? I have no idea. However to me it is "cheap insurance" and fulfils a physiological need.

 

[TromboneAl]

I've increased my in-take of vitamin Bud, does that count?

or

?

or maybe

?

 

[GregLee]

I'm up to 8 vitamins/supplements, but the only change I've made since I retired is going from 30mg of resveratrol to 500mg of it. That's the red wine factor said by some to be healthful. I ran across a research brief that reported a decrease of 6% in cancer cell counts in the colons of colon cancer patients taking 500-1000mg of resveratrol, so I upped my dose.

I don't take any supplements to help with symptoms of health problems, because I don't have any symptoms, for one thing, and for another, none of the supplements has any proven health benefit. I'm just trying to get a little edge on the odds I can delay future problems, on the off chance some of the supplements do turn out to have some good effect.

 

[Nords]

I don't know whether any of this is correlated with retirement. It has everything to do with lower stress, better sleep, better eating habits, and more exercise. Apparently retirement is the only effective prescription for those results, but hypothetically it could be accomplished through disciplined time management and work-life balance. Of course the only way I was able to handle those was through retirement, too.

I think another improvement to my health has been regaining my choice of to whose viruses I expose myself... especially the ones who dragged their assets into department-head meetings when they should've stayed in bed. Empty nester is another important step, because whenever our daughter comes home on breaks she always brings a few new infections with her.

I've been taking a multivitamin for years, and in retirement I've upped the vitamins C&E. I've added an antihistamine, something I should probably have done 20 years ago.

I think the fish oil and the coenzyme Q10 only exhibit a marked placebo effect. But hey, it's the desired result regardless of the mechanism.

I take multivitamins every day and hope they actually get into my system. I eat virtually no vegetables despite heroic efforts to try to like them. I'm the cook and have tried every approach but nothing makes them attractive.

I've made a lot of progress with more protein and less carbs, and I actually enjoy eating broccoli 3-4x/week. But after extensive research I've concluded that tomatoes only taste good on pizza.

The most happy nutritional thing I've learned in the last year is that a frozen meal a day does not seem to have adverse effects on one's body. In other words we've largely stopped cooking. The most labor-intensive meal I prepare these days is a frozen fish filet in the convection microwave for 14 minutes. Everything else is less than five minutes.

BTW we should give thanks for the second-most important nutritional supplement (after vitamin Bud): Vitamin Motrin.

 

[GregLee]

I eat virtually no vegetables despite heroic efforts to try to like them. I'm the cook and have tried every approach but nothing makes them attractive.

I don't care for cooked vegetables, but I can eat lots of raw vegetables in salads, provided I dress them nicely.

 

[Animorph]

I've stopped taking iron supplements for a long long time. Is flaxseed oil really good for cholesterol level? I have high cholesterol and the evening primrose oil and Vit E seems to help but I need more help. Try to eat oatmeal for breakfast but often it is too filling and I get distracted by other good things to eat for breakfast.

Flaxseed oil (2000 mg) was one of the few things that I added before my HDL spiked nicely and then stopped before my HDL returned to normal. So I'm taking it again. I'll find out in 2012 if it raises my HDL again. I didn't see any LDL effects. I ate Cheerios every morning with no apparent effect over a year or more (LDL may have gone up, but other things are always going on), plus they are iron fortified. I tried fish oil in place of flaxseed, but my LDL went up during that period and HDL stayed normal. YMMV.

 

[TromboneAl]

I'll bet with just the right combination of supplements, I could feel better, be stronger, and be healthier. But the probability of me being able to clearly determining which to take is about zero.

Let's say that I take supplement X and feel better after a month. Is it the supplement X, or the fact that I rode more, or slept more, or went on a trip, or ate more flax, or had less stress? It's not possible to keep all but one variable constant, and whether you "feel better" is so subjective.

Can you rely on the studies you find on the Internet? Often different studies have different results.

Having said that, I'm currently seeing if CoQ10 will lower my blood pressure. That's at least a nice objective variable to measure. So far, no clear effect, but it's supposed to take a few months.

 

[harley]

Flaxseed oil (2000 mg) was one of the few things that I added before my HDL spiked nicely and then stopped before my HDL returned to normal. So I'm taking it again. I'll find out in 2012 if it raises my HDL again. I didn't see any LDL effects. I ate Cheerios every morning with no apparent effect over a year or more (LDL may have gone up, but other things are always going on), plus they are iron fortified. I tried fish oil in place of flaxseed, but my LDL went up during that period and HDL stayed normal. YMMV.

I take Niacin pills to help my genetically low HDL count. It went from <25 to the mid 40s. It causes a flush, which is annoying but not enough for me to quit taking it. The slow release non-flush versions don't have the same efect on HDL for some reason. I might try some flaxseed oil for awhile. Maybe I can make it into the 50s.

 

[GregLee]

I'll bet with just the right combination of supplements, I could feel better, be stronger, and be healthier. But the probability of me being able to clearly determining which to take is about zero.

Right. Solution: if they're not harmful, take them all.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

I take multivitamins every day and hope they actually get into my system. I eat virtually no vegetables despite heroic efforts to try to like them. I'm the cook and have tried every approach but nothing makes them attractive.

I've gotten to love vegetables in various ways. I guess my favorite, and I fix this myself sometimes, is to cook up a batch of rice and steam some mixed frozen veggies in a separate pan (generally just the corn, green beans and carrots variety). When the rice is ready, I drain the veggies and then mix them in with the rice. Pat of butter, salt and pepper and yummie! DW fixes stir fries a lot.

I noticed all the mention of vitamin E. Because of my heart surgery, I take Plavix and diclofenac sodium for arthritis, both of which are blood thinners so my doctor took me off vitamin E. When I've had other surgeries, they take me off the vitamin E until the surgery is done. Never knew vitamin E is a blood thinner.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I was having trouble swallowing the giant daily multiple so I switched to these, which are smaller but in sweet irony require 2 a day:

 

[Moscyn]

I take multivitamins every day and hope they actually get into my system. I eat virtually no vegetables despite heroic efforts to try to like them. I'm the cook and have tried every approach but nothing makes them attractive.

I used to hate vegetables when I was younger. Didn't like fruits too except for fruit juice but I think it was around my early forties when I started to like eating most kind of vegetables and have found out lots of ways to cook them. I just cooked curry vegetables for dinner today.

 

[donheff]

Just read an article in today's paper saying that men taking vitamin E (at the recommended high doses for "miracle" effects) have a 17% higher instance of prostate cancer. I'm sticky with my one a day's.

 

[freebird5825]

I did the daily vitamin pill regiment when I was w*rking, using one of those 7 day plastic pill dispensers. My diet was ok in those days but not what I would call great. I ate a lot of carbs at lunches out.
Post-FIRE, I am concentrating on eating as healthy as I can. I still eat some junk food but the majority is homecooked with good variety of meats, dairy, and veggies. Fresh and canned fruit and cheese are daily snacks.
I have recently cut back on quantity consumed and a lot less carbs, to help me lose weight while my medium duty activity habits have improved. So I use Ensure Plus as a supplement. The chocolate flavored version, well chilled, is so much easier to do than the pill form vitamin supplements.

 

[Dawg52]

I've started drinking V8 Smoothies. Not replacing my normal med's, but not bad for a snack or even a meal. I put a cup of the drink in a blender, add a banana, ice and that's it. Pretty darn good. I do take a one a day vitamin too.

 

[harley]

I'm sticky with my one a day's.

I think this post belongs over on Haha's shower thread.