Author Topic: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?  (Read 7208 times)

Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« on: 02 June, 2008, 09:50:25 pm »
About a month ago I started taking vitamins - the ones "specially formulated for Wimmin". Not the super-dear Vitabiotics brand, but the Boots' cheaper equivalent: a big chunky red pill with all the standard ABCs, plus starflower and Evening Primrose oils and I know not what.

Dare I speak too soon... I am actually noticing a difference! My nails and hair are a lot stronger and shinier, my nose is wet and tail wagging and when the English disembark I don't experience as much discomfort as I usually do.  :thumbsup:

Does anyone else take these/the male equivalent/other supplements that seem to do the trick?


annie

Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #1 on: 03 June, 2008, 06:41:57 am »
I take my usual pill (HRT), once a day and used to take soluble Vit B and C, however they both upset my tummy.  I have recently been taking Floradix which seems to have given me a boost.  My nails grow far too fast as it is and are extremely hard already.  I may well try some alternatives though.

I am glad they are working for you Peli.

Gandalf

  • Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty
Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #2 on: 03 June, 2008, 07:35:18 am »
I take a multivitamin once a day that I get from the Vegan Society as a precaution against the theoretical B12 shortage. 

TBH I can't say I've noticed any difference in comparison to when I wasn't taking supplements.

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #3 on: 03 June, 2008, 07:39:45 am »
I haven't been taking Boy Pills but after my lurgy-fest in January I became a diehard multivitamin + probiotic user.  Been fit as a fiddle ever since. :thumbsup:
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
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Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #4 on: 03 June, 2008, 09:10:06 am »
I eat all my fruit and veg and almost never get ill. I'd sooner change diet than pop pills.

Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #5 on: 03 June, 2008, 09:11:30 am »
I dont take them regularly but use Berocca when I'm knackered.  It seems to work like the ad says, 'it's like you, but on a really good day'.

Probiotics dont seem to make any difference at all.



Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #6 on: 03 June, 2008, 09:28:32 am »
I eat all my fruit and veg and almost never get ill. I'd sooner change diet than pop pills.

+1

It seems there are more and more studies showing that you're more likely to harm your health by popping pills.
Your Royal Charles are belong to us.

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #7 on: 03 June, 2008, 09:42:42 am »
...big dose pills, that is.

Long gruelling stuff takes more out of me than my healthy diet puts back.
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

Gandalf

  • Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty
Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #8 on: 03 June, 2008, 10:22:47 am »
I have never quite understood the one-size fits-all term 'popping pills'. 

Is it meant to be some kind of perjorative reference to drug abuse?

Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #9 on: 03 June, 2008, 10:29:28 am »
It's not only big dose pills that are the problem, Andy.
Your Royal Charles are belong to us.

FatBloke

  • I come from a land up over!
Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #10 on: 03 June, 2008, 10:32:44 am »
If you eat a healthy, balanced diet, the only effect popping vitamin pills is going to have is a reduction in your bank balance.  :P
This isn't just a thousand to one shot. This is a professional blood sport. It can happen to you. And it can happen again.

Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #11 on: 03 June, 2008, 10:34:51 am »
And dyeing your urine...
Your Royal Charles are belong to us.

FatBloke

  • I come from a land up over!
Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #12 on: 03 June, 2008, 10:36:43 am »
And dyeing your urine...
I quite fancy blue urine. It would certainly make a fashion statement in the gents!   ;D
This isn't just a thousand to one shot. This is a professional blood sport. It can happen to you. And it can happen again.

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #13 on: 03 June, 2008, 10:43:35 am »
If you eat a healthy, balanced diet, the only effect popping vitamin pills is going to have is a reduction in your bank balance.  :P

whatever
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

onb

  • Between jobs at present
Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #14 on: 03 June, 2008, 10:52:25 am »
I take Glucosamate for my joints it seems to help.
.

Julian

  • samoture
Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #15 on: 03 June, 2008, 10:56:02 am »
I take echinacea in the winter on the basis that it's a highly recommended placebo.  I should take iron tablets but I don't always remember.  An all-in-one sounds like a good idea.  A wet nose and a shiny coat, you say?  :D

Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #16 on: 03 June, 2008, 10:56:38 am »
I was always very skeptical about them but I had a period of about six months a while ago where I caught every bug going, despite making the effort to have a good diet with plenty of fruit, veg and protein etc, and felt really run down.

I just couldn't afford to keep getting sick and having time off (and I don't like hauling myself in to spread the bugs around the office), so I started taking Berocca tablets in desperation, and have felt better since, the bugs have stopped for now (touch wood!), so perhaps I was missing something in my diet, but I can't think what.

Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #17 on: 03 June, 2008, 10:59:28 am »
so perhaps I was missing something in my diet, but I can't think what.

Which is exactly why a one-a-day multivitamin supplement is a good insurance policy.

Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #18 on: 03 June, 2008, 11:03:31 am »
I take Sainsburys own make multivitamins + iron as I started to eat more vegetarian meals, don't know if there are making any difference to my heath though

Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #19 on: 03 June, 2008, 12:41:10 pm »
I take Boots own one-a-day multivit (primarily for calcium & B12, since I'm vegan), Floradix liquid iron (I've been mildly anaemic my entire life; it makes a noticable difference to my cycling ability!), and Evening Primrose Oil (stops me getting suicidally depressed once a month.  I gather there's little to no evidence that it works as anything other than a placebo, but I Do Not Care, since without it, I spend 24 hours crying uncontrollably & eyeing up the kitchen knives, and with it, I don't.  If it's a placebo, great, it still works.)

If I think I'm coming down with a cold I take Vit C 1g & zinc for a couple of days, which does seem to help. 

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #20 on: 03 June, 2008, 01:31:06 pm »
If you eat a healthy, balanced diet, the only effect popping vitamin pills is going to have is a reduction in your bank balance.  :P

Agreed

Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #21 on: 03 June, 2008, 08:38:11 pm »
I take echinacea in the winter on the basis that it's a highly recommended placebo.  I should take iron tablets but I don't always remember.  An all-in-one sounds like a good idea.  A wet nose and a shiny coat, you say?  :D
Indeed! But the most startling thing is how hard and long my nails now are  :demon:

Maladict

Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #22 on: 03 June, 2008, 08:43:48 pm »
Fruit and veg contain all sorts of nutrients that aren't understood and you won't get from a pill.  Vitamin pills aren't a substitute for a healthy diet and there's no evidence of them making you live any longer.

I was surprised by this:

Brown rice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I had naively assumed all that was lost with white rice was a bit of fibre; not so.  Brown rice is far more nutritious.  How many of you pill poppers are eating white rice regularly (as I used to until last week when I read that)?

Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #23 on: 03 June, 2008, 08:45:51 pm »
I eat a very healthy diet (and yes, much prefer brown rice and brown pasta to white. Ugh, I hate white rice). I am vegetarian though, and just wonder if there was something I was missing as I do feel better. And I don't think I could have got starflower or Evening Primrose oil from another source?

Re: Vitamin supplements - making a difference?
« Reply #24 on: 03 June, 2008, 09:02:16 pm »
I very rarely eat white rice - though do eat white basmati (which isn't as bad as white long-grain).  Brown rice mostly, though.

EPO is I think just a variety of a particular fatty acid - can be gotten from food but it's more hassle. 

I'd agree that in general, a varied healthy diet should see you fine, and absolutely pills are not a substitute for that.  But if you're inclined to be lacking in things (e.g. my anaemia), then supplements may be a good, well, supplement.  Peli - if you were feeling generally a bit below-par & are now feeling generally a bit better, iron is a likely culprit (especially if it's cyclical - I'm much more anaemic around my period, to the point that I check when long rides fall in my cycle (the other sort of cycle...) ).  Getting enough iron can be a bit tougher for women & for vegetarians.