vitamin suppliments are a waste of money

Vitamin supplements are of no benefit, a waste of money, and can actually cause harm in certain cases. Unless you are diagnosed by a qualified Physician as having a deficiency and prescribed the proper supplement in the proper dosage, you are flushing your money down the toilet. What you don't or can't use, your body sloughs off as waste.

ZW

 

That doesn't necessarily mean they're a waste of money. If 50% of it goes to waste then so be it but that'll differ from person to person.
The stupid thing is how many products are available and that people continuously buy them for no real reason. They tend to end up being like different candy packets. "I think I might try some vitamin D today mixed with some fish oil". Like you say, unless a doctor is specifically telling you take certain vitamins, there's no point taking them. I doubt they make too much of a difference anyway unless you like fluro coloured urine.

 

Agreed^^^ and thanks for the excellent reply! ( What can I say, provocative title...lol)

Vitamin A is definitely toxic in high dosages.
(BTW never eat dog or polar bear liver. lol)

Recently its been advised to not use Zink internally, its a trace mineral in food and you can easily get a toxic dose from a supplement.
(I remember a fad of zink lozenges in the 80's)

I think a good thing to remember is nutritional science is still very new, so it's probably best to 'hedge your bet's' so to speak by eating a broad variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, fish, a little meat, eggs, dairy...few who do this will ever have a need to take vitamin pills.

ZW

 

If you eat a well-balanced diet, they may not be of much use. But if you don't, they'll be more useful. Sometimes a multivitamin might be overkill and you can get too much of certain vitamins, like vitamin A if it's not in the form of beta carotene, so it might be best to focus on the vitamins your diet is lacking in. But you don't need a diagnosed vitamin deficiency to benefit from them. For many people who take them, they might be what's preventing them from having certain vitamin deficiencies.

 

I very seldom take any vitamins but if I am beginning to feel ill I usually take a B complex type vitamin and some C. This really seems to make me feel better, but I never take them regularly. And who doesnt love electric pee anyhow.

 

What your describing is the equivalent of nutritional russian roulette,
you can't possibly diagnose yourself, tests are required and those tests need to be analyzed by a qualified Physician...

...not only that but science is only recently discovering a previously unknown synergy of nutritional substances in real foods, cofactors, coenzymes, and phytonutrients, bioflavonoids, carotenes, lutein, sulforaphane, anthocyanins and hundreds of others...
Synthesized or extracted vitamins, isolated from the plant or animal matrix, are proving to have anywhere from no benefit to drastically reduced efficacy compared to real foods.

 

I know you can't self-diagnose a vitamin deficiency very well. But take something like vitamin D, for instance. It's a common deficiency, but it might be prevented by taking a multivitamin that contains vitamin D, even if the person taking it isn't necessarily aware that without it they'd be deficient in that specific vitamin, and even if they ignore the vitamin D content of the multivitamin and focus on its other contents as motivators to take it.

That's quite true. All I'm saying, though, is they can still be considerably helpful in the absence of such an ideal diet.

 

Aesthete, yes a multi-v once in a while probably won't hurt, but in todays world with so many products already fortified it's difficult not get too much of one or another. Milk for instance has been fortified with vitamin D for many years, most cereals and breads are fortified...

If you took a multivitamin at breakfast, ate a bowl of fortified cereal, a fortified granola bar at coffee break, fortified bun on your hamburger at lunch... you get the idea...pretty soon you have no idea the amount of synthesized, biologicaly isolated vitamins you've consumed, quite a chore to keep track of anyway.

And those damned energy drinks..I have no Idea why they can't just make a decent tasting, low sugar (no corn syrup) high caffine drink without the mega-doses of taurine, B12, and shit...but I digress

Awareness is all we've got as consumers. Making objective judgements is the trick
With all this crazy new "food science", nutritional health fads pop up every week, many times based on dubious "clinical studies" with the barest thread of causality ...( like the latest Antioxidant craze)

No one person has time to keep up, re-research the studies, have the where-with-all to interpret data, and draw objective conclusions...
Who to believe? :juggle:


ZW

 

True, but despite that, vitamin D deficiency is still pretty common. The best way to get it is from sun exposure, but winter makes that hard to do.

 

Tell me about it...I'm up against the north face of the mountain where I live...
not much sun strikes the yard this time of year...I drink a lot of milk though! lol


ZW

 

Couple years ago, I was posting how terrible my arm hurt, I had killer head aches every other day, neck pain, vision loss. I was getting stupid diagnosis from most doctors Ive been to. most these doctors are @ the VA hospital.

If I did it their way. I would be a host for all kinds of drugs for fibromyalgia and Muscular Sclerosis. I was a host for plenty til I was fed up with being tricked into opiate dependency, when the dope dont do shit but ruin my cannabis buzz..

With the power of Grayskull and Google.. mostly google.

I take two supplement. And one of those is designed to prevent muscle loss in menopausal women. Due to the loss of hormones.

The other is a amino complex with some vitamins.

MS and fibromyalgia haven't bothered me in months.. I could say they are both in remission.

Winters ago I had so much arm pain, Id take bullets and put them in the gun and just wait. MS attacks also twist your emotions because you become helpless, and its almost as if your afraid to be dependent on others. Therefore game over.
I seem to figure out a cheat code, all on my own, so I can play some more.

I also quit caffeine since it causes bone and muscle loss, and its not necessary to consume it.

I use a tanning bed every couple weeks. eat 3 to 4 cereals a day, with milk. meats only chicken, seafoods, fish, and I have veggies, a fruit, juice everyday...

 

They can be a waste, but it depends on the form and dosage. I take vitamin c chewables which are much more effective than capsules. Melatonin tabs help me fall asleep since the evening room lighting is bright which cuts down on the body's melatonin.

 

I can't say any of the things your doing aren't of benefit, but this^^^ is probably the most important thing...
you took charge of your own shit and your body loves for it!...

May you live long and well my friend.:guitarist:

 

I realized long ago that you can't trust any new fly by night fads. So that why I've stuck with Flintstones multivitamin , how can any Hanna-Barbera Production be bad for you.

 

dunno man, this made me nauseous..uke:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ih4tBBiPTc"]Michael Jackson and the Flintstone Kids ('Just Say No'-campaign) - YouTube