Did you know that probiotics, the current wunderkind of supplements (It regulates digestion! Lowers cholesterol! Relieves IBS! Shrinks your waistline! Cures allergies!), can kill you?
I can’t say I’m terribly surprised. Like all natural things, it has its pros and cons. And it is bacteria, after all. But mostly I’m not surprised because it seems like whenever people take a nutrient out of its natural element and package it in a pill, it does things that people don’t expect. Sometimes bad things, like in the case of Ma Huang (ephedra). Oftentimes, the much-hyped & expensive supplements do nothing, as in the case of Hoodia. Occasionally it will make you fly, as in the case of fairy dust (the Peter Pan variety, not the kind you smoke. Although now that I think about it, it could totally be both. Except the FDA does not classify the latter as a “supplement” but feel free to argue all you want when the men in SWAT jackets show up. I hear they like a good well-reasoned argument.)
Claims of supplement harm or ineffectiveness will be hotly contested by the manufacturers of those supplements and with the absence of FDA oversight and a dearth of well-conducted research, the debate rages. Ever-hopeful consumers, desperate for an edge, only add more fuel to the fire. Everyone wants a miracle pill. Some people are just fine with a placebo. But either way, the supplement industry made more than $13 billion gross in 2006 and is still growing. No word yet on the fairy dust industry.
If you can name it, there’s a pill for it
As active fitness people, I know you’ve all heard hype in the gym or read the glowing testimonials in the full-page ads that stuff all the fitness mags. “L-carnitine is how bodybuilders get that ripped!” “Creatine builds, like, twice as much muscle!” “I read a study that Zantrex-3 burns 546% more fat!” “My neighbor, who is an olympic shotputter told me the secret is drinking first-morning pregnant camel urine!” (If you drink urine, I’m totally not judging you. Laughing? Well, yeah. But what goes on between you & your pregnant camel is totally none of my business.)
And I must admit that some of the ads speak to me. But being poor & generally skeptical, I haven’t tried very many. However, when it comes to vitamin research I tend to perk up. I may not believe any of the muscle building or weightloss pill hype (hyperbole?) but when a research luminary comes out with micronutrient research, I’m all over it. It’s a weakness, I know.
What’s In My Cabinet
So far they’ve talked me into taking as part of my daily regimine: a multi-vitamin specifically formulated for the “active pre-menopausal woman with curly hair and no appendix or tonsils”, an Omega-3 (why can’t I type that without capitalizing?) flaxseed oil supplement, a 500 mg calcium supplement with vitamin D (the “new” vitamin everyone’s getting all breathless about), and a 500 mg vitamin C chew that mostly I eat because it tastes really really good. Considering I have to take two each of the multi and the Omega-3, that makes 6 pills I swallow or chew a day. I’m a GNC gold card member:)
Is this excessive? I don’t know. My 86-year-old grandma who smokes like a chimney and still has yet to get cancer takes buckets of supplements a day. On the other hand, my college roommate, who is not an octogenarian but also has never had cancer, refuses to even take a multi because it’s “too much effort.”
I need to know: what supplements do you guys take? I remember one of you wonderful commenters said you were experimenting with CLA – how is it working? Do you guys love your pills or do you have the vague suspicion, like me, that you’ve just been suckered by another marketing machine? Does any of it live up to the hype? Let me know! Or at least send me some fairy dust 🙂
Wow, now I’m really interested to know why you take each of those supplements. (And are the multi-vitamins meant to be taken two at a time, or are you double dosing on purpose?)
Heidi – the multi is supposed to be taken twice a day. The theory is that your body can only absorb so much of any given vitamin at one time. So the multis that throw your whole RDI into one pill just mean that you pee out whatever your body can’t use at that exact moment. At least that’s what they tell me. The Omega-3 supplements are because our Western Diet is so insanely high in Omega-6’s that, to be safe, I take an Omega-3 to balance it out (Omega 3 is just a kind of polyunsaturated fat found in fish, nuts, flax etc.) The calcium is because after folic acid, it is apparently the most important nutrient for women. Plus I put a lot of stress on my bones so I want to make sure they are nice & strong. It comes with vitamin D & manganese in the same pill because your body needs those to utilize the calcium. The vitamin C is supposed to reduce colds, increase muscle endurance and a whole host of other good things but, like I said up top, I really eat it because the vit. C chews taste like candy:)
So what do you take? Anything?
I take nothing. Well, okay, about once a month I’ll remember to take my multi, but that’s about it.
I eat a very healthy diet and take in dairy 3X a day, so I’m okay on my nutrients. However, when DH and I decide to have kids, I’ll be taking a folic acid supplement.
Do you take all your supplements at the same time? I wonder because while vit D does help with the absorption of Calcium, vit C can actually decrease absorption. Most nutritionists will recommend that mulits are taken in the morning and calcium supps taken in the afternoon/evening to alleviate this problem.
I used to take a multi for years…and then I kept forgetting to buy it for a few weeks, and then by the time I remembered, I figured I probably don’t need it…and now I don’t take anything. I do wander down those aisles though and feel I maybe should take something but it is way, way too confusing trying to figure out what I need, and how much of it, and when to take it and so on.
Maybe I should actually spend some time doing research on what I should be taking, but I suspect it would be a very complicated task.
I am in the same camp as the woman who said the multi is “too much trouble”. I just don’t like taking pills! But I know I need them (or so the marketing people say) so I’m wondering if anyone has a favorite brand?
Also, my best friend takes approximately 50 suppliments per day. She says her favorite is fish oil – keeps her skin completely clear (not that she had bad skin to begin with…)
I used to take a bunch, but now I only take a multi, calcium, and fish oil. Oh, and a cranberry tablet when I remember, to keep bladder infections at bay. (I actually have to give those to my dog, as well!)
As far as brands, I like the new Viactiv flavored ones. It’s a pill you swallow, but it leaves a bit of fruity or vanilla flavor. I also like calcium chews.
There have been some scary reports on CLA recently, so please be careful!
I take all kinds. The most important to me are potassium (I get muscle cramps if I don’t take it), fish oil, vit D. I also include probiotics (I swear by them for my messed up gut!), echinacea, E, C, that joint stuff (glucosamine/condroiton or whatever, I have bad knees and my therapist says “why not?”), coQ10, and ALA.
Think that’s enough? What are the scary CLA reports??
Gena – yeah, I make sure and separate the calcium from the multi and to pair the C with iron. Thanks for the reminder tho!
Alexandra – don’t start, it’s a slippery slope;) Seriously tho, there’s research going both ways on everything. It just boggles.
Azusmom – share the CLA research you’ve found! I haven’t seen anything come over the science & research nets about it.
I take EPA/DHA (omegas), calcium, a separate D, a vegan multi and a regular multi with iron. I eat a mostly vegan diet and have had my iron and vitamin D levels tested twice in the last year. My vitamin D was deficient both times, while my iron improved. I upped my intake on the D, and I’ll see how that goes in a couple months. I think it’s really useful to actually have some vitamin levels checked periodically. I never would have known I was deficient otherwise.
BTW, thanks for changing your blog background to white. I used to read it and look away seeing lines everywhere because of the high contrast 🙂
What ‘experts’ never disagree about is whole foods and variety.What we need comes from our food.The debate is brought about, among others, by: How wholesome is our food today? With the storage, processing, farming methods etc. Thus, some people say, we can cover that shortfall by supplements.Others go the organic path – both ways need you to spend a little more $$ though.If you can afford to garden and grow some foods yourself, that’s great.To answer Charlotte’s question I take supplements almost the same as she does plus CoQ10 and Alpha Lipoic Acid and Selenium (I must caution that there are studies that suggest Selenium supplements, though helpful in preventing many cancers after 4.5 years of usage, may increase the risk of skin cancer.) I am currently revising my Selenium supplement intake.
I don’t take anything. I just try to eat certain things EVERY day, like flax seeds. They’re in the cereals I eat and then I put them in many foods I make like granola bars, whole wheat banana bread, etc. I also try to get daily doses of carrots, spinach, broccoli, bananas, salmon–not every day, milk, yogurt, and oats. So if I die 5 years earlier because I didn’t supplement, I’ll never know anyway. I just can’t square with the idea that a pill is better than the foods it comes from. And I guess I just don’t believe I need any supplements. Doesn’t mean I’m right!
Each day I take 1000 mg’s of Vit. C (I really want to kick the colds…so far it’s worked!)1000 mg’s of Calcium (you can’t get enough as far as I understand) Flaxseed oil (I understand that fish oil will/can raise your cholesterol) and a multi-vitamin. I can’t convince myself to take my multi twice a day because the thing is enormous. I’m lucky I remember to take it once!
I wish I could get myself into an exercise routine again. Our YMCA is not a happy place where I live.
I take an OTC prenatal vitamin and folic acid supplement (I’d like to get knocked up this year), an OTC iron supplement that my Dr recommended because I am a vegetarian who tends to be anemic, and prescription blood pressure meds due to the fact that I am currently working full time, am working on my doctorate, and I have an unhealthy addiction to salt…
KRS – good luck with getting yourself knocked up!! Nothing I love more than other people’s pregnancies;) As you probably know, I’m a vegetarian as well. And I gotta warn you that, at least for me, I did end up having to eat some meat during all 4 of my pregnancies. The anemia didn’t resolve with iron supplements. But I went back to veg after the little nubbins were popped and all is well with my hematocrit now:) Let me know how it goes for you!