Vitamins & Herbs
 

Do you take any daily?

If so, what and why?

I know they say that the levels in these kinda things, cant make a difference, but I like to humour myself.

I take...

St John's Wort - keeps me sane (ish)
Lysine - keeps the cold sores at bay (havent had one for years)
Multi V - coz I skip meals
Fish Oil - keeps me sane (ish) and all the other benefits.

My dailies: Multi-v, Fish Oil, B (keeps mosquitoes away as a bonus), C, Calcium, Glucosamine Chondroitin(joints!), iron.

I usually get enough calories in a day, but I'm not really covering all the bases nutritionally. Plus, with all the exercise I sweat out a lot of what goes in...

I eat a big bowl of delicious Wheaties for breakfast each day. Like many cereals in the US, Wheaties is fortified with a bunch of different vitamins. I put a handful of frozen blueberries on top of each bowl, because they have tons of antioxidants and taste real yummy.

Everything everyone knows is wrong. This very long NYT article will explain how you should think about nutrition. I have yet to take its advice however, because I am a moron.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/ma...56e677&ei=5070

Great article.

I think I'll have a salad for lunch today...


Edited to say that I did have a salad, and chicken tortilla soup. And milk, so I could finish my soup since it was hotter than usual today. MMmmmm.

Oh man, I pop frozen blueberries like candy! I can easily eat a whole container in one sitting, which isn't good considering how expensive they are when they're out-of-season.

The expense depends on your perspective. Would you rather eat a big container of blueberries out of season, or a McDonald's value meal? Roughly the same price.

Somehow I ended up with a huge jar of Super-B complex, so I take those. When I remember to buy multi-vitamins, I take those instead.

I take Evening Primrose Oil to control pms along with st johns wort. I don't take any actual dietary suppliments as we have a pretty balanced diet at home and as we all know, natural nutrition is always better than anything you can get out of a bottle.

Muti-vit & a Calcium supplement, Dr's orders.

I forgot to say that normally I do not take any vitamins/supplements (aside from Lexapro ;)). However, I am currently taking a 'script prenatal vitamin, in hopeful preparation for a natal. I ahve upped the fruits and veggies in my diet, for the same reason. "Naked" Blue Machine juice pwns.

Been taking plenty of things in an attempt to communicate in telepathically astral fashion with long dead alien races.

Currently take:
Iron
Caprylic acid / Oregon grape root / Peppermint (changes each week)
Multivitamin
Whey protein powder
planning to add L-Glutamine in with this soon and maybe creatine in the future

Also have in my cupboard (which is absurdly full now):
Licorice root (good for calming the stomach)
Cinnamon
Cayenne
Calcium
Oregano oil
Caprylic acid
Ginger
Olive leaf
Turmeric
Garlic
Pau D'arco
Rosemary

Jeb, what the fugg do most of those things do???

Cinnamon
Cayenne
Calcium
Oregano oil
Caprylic acid
Ginger
Olive leaf
Turmeric
Garlic
Pau D'arco
Rosemary

They make me pretty. Although I was pretty before taking them too... maybe I shouldn't credit the herbs for that :P

Different ones do different things; is there a particular one you're interested in?

Well they'd make a nice mild curry paste....

Supplements make you less healthy.

Use of multi-vitamins showed increased death by prostate cancer in men

Your body is a complex system. Everything is connected to everything else.

You may notice that if you put a gallon of drain cleaner down your drain, it will cause your drain to become unclogged. So if you put 100 gallons of drain cleaner down the drain every day, will it

A) cause your drain to never become clogged again?

B) double your drain's normal capacity?

C) eat through your pipes and contaminate your ground water if not your entire house?

You may notice that if you eat a good amount of vitamin A, that you retain the ability to see at night longer than your peers who don't. So, do you then megadose vitamin A?

No, because then you fuck with the clotting factor in your blood, IIRC.

I take a vitamin occasionally...maybe one or two a week. And I actually feel better than when I was taking them regularly.

L-Glutamine
lethicin
Ester-C
MegaMonster B! (all the B's you'll ever need!)
Folic Acid

I'm taking a doctor prescribed 'drug-vacation'---no Rx's, all vitamins (in prescribed amounts) and thirty min. daily exercise (fate worse than death). I'll let you know how it turns out.

Cinnamon keeps your blood sugar in check. Ginger is great for your digestion. Garlic is supposed to be good for your cholesterol levels, but I read about a recent study showing that this might not be the case, so who knows. Cayenne and Turmeric give me a buzz...woo hoo! Not sure what the others are used for.

Thanks Blue :D

The Oregano Oil and Caprylic Acid??

Both caprylic acid and oregano oil are said to be antibacterial. In my experience that holds true; the caprylic acid moreso than the oregano oil.

As is drain cleaner. But your body needs bacteria, it's part of the complex system.

Supplements make you less healthy.

I've been off all supplements for a few months now. I just don't want my liver working that hard. I started on them to see if they would improve my skin. They didn't.

What don't you like about your skin?

I was tempted to try to be funny and go racial on this but in the post Imus world, let's just stick to the issue which is eczema.

My son suffers from eczema, too. When it gets really bad (in the winter, usually) he puts Elidel on it which helps.

I'd forgotten that flax seed helps my skin a lot. I think I'll start eating it again...my skin's been kind of blah.

Sure, that might hold true if everything is working right. That is not always the case however.

But the twist is the prostate cancer case I posted above. There, multi-vitamins had no effect until there was something working wrong - a tumor - which the supplements made stronger and thus more deadly.

Sure, not all supplements are good and some can be harmful. That doesn't mean they should all be painted with the same brush nor should they be considered detrimental in every situation.

Absolutely. It is situational.

Let me fix your statement:

Supplements should not be considered detrimental in every situation. Unfortunately, we don't know what is detrimental, and we don't know what our situation is.

We *think* we know what our situation is, and what the supplements do for it, because we want to believe we are in control.

For prostate cancer, the multi-vitamins are harmless right up until the point a tumor starts -- and then they become deadly.

Mr Pollan in the NYT arcitle:
Bold mine.

I take absolutley nothing. other than food. and sometimes i take vitamin C if i get a cold. and i'm strong like bull.

EPA/DHA (long-chain omega-3s)
Cholecalciferol (D3)
acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin)

Oh, and ethyl alcohol. In moderation.

The old "if it ain't broke don't fix it" axiom comes to mind. Why take anything if you're fine?

Still mankind in general has a very poor grasp of what is detrimental at any given time (Ephedra anybody?); that said it's all hedging bets unless you really know what's going on. I'll admit I don't. Maybe in 40 years I'll drop dead from too much Caprylic acid. I'm betting I won't and the benefits of what I'm taking far outweigh the risks.

If you eat a balanced diet and you shit when you should, then I don't think think you need dietry suppliments.

I do however like sleeping and not threatening to murder my family during my time of month, so I take stuff that helps with those issues.

I've never taken multi vitamins. I think they're a load of crap. There are some herbal suppliments that are good though, just as a mug of warm milk is sometimes beneficial before bed.

You quote a newspaper. I'm as convinced as I would be if you had quoted wikipedia. :p

Calcium. I'm allergic to dairy, so the days I'm not eating enough leafy greens, nuts and such, I take a supplement. Other than that I'm a big believer in that eating varied and healthy will provide you with the nutrition you need. I'm not overly focused on it. If I start feeling lethargic I might take a look at my diet, but that hasn't happened yet.

B vitamins always.

Tonight I am trying some Organic Nighty Night by Traditional Medicinals which is made with Passionflower among other things to help with sleep. I am adding a shot of rum to mine plus lots o honey. If anyone sees a problem with that please stop me now.



:ipray: If I should die before I wake I pray the lord my soul to take.

amen and bottoms up!