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What Vitamins Do You Take?

April 22, 2014   52 Comments

Snack Girl is not a fan of vitamins in pill form.

Vitamin D

My view is that I should be fulfilling all of my nutrient needs from the food that I eat. If I eat my fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains, then I don’t need a vitamin, right?

Recently, my doctor informed me that my vitamin D was low and told me to start taking vitamin D3 in capsule form. I was like, “No way….” and then she told me that she takes it – so I bought some and started taking it. Amazing how that worked.

Vitamin D is nicknamed the “sunshine nutrient” because it is produced in your body when your skin is exposed to sunlight. I live in Massachusetts where I spend an entire 6 months out of the sunlight (unless one of you would like to fund a trip for me to fly to Tahiti next winter).

Exposure of the hands, face, arms, and legs to sunlight two to three times a week for about one-fourth of the time it would take to develop a mild sunburn will cause the skin to produce enough vitamin D. How about that?

You can also get vitamin D from fish, eggs, and fortified dairy products (which is like a vitamin in your milk).

Two large research studies which included data on more than a million people came to the conclusion that adults with low levels of vitamin D had a 35 percent increased risk of death from heart disease, 14 percent greater likelihood of death from cancer, and a greater mortality risk overall.

Holey moley!

Taking vitamin D3 (not vitamin D2) reduced overall mortality by 11% -which I think means that you had a 11% less chance of dying from heart disease, cancer, and other diseases if you took the supplement. Of course, you will die eventually but maybe your life is longer if you take vitamin D3.

What is the downside of taking vitamin D3? I poked around the internet and found that taking it is safe unless you take over 4000 units per day. It is, of course, hard to know about long term side effects as these are harder to measure.

What do you think of vitamin supplements? Do you take any? What about vitamin D3?

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First 20 Comments: ( See all 52 )

I take a ton of vitamins. My docter is very pro vitamins, so I am on a pretty big regimin. I take calcium, chromium piccolinate, D, zinc, St. John's Wort, C, Tyrosine, Flaxseed Oil, L-Glutamine, and a Multi

My family has taken vitamin d3 for years now. My daughter and I would get bronchitis yearly until we started to take it. My naturopath suggested 1,000 iu's a day for kids and 3,000 iu's for adults. When cold symptoms start she told us to boost it to 5,000 for kids and 10,000 for adults. I know it sounds like a lot but you only take it until cold systems disappear which is usually 3-4 days. We have stuck to this for 4 years now and with a family of five we have only had one antibiotic in that time! No more bronchitis or colds that are bad enough to miss school or work. Interesting enough we live in canada and also just came out of the winter months. Even with taking the amount I just mentioned my sons vitamin d3 level was still on the low end when tested! I was told that when taking vitamin d3 it should be taken with some type of oil of fat to help it be absorbed.

I take am amazing liquid vitamin daily called Omni IV. It is 96-98% absorbable in your body vs a pill form at 10-20%. Tastes great and you can Feel the difference. Easy to remember since you notice how good you feel.

I'm not a fan of pills, but thanks to an excellent primary physician and WW, I've learned to start each day with a calcium supplement with D, extra D (my level tends to run too low otherwise) and a fish oil capsule. Also B-complex and a mild anti-depressant because we too live in the Northeast, and I've dealt with Seasonal Affective Disorder for years. My bone density levels are good, my cholesterol is excellent and my blood pressure is on the low side of normal, despite my being rather....um.....voluptuous. Even though I work full-time and deal with the public daily, I only get a cold every other year or so, and haven't had a sinus infection for at least 10 years now. So I think it's all working!

I take vitamins. I am on D3, E, B-12, Calcium, Cranberry supplements. I have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, my doc put me on most of these as support. I also took 15,000 units of Vitamin D a few years ago to bring up my levels and felt best when I took that high of levels.

I've been taking supplements for 34 yrs. just remember not all vitiams are created equal.

interesting discussion. doctors often are against supplements, others that are of another persuasion are for it. i have always supplemented myself as best i could and will go on doing it according to the ability of my pocket and judicious reading of research etc. it is hard to diet and get all the nutrients one needs and if one ate all the nutrients, one would not stop eating all day long.

I live in the UK where we have very little sun. My doctor takes vitamin D supplements and if it's good enough for him then it is for me too! I use a spray called Better You DLux which has 3000iu vitamin D3 which I bought online.

The spray isn't unpleasant (tastes minty) and I keep it in my desk drawer at work and 1 bottle seems to last a very long time. PS. This is the only vitamin or supplement I can be bothered to take.

I take a multi vitamin for women over 50 yr old and calcium and have for a long time. Frankly it is wonderful to say you should get everything from food, but a very very small percentage do so it is more important to me to do it this way.

I also take Vitamin D3. I ended up in my Dr. office for lack of energy come to find out my D levels were next to nothing. I feel a lot better since I started taking them.

I also take fish, flax, and borage oil.

A few times a week a take a multi vitamin as well.

No vitamins for me. I am not against them or anything but have never been able to develop a habit of taking them. I fall off the wagon every time. I don't have any problems with iron deficiency and living in Florida would seem to eliminate any vitamin D deficiency. Since I am pretty healthy, I haven't seen the need to worry about it too much.

I take a lot of Vitamins and supplements but only those made by ProCaps Labs/Andrew Lessman since they are in capsules and not rock hard tablets and pure ingredients, no added fillers or colors,etc. I am the first one to admit that I do not always eat right...thus the vitamin supplementation and I feel better for it. I would NEVER take a rock hard vitamin tablet as you do not get the full benefit of the vitamin or supplement as it does not always fully dissolve,etc.

I've always been skeptical of vitamins in pill form, mostly because I get the more affordable kind from Target or the grocery store. Just this week I became a believer, at least in vitamin D3 supplements. My daughter has Type 1 Diabetes and last year her levels came back low (20.2 ng/ml) with the normal scale being 30-100. The doctor strongly suggested she take a supplement. Last week she was re-tested and has come up to 31.2. Not ideal, but an improvement. All by taking 1 pill of 1000 units of D3 each morning. We live in MN, so our exposure to sun all year (especially this year) is limited as well.

I also had a D deficiency, so I take D3 1000iu a day...took awhile, but it did come back up to normal! That's the only supplement I'm taking right now.

My doctor recommended vitamin D3 several years ago and I have been taking 1000 iu daily ever since. I try to get outdoors as much as possible, but sometimes that is not enough in the colder months. I also take a multi-vitamin and fish oil, which I have taken longer than the D3.

Where do you find Vitamin D3?

It's pretty impossible to get all the nutrients you need with the way food is grown. To get the minimum RDA of D you need about 6 servings of milk per day. I take Vitamin D,a whole food multi-vitamin and fish oil. My energy levels are much better when I do this.

I take a multi vitamin for women and a collagen supplement. Every now and again I will take a b12 if my energy levels are low. I admit I used to take d3 but it's been a while since I last took it since I eat a lot of dairy & take a multi. I guess I should resume in taking it because I heard that it helps with depression,which I have been dealing with lately. Another supplement I should get back on is iron,since I have a tendency to suffer from mild anemia.

Susan I found some d3 supplements at Kroger

& publix with the other vitamins made by a few different brands. I'm sure any pharmecy would also carry them. Also check out Drugstore.com

@Susan -you can find vitamin D3 next to the other vitamins at your pharmacy. It is not super expensive either.

Thanks for your question!

We don't take vitamins in our house as we try to get it from our food, we do however take Juice Plus as it is whole food based and has published third party research, that is a requirement in our house before we take anything. We have noticed having less colds and I took it soley during both pregnancies instead of prenatal vitamins.

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