I know, my husband was diabetic...he might have taken that one but I'm not sure anymore, it's been awhile.
I think it was @Holly Saunders that mentioned getting our supplements through nutrition and I agree 100%. It's sometimes hard for me to determine if I'm getting enough this or that, or if a supplement like glucosamine is working. I think the proof is seen more if a person has a specific issue, and it gets better. I mean I can't really say that's proof, because maybe other things helped heal it as well. I take a calcium each day, and a joint support formula, but when it runs out I don't know that I'll continue with it. Exercise and balanced meals seem to help me more than anything. I agree on "what are we actually" buying when we go out to get a supplement. But also true for "what are we eating" when it's hard to get fresh vegies, non-processed etc. Recently I started doing a daily drink. I had bought a bottle of similar mixture at the health-food store, and decided to copy it with my own take on "healthy" detox or cleansing drinks for our bods. I know something changed, almost overnight!! I slept better, woke up not groggy or, omg, I've fallen awake, and I can't get up. I won't put the recipe here as I have it in other areas, plus the fact many folks take pills that this stuff "will" interfere with, and also, it's VERY spicey. Too hard on some tummies
Not all of us want to eat right and/or exercise daily, like some really like doing. So, it's a multi-vitamin, supplements and some exercise that keeps us going. When our apt complex pool gets warm enough, we'll get some exercise there. Hopefully, we'll be able to get our boat on the water this Saturday, which equals more exercise.
I hear you Cody, on the exercise. Getting me out for a walk can take "the jaws of life" but once I'm out there it is wonderful. I only started about 2009. There are plenty of forms of exercise for sure, and I was told once to do what you love doing, and you'll stick with it
The idea of supplements and dosage is next to impossible to figure out and to get what you need from your food is ridicules. Do we supplement plants yes it is called fertilizer do we supplement animals yes just check your dog/cat food and see the extra minerals that have been added. I used a Brix /and PPM meter to check on the minerals present in vegetables and found differences from one day to another and a big difference on where it was grown even organic was not any better. Unless you are an expert on nutrition in which there are very few just throwing in one vitamin or one mineral might be of little help. Minerals interact with each other vitamins need minerals to work. Do we need supplements unless we are better than all other living things I would say yes. If you are not knowledgeable on the interactions than think about taking all the minerals and vitamins and let your body find what you need.
I stopped taking all supplements heading into minor "surgery" (removed bladder stones under anesthesia), so I thought I'd have my clean system analyzed for baseline vitamin & mineral levels. @Don Alaska gave me a link to a place where you can buy a myriad of tests without a prescription (Accesa Labs), and I found a second supplier of patient-directed tests (Ulta Labs.) They both use Quest Labs, a competitor to LabCorp (who apparently no longer does patient-directed tests.) I put together a comparison chart of their vitamin panels (they also offer individual vitamin tests.) There are 3 from Accesa and 4 from Ulta. I laid this out so I could decide which I'm gonna get. They range in price from $99 to $1,298. Price makes it easy to whittle down my choices. I'm not doing this to diagnose a health issue...I'm doing this to decide which supplements I may wish to continue and which I may stop taking. It's also slightly related to some urine sediment issues I've had, and thought that these tests would give me additional insight...but my primary goal is to refine my supplement program. I take a multi and supplement it up to US RDA levels for just about all the standard stuff. I also take Boron, Choline, Co Q-10, Cranberry Extract, D-Mannose, Grapeseed Extract, N acetyl l tyrosine (NALT), N-acetylcysteine (NAC), and Quercetin. Since I put this data together for my own use, I thought I'd share it. Links to read about the tests: Basic Accesa $99 Advanced Accesa $299 Comprehensive Accesa $399 NH-1 Ulta $99 NH-2 Ulta $355 NH-3 Ultra $638 NH-4 Ulta $1,298 As I said, there are all sorts of No Script Required tests you can buy, including ones for a single specific vitamin or mineral.
Have you made up your mind which you want to run on yourself? What do they mean by biomarkers? That could mean things you want to know, or it could mean things you'd rather not know about yourself. These are all blood tests, right? Minerals and the fat-soluble vitamins are the ones that could be troublesome. In my opinion only, pyridoxine is an important cardiac-related vitamin. You can generally take any of the B vitamins in excess without consequence, but deficiencies in any of them could be problematic; again, that is only my opinion.
I've not yet decided, Don. I first need to go through and tick off the things I've already been tested for though my nephrologist. Regarding biomarkers: I wondered the same thing. Only Ulta uses that term. There are more "biomarkers" than there are items analyzed. The implication is that there are different data points looked at for some of the vitamins/minerals, but there is nothing I have found where they define/explain "biomarker."
I added two Vitamin & Mineral panels from the Ulta offering (V&M Advanced and V&M Comprehensive.) I rearranged the left-to-right order of the packages to make it easier to follow. -Ulta is now on the left side and Accesa is on the right. "NH" on the Ulta packages means Nutritional Health. V&M means Vitamin & Mineral. Prices cited are today's price. Both places run weekly and monthly specials. Ulta uses the terms "biomarkers" and "blood markers" interchangeably. V&M Advanced Ulta $189 NH-1 Ulta $99 NH-2 Ulta $355 NH-3 Ultra $638 V&M Comp Ulta $798 NH-4 Ulta $1,298 Basic Accesa $99 Advanced Accesa $299 Comprehensive Accesa $399
I'm really struggling with which one to order, or maybe whether or not to buy any at all. I am not diagnosing a condition, I'm just trying to get a broad idea on what I should be supplementing. Once I filter out those items that I already get tested, I'm left with this list and these tests: I can eliminate the NH-4 test because of its cost. And even if I were rich, I don't think the extra money buys all that much. B7 is the big cost driver...it's a $280 test all on its own. The V&M Comprehensive test ain't cheap either. The main items I would be somewhat curious about are copper, selenium and iron...and maybe magnesium. A copper test costs $45. A selenium test costs $54. An iron test (with Total Iron Binding Capacity) costs $22. All together those tests are $121. Add $19 for a magnesium test. Even at that, if my zinc levels are not high and I continue to take it (I have a test for zinc coming up with my nephrologist), I would have to replenish my copper along with it. So the copper test would be moot unless I end up stopping my zinc supplementation...only then would I need to know if I need to take copper just for itself. I guess it would be nice to get a full test of the B vitamins just in case there's something I'm deficient in. I'm just not sure it's worth the money. And a B Complex vitamin is so darned cheap. This decision is more difficult than I thought it would be. It would be easier if I had symptoms I were diagnosing, but I'm casting a large net "just because." I need to think about it. Ulta has deeply discounted the V&M tests this week, so I still have a couple of days to ruminate.
We have switched from using Digestive Gold to 1MD Nutrition Complete Probiotics. The 1MD brand is quite a bit more expensive, but well worth it for our digestive systems. With Digestive Gold, it recommends 3 plus capsules a day, whereas 1MD is only 1 capsule daily. And, even though this isn't a vitamin supplement, wife and I have reduced our Diabetic Metformin to 1,000 mg daily (PM) We both continue to take our daily dosage of Diabetic Glipizide, which produces insulin, but Metformin isn't that great for the kidneys. Originally, my VA doctor had me on 2,000 mg of Metformin daily, but I got approval from him to go on 1,000, unless my blood glucose goes up. Then, I will cut a Metformin in half and take in the AM.
As you've probably seen, not all multivitamins are created equal. There are some that give you 10-20 times the US RDA, while others need to be supplemented to get you to 1x the US RDA. For some reason I place more trust in buying the individual vitamins & minerals separately than I do in paying for a high-dollar high-potency all-in-one multi. I've done the mega-dose thing before. I'm not convinced I need it now...I first started supplementing heavily when I quit drinking in 1990. Regarding probiotics: I've taken them off & on based upon the recommendation of my gastroenterologist 5 years ago. I'm not sure I'm sold on them, but I've mentioned that the prebiotics I began some months ago when I got diverticulitis have made a big difference. For probiotics, I buy Renew Life. They have 12 strains and 30 billion CFU per capsule. My gastro guy recommended Phillips, which only have 2 strains and 3 billion CFU.
I take Cosamin DS because my finger joints were getting painful. I take recommended dose and, fingers crossed, the pain has not been a problem since I started so I’ll stick with it. Most of the other supplements I take, I cannot tell any difference in mental or physical condition but I take them because I think modern diets are deficient in a lot of ways. So I get a smattering of a lot of things in moderation rather than heavy does of a few.
If you have any friends with livestock or veterinarians in the area, ask what they supplement their stock with. Selenium is a very big deficiency here.
I may visit the farm across the street from me. I kinda of know the folks over there. I've been taking selenium for a while, excepting my current hiatus.