Vitamins
 

Who takes a regular multivitamin?
I was also wondering about the concern of vitamin overdose. I am vegeterian and take a multi vitamin and also supplement it with a nourish hair vitamin from GNC. The two provide some of the same nutrients--biotin, A, C, E, to name a few. Is this a very serious concern? Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated.

Personally I don't take vitamins. I've never really seen the need.

I would take a quality high potency vit&min with natural not synthetic sources and chelated minerals as a supplement to a balanced diet(particularly if vegetarian).These are generally properly balanced as are most whole(unprocessed) foods .Alot of special formulas get expensive and mixing and matching might through the proper ratios out of balance but I wouldn't worry too muchabout overdosing on vit. or min. even though some fat soluable such as A can accumulate in the body.Make sure to get high levels of the B's if vegitarian and active as some are hard to get on veg. diet and are water soluable and easily lost during exercise.

very few multi's have enough vitamins in them to o.d. you don't need to worry about the water soluable ones (c, all the b's) and vit e you'd need >1000units daily. vit a you'd need > 25,000 units...

the best vit's come from natural sources (food) --there are valuable bioflavanoids in fruits and veggies that you can't duplicate in a bottle. however, you can't go wrong with the basic building blocks of who we are (vitamins and minerals)

If you eat a lot of carrots, you might want to watch the Vitamin A. If you snack on a whole pound bag of baby carrots in a day, you're getting 13 times the vitamin A you need, plus you're getting it from your vitamins, plus it's probably in some of your other food...

I take a multivitamin. I probably don't need it [nutrition is one of those things I'm particular about], but they're cheap and the only harm they'll do is make my urine particularly vitamin-rich if I don't need them...

Biotin increases cell growth, and as I have read on nutitional forums, that if you happen to have a tumour, whether it is cancerous or not, biotin will increase that growth of the tumour as well.

I take a high-potency vitamin, 1000 U.I of E, also C, and B, and in addition to my protein shakes, I add Udo's oil to it. I have a friend who doesn't take any vitamins, and we participate in the same races, and I recovery time is quite a bit less than hers. :cool:

I'm With Chris on this one. They are begining to discover that all these over the counter pills we are taking, vitimans, cold and flu remedies etc. Don't really do anything. If you do take a vitamins suppliment read your labels carefully as to what is in them. My mother always said you can get all the vitimans you need from a proper diet and that has stuck with me through the years. I have never taken them, I never get sick and for a 46 year old fart I am very healthy as far a cardivascular, blood pressure, colesteral, and energy levels are concerned. :beer:

I take a few vitamins....C,E,Multi. But to tell you the truth....I can't tell any difference.
If I go on tour for a week and bag the pills.....nothing, no difference. My wife's
Doctor insisted she take E. Maybe it's a "silent" helper. I dunno. I'll keep doing it as I truly
respect her doctor.

I believe with my diet I get enough of some vitamins (minus vitamin D). For all that take vitamins, just be careful you aren't taking a big amount more than the recommended daily amount (when you include the foods and beverages you consume) because with many vitamins, it can cause problems if you consistantly take too much.

Thanks Everyone!
I appreciate all the responses. I wanted to add to my own question that through researching I have read that selenium, iron and zinc are 3 minerals you ought to be careful on overdosing bec they can be toxic. Of course to much of anything isn't to great either. Anyhow I will definitely be careful to watch what I eat and take vitamins accordingly!

I have never heard of anyone overdosing on vitimins or minerals.I guess though with the mercury scare it has become trendy to worry about overdosing on v&ms and toxins generally.Keep in mind that RDA are the minimums for sedentary people and that weight training and cycling creates a need for far more than the minimums for energy generation,tissue building/rebuilding,recovery etc.Also keep in mind our soils are becoming chronically deficient in nutrients due to shortsited agricultural techniques and selenium is frequently cited as a nutrient often missing.So those amounts of minerals may or may not actually be in the food you eat. It is interesting that more and more chronic diseases including heart disease and various cancers are being found to be associated with deficientcies with various vitimins and minerals.While I agree you should be sensible about vitimin and mineral use I feel the far greater risk is deficiency rather than overdosing

I take a multi vitamin tablet most days, because I'm vegetarian and worry about somehow becoming deficient in something (other than hair!!)

Agreed. I believe a person should be careful not to have TOO much, because some vitamins can cause problems if you have too much over time. But that shouldn't be a problem, as long as you aren't munching down vitamin pills like candy. Yes the risk for deficieny is much higher.

As far as I know (as a 4th year medical student), you can overdose on the following:

Iron
Cobalamin (B6)
Vitamin A
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Vitamin K

...although I have not seen anything about the effects of Vitemin E overdose. Of course overdosing on cobalamin is much harder to do than overdosing on, say, Vitamin A. The safest thing to do is get informed on how much of each of these vitamins your typical daily diet (including the multivitamin) provides. Make sure you don't exceed your RDA by more than 100%. You should be safe. There is no simple answer to the question of whether vitamins help or not. It depends on how varied your diet is, how well your gut works, whether or not you are susceptible to cancer (who isn't). I agree with the post that suggested getting vitamins from whole foods, but for veggies and vegans, that can be difficult.

If y'all are interested I can dig up more info on this topic and post.

Peace,
BK

Since I am following a diabetic diet and trying to lose some weight as well as exercising more than I have in decades, I do take a brand name multi-vitimin once per day.