By a.b.
As I get a bit older, I’ve noticed that my body doesn’t seem to pick up on everything as fast as it used to. I remember being a kid, eating a piece of fresh fruit and almost instantaneously having enough energy to run a marathon. Now, I instantaneously have enough energy to get off the couch and throw the peel/core away. Enter the world of vitamins and supplements.
Anyone who’s been to a Whole Foods knows that there are enough vitamins, minerals, supplements, etc. to cover any potential dietary imbalance, and simultaneously create a black hole in your checkbook that cosmologists would kill to study. Honestly, I didn’t realize my entire system had spiraled into a chaotic collapse rendering it unable to take a single nutrient from a piece of food. Although (as you can probably tell) I’m not big on taking anything I don’t have to, even I had to admit the time had come for me to start supplementing my dietary intake. Apparently beer didn’t count anymore.
So where should you start? Obviously the first advice I give is: “If you’re looking at a lifestyle change, particularly if you have any health conditions, you should consult a doctor.” Since I was unable to do so (no health insurance and no desire to sit for four hours in a room full of sick people to come up with a vitamin regimen), I’m also going to tell you what I did.
First, I looked at what my doctor looks at – my family medical history. I have a family history of Parkinson’s, stroke, cancer, migraine and osteoporosis. Next, I looked at the likelihood I will fall into the same categories based on lifestyle choices or symptoms I have. I get migraines and have had some minor neurological concerns. I did not smoke two – three packs a day like those who got lung cancer, but with three women in my family developing osteoporosis after menopause, that should be a serious concern on my list.
I then went to one of my favorite books: Prescription for Nutritional Healing. You can look up the issue, i.e. migraines, Parkinson’s, neuropathy, and it offers dietary suggestions to improve your condition. I look for supplements that were the greatest common denominators, they appeared to improve as many of the issues as possible. For example, I found out that a vitamin B complex would improve both neural, stress, and migraine issues. Finding that (essentially) one vitamin could help symptoms I was experiencing almost across the board was a pretty good indicator of a deficiency.
In the end I decided on a vitamin B complex and a calcium supplement.
Why didn’t I just get a multi-vitamin? First, I’m allergic to zinc which is in many multi-vitamins and I just get cranky when my throat closes up. Secondly, I don’t think it’s a proper use of my money to purchase a “shotgun supplement” because my body will “pee out what it doesn’t use.” Lastly, not all vitamins are good for you. If you have an abundance of certain vitamins in your system, taking more can cause an overdose with complications to your kidneys and/or liver to start. Hence the best advice is still: see a doctor or nutritionist first.
So now that we’re hopefully not ingesting the entire supplement display at the natural foods store, how do we go about choosing your vitamins? Guess you’ll have to come back tomorrow.
Photo Courtesy of Clean Wal-mart
