Vitamins / Supplements

[Terminator 2]

Should I be taking any, and if so what?

I've read a few mentions of vitamins in various threads to the point it is now a niggle in the back of my head, a distraction I'd like to see addressed and laid to rest.

When it comes to Vitamins a common response would be to get all your vitamins through your food, veg etc. but I'm more engrossed in finding meals/food stuffs that I can eat at the moment on the basis of what does or doesn't spike my BG levels and tbh no thought goes into to the body's vitamin requirements.

Would I be better, for peace of mind, to just to start a '1 a day' multivitamin regime? I was reading about B1 supplements (thiamin..i think) the other day as well.

On the flip side I remember reading an article a while back saying that multivitamins were a waste of money, an unnecessary expense, cant recall the thread of the topic, think it was in the vein of myths, Mouthwashes were purported to be another item that had little benefit behind it but still the consumer has ran with it.

Starting to ramble nonsense now, always a good point to stop Anyways, any views feel free....

Thanks.

edit
Just saw a few similar topics appear after I posted that never appeared on my initial search for 'Vitiamins' never thought to try 'supplements' Apols if already covered

 

[Grazer]

I suppose it depends on what your diet is like now. Lots on here do take supplements. Personally, I take a one-a-day cod liver oil with multivitamins. I have done since before diagnosis however, and only take it because my wife feeds it to me. Don't know if it does any good, but probably doesn't do any harm and is cheap. I have a reasonable mix of protein, fat and carbs, with veg and some fruit, cereal and so on so probably don't need anything else. If you have a more restricted diet, you might want to look at what is missing from the things you have cut out.

 

[viviennem]

I occasionally take a 30-day course of multi-vitamins & minerals, just in case.

I also take VitD3, 2000iu in summer and 5000iu in winter, because we are too far North for all-year-round natural manufacturing, and older people make less in any case. Do read round about this, though, and make your own mind up - I am not qualified, and both doses are above the RDA.

I also take 450mg magnesium per day (it helps lower blood pressure, and we excrete excess), as well as a one-a-day of each of fish oil and flaxseed oil.

I think they do some good :wink:

Viv 8)

 

[catherinecherub]

Hi Terminator,

You will probably be eating more healthily now than you have done for a long time. If you consider that you have a deficiency then the best thing to do is ask your G.P. for some tests.

If you decide that you need supplements then you have to ask yourself,
.....Do I have a deficiency?
.....Will these supplements interfere with any other medications that I am taking?
.....Have I researched the possible side effects that these will give me?
.....Am I going to excrete very expensive urine with no benefits?
.....How much are these supplements going to add to my living costs?
.....How will I know which one advertised is the best/worse that I can buy?

There is a good guide here,
http://www.nhs.uk/News/2011/05May/Docum ... ements.pdf

 

[Terminator 2]

Hi Folks,

Thanks for the replies :wink:

I managed to catch a quick read of Grazers reply before I went out to the shops and on the strength of his good lady I bought myself a 90 day supply of multivitamins & Iron (1 tablet) and a 90 day supply of Cod Liver oil, not being a fish hand I thought it was a wise buy, £1.89 for both or 60 odd pence a month, well within a Scotsman's price range ..... All hail the Aldi

You will probably be eating more healthily now than you have done for a long time.

We sure are. I'll get a read at your link later on, wife reckons I'm deficient in mostly everything anyway

Cheers all..

 

[mehdave]

Im about to get the Sanatogen gold A-Z as its 3 for £10 in asda. But if I remmeber they are like horse tablets lol. Why cant you get a decent a to z as a chewable or a capsule usually just kids ones with less of whats needed

 

[Terminator 2]

@mehdave

You'll need to get yourself to Aldi's, 3 for £10 :shock: you can get 3 bottles of wine for that

Tell a lie you cant, the nanny state has stopped that as of last week, well tried to, read somewhere the bottles in the 3 for £10 promos at Asda were now priced £3.33 :lol:

There is a good guide here,
http://www.nhs.uk/News/2011/05May/Docum ... ements.pdf

That was a good read, very pleasant on the eye as well, .pdf saved to HDD

Thanks for sharing :wink:

 

[Grazer]

You'll need to get yourself to Aldi's, 3 for £10 you can get 3 bottles of wine for that

Tell a lie you cant, the nanny state has stopped that as of last week, well tried to, read somewhere the bottles in the 3 for £10 promos at Asda were now priced £3.33

like the style Andy! As a Scotsman, you'll be sickened to know that my mate brings me my wine from his village in France for 2 euros a bottle.

 

[Unbeliever]

When I asked about vitamins I was told it was sricly verboten as a -they don't work and B they could interfere with other medication. The "safe " answer of course but sounds like a bi of a contradicion to me.

I had taken supplements for many years prior to diagnosis and was well aware hat many DO work .
The problem is hat noone knows how your body will react or often what the dose should be for individuals.

I can see that point. Its a little like diabees . You may have a deficiency of some vitamin or mineral but
it could be because your body can't process it properly , A little like insulin resistance I suppose. The insulin may be there but your bosy can't process it.
That is why they say some things are a waste . Thing is they don't really know . With multivitamins its probably worth a ry - must be somehing in there which will work.
As catherinecherub says if you think you have a particular deficience best o ask the Dr for tess as oral nedication may nt be the best way of supplementing i.

Although I no longer sufffer side effects from metformin{or not often} I have found that some hings I could eat before now make me feel sick and his applies o supplements too. I have to introduce hem very slowly. I was extremely ill after aking bilberry tablets for my eyes a few weeks ago.They were capsules actually which I had expected to be better han pills.

I am pretty sure i is metfomin because It did the same thing to me when I tried to drink wine for the first time after it being prescribed. {the meformin - not the wine!]

 

[Terminator 2]

you'll be sickened to know that my mate brings me my wine from his village in France for 2 euros a bottle.

I'm warming to him already, my kind of mate

What variety is it?

Thing is they don't really know . With multivitamins its probably worth a try - must be somehing in there which will work

This is it, at the small cost I'll give them a go for 90 days then re-evaluate, if I get psychotic with urges to kill every time the missus speaks, I'll know they're having no ill effect

 

[Grazer]

I'm warming to him already, my kind of mate

What variety is it?

It's Roche Mazet Cab Sav and Merlot reds. Bought 40 cases for my daughters wedding (no corkage venue) and everyone thought it was amazing. They may just have been being nice of course - but who cares, saved a fortune!

 

[Terminator 2]

It's Roche Mazet Cab Sav and Merlot reds. Bought 40 cases for my daughters wedding (no corkage venue) and everyone thought it was amazing. They may just have been being nice of course - but who cares, saved a fortune!

This the fella? Wine-Searcher

Oddly enough Daughter 'No1' (i know I should have put more effort into naming them), recently got married (one down one to go), it was a no corkage venue as well, our house , we bought some wine in from Italy, I'll need to ask er' indoors where it was from, name escapes me, it was nowhere near as cheap as yours though.

The number of fights is usually a good indicator as to how the drink went down, here's hoping you all had a riot :lol:

 

[Grazer]

This the fella?

That's the one! That's the cheeky baby!

 

[Sid Bonkers]

I am a firm believer that all the minerals and vitamins I need I can get from the food I eat although I have just started to take a cod liver oil capsule every day in the hope it may ease my arthritis although the guy in the chemist said it would take a couple of years for it to make a difference :cry: But at 99p per month I reckon its worth the gamble.

If people are severely restricting food groups by low carbing or low fatting or low anything else'ing then I can see why they might be deficient in some trace minerals/vits, but how would you know unless you had a series of blood tests that showed a deficiency. You could end up taking vitamins that you dont need which would not only be a waste of money but could even be dangerous.

 

[Gappy]

I once did a "get fit to return to work" style course, they had a nurse that said you should get vitamins and minerals from a healthy diet and supplements are largely ineffective as your stomach acid destroys the nutrients. I just wondered why that same acid doesn't kill nutrients in food? So I still take a multi vitamin and an omega3 tablet each morning with my metformin.

 

[suem]

Hi all i thought i would add my cocktail of supplements in to see what others think..
Beta Glucan 1,3 to help ward off infection and prime my inate immune system, I up, this if I feel i am actually succombing to a max of 3 a day... not had anything now for over 1 year before taking this had at least 2-3 colds a year..
Take now every day
1 x Cin2 x 200mg Beta Glucan 1,3 nulin PF 150mgs with each meals...
Co Q10 200mgs
Metformin 1000mgs x 2 daily

I have started to take these supplements after years of being on prescribed statins even though my lipds very never high and gave me painful feet, and tablets for lowering blood pressure even though it was never higher than 130/85...ecided i wanted to reduce my meds so looked what else i could take in their place...

I have PCOS since my 20's and then Insulin resistance and Type 2 for 10 yrs since my mid 40's Hba1c usually 5.8 -500 and have lost over 2 stone since diagnosis....

Started out on typical newbie diabetic diet with advice of Carbs every meal and found i could not get my BG reading to be low enough, have always done regular BG monitoring but after a couple of serious infections and very high BG level of 20+ and only because i am a nurse and my G~P knew me well and knew I would manage my own testing 2 hourly was i able to stay at home, and was being referred urgently to see consultant for the first time ever, 5 days later and to be told i feel you now need to be on insulin, however I felt my body was just struggling to cope with the increased effort in fighting off the serious chest infection i had which need 3 doses f antibiotics and a month off work.

Not accepting this and the effect it would have on my job and the need to be able to drive to work, so after much research and to try and avoid further increases in MF, and not wantinfg to be on insulin long term, bythe way was only on it for 10 days so I was right and the consultant wrong.

This was all over 4 years ago now and since then now try to generally low carb and have limited this to granary bread, very small amount of potato and very rarely have pasta and always have lots of veggies 4-5 usually at lunch time sometimes with protein such as fish/cheesechicken....usually have oily fish 3 times a week usually mackrell or pilchards/sardines...Also generally avoid alcohol max of 1=3 units max a week but do allow myself 2 squares of 80+% dark chocolate a day....

Look forward to reading your comments...
Sue

 

[AMBrennan]

Beta Glucan 1,3 to help ward off infection and prime my inate immune system, I up, this if I feel i am actually succombing to a max of 3 a day... not had anything now for over 1 year before taking this had at least 2-3 colds a year..

i am a nurse

So you know that that story is completely meaningless but tell us, who don't know the difference between anecdotes and evidence, to buy a product.

Started out on typical newbie diabetic diet

Furthermore, in a discussion about supplements and vitamins you felt it was necessary to promote low-diet, and implied that following medical advice from a medical professional was a "noob" thing to do.

I was right and the consultant wrong

Even if we assume, for the moment, that low-carb really is better your consultant was right. Based on the available evidence, NICE guidelines recommend treatment most likely to work in a given patient. If the best available evidence tells us that treatment A is better, then administering treatment A is the right thing to do even if it later turns out that treatment B is better (betting at even odds on rolling a 6 with a fair die is dumb even if you happen to win)

 

[viviennem]

I've read Suem's post very carefully and nowhere can I find that she tells us to buy anything. As I interpret it, she is telling us what works for her.

She is not recommending the typical newbie diabetic diet, which did not work for her. Low carb does work for her; she is simply telling us her diet.

I found her post interesting, and shall look up Beta Glucan for myself; I've never heard of it.

Cut the lady a little slack, AMBrennan; I didn't find her post offensive in any way. She's lucky to have a GP and a consultant who allow her to self-manage.

Viv 8)

Viviennem (no relation :lol: )

 

[Unbeliever]

I have to agree with you Viv. This forum is supposed to be about people telling us their own experience which is what your relative{oops] the unrelated poster did.
his particular HCP happens to have diabetes and undertands that consultants an Gps ,while having to follow guidelines , are not always right . Or at least the guidelines aren't .
Anecdotes are an important part of this forum. We are not machines or clones and we are sometimes ahead of the science by just having experienced certain things which non- diabetics can't.
The best of doctors will admit this and encourage patients to self - mange but others don't have the courage or confidence to do so.
I am grateful for any ips which may help but I do not want my life to centre around research on the subject so I am grateful o anyone willing o share heir experiences.

Note, his HCP was giving not taking.

lKathem. We "ems" havet o stick together don't we VIV?

 

[viviennem]

"ems" forever, Unbeliever! :lol:

Viv 8)