Vitamins and Supplements

[Nanto2girls]

Never taken any vitamins or supplements. Hubby eats a lot of oranges for vitamin c, could be doing something, because he tends to get a lot less colds than me.

[Gemini]

I had 3 colds one after the other in November and December. I was sick of having colds, and wanted to be fit and healthy for my operation in early January. I took Centrum 50+ vitamin and mineral supplement. I had taken Centrum regularly for a while many years ago and thought it a good supplement. I took the 50+ one for 2 weeks before and after my operation. No more colds, and despite recovering from surgery and the associated worry, I felt well.

However, as I went into the 2nd month I started to suffer from constipation!
This I imagine is due to the iron or calcium as I know both can have this effect,. I am sorry as I felt they were doing me good. I have tried taking them every other or even every 3rd day, but it still causes problems. And now I have another cold!

[Daisy]

Gem - Do you eat enough fruit and veg, wholegrains etc for bulk and roughage? Centrum 50+ is the vit tablet OH and I have taken for years. We always make sure we take them at a meal time - usually breakfast or lunch. But they've never had the effect you've described. Certainly if you were taking them on their own, I'd try again with a proper meal. I started to include the Zinc +Vit C after advice on here when I was getting one cold after another. I just buy a supermarket own brand, and they do seem to help.

[Nana]

My Dr prescribed a daily Vit D on repeat after a high dose a couple of yrs ago. Roll on the sunshine. 🌞

[Grauntie Mag]

I have tried a few brands of multi vits, only to find they have an adverse effect on my gut! I do have a fruit and veg smoothie with nuts most mornings and try to eat a healthy diet. So far I've managed shingles,only one dose of 'flu and no colds. This is a record for me. Long may it last.

[Daisy]

GM - I hope your 'good run' lasts, too.

I'm touching wood and keeping my fingers crossed as I type this (not easy!!! hahaha) but although I've had a couple of colds they haven't amounted to much - just a lot of sneezing and an irritating need to have a hanky at the ready at all times! So I do think the vits etc help a bit, plus lots of hand washing. I don't know whether that helps or not, but it makes me feel I'm doing something to keep germs at bay.

[Gemini]

Daisy, I always take them with food, as it tells you to on the directions. When I took iron years ago in pregnancy it made me constipated and OH had the same problem when they put her on a calcium supplement and had to stop taking it. I think the combination of the 2 is effecting me. I am taking one every 3rd day at the moment and seeing how things go.
I always eat lots of fruit, vegetables and grains etc, and as I have ibs, I usually have the opposite problem, constipation is never an issue!

[Clover]

I take a daily Multivitamin/ mineral. Touch wood only had one real cold so far this winter.

[Daisy]

Gem - poor you. It sounds as though whatever you do you're going to suffer side effects. Have you talked to a dietician about vitamins and supplements?

Clover - you must be doing something right!

[Gemini]

Do those of you who take glucosamine find it helpful?
I am sick of these painful knees and wonder if it will help.
They are not painful all the time thank goodness, and I have phases when neither bothers me, but when they are painful they really are!

Once my present treatment is all done with I will probably go back to the Dr about my knees again, but it went down the priority list!

[Enfys]

Gem, I take glucosamine and cod liver oil and I'm sure they help. Our doctor recommended cod liver oil years ago and my knees certainly haven't got any worse.

[WeeGranny]

I take glucosamine daily Gem. I started after I had an op on my knee and the surgeon recommended that I take it...he said sometimes people say it helps, sometimes not, but it won't do you any harm! He also told me to get it from one of the companies in the Channel Islands, because it's much cheaper than buying it here. I use Healthspan to get mine. It seems to have helped because I haven't had any problems with my knee since I started.

[Oma]

I get mine from Health span too , I have to get the Vegetarian ones as the regular Glucosamine are derived from she'll fish , the only other thing I take is Turmeric capsules as a natural anti inflammatory . I stopped taking them about a year ago thinking they were not working but found I have had some bad flair ups so started taking them again a couple of weeks ago , I also take vitamin D from October to April each year to help during the dark days of winter

[Enfys]

We get ours from Healthspan too.

[Pearl5]

I have only started last week taking cod liver oil capsules, so don't know if they do anything, OH takes them everyday and he is fitter than me... so giving them a try.....Had some bloods taken last week at the doctors and they rang for me to pick up a prescription for Vitamin D, but I wonder if all vitamin D capsules are the same, if they are I would just buy them over the counter instead of paying for a prescription....