Do you think this is too many vitamins for a 15 year old?!
Question: Do you think this is too many vitamins for a 15 year old?
1 Centrum multivitamin a day.
1 65 mg(equivalent to 325 mg ferrous Sulfate)Been taking 2-3 lately for certain reasons but gonna stop.
2 fish oils
10 psyllium fiber pills. 20 per day.
1 Acai antioxidant pill.
1 300 mg Isoniazid pill.
This is basically what I usually take everyday but what's worse is that this isn't everything. This is about 32-33 pills I take in a day total but sometimes I can go as much as 49-56 pills in a day. I'm just wondering if this is just way too much for a girl my age. I can't ask my doctor since my last one was a big b*tch that never listens and she cuts me off without listening while I still have yet to get a new doctor. I'm a little worried since I've been getting pains recently. I stopped some of my pill use but I can't completely stop. I'm just worried since people tell me it's bad for me to take so many pills in a day and I have been having terrible pains. Is it really the pills I've been taking causing me all this trouble? Should I really stop? My parents tell me not to and I can't seem to get a solid answer so this is my last resort. By the way I can't talk to a doctor until April 11 so please don't suggest it. Also please don't complain like why am I taking so many pills or something since I take it for many reasons.
Answers:
No that is not too many vitamins. I can't speak about your cholesterol pills or Isoniazid, but your other supplements are fine.
If you can tolerate the powder you would be able to eliminate all the psyllium husk pills, but I can understand that the powder form is tough to take. You could increase your acai intake if you wished since it is a fruit and there would be no harm in taking higher doses. There are other multi vitamins besides Centrum that you may want to consider taking if you wish for a more effective form. Companies like Solgar, Country Life, and Jarrow Formulas have excellent multi vitamins including products for teenagers like yourself.
If you wanted to cut out a supplement and see if it would help you might consider the cholesterol pills. Unless your cholesterol is very high 300+ then you would be in no immediate danger. So if you were taking red yeast rice for example that can cause side effects that would be similar to statin drugs.
So the core that I would keep would be the fish oil, the multi vitamin, the iron pill, and the acai. The rest you could cut out one at a time to see if one of the supplements was causing you trouble. Remember vitamin supplements are very safe even for teenagers, but your body is the best indicator in terms of telling you what is working and what is not.
Safety http://www.orthomolecular.org/resources/…
Vitamins from diet alone? http://orthomolecular.org/history/myths/…
It is an unusually large number to be taking. Is there any room left for food? I think you could very well replace the psyllium fibre pills with an apple and a raw carrot every day. I am reluctant to comment on most of the others because you may have health issues which make it necessary. Do your parents tell you not to stop taking them? Or not to take them? My preference is for a healthy diet which includes the vitamins and minerals you need, but if you have problems absorbing them maybe it is necessary to supplement your diet. It is such a large amount, and not cheap, that I wonder who is paying for them? Surely your parents would not be forcing them on you for no reason? I think you need to explain the circumstances a bit more before anyone in the Yahoo community can really advise you.
You must have the worst diet in history if you need all those pills. The truth is the vast majority of healthy people get enough vitamins and minerals through their normal diet. If you don't have a diagnosed deficiency, you don't need to be supplementing vitamins. It just becomes expensive pee.
You may well be doing yourself harm - we do not quite yet fully know the long term safety of multivitamins, and I have no idea why you'd be taking isoniazid daily - but its an antibiotic with the following potential side effects:
an allergic reaction (difficulty breathing; closing of the throat; swelling of the lips, tongue, or face; or hives);
unusual weakness or fatigue;
nausea, vomiting, or loss of appetite;
abdominal pain;
yellow skin or eyes;
dark urine;
numbness or tingling in your hands or feet;
seizures;
blurred vision; or
confusion or abnormal behavior.
http://www.drugs.com/mtm/isoniazid.html
Just take whatever is prescribed by you doctor and ditch the rest. Especially the acai - its a scam.
ETA:
"Vitamin supplements taken by millions of people do not increase life expectancy and may raise the risk of a premature death , according to a review of 67 studies with more than 230,000 subjects.
The review, by the Cochrane Collaboration which regularly pools data from trials to evaluate drugs and treatments, found supplements vitamin A, vitamin E and beta-carotene are detrimental to health. In 47 trials with 180,938 people and a low risk of bias, the "antioxidant supplements significantly increased mortality", the authors wrote. When the antioxidants were assessed separately and low risk of bias trials were included and selenium excluded, vitamin A was linked to a 16% increased risk of dying, beta-carotene to a 7% increased risk and vitamin E to a 4% increased risk."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/a…