I’ve really been trying to work on my overall wellness this year. I didn’t start out that way but the pandemic had a way of putting things into perspective when you’ve really only got yourself to look at every day. I started working out, I changed my diet, and now, I’ve finally incorporated vitamins into the regimen. I’m losing many nutrients by taking away meat and I’m wanting to find out, are vitamins worth taking?
Why Now
I’ve never taken vitamins before unless you’re counting the Flintstones vitamins I’d sneak and take at the neighbors. Perhaps I should say I’ve never regularly taken vitamins for my health or things I may be missing. I took prenatal vitamins when I was pregnant but that wasn’t for me, that was for the health of my children.
As you progress in life, birthdays over the years go from being exciting because you’re getting closer to being able to do more things, to being a bit bittersweet because it seems like you’re just getting closer to deterioration. Morbid, I know, but true nonetheless. There are a few things that I started experiencing lately (like regular pains that aren’t injury related) or just thinking about that made me realize I need to take my health more seriously and do everything I can to improve the quality of my life. Vitamins seemed like an easy way to do that.
What I’m Taking
A women’s multivitamin – This is probably the one I’m most on the fence about. I’ve read so many varying things about multivitamins, most of them not great (actually why I haven’t taken one all this time and definitely had me asking, “are vitamins worth taking?”), but I don’t like to be the person who dismisses things without giving them a try myself, so I’m going to see how this one goes. I have a heart murmur and they’re supposed to improve heart health. Because I’ve also read you should supplement with the things you have an actual deficiency in, I was interested in taking the other things listed below, and plan to meet with my doctor for a complete panel work up to see exactly what things I’m lacking.
Lutein – This one is for eye health because my vision is extremely poor and I’m hoping this will help improve it. Lutein is found in things I eat like broccoli, grapes, kale, and squash, but I’m not sure I’m eating enough of those things to get the benefits of Lutein.
Vitamin D3 2000 IU – I love the outdoors, but I’m not hanging out in the sun. Summer is my least favorite season due to the sun and heat. Give me an overcast autumn day any day. My bones don’t really agree and given the knee and hip pains I’ve been having for a while, vitamin d is definitely something that needs to be added into the rotation.
Vitamin C – The best way to get vitamin c seems to be through eating fruits and veggies like peppers, broccoli, and cantaloupe in their raw form. The problem, I like those veggies cooked and I don’t like cantaloupe at all. I’m taking this to boost my heart health and overall immune system, especially right now with a pandemic and flu season upon us.
Magnesium Oxide – This one is for heart health and to help with a more restful sleep but it’s mainly to regulate my digestive system. Shortly after I had my daughter, I ended up in the emergency room with severe pains due to a compacted system. It led to a colonoscopy, the discovery of a few harmless polyps, and the need to put things into my body that cause me to go to the bathroom more regularly rather than once or twice a week like I was going.
Omega-3 720 mg – As mentioned above, I have a heart murmur. I was born with it and was supposed to have surgery to fix it when I was a toddler but when my mother took me back to the doctor’s, they said it had miraculously closed. As I learned from my Cardiologist several decades later, it had not and was very much so alive and well. Something else he told me, due to my abnormally fast heartbeat, and potential for air to enter into places it shouldn’t, my chances of a stroke and/or heart attack are quite high. Hopefully, this will counteract that problem and give me better odds of avoiding such a fate.
How I decided what to take
I actually didn’t decide on my own. There are things I know I’m lacking based on blood work from the doctors – things like iron and calcium. There are other things I’m pretty sure I’m lacking because they’re found in foods I’m not eating. Even with that in mind, I didn’t randomly pick things, I left it to the experts and answered a series of questions that led to the vitamins that ended up in my new regimen. It’s not my field of expertise, so I always like to consult an expert other than Dr. Google.
If you take vitamins, are vitamins worth taking? Do you feel like they’re making difference in your overall health? What changes have you noticed when you take them regularly versus when you weren’t? Please, let me know in the comments and, as always, thank you for reading!
