Your body gains nutrients primarily from the food that you eat. However, our diets and lifestyles have changed quite a bit over the past one hundred years. Introducing a vitamin supplement may provide a valuable addition to your health, based on your goals. A Fredericksburg-area chiropractor with Stine Chiropractic Clinic, shares some tips and information on adding vitamin supplements to your diet. Need help choosing a vitamin supplement? Should you be taking B12?
Choosing a Vitamin For Musculoskeletal Health
Is there any type of vitamins that we should be using? And is there any that we should be avoiding when it comes to musculoskeletal system? Some of the most common supplements I see when someone is choosing a vitamin, are taking B12 and B complexes. These can have important health benefits when talking about the nervous system. Deficiency of these vitamins can create nerve problems like tingling or numbness. If severe enough it can create central nervous system effects like brain issues. This rarely happens though and is usually the case when alcoholism is at play.
When you consume alcohol, there is a reduction in B vitamins. So, a lot of people will start taking these on the side. Especially if your diet isn’t heavy in a lot of your foliage (green leafy vegetables), the things that you’d be getting these (vitamins) from. Taking B12 can be valuable if you practice a vegan diet, or a whole food plant based diet. These diets are extremely beneficial for inflammation, autoimmune diseases, and chronic illness. Taking B12 may be necessary for these individuals due to the vitamin being thought to be produced by bacteria not seen in plants. It is mainly produced by the bacteria in the animal gut. It is important to note though most of the plant based products come fortified in this vitamin now to correct for this problem.
Taking B12 can also help lower your risk of cardiovascular diseases and is necessary for the formation of red blood cells. B12 and B9 are two vitamins that reduce circulating homocysteine levels that have been implicated in cardiovascular disease, stroke, and dementia.
Who Needs To Be Taking B12 Choosing A Vitamin Supplement
As mentioned above those that are vegan or whole food plant based may need to take B12. Also those that are at risk of low B12 are those on stomach acid reducing drugs like proton pump inhibitors. The stomach acid produced by parietal cells in the stomach make absorption of B12 possible and lowering the amount of acid produced can effect this. There are also autoimmune disorders of the stomach that attack the parietal cells creating a lower level of B12 in the body. This is pernicious anemia.
Supplementing vitamins is not necessary, but if you do have a diet that is not high in vegetables, you may want to do that. You just want to make sure that you’re not overdoing it.
Only take vitamin supplements as recommended. Do not go over your daily recommended values. Because, if you are, especially with the B vitamins, you can start getting paresthesia in your hands and feet. That is that numbness and tingling. You want to make sure that you’re not overdoing it. Being deficient as well as over supplementing can give you symptoms.
What are water soluble vitamins?
Water soluble vitamins means that it’s soluble into water. Which means the vitamin is going to be excreted via the urinary system. This is what it means to be water soluble. Vitamin C is one of the and the rest are your B vitamins. Multiple vitamins are water soluble. There are 9 of them in the body.
Those are going to be the vitamins that are safe to take. You don’t really have to worry about overdoing it. However, you may have some side effects. For instance, your upper limit or daily intake for Vitamin C is 2 grams, or 2,000 milligrams. If you take too much Vitamin C, one of the side effects may be loose stools. That would be a side effect you would be watching for.
Let’s say you get ill and you want to overdo your vitamin C. You can take them relatively safely at 2,000 milligrams every four hours if you’re drinking enough water. What your body doesn’t need, it comes out through the urine and you only have minor side effects of the loose stool. So, if that starts happening, you know to cut back on it.
What vitamin supplement should I avoid?
Are there any vitamins supplements that should be avoided? Not particularly. Most of them are relatively safe. The idea here is that you need to start recognizing and realizing that there are some side effects to some of them.
B9 and B12, or B Vitamins, in general. If you take a B complex, and overdo it, a B complex will cause numbness and tingling in the hands just as would being deficient. So, deficiencies and overuse can have similar side effects.
Another supplement you should be mindful of, although not really a vitamin, is beta alanine. Commonly used with pre-workouts, beta alanine can also cause some tingling or funny feelings. If you are new to working out, be mindful of that.
When choosing a vitamin supplement, choose to not take fish oil. This has not been shown to help or reduce your risk of sudden cardiac death as seen in the DART II study. It actually had the opposite effect. This is likely due to the way it is produced. They take small fish and grind them up to make the oil and by the time they are encapsulated, the oils have oxidized. This makes them more dangerous than helpful. The reason people take fish oil is for the amounts of essential fatty acids like EPA and DHA. These are created from alpha linolinic acid or ALA. This can be found in plant materials. The fish eat kelp and other plant based materials to gain ALA and then produce EPA and DHA. Our bodies are able to do the same thing. A better recommendation would be to put ground flax seed on your meals to get the ALA and allow your body to produce what it needs.
So when choosing a vitamin make sure it’s necessary and that you aren’t just buying a product from an uninformed recommendation.
Other than that, vitamin supplements are beneficial if taken according to directions.
If you have any questions regarding vitamins, contact our Fredericksburg staff.
