5 ms·

Word of advice: don't take vitamins ADEK without advice from a physician for extended periods or in high doses. These are fat soluble so you can have too much o

by Styn 9y ago

Word of advice: don't take vitamins ADEK without advice from a physician for extended periods or in high doses. These are fat soluble so you can have too much of them.

avip 9y ago
This should be reiterated: Please consult a professional before drastically altering the chemical composition of your ephemeral body. I know it sounds downright crazy, but it's possible that someone who's studied medicine and practiced it for years, actually knows better than random anonymous forum users.
- icelancer 9y ago
  >>I know it sounds downright crazy, but it's possible that someone who's studied medicine and practiced it for years, actually knows better than random anonymous forum users. As the link in the OP actually denotes, no, that's not always the case. Bodybuilders and performance trainers - as well as Soviet Union sports scientists - have known for decades that Vitamin D supplementation is vital. This has been rejected by a significant number of general practitioners and other medical experts who are and were anti-supplement simply out of rote thinking. Yes, people should be tested for their levels. But this simply isn't feasible for poor people, and telling them to get serum tests for Vitamin D before taking a lower-bound amount of the cheap supplement from the grocery store is ridiculous.
  - smt88 9y ago
    That's why doctors recommend that people get adequate sunlight every day. Of course paler people need to find a safe balance.
    - exhilaration 9y ago
      For most of the U.S. population, sunlight isn't enough: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15869454 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15869454
  - lostlogin 9y ago
    I don’t think that the drug regimes of the Soviet Olympic Teams should be held up as a good example to follow - a lot of damage was done to a lot of people. On a related note, the Russian team just got banned for trying that crap again. http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/news/russia-banned-from-2018-winter-olympics-over-doping-scandal-w513380 http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/news/russia-banned-from-2...
    - myth_drannon 9y ago
      That was mostly political decision, many American/Norwegian/... are legally taking performance enhancing drugs.
    - darkerside 9y ago
      This is what's known as an ad hominem argument
    - icelancer 9y ago
      That literally has nothing to do with whether or not Vitamin D is useful.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 9y ago
    The difference is that when medics suggest a certain amount of vitamin D as optimal, they do it because they have done the research. When bodybuilders do it, it's just an article of faith for them and not something you should follow. It is always possible to arrive at a correct conclusion through entirely incorrect reasoning. Or, as the saying goes, a broken clock is right twice a day.
    - icelancer 9y ago
      No, this line of thinking leads people to blindly trust the peer-reviewed process, which is fraught with plenty of political landmines and corruption. Homeopathy is crap. But bodybuilding/powerlifting/athletic training often finds the answers well ahead of peer-reviewed science.
- myth_drannon 9y ago
  Unfortunately very few doctors keep learning and try to be up to date with the current research (I don't blame them, they are extremely overworked). Especially their diet advices are so laughable.
- justaman 9y ago
  "The best way to get vitamins is to eat better." -Every physician ever.
  - jmnicolas 9y ago
    Unless you have your own organic garden this is a pipe dream. A fruit or vegetable that have traveled thousand of miles before being delivered to you has almost no vitamins left in it and probably didn't have much to start with considering soil depletion. I believe (emphasis on believe) that supplementation is necessary even if you "eat right".
    - JoeAltmaier 9y ago
      Turns out, not true: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24006751 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24006751
      - jmnicolas 9y ago
        This study is only about vitamin C and doesn't mention transportation. This is a bit light imo.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- da02 9y ago
  I had a friend 10 years ago, diagnosed with lupus (living in the NYC/Tri-state area). Her doctor told her, "Don't take supplements. Just eat a balance diet and you will be alright. Supplements interfere with your body's chemical balance." So patients have to read up on and talk with others to avoid quacks like that one.
- sushid 9y ago
  Dermatologists still prescribe antibiotics for acne. For some specializations, it's all about the maintaining the status quo. Truth be told, doctors still don't know much about IBS and/or Crohn's. Or even conditions like rosacea and/or dermatitis. Mark my words, better gut flora/microbiome will be the cure for these conditions in the near future and doctors will contest this up until the evidence is too loud to ignore.
logfromblammo 9y ago
This advice is not useful when physicians exist that will tell you a non-useful thing--or even a wrong thing--according to current consensus among nutrition specialists, because nutrition is not their specific area of expertise. For instance, overdose quantities may be different among the various vitamers of a specific vitamin. Your physician will advise you not to supplement ADEK because people have overdosed on retinol or ergocalciferol, whereas you can eat carotene until you literally turn orange, and 15-30 minutes of daily midday sunlight can make 10000 to 20000 IU each time. The danger of vitamin D oversupply (even as cholecalciferol) is calcium related, which is why you have to balance it with vitamin K (as menatetrenone), but it's called vitamin K from the German for "clotting factor", so then your doctor worries about clots. But vitamin E (as RRR-alpha-tocopherol) is also an anticoagulant. It's almost as if you have to consider every vitamin as just one part of a balanced system of nutrition... So in order to give you good advice, your doctor would have to have detailed and intimate knowledge of your current nutritional state and your physiology, but we only have 15 minutes and I don't want a malpractice suit for giving you the wrong advice, so just f' it and give 'em the boilerplate: "You don't need to supplement. Just eat a balanced diet with plenty of dark green vegetables, and get some exercise." So there you go. I just saved you a copay, unless your particular physician has an interest in nutrition-based medicine. Don't get your vitamins from the corner pharmacy or the grocery store. Most of them will use the cheapest chemical that technically qualifies as a particular vitamin. You need specific vitamers if you intend to exceed the general recommendations. Do your own research, and remember that you can damage your own body by doing something stupid with it. If you consult a physician, make sure they have enough training and education to be credible with respect to nutrition and biochemistry before you fork over money for an office visit. You can read the same articles and papers that they read, if you are motivated enough to do so.
chaostheory 9y ago
Yes they can check some of your vitamin levels with a periodic blood test.

by Styn 9y ago

Word of advice: don't take vitamins ADEK without advice from a physician for extended periods or in high doses. These are fat soluble so you can have too much of them.

avip 9y ago

This should be reiterated: Please consult a professional before drastically altering the chemical composition of your ephemeral body. I know it sounds downright crazy, but it's possible that someone who's studied medicine and practiced it for years, actually knows better than random anonymous forum users.

icelancer 9y ago
>>I know it sounds downright crazy, but it's possible that someone who's studied medicine and practiced it for years, actually knows better than random anonymous forum users. As the link in the OP actually denotes, no, that's not always the case. Bodybuilders and performance trainers - as well as Soviet Union sports scientists - have known for decades that Vitamin D supplementation is vital. This has been rejected by a significant number of general practitioners and other medical experts who are and were anti-supplement simply out of rote thinking. Yes, people should be tested for their levels. But this simply isn't feasible for poor people, and telling them to get serum tests for Vitamin D before taking a lower-bound amount of the cheap supplement from the grocery store is ridiculous.
- smt88 9y ago
  That's why doctors recommend that people get adequate sunlight every day. Of course paler people need to find a safe balance.
  - exhilaration 9y ago
    For most of the U.S. population, sunlight isn't enough: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15869454 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15869454
- lostlogin 9y ago
  I don’t think that the drug regimes of the Soviet Olympic Teams should be held up as a good example to follow - a lot of damage was done to a lot of people. On a related note, the Russian team just got banned for trying that crap again. http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/news/russia-banned-from-2018-winter-olympics-over-doping-scandal-w513380 http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/news/russia-banned-from-2...
  - myth_drannon 9y ago
    That was mostly political decision, many American/Norwegian/... are legally taking performance enhancing drugs.
  - darkerside 9y ago
    This is what's known as an ad hominem argument
  - icelancer 9y ago
    That literally has nothing to do with whether or not Vitamin D is useful.
- YeGoblynQueenne 9y ago
  The difference is that when medics suggest a certain amount of vitamin D as optimal, they do it because they have done the research. When bodybuilders do it, it's just an article of faith for them and not something you should follow. It is always possible to arrive at a correct conclusion through entirely incorrect reasoning. Or, as the saying goes, a broken clock is right twice a day.
  - icelancer 9y ago
    No, this line of thinking leads people to blindly trust the peer-reviewed process, which is fraught with plenty of political landmines and corruption. Homeopathy is crap. But bodybuilding/powerlifting/athletic training often finds the answers well ahead of peer-reviewed science.
myth_drannon 9y ago
Unfortunately very few doctors keep learning and try to be up to date with the current research (I don't blame them, they are extremely overworked). Especially their diet advices are so laughable.
justaman 9y ago
"The best way to get vitamins is to eat better." -Every physician ever.
- jmnicolas 9y ago
  Unless you have your own organic garden this is a pipe dream. A fruit or vegetable that have traveled thousand of miles before being delivered to you has almost no vitamins left in it and probably didn't have much to start with considering soil depletion. I believe (emphasis on believe) that supplementation is necessary even if you "eat right".
  - JoeAltmaier 9y ago
    Turns out, not true: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24006751 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24006751
    - jmnicolas 9y ago
      This study is only about vitamin C and doesn't mention transportation. This is a bit light imo.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
da02 9y ago
I had a friend 10 years ago, diagnosed with lupus (living in the NYC/Tri-state area). Her doctor told her, "Don't take supplements. Just eat a balance diet and you will be alright. Supplements interfere with your body's chemical balance." So patients have to read up on and talk with others to avoid quacks like that one.
sushid 9y ago
Dermatologists still prescribe antibiotics for acne. For some specializations, it's all about the maintaining the status quo. Truth be told, doctors still don't know much about IBS and/or Crohn's. Or even conditions like rosacea and/or dermatitis. Mark my words, better gut flora/microbiome will be the cure for these conditions in the near future and doctors will contest this up until the evidence is too loud to ignore.

logfromblammo 9y ago

This advice is not useful when physicians exist that will tell you a non-useful thing--or even a wrong thing--according to current consensus among nutrition specialists, because nutrition is not their specific area of expertise. For instance, overdose quantities may be different among the various vitamers of a specific vitamin. Your physician will advise you not to supplement ADEK because people have overdosed on retinol or ergocalciferol, whereas you can eat carotene until you literally turn orange, and 15-30 minutes of daily midday sunlight can make 10000 to 20000 IU each time. The danger of vitamin D oversupply (even as cholecalciferol) is calcium related, which is why you have to balance it with vitamin K (as menatetrenone), but it's called vitamin K from the German for "clotting factor", so then your doctor worries about clots. But vitamin E (as RRR-alpha-tocopherol) is also an anticoagulant. It's almost as if you have to consider every vitamin as just one part of a balanced system of nutrition... So in order to give you good advice, your doctor would have to have detailed and intimate knowledge of your current nutritional state and your physiology, but we only have 15 minutes and I don't want a malpractice suit for giving you the wrong advice, so just f' it and give 'em the boilerplate: "You don't need to supplement. Just eat a balanced diet with plenty of dark green vegetables, and get some exercise." So there you go. I just saved you a copay, unless your particular physician has an interest in nutrition-based medicine. Don't get your vitamins from the corner pharmacy or the grocery store. Most of them will use the cheapest chemical that technically qualifies as a particular vitamin. You need specific vitamers if you intend to exceed the general recommendations. Do your own research, and remember that you can damage your own body by doing something stupid with it. If you consult a physician, make sure they have enough training and education to be credible with respect to nutrition and biochemistry before you fork over money for an office visit. You can read the same articles and papers that they read, if you are motivated enough to do so.

chaostheory 9y ago

Yes they can check some of your vitamin levels with a periodic blood test.