That Health Rules

Third of Our Series: Healthy Practice Tips…

In general if a person is healthy enough to be able to take a balance nutrition, there’s really no need for vitamins.  But ask any of my patients …and majority will tell you they take either 1 or 2 vitamins just to feel good. But any pill is an additional intake of drugs for the body to metabolize. 

In medical practice we are taught that not anybody should take a vitamin… but again almost anyone you know does! 

So who really needs dietary multivitamins?

• Those that cant receive all of the nutrients they need from their diet because they either can’t or don’t eat enough due to an illness.
• Those who can’t or don’t eat a variety of healthy foods due to habit or not used to like eating veggies.
• Those on specific diets due to stomach disease or other diseases involving the intestine or digestion.
• Pregnant women who require additional nutrients and
• Older adults who have altered nutrient needs or poor dentition. 

Tip on How To Choose The Vitamins We Need?

• Check The Content. There should be a label that tells you the serving size and the nutrients they contain.
• Avoid ‘megadoses’ I recommend that you choose a multivitamin that provides about 100 percent of the Daily Value (DV)of all the vitamins and minerals.  Avoid pills that give too much of the DV for one vitamin and too little of the DV for another.
• Make Sure Of The Quality. Check the USP label in the bottle because “this ensures that the supplement meets the standards for strength, purity, disintegration and dissolution established by the testing organization U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP).”
• Avoid Marketing Strategies like” Natural”. There is no such thing as the source being “natural” and if this word is in the bottle it costs more! The same goes to added herbs and other stuff likely to attract buyers without any additional benefit!  Likewise as I’ve said before…the additional herbs may interact with other meds you’re taking.
• Are They Expiring? Because they lose their quality and efficacy over time.

And the most important tip of all is to store all meds properly .  It should be a dry and cool place to prevent losing potency.

So if you really like buying vitamins…might as well do it properly by following my tips!

A Toast To Those Who Practice The Healthy Way!

Read My Other Healthy Practice Tips Series:

1. Water or Soap? or Hand Sanitizer?

2. When There’s Lightning, Turn Off Your Cell Phone 

Related Article:     Where Do You Keep Your Drugs?

This entry was posted on September 12, 2006 at 8:01 am and is filed under Healthy Practice Tips.