Vitamins

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I'm 66, very fit and usually enjoy very good health. However, since I started as a volunteer in Infant school, I have had 3 colds in 4 months!!! I take cod liver oil tablets and eat healthily, and do lots of hand washing. Any helpful ideas?

Started taking vitamins in my 40is as I got cold after cold after cold. This did make a difference I still got colds but nowhere near as frequently.

I am diabetic type11 and not sure what effect this has although it is kept in check. I am pretty healthy generally but if I catch a cold, I am floored. I am just getting over a cold where I coughed for a couple of days so severely that my ribs hurt and were constantly wheezing and sniffing and blowing etc.etc. This has now passed and its a stuffed up head and coughing occasionally.

I take multi vit, cod liver oil, vit E, probiotic, vit D, B12.

I do not have arthritis thankfully and put that down to the cod liver oil. I suffer a bit with IBS and the probiotic settled that down nicely. Metformin which I take for my diabetes depletes your Vit B12 so that's why I take that.

I have just ordered Beta glucan and astragalus which are supposed to improve your immune system.

It can be toxic to anyone in high doses - hence the well known fact that polar bear liver is toxic - its the level of Vitamin A in it.

I meant Jess M's earlier post.

I just want to follow on from Jess M's post about too much vit A and pregnancy. Thanks.
www.gransnet.com/forums/health/1223161-Vitamins-and-minerals-and-miscarriage

hmm? I don't understand what your consultant meant - except that women more susceptible to osteoporosis and therefore maybe more in need of vitamin D through their lives to keep bone density up. When people say its a hormone like substance they mean chemically similar to other hormones (it's not a female hormone).

That is exactly what I was told by my consultant but he said it mainly referred to women.We are not tested as a matter of course because the test is so expensive though why it should be more expensive than other blood tests I really don't know.

I recently read that Vitamin D is actually a hormone and almost all of us would benefit from a supplement in our climate, especially in winter.

Nelliemoser..I went to dr cos for the first time aged 61 I've felt joint pains, tho I had a slipped disc in October and recovered, back to work full time, I definitely have started getting aches and pains, so he was all for doing blood tests..I gotta keep fit and healthy with 5 small grandsons too!..

Rubbish! I'm sure she simply meant that she doesn't believe that vegetarianism is necessarily a beneficial diet choice for humans and isn't afraid to say so.

Rather like one of our most respected GN members who shall remain nameless, but you know who I mean...

...a bit like Mrs Doyle and her cups of tea....

I took it to mean she forces meat and fish down the throats of any vegetarian who dares to go in her house!

I don't think that anniefrance meant by 'actively anti vegetarian' that she went round attacking people who were but that she believed 'strongly' in an omnivorous diet.

Boots have a three for the price of two on vitamins right now. I bought my chewy vitamin D so I'm stocked up almost to the return of the better weather

Some supplements could interact with medications. e.g. anticoagulants like warfarin. Pharmacists would be able to advise.

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OK

anya Not on my bottle, maybe elsewhere.

K-nine?

Elegran does it specify anywhere is the Vit K is K1 or K2?

My rheumatologist advised me to take no vitamins/mineral supplements because she feels my liver and kidneys have enough to do when processing prescribed mediation.
I do take prescribed Vitamin D after blood tests a couple of years ago confirmed my levels were low. I live in the north west, the rheumatologist told me that random blood tests of our population in February would indicate very low Vitamin D levels throughout the population.
I hand't put together the possible link between me taking the Vitamin D supplement and the general reduction in joint pain.

I eat priobiotic organic and full fat yoghurt because I like it but also because I'm persuaded there may be a connection with healthy gut and over all health.

The Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs) are a set of recommendations for nutritional intake based on currently available scientific knowledge. Taking any more than this unless a clear deficit has been established and prescribed for is at best a waste of money and at worst will make you ill.

A bottle of multivitamins from Boots (£8.99 for six months supply - and on 3 for 2 at the moment) contains all that most people need.

Each daily dose has -

Vitamin A 400 μg RE (50% of Nutrient Reference Value) -
Vitamin D 5 μg (100%)
Vitamin E 12 mg α-TE (100%)
Vitamin K 75 μg (100%)
Vitamin C 80 mg (100%)
Thiamin (Vitamin B1) 1.1 mg (100%)
Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) 1.4 mg (100%)
Niacin 16 mg NE (100%)
Vitamin B6 1.4 mg (100%)
Folic Acid 200 μg (100%)
Vitamin B12 2.5 μg (100%)
Biotin 50 μg (100%)
Pantothenic Acid 6 mg (100%)
Calcium 200 mg (25%)
Magnesium 60 mg (16%)
Iron 14 mg (100%)
Zinc 10 mg (100%)
Copper 500 μg (50%)
Manganese 0.5 mg (25%)
Selenium 55 μg (100%)
Chromium 40 μg (100%)
Molybdenum 50 μg (100%)
Iodine 150 μg (100%)

Older women are not stupid nor are they victims. Many choose to supplement for good reason and it's their money to spend as they wish. Most supplements do no harm unless taken in overlarge doses and it's worth reading the information on the labels to make sure you're not taking, as an example, too much fat soluble vits such Vit A, E and D. Most of the others are water solubile and will be excreted in urine.

Re antibiotics destroying some good bacteria that is very true and one of the reasons that some people develop thrush after a course of antibiotics. They can alter the balance of bacteria especially in the vagina.

Whether probiotics can adjust the balance, especially of gut flora, is under investigation.

Elegran is correct about the hysteria surrounding 'E' numbers and that this simply refers to those permitted by the EU. Part of this is perhaps due to tartrazine also known as E102 which seems to cause hyperactivity in some children. It was found in some fruit squashes and fizzy drinks.

Nelliemoser I suspect older women are their biggest target market.