Am I the only vitamin junkie?

menopaws how does imbibing apple cider vinegar (an acid) make your body less acidic?
<supplementary question> how does the acidity/alkalinity of your body affect levels of inflammation?

I take Cod Liver Oil, Bromelain and Glucosamine. All to help keep joints supple. Interestingly, when DH also began taking these, his knee pains decreased notably. (Years ago, an orthopaedic surgeon told me that Glucosamine is one of the few supplements which has actually been proved to be helpful to bones/joints.) We eat a good diet with lots of locally grown organic veggies - I think that helps health too.

Menopause, it isn’t possible to change your body to alkaline apparently. Our blood is carefully balanced and any change can be serious but has nothing to do with what you eat.

A balanced diet will have all necessary nutrients.

Excess vitamin E can cause cancer.

If you eat butter and full cream yogurt, cheeses & milk then vitamin D should not be lacking and osteoporosis avoided.

Always take a mixture of turmeric, cinnamon and ginger - all powdered - on my full fat bio yogurt together with walnuts, almonds and a couple of Brazil nuts, sliced banana for breakfast - yum. Magnesium useful when travelling to hotter climates to prevent cramp. Usually, take those spices when travelling - known in the family as 'granny's mix'.

Having read that the selenium content of potatoes more than 100 years ago was many times higher than that of our modern potatoes, I wondered what minerals the rest of my 'balanced' diet was not supplying
Use of artificial fertilisers is said to have reduced the provision of many minerals and trace elements by the soil. I grow what I can but fear that the nutritional value of many fruits and vegetables that we now buy has much diminished...... along with the flavour

I'm a definite believer in vitamins and more......D, B12, probiotics, calcium, magnesium together with a slice of fresh ginger roots, a slice of fresh Tumeric root, chia seeds, walnuts and protein powder......all thrown into a breakfast smoothie made with fresh spinach, an apple, a banana and almond milk. I also eat a good balanced diet too. I feel pretty healthy for 75 and have lots of energy - so vitamins certainly are the answer for me but maybe not everyone.

I've started taking vitamin D because a doctor on tv said that people living in the north didn't get enough sunshine. As I don't like the sun, even in summer, I guessed I might be short of vitamin D. I also get B12 injections every three months.

I take a vit D in the winter and glucosamine sulfate and omega 3,6,9 for osteoarthritis. Seems to work as my hands hurt if I don't take them

Acidophilus - I used to have a horrible, horrible tongue, now it's lovely and pink ?

Apple cider vinegar like lemons are acidic but turn to alkaline once metabolised. There is plenty of information to look up online with far more information and better put than I ever could or would wish to on here. It's really about keeping a ph balance rather than change completely which I agree wouldn't be good.

I saw a GP this week for anxiety attacks and she put me on very high dose Vit D as I came back from Spain to live in a London damp flat with no outside space. Since taking the first tablet last night I feel almost back to normal.

Before I discovered that I have a gluten intolerance, I suffered from, amongst other things, dreadful mouth ulcers and tiredness. I decided that I needed to supplement my diet with vitamins, which helped slightly. However once I worked out what was actually wrong things improved hugely - but I continue to take vitamins as it was obvious that because of the way the gluten affected my system, I wasnt processing nutrients properly. Reading it takes 2 years for your system to get better, so that is why I have continued with the supplements to help my system.

We eat a balanced diet which includes a lot of home grown vegetables. I take cod liver oil tablets throughout the winter having given up on glucosamine as it didn't seem to be making any difference.

I don't take any pills, unless I have to. I rely on a healthy balanced diet. Mind you I have lately been considering Vitamin D but as I have recently been diagnosed with Osteoporisis, I will wait and see what the GP has in mind and decide if I actually need what he is offering.

My sole 'medication' is a daily CLO capsule which I saw recommended by a doctor on TV as a preventative for future joint problems. This was around 20 years ago and,so far, no joint problems (78). Unnecessary or wise move? Who knows? Reckon 1p per day was a fair gamble.

I take omega 3 - a whole 1000mg of it, but if green lipped mussel supplements were cheaper I'd take that instead. It took 2-3 months to make a difference, but wow what an improvement I have seen in the reduction of stiffness in my joints. My DD2 is an NHS dietitian so I check with her. She says there is lots of new evidence about positive effects for several conditions from taking extra vitamin D too, so I have added that. Ideally a balanced diet would do the trick , but the health professionals keep changing their mind about what exactly that is . Anyway I'll follow DD's advice.

Michael Mosley on that Trust me I'm a Doctor programme tested some supplement for eyes and although he is anti-supplements said it was one he would take and it had improved his eyesight. It was rather pricey so I have left it alone, but really would like to get my nighttime vis ion back to what used to be, for driving. So I don't rule it out for the future.

menopaws; there's a huge amount of pseudo science on the internet, which I fear you have taken as fact. Your body has systems to maintain its correct pH. Taking an acid will not affect this. No acid can become an alkali. That is a basic chemical fact. Inflammation in the body can be reduced by nitrogen oxide, which is produced naturally as a result of normal metabolism and acts as an anti oxidant. Levels of nitrogen oxide can be increased by exercise. Chuck out your apple cider vinegar and go for a walk instead.

Even if you eat a ‘balanced diet’ you may not be absorbing enough vitamins and minerals. It’s a given that we need Vit D in the winter months.

Also as we age our bodies are less efficient at absorbing vitamins. And, as someone has already pointed out our soil are deficient after years of over production and artificial manure. Our farm animals are often not fed a natural diet anyway. So it’s naive to think a balanced diet will supply everyone you need all the time,

menopaws there is indeed scientific evidence that diet can affect the pH of various part of the body. The idea that homeostasis (as put forward by ecci) always compensates is not completely accurate. And the idea that ingesting something acid will only increase acidity levels is incorrect.

Have a look at this it is only one of several balanced reports you might find interesting.

I had private blood test because I was feeling tired all of the time and it showed I was very low in Vit D, Vit B6, B9 (folic acid) and B12. I was a little low in Vit C. I have been taking supplements for about 1 month and feel less tired now. I will be having a repeat test in another 3 months.

Thank you Anya for interesting facts and a well written article which supports my views of an alkaline diet. As I do not get all my information from the internet as suggested and have learnt a lot from trusted professionals I am now going to have a slug of apple cider vinegar and go for my usual daily walk with my dog for at least an hour.

Thank you anya for the link.
To clear, it’s talking about the alkaline diet, and not saying that this diet actually makes the body more alkaline.
Here’s another one
“Take Home Message
Unlike many other strange diets, the alkaline diet is actually quite healthy.

It encourages a high consumption of fruits, vegetables and healthy plant foods, while restricting processed junk foods.

However, the claims about the mechanism behind the diet are NOT supported by evolutionary evidence, human physiology or any reliable study in humans.

Acids are actually some of the most important building blocks of life... including amino acids, fatty acids and your DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).

The alkaline diet is healthy because it is based on real and unprocessed foods. It has absolutely nothing to do with being acidic or alkaline. Period.”

I can't see the need for anything other than a balanced diet. My mother has reached 96yrs with one, and all her siblings were long lived (she was the youngest). My father-in-law got to 104 on a balanced diet.
Eat healthily, plenty of fruit and vegetables and keep off processed food, as much as possible.

Production of suppliments is a multi millions industry- of course they are going to tell you that you need extra!