Recommend these two things

www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/…/277947/

www.pbs.org/wgbh/…/supplements-and-safety/

Depends on how significant the deficiency is. If it’s pretty bad, you would probably be better off taking supplements of just that thing along with the daily multi. Or even changing your diet if it’s really extreme or caused by how you eat (like a vitamin d deficiency from not eating greens, going outside or drinking milk).

I have created a handy chart to follow

Did your doctor recommend you take supplements?

If yes

Take those specific supplements

If no

You do not need to take supplements

One thing a doc told me is that your body can only absorb so much. Some people go so crazy on certain supplements that they end up blocking the body’s ability to absorb other essential nutrients.

If you want to supplement, a single multi each day isn’t going to be a massive game changer, unless you’re already missing something.

Is “moving money” = “doing a thing”? :-)

My neurologist has me take L-methylfolate because of one of my meds. Besides that, all I take is fish oil and D3. Everything I’ve seen has said they’re some of the only ones that actually do anything.

A multivitamin is not bad, but different vitamins need different other substances to be available for the body. Eg. some are soluble in water (like the B group) some, like vitamin D need fat to be solved in (and it’s good to acompany it with vitamin K to make D work as intended). Be careful with vitamin A - people in developed countries usually have too much and it can cause serious problems. It’s generally good to know what you’re taking and why. But if you just need a quick fix, a multivitamin is usually ok.

If you eat a truly balanced diet you’ll have little reason to take a multivitamin. However, many people do not eat well. In those cases a multivitamin can help fill in the gaps. Arguably it would be better to improve your diet but something is better than nothing.

I’ve been taking them since my accident. My hip, foot and ribs got broken last year. I also take a bone and joint collagen supplement as well. The doctor didn’t advise my to take these but my thinking was that my body could use the extra resources during my recovery.

Not sure how big of a role it played but my bones are all healed up and I’m walking, albeit with a cane these days.

Personally I have always taken a multivitamin/mineral and my labs have been good except for occasional low iron because periods. Now that I’m old (and yeeted the uterus) my iron was fine until I had bad hemorrhoid bleeding. So I got that taken care of, and my ass doc prescribed daily Metamucil to keep it from recurring.

I like the OneaDay Petites because it’s easier to swallow 2 of those (that’s the dose, because petites) than one of the regular horse pills. Gummy vitamins do not have iron or other minerals, btw.

I don’t think it’s necessary to take any super-supplement, just enough to keep me at the RDA once I add in my food. If your diet is bad, fiber might be missing as well, so consider Metamucil for both your ass and your heart.

Currently I’m in the process of figuring out if I actually need extra vitamins. I’m using a food tracking app that also includes vitamins and minerals, not just fats and carbs like most apps do. It’s a lot of work, but I’m not planning to do this forever.

The ones I take make my pee yellow. So it’s definitely doing something.

A previous doctor told me that a large longitudinal study showed no benefit from multivitamins. This was 10+ years ago so there may be more recent studies.

Basically, it could prevent vitamin deficiency. But in developed countries, vitamin deficiency is pretty rare, and many forms take years of constant deficiency to really show up.

Basically, it probably won’t hurt. The research is very vague about it because we generally don’t wait until someone actually gets a vitamin deficiency disease before correcting it. Nor can we deliberately starve someone of a vitamin for years and watch the effects. Any subtle effect is often masked by larger issues like genetics, diet, exercise, etc.

I take it when i have some symptoms of vitamin deficiency like if you're sitting in one place and get up and you feel some weird sensation in the legs or hands. Like hundreds of ants running inside the veins. Or when I forget to drink water and get dehydrated and the body loses vitamins. I usually don't take such meds.

I’ve wondered the same.

I have a poor diet. There are times where I don’t eat enough, and when I do eat it’s often very… not varied.

I know people always say you don’t need vitamins if you just eat better, or that you can just ask your doctor - but my answer to those are “I don’t want to” and “I can’t afford to”, respectively.

Are vitamins a better-safe-than-sorry option if your diet is probably insufficiently varied to give you everything you need, and you have no strong desire to change that, but you have no way of actually figuring out what’s low or not? Or even then are they probably a waste of money?

It’s easy to find out if you take blood tests. You shouldn’t be taking vitamins just for fun.

They taste good, sometimes.

Some random thoughts:

• For vegans it’s adviced to take certain extra vitamins, for instance B12

• Also, when you are talking about health, i would not underestimate exercise, even a brisk daily walk. I don’t know for sure, but i suspect this will have more impact on our health, than taking multivitamins.

• As someone else commented here, i think fibre is also very important. And drinking enough healthy fluids.

• As a personal aside; i did notice a difference when i started supplementing vitamin D. I was surprised to notice that my energy level seemed to go slightly up.

• Also, never mix iron (not a vitamin btw) with dairy or tea. And take it with some vitamin C

• Finally, be careful and don’t randomly start to mix and match certain vitamins. For instance, magnesium and calcium have a certain balance, where too much of one will have a negative effect on the other.