What vitamins/minerals/supplementation are you taking NOT on the usual DS list?

We all should know what the usual is ... protein, multis, calcium, ADEKs, Bs, iron, zinc, copper, etc etc etc. (If you don't know go to the handy docs link in my siggy).

But I was curious what other people have found beneficial, or what they found lacking on their own and were taking. Vitamins? Herbs? Minerals? Something else?

 This is a good questions, I have often wondered about this. For instance I have a K1 I take, but what about the K2 people take? Do I need that also? I take the standard Vitalady schedule, I added magnesium oxide with my bedtime calciums to help with BM's.

Lacey

Ha - the opposite of what I had to do. I had to remove all magnesium from my supplements because I was having too many runny stools.

Larissa,  Magnesium levels are imperative in your ability to absorb calcium,  If Mag Ox was the reason for runny stools, try Mag Citrate.  You may have been taking more Magnesium than needed, to offset your Calcium.... or you may not be taking enough Calcium.  Just food for thought.

Do you know what is a good daily base dose for Mag Citrate is?

I have magnesium problems too and on another thread was advised to try Mag glycinate which works in the blood as opposed to Mag Ox which works in the stomach and Mag Citrate which works in the bowel. 

Try Mag glycinate if you have bowel issues associated with Mag Ox.  Mag citrate did the same thing to me.

Hi,

 

Vitamin K-2 is just becoming known. It was originally isolated from Natto which is a fermented soy food , a traditional Japanese breakfast food.

 

It has been shown to be very beneficial to our calcium metabolism in three ways. It has been shown to minimize the spilling of calcium into the urine, stimulate the activity of osteoblasts (the cells build bone) and help prevent the deposition of calcium in inappropriate places like artery walls and ligament. Research from japan has shown re-mineralization in the bones of post menopausal woman of 1.5%/year when taken with D3, calcium and boron. That is very good in my estimation.

 

It is available in two basic forms MK-4 and MK-7 (or possibly 7 and 9).

 

The name is menaquinone and the number part is the number of molecules in the chain. The MK-7 form is far preferable. It is the natural form and is more easily absorbed. The half life of MK-4 is about 90 min in the body while the MK-7 is over 24 hours. Also the dosage for the MK-7 is about 80 micrograms/day while the MK-4 is far higher.

 

The one I use is 80mcg of MK-7&9 with 2000iu of D3 in a chewable tab. It is very small, much smaller than an aspirin. I chew it with my chewable calcium.

 

Hope this helps

K1 is measurable as K1.

K2 works a different way, sorta "herds" the calcium in arteries toward the bones. We test osteocalcin. It's not a direct test of K2, but more if the osteoclasts or osteoblasts are ahead in the race for your bones. We want the osteocalcin score to be LOW.

Not everyone will need B complex. It's good to start on it for those who might have some vomiting issues at first. B1 is more the problem and so one might switch over to a maintenance of just B1 when the complex bottle is empty. The B6 can climb and ultra high B6 over a long time is not particularly good.

I've heard of a few ppl who do not tolerate multis or B complex and I don't understand that since we do get those vites in food, under normal cir****tances. And we can't do without them. They build blood cells, have control of brain/memory and nerve function - the list is endless.

But you might have to keep switching around to find one with the formula that is right for you.

I take VL's schedule, minus the B complex.  Without fail, it gives me the worst stomach ache.  I experimented with that set of vites for several days in a row.  I'll be interested to see what my labs say regarding my B vites. I do, however, still take my multi's, b12 and b9.  I guess we'll see.

Yeah, B complex (and sometimes Vitalady's multi) give me a stomach ache for about 5 minutes, too. Since it passes so quickly, I've been putting up with it. I wonder what causes that? It is definitely worse when I get a niacin flush at the same time.