Curious if there would be a concrete suggestion to replace the $5/month on vitamins.
Full disclosure: I started taking a multivitamin recently, on the basis of it seems like it can't hurt, and who knows, maybe it could help for corona.
And that's the misconception.
Things like Vitamin C are no problem. Your body takes what it needs, stores a bunch, and easily excretes the excess.
Things like Vitamin D, however, aren't so benign. Excessive Vitamin D has knock on effects with Calcium. Also, Vitamin D tends to accumulate in fat, so if you store up too much, it can take weeks to bring down.
Just because something is a "Vitamin" doesn't make it harmless.
And, this is before we even start considering things like supplements which have who knows what in them.
Would be nice To be able to quickly check blood levels
I think a better idea than taking an all-in-one is taking only what your body needs. If have a stable diet and you know what you're really putting in your mouth, it shouldn't be difficult to know what supplements are good for you.
I take vitamins B, C, D and K and magnesium and zinc. I have never left better than now. I don't need coffee anymore to have energy throughout the day, I just feel good.
Maybe fish oil and/or another Omega-3 source like flax seed.
Rabbit hole is deep on that stuff. Improving Vitamin Absorption is another step. Some with oil, some water, etc.
I've never seen concrete evidence that it does anything. Wikipedia also seems to say it's all ambiguous, with studies flip flopping as much as coffee and wine health studies.
Fish oil and the other ones parent mentioned are all part of my daily routine. I went from 7/10 pain level to 2/10. Those all get mentioned a lot in various help support groups.
- effective for preterm birth
- promising for colorectal cancer
- inconclusive for cardiovascular disease, low sperm count, depression, psychosis, cystic fibrosis
- slightly beneficial for cancer symptoms
- has no effect on diabetes, Crohn's disease, asthma, alzheimers
- harmful: increases the risk of prostate cancer
Regarding coffee, there is strong evidence that consumption of black coffee reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease -- a massive meta-analysis of 36 studies covering 1.28 million people and 36500 cases of cardiovascular disease showed a nonlinear association with minimal CVD risk at 3-5 cups per day [2].
[1] https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/snake-oil-...
[2] https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/circulationaha....