Vitamins, minerals, supplements, oh my

My medicine cabinet is the silent witness to my struggles with vitamins and supplements. Sure, I eat a balanced diet (most days), but somehow I just can’t get over the idea that I’d run faster and jump higher if I found just the right supplement.

Open the cabinet and you’ll see the multivitamins with iron for when I came up a little low on a blood test. The multis without iron for when the iron made me queasy. The calcium with Vitamin D because Mom always said so, and my doctor agrees. Fish oil because, well, I never eat enough of the real thing to get my Omegas. 

I have to confess: None of this stuff has ever made me feel any different (except of course for the iron, and that was not a good feeling).

Lately I’ve been wondering if I should clear out room for something more useful – like maybe all those lipsticks I never use. Supplements have been getting a drubbing lately in the research world, although we did get word this week that Vitamin B complex can help stave off age-related macular degeneration and calcium might protect against some cancers. Although nutrient-rich food, not pills, seem the way to go there.

If your medicine cabinet looks like mine, I think you'll find this rundown on supplements helpful. With the aid of Dr. Kevin Sneed, assistant dean and clinical director of clinical pharmacy at the University of South Florida College of Medicine, writer Philip Morgan has produced a guide that makes sense.

Bottom line? I'll keep taking the multivitamins (without iron), the calcium and the fish oil. For now.

Charlotte Sutton, Health and Medicine editor

[photo: Photos.com]