There is a lot of nutrition and supplement advice out there that acts as though all human bodies are the same. But if you've spent any time on this Earth, you know as a rule that's not true. Some people are deficient in one thing, while other people have too much of another. Some people have a diet that is rich in some nutrients, and lacking in others. There can be no one-size-fits-all advice, because we are not all one size.
In my quest to try and Fix My Problems, I have tried a LOT of different things. Diets, supplements, herbs, exercise, light therapy, regular therapy - a lot of things. Everyone has a theory about what causes x or y, so I've explored a lot of avenues. At one point, I was taking a small handful of vitamins every day. I kept a little pill box organizer in my backpack, only instead of meds, I had vitamins. At the time, I believe my mix was: vitamin D, B12, biotin, B complex, multivitamin, greens vitamin (like spirulina and the like, but a blend), and probiotics (but those stayed at home in the fridge).
Nowadays? I have a much simpler regimen.
Vitamin D, Magnesium, and probiotcs (and my daily whey protein shake, which is what that giant tub in the background is, lol). The three of these (four) are all for very specific purposes and have noticeable benefits to me.
Back when I was taking all those other vitamins, I was kind of throwing noodles at the wall to see what stuck. I have long struggled with low energy, and caffeine does NOT give me a boost (if anything, it makes me sleepy!), so all those B vitamins (B complex, biotin, and B12) were supposed to be good for energy (also, B12 is a recommended supplement for vegans, which I was at the time). But they never seemed to do me any good on the energy front at all. I noticed NO difference.
I took the multi in a "cover all your bases" attempt. I took the greens for immune system benefits (which does actually work for me, as does vitamin C; if I'm feeling a little sluggish and like I may be fending something off like a sore throat, I will still go get a bottle of C and it works). But nowadays I have the immune system of a God and it generally doesn't need any boosting. In fact, it's overpowered (allergies and vitiligo - both of which I have - are basically your immune system going a bit haywire and attacking shit it doesn't need to: the food you ate, the pollen in the air, the melanin in your skin... ); I pretty much never get sick in the "flu/cold/bronchitis" sense anymore, when I used to have chronic bronchitis in my 20s. So the greens did serve their purpose at the time; my immune system hadn't gone berserker yet and it needed a little help fending things off.
Side note! I discovered the greens fix because I used to work at a health food store that had a juice bar. Enough people told me - as this was during the era of my chronic bronchitis - to try a wheatgrass shot, so I did.
Now if you've never had fresh wheatgrass juice, I wouldn't say it was pleasant. Some people don't mind it, but I really do not enjoy it. It smells like an overpowering version of someone mowing the lawn, but in liquid form and right under your nose. The way it comes to you is freshly squeezed (you want to drink it within 15 minutes of juicing), in a shotglass like you were doing hard alcohol. It even comes with a chaser (just DON'T do what Jamba Juice does and chase it with anything citrus {Jamba Juice gives you an orange wedge}; citrus nullifes the effects, so you want to chase it with something else, like grape juice or pomegranate juice)! The only way I could manage it was to literally plug my nose and throw it back.
BUT. Oh, but. It really worked! Any time I had that crackly-liquid-in-my-chest feeling that was the "hi, you're going to be sick af with bronchitis tomorrow" warning I knew all too well, I took a shot of wheatgrass juice - and it killed the bronchitis by the next morning. I was totally clear and breathing fine.
It did make me belch all night - and the burps tasted like carbonated wheatgrass, which was ...gross. But it was worth it, because NO BRONCHITIS! So I started taking a greens vitamin on the regular to give my body whatever that boost was that wheatgrass shots covered in an acute situation. /sidenote
Even Maggie gets a supplement (Yuan is allergic). This one markedly helps her skin/coat; without it she gets dandruff!
ANYWAY, so the two vitamins that stayed from that era of being a walking vitamin store, vitamin D and probiotics, proved themselves to be useful and so stayed in the mix. Vitamin D because I am really deficient - blood tests had me clock in at 9 on a scale where you're supposed to be over 36, I believe - and taking 2000 IU a day only knocked me up to 12 on that scale. I should be taking a higher dose than I currently do, but oof do those high-dose ones taste like sucking on fish oil, so I just try and remember to take a few 1000 IU pills when I can. Probiotics actually help my teeth. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know I've had my share of dental issues. I have the kind of acid reflux that washes into your mouth at night, and so my teeth started breaking off pieces when I was 22 years old. I've had 9 of them removed, and I'm only 42. As you can imagine, I am well versed in dental pain. Well, when a tooth starts to ache, I figure, that's because it's getting infected - and I take probiotics, and the pain goes away. I do take some probiotics every day in my protein shake in the form of yogurt or kefir, but when something starts to hurt, out come the higher-dose tablets.
Magnesium got added when I was trying to figure out how to stop the "kill me now" leg cramps I would get on the regular. I knew some temporary fixes: drink electrolytes, drink pickle juice, eat a handful of salt (yes, really!), but none of those fixes seemed to last very long (electrolytes did if I drank them all the time but damn that's a lot of plastic bottles and a lot of money). So, somewhere I read about or was advised to try magnesium, and viola! No more deathly leg cramps.
There is one more sometimes-supplement in my regimen:
Bee pollen.
Now, if you read the back of a bottle of bee pollen at the store (which doesn't really do you any good if the bee pollen is not local to you, so I don't know why health food stores all carry bottles of bee pollen from California if they're not in California, but okay. You want it to contain the allergens in your environment that set you off. Denver, CO doesn't generally have the same plants as whatever almonds and whatnot they are pollenating in California. So I get local bee pollen from a garden center that has it from local honey producers!), it will tell you to take it by the spoonful. Ha ha. Hahaha.
For my allergies, the environmental kind which used to stop up my sinuses for three months out of the year every spring, which are so sensitive that I sometimes react to just eating honey? I take one individual grain. Maybe two if one doesn't cut it. Best. Allergy medicine. Ever.
It actually works better on environmental allergens than medicines do for me. And I'm pretty sure this is why the environmental allergens eventually STOPPED stopping me up so bad every spring. It's not that they never go off any more - like today, I was sneezing a lot, so I took a grain - but generally, that's it. I get a little stuffy or notice I am blowing my nose more than usual, or I have one too many sneezing fits, I take a grain or two, and it stops. No more doing my Edith Ann impression for 1/4 of the year.
So. Vitamins can be a huge game changer when it comes to your health, but you have to be discerning. There isn't going to be any one vitamin regimen that works for everyone (witness the B vitamins falling completely flat for me). You can overdose on vitamins, notably the fat-soluble ones like D or E and some others - so you have to be careful, too. But if you find the right ones that work for your body? Amazing.
The body needs what it needs. We just have to figure it out. Maybe one day we'll have the Star Trek triquarter and can just beep "oh you need this," and be done with it. But until then, it's up to us. :)
Amazing art made for me that I got from a trade on Simbi! Simbi is a bartering website that I love. If you'd like to try it out, please use my referral link: https://simbi.com/wren-paasch/welcome
¡Arte increíble hecho para mí que obtuve de un intercambio en Simbi! Simbi es un sitio web de trueque que me encanta. Si desea probarlo, utilice mi enlace de referencia: https://simbi.com/wren-paasch/welcome
