Sunday, November 2, 2014

supplements are tricky...

I can understand why a lot of people just don't want to mess with them;  it's far from straightforward, figuring out what might, can, or won't work for YOU.  And even when you think something DOES, as time passes, it may fizzle out on you.

We see this often in people telling their thyroid-supp stories -- they feel low, and their doctor consents to prescribe, and they feel better for awhile, and then they crash....  In this case, i believe we're seeing a body which is limiting its production/conversion for a reason -- the body wants the "rest" that low-thyroid states produce.  The patient, however, intends to go on with life as usual, and the supplemental hormone allows the continuation of overdoing.

Bodies don't like being forced to do something they feel is deleterious to their well-being.  So the patient's body cuts back its own production/conversion even more than before, and the supplemental hormone is pulling the whole weight of the situation.

We need to stop thinking of the body as a locomotive-engine chugging out constant ergs up and down the hills of life, and think of it more as a horse-drawn wagon -- you damn well better take those grades at different paces than the level parts, or the results might be ugly.

But i digress:  i meant to point out how the body goes about adjusting things when we try to push it in a way it doesn't want to go.  Not to mention that you can't manipulate ONE hormone or neurotransmitter, and expect everything else to remain the same.  Or, as in the theme i was actually approaching (though a little too obliquely) -- even when something seems to work, or not work, in the short term, it's what happens further down the road that's significant.

Before we start a new supplement, we should always do our research.  This often turns up few solid FACTS, but intimations as to whether it "might be right for YOU" -- gawd, how i hate that line in commercials!  :-D  But we need to do the background checks!  If you look at an herb, for instance, on webmd, and click on the "reviews" tab, you'll get a skewed-but-potentially-helpful view of WHOM it helps or harms, and how it made them feel.  You can do it on amazon too ... but you can't go by numbers of five-star vs. one-star ratings, because of the infuriating practice of soliciting PROVIDER rather than product reviews (grrrr); you have to read the actual comments.

Considering that some supplements give us almost instant results while others may take three or more MONTHS to truly show their characters, this means that we probably shouldn't introduce more than about three or four new items per year.  ...I don't know anybody who waits that long to judge whether something is worthwhile, do you?  And it's particularly off-putting to have to order a new container of some substance, when the first container-full didn't seem to have much of an impact!

So i've recently changed my starting line-up, if i may use a baseball analogy to describe my morning collection of capsules-to-swallow.  :-)  I just ran out of SAMe, and since the subsequent batches weren't as effective as i perceived the first one to be (and they should have been better, as they were in bubble-packs for freshness), ol' Sammy has been sent down to the minors.  Phosphatidylserine has been brought back from retirement, and the rest has done him good -- he's been hitting 'em out of the park since his return.

Phosphatidylserine is supposed to improve the absorption of glutathione, one of my most valued players, and it seems to be doing just that.  Since i restarted it, my energy has been better.  I take them at the same time, or the P before the G.  I seem to be needing less sleep (not that i'm trying to get away with less).

Did SAMe "stop working" for me, or did i mistake its benefits when i first started it?  Dunno!  Either is possible.  ...Supplements are tricky!

15 comments:

  1. So tricky. You are right about the 3-4 things in a year... but waiting.. so hard. I had some weird n=1 with magnesium.

    Thought they weren't effecting me, took one a day at lunch time and became a funky zombie one afternoon. The types of magnesium really work differently in me, too.

    LOL on Sammy being returned to the minor leagues

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    1. :-D thanks! ...yeah, when i got to your "weird n=1 with magnesium" my first thought was, which formulation was it? then of course i continued to where you pointed that out yourself!! there are lots of different formulations of lots of vitamins and minerals, and they're mostly different -- makes the trickiness that much worse!

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  2. Tess, I found that I do really well with the Jarrow Magnesium Optimizer ( Magnesium Malate, with potassium citrate and taurine). As long as I don't take it at lunch time and I do take it at bed time. I get pretty bad leg, foot and toe cramps at night if I don't do magnesium supplements every 2 days or so.

    I picked up some Magnesium citrate to test it. Whoa! I just do not feel well (weird brain effect) if I use this supplement at bed time...

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    1. i like Jarrow's products -- if i'm going for something new and they offer it, i generally choose them.

      although there's magnesium in my multi, Nutreince, i still occasionally supplement extra, usually in the form of bath salts. i'm not sure why i seem to need more, some days!

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  3. I read some years ago (I don't remember where) that you burn through a lot of magnesium when you're under stress. I've needed to supplement lately, what with asshole relatives telling the county that I've been stealing from and starving my mother, and they've tried to get power of attorney and a new will, and changed Mom's accounts and moved money around. Of course, the county and credit union found no evidence of mismanagement on my part. And the bit about starving was absurd. It's been a mag+caffeine+heavy metal problem.

    GNC hair, skin & nails vitamins worked better for me than nutrience. GNC has gelatin and herbs that are supposed to help regulate blood sugar.

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    1. and where were those "concerned" relatives while you were running yourself ragged for your parents? :-) just a rhetorical question of course.... yes, I seem to remember that stress burns through magnesium, though I don't recall why.

      I've been taking either a tablespoon of gelatin or of collagen hydrolysate every morning since early in Oct. -- i'm still waiting for obvious effects (I hear it can take three months!), but I do notice I seem to need less meat in my daily intake. What herbs are included in your formula?

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    2. Where were they? Leaving messes as fast as I could clean them up.

      GNC Hair, Skin & Nails has L-cysteine, MSM, gelatin, L-methionine, alpha lipoic acid, DMAE, green tea extract, horsetail rush stems, & lytein. The full list of ingredients is here: http://www.gnc.com/GNC-Hair-Skin-Nails-Formula/product.jsp?productId=3943820

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  4. Yes, "Supplements are tricky!"

    Isn't it down to research, and for some - relevant blood tests.

    The trouble is our bodies are so finely tuned that it doesn't necessarily take a lot to knock it out of cinque......if that's the right word.

    I have been fortunate the only 'extra' I've had to take was additional iron tablets when diagnosed as slightly anaemic some years ago now.

    My dear mum 'suffered' with thyroid troubles for a good few years until the hospital got her medication correctly balanced - and eventually her problem was solved, in fact after a while her medication was reduced and she was fine. I was much younger and un-aware of the word thyroid and I guess as years have progressed treatment etc may have changed.

    But I agree "supplements are tricky"

    All the best Jan .

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    1. there seems to be an awful lot that is NOT KNOWN about nutrition ... still! certainly most of the research seems to center around new pharmaceuticals, not vitamins, minerals and herbs -- things that can't be patented and won't make anyone much money.... even the best way to test, to see if individuals have the nutrients/hormones/neurotransmitters in the form and in the place in which they're needed is rather shaky.

      my self-care was revolutionized when I started doing my own research -- learning how different deficiencies can manifest, weighing the chances that these possibilities might apply to me, and cautiously experimenting with supplements. the "degenerative" symptoms I was beginning to notice melted away when I dumped wheat and started using methylcobalamin, cod-liver oil, glutathione, and a bunch of minerals!

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  5. I take the best Whole Foods multi for my needs, and an additional 200 iu of D, and it really paid off with the blood work on this year's physical. Yep, we each have to find our own ways on pretty much everything, huh?

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  6. Love your "horse & wagon" analogy! (don't mind if I borrow it??)
    Reminds me of last year's complaints to endocrinologist re: fading energy in evenings. All he had to contribute (bcz bloodwork #'s were good) was reminding me that I ain't 25 anymore! Alrighty then...
    So in that case, my sleek Standardbred has been swapped out for a Clydesdale ;-)
    HORSE THEFT!!!

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    1. LOL -- i'll trade you my "horse and wagon" for your "theft of the Standardbred"....

      i sometimes get the quick-draining energy after supper, and suspect it's ... 1) histamine reaction to dinner food; or 2) simply end-of-day need for rest! Did you read that info via Bill, about how teens show an altered circadian pattern, so that they feel an urge to go to bed and to get up later? I suspect we "float" on that pattern through our twenties, and slowly morph back into earlier hours as we age -- and it's NORMAL. ...Not to mention the findings that we NEED more sleep in winter than in summer....

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  7. There is a Kickstarter Project online at the moment proposing to test loads of supplements here if you are interested :)
    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/819818603/do-health-and-gym-supplements-work

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    1. thanks!

      it's my understanding that nutritional supplements only "work" if you were deficient before. what herb-like supplements will do, will surely depend on one's biochemical/genetic situation. for example, i have a need for METHYLATED b-vitamins, pre-formed vitamin A, and supplementary glutathione, but other people might get into trouble with them....

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