Connor Andrew Clark-Lindh

This is the third and final part of my three part series on Vitamins. In the first section I talked about the four Rules of Vitamins. In the second, I covered a few ways to try modifying your diet or activities to improve your situation (before spending money on all those Vs). In the last addition, I will cover some ways to get the most out of whatever Vitamins you do decide to take.

However, I will repeat this a few times - I am not a medical professional, so please please please talk to a professional before making any judgments about your diet or health choices. Here I am just giving a short guide on the process I have gone through.

Now on to Part 3 - So you really want some Vitamins, eh?

Check 1) Do you really need this vitamin? ya the one over here with the giant price tag! Vitamins are expensive. We are paying a premium for something which takes the company involved very little to produce. For some high-purity, high-quality or maximum-strength Vs might run you more than one dollar per pill. No matter how fancy the ingredients, I doubt the production and materials cost for that pill comes even close to one dollar. So an important question to ask when looking through the different vitamins is "what makes this vitamin any better / worse than that one over there?". Chances are, the only real difference is the packaging and the brand. Of course don't just buy any odd cheap vitamin as that could be dangerous, but at least ask for a range of options and shop around.      

Check 2) Now what about all these other funny ingredients? Often different vitamins are sold in different mixtures. Some mixtures are helpful as they increase the ability of your body to absorb the vitamin. Some are simply useless and others actually prevent the vitamin from working properly. I used to be a big fan of mixture vitamins or even multi-vitamins, but now I try to be much more specific. If you are being asked to buy a more complicated vitamin, challenge the sales person to prove how all the extra ingredients actually help. In a way, simpler is better.  

Check 3) Dissolving Test. Once you have decided on your preferred vitamin, buy the smallest portion possible (if they offer samples - take them). Head home and place one of the pills in a glass of warm water. If the pill doesn't fully dissolve in less than 30 minutes, I wouldn't recommend using that pill (unless again you can find a really good explanation why the pill doesn't dissolve faster). I once paid a good amount of money for a well known brand of multi-vitamin. I took it for most of a month before trying the Dissolving Test. When I did, I was a little surprised. The pill didn't dissolve fully even after sitting in the glass for more than two hours.

Check 4) Test Run... Finally, you have done it. You are sure these are the vitamins you want to take, your specialist confirms and the price isn't killing you. Now, it is good to run a final trail test to see whether these vitamins will really improve your life. Buy about a one-month's supply of the vitamins. Before you start taking the pills, make sure you have a list of the problems you hope these pills will help solve.

The first week take the absolute minimum dosage and see if anything happens. If the recommended dosage is 1-3 pills per day, take one. If the minimum dosage is 1 pill per day, take half a pill. At the end of the week, write down how you are feeling and whether any of your conditions have gotten better. If you are still facing the same problems, slightly increase the dosage (keep it within the recommended dosage - never exceed the recommended dosage without a docotor's approval). Again at the end of the week, write down how you are feeling and again increase the dosage if you are still facing the same problems.

Repeat this until the end of the month. At the end of the last week of the month compare your feeling with your objectives. If you aren't sure whether anything has changed - stop taking the vitamins for a few weeks and see what happens. Then based on your own judgement and records, pick the best dosage, stock-up and start taking your pills.

*This completes the three-part series on Vitamins. Again, I don't really recommend managing your nutrition through vitamins. I prefer finding a way to do it through diet management. But I often have difficulty managing it all. Vitamins used properly can help with this diet management.