Pills

[weekender]

It's just occured to me that I take a fair amount of pills.  I take a Sanatogen multivitamin pill every day (Centrum is too expensive, the ingredients are the same as far as I can tell), I also take an effevervescent Vitamin C pill every alternate day.  I take Pro Plus when I'm a bit tired and want to stay awake (I've had Pro Plus tonight, obviously).

So, this is an attempt at a general 'legal pills' thread.  What do you take?  Does it make you happy?  Does it help?  Is taking pills an acceptable substitute for the benefits that one would otherwise get from the usual sources, like actually eating food?  Could we end up in a scenario where a meal comes in a handy pill form, and would that necessarily be a bad thing?  Any thoughts?

[blue jammer]

No, sorry - you lost me after the 'legal' bit.

I bought some multi vitamin tablets last year and gave up on them after a couple of months, as I didn't feel any different.

Maybe it's a placebo effect?

[Pinball]

I'm a pill popper. Main ones are pravastatin 40mg per day (reduces cholesterol) [my cholesterol isn't raised, but I'll probably gain 5 years life by taking it], aspirin 75mg per day [prevents blood clotting], garlic, ginseng, cod liver oil.

[Mr Flunchy]

Ecstasy on Friday night, Diazepam on Saturday morning.  That's my cocktail.

[Elliot]

I was waiting for that.
This is a nice thread, Ive often wondered whats out there , now Im not there but here in Japan.

I use homeopathic remedies, they work really well.nux vomica is great for hangovers.
(just getting one now) 1 left !   I need to stop boozing.

[Dangermouse]

I take a mixture of pills. Some which I know do have a good effect and others I don't but they may have the placebo effect as someone else mentioned.

I take Beta-carotene 15mg ProVitamin A to prevent macular-degeneration (excuse spelling)

Timed release Busy B with C High Strength as a good all round benefit.

Centrum tablets but I buy a bulk load when I see them on a half price offer.

I take seakelp for iodine to control the thyroid gland as mine is overactive.

I take St John's Wort and korean ginseng which is supposed to stop depression and help relieve stress.

I also take creatine for the gym.

My ex-gf used to study alternative medicine so picked up most things from her as it was very interesting. She used to take a shed load of things but was ill far more often than I was. I tend to go for things which I may be lacking from my diet or something that needs boosting.

[Abbie]

I bought some multi vitamin tablets last year and gave up on them after a couple of months, as I didn't feel any different.

You have really got to wait 3-6 months for the effect, guv.

I got ill when I was younger thanks to weight loss - I was as thin as a rake, my hair was falling out (not to AY extent but enough to terrify me and my shallow ego), my nails we falling off etc etc.  The doctor wasn't much help, nor the specialist they referred me too so in the end I went to see a Trichologist who tested my hair and prescribed me the following:

A shitload of iron (ferritin x4 RDA), Vitamin B (all of um), Silica, Vit A, E  & Zinc + Royal Jelly.

Right as rain in about 4 months I was, save for the stomach cramps, sickness and constipation for the first few weeks (the iron becomes toxic at high levels though I was assured much higher than what I was taking regardless of the RDA).  My eczema cleared up thanks to the Zinc too.

Now im in relatively good health, I only take Vitamin B and Cod Liver Oil.

Advice:

I was told not to take multivitamins that have zinc and iron in as they cancel each other out - you should take them seperately several hours apart if you want the benefit.  Don't take one and not the other either, as too much Zinc will deplete your Iron stores and vice versa.

Taking Vit C with Iron aids absorbtion - drinking orange juice with your evening meal with double the amount of Iron you absorb, for example.

If you eat healthily, you don't need to suplement your diet - theres no substitute for a good diet!

And here's a book I recommend:-

[Gazeuse]

I take 1g of vitamin c a day...When I stopped taking it I got gout, so I took it again and it stopped.

A H&B Radiance multivitamin (It's got lots of B vitamins in which you don't get so much if you're vegan).

A teaspoonfu of flax oil every other day. Its got some of the stuff that's in cod liver oil in it and it's a vegan substitiute. It's good for joints and stuff now I'm knocking on a bit.

[Incredible Monkey Doctor]

Having a proper balanced diet is a better way to keep your vitamin levels correct.

Taking vitamins in supplement to a healthy diet could in fact, make you ill

They don't help you  fight cancer or heart disease.

Just eat properly and exercise. There is no magic pill to make you healthy. Just boring old fruit and veg will do the trick.

[Incredible Monkey Doctor]

My ex-gf used to study alternative medicine

Ahh, the study of cures that don't work.

[Elliot]

You have really got to wait 3-6 months for the effect, guv.

I got ill when I was younger thanks to weight loss - I was as thin as a rake, my hair was falling out (not to AY extent but enough to terrify me and my shallow ego), my nails we falling off etc etc.  The doctor wasn't much help, nor the specialist they referred me too so in the end I went to see a Trichologist who tested my hair and prescribed me the following:

Allo Abbie,
Im curious about this hair thing, how much did it cost to have it tested?
Can it be done via post?
Do you have a contact, link etc, Im all the way over here in Jappers so I'd like to have a go at that.

I also tried St Johns Wort for a long time, cant say I noticed any difference, but then Im a miserable fucker anyway.

[jutl]

The doctor wasn't much help, nor the specialist they referred me too so in the end I went to see a Trichologist who tested my hair...

There's a lot of lead in there - did you eat paint at all back then?

Actually high-levels of lead in your hair are just the thing - Beethoven had it as did the brave Victorians of the Franklin expedition.

[Marcus Or Relius]

I quite often pop down Nytol sleepy-pills. They're great, the brain sinks quite speedily towards unconsciousness, sending me to sleep within a minute of crawling into bed, and it beats lying there in the dark for an hour waiting to fall asleep. I shouldn't take them as regularly as I should though.

[glitch]

At the moment I'm only taking a multivitamin pill, but thanks to reading up on nootropics, I'm interested in trying a course of them (although I've been saying this for months) - centrophenoxine, hydergine, choline and piracetam are looking particularly tempting. Has anyone tried these at all?

[Abbie]

There's a lot of lead in there - did you eat paint at all back then?

Absolutely not.  Paint, eurrrrgh!  I had Pica when I was pregnant with my son, and I became addicted to eating ice, literally non stop.  The ice came from my parents ice-making fridge-freezer, which was connected to a lead water main.....  Hence the Plumbism!

Edit>  6 months of taking supplements halfed the amount of lead in my body  :-)

Allo Abbie,
Im curious about this hair thing, how much did it cost to have it tested?
Can it be done via post?
Do you have a contact, link etc, Im all the way over here in Jappers so I'd like to have a go at that.

If I recall it cost about £28 and it was sent off to the address below by my Trichologist:-

Biomed International
55 Queens Road
East Grinstead
Sussex
RH19 1BG

Tel: 01342-322854
Fax: 01342-324574

I think they then forwarded it onto some place in Canada, but I don't know where.

Hope that helps!

[9]

i take Cardioace every day.

says it helps maintain healthy heart and circulation - contains omega 3 fish oil, folic acid, garlic, vitamin C, E, B 12, antioxidants and trace minerals.

The tablet is fucking huge so it makes me feel as though it must be good for me. Which is the main thing if i'm honest

[Mr Flunchy]

Concerning homeopathic remedies - they're bollocks, aren't they?   I thought the method of homeopathic cure had been disproven by now - they're just placebos.

[Sarah Bellum]

It's just occured to me that I take a fair amount of pills.  I take a Sanatogen multivitamin pill every day (Centrum is too expensive, the ingredients are the same as far as I can tell), I also take an effevervescent Vitamin C pill every alternate day.  I take Pro Plus when I'm a bit tired and want to stay awake (I've had Pro Plus tonight, obviously).

So, this is an attempt at a general 'legal pills' thread.  What do you take?  Does it make you happy?  Does it help?  Is taking pills an acceptable substitute for the benefits that one would otherwise get from the usual sources, like actually eating food?  Could we end up in a scenario where a meal comes in a handy pill form, and would that necessarily be a bad thing?  Any thoughts?

I think the way you are taking the Pro Plus maybe to blame, everyone's metabolic system is different they only give you the average rule as a guide (eg: taking them on a full gut is a no no obviously.)

 In my heyday  (uni) I used (and many others) take about 6/8 with a can of Coke about 2/3 hours before needed - seemed to work ok.  Ginko Biloba's also nifty. BEWARE you just may not sleep for a long time so work with building up the dose to what suits you.

[Dangermouse]

My ex-gf used to study alternative medicine

Ahh, the study of cures that don't work.

....also the degree which is useless when trying to find 'real' work!

[bill hicks]

It still amazes me how many fucking pills people take every single day...I can barely remember to brush my teeth in the mornings or wahs my hands after a shit and yet everyone in the world seems to spend half their time swallowing some vitamin or other.

I don't take anything, not even paracetamol or aspirin (it doesn't work). I once bought some sleeping pills (which I never took and are out of date now, I may try them one day to see what happens....when I drank some out of date cough medicine at Uni I had weird hallucinatory waking dreams about satan and killing prostitutes, which was fucking great).

I also eat nothing but egg on toast and chips, drink tea and cherry coke non stop and don't wash my hands as often as I should.

And I've only been ill once in ten years (flu for a weekend, lost a stone in fluid shitty nastiness in 3 days and felt great after).

My dad is the same and has seen the doctor ONCE in 50 years.

My aunt necked all sorts of pills to make her healthy, always looked ill and died at 40.

I'm firmly of the belief that attepting to stave off illness and death only makes things worse and since death is inevitable there isn't much point fucking around with vitamins and shit like that.

[imitationleather]

Does Pro Plus actually work? I've taken quite a few at once before and it didn't appear to make me feel more awake at all. If anything, it just made me feel a bit sick.

I don't take any of these other pills you lot keep popping, though. My body's a temple and there ain't no way I'm polluting it with "vitamins" and "supplements".

[dan dirty ape]

Pro Plus have the same effect on me as drinking a lot of coffee. It's all the energy drinks, yer Red Bulls and yer V's and whatnot, that have never had any effect on me whatsoever.

[gazzyk1ns]

With regards to vitamin pills, I think they're all completely unnecessary and amybe unhealthy unless you have a fairly specific problem in the first place. As a runner I get told by coaches to take the 1000mg Vit. C in the winter each day to avoid colds but... as Jammer said, it's a placebo. Eat more fruit and veg instead. Research indicates that "man made" vitamins (i.e. pills) aren't at all as effective as eating things naturally rich in the same vitamins, especially with the antioxidant vitamins.

Caffeine is a stimulant and a diuretic, people who load themselves up on Red Bull and Pro Plus baffle me. Eat properly instead, it's not hard these days. If you're using this stuff as a hangover cure then... well, have some sense, you deliberately poisoned yourself so your body is going to feel rough, don't load it up with more crap and give it more work to do.

To be clear, I'm not having a go at people like Abbie who had an ailment which certain things could cure.

[blue jammer]

Does Pro Plus actually work? I've taken quite a few at once before and it didn't appear to make me feel more awake at all. If anything, it just made me feel a bit sick.

They do work, too well though, and I won't ever take them again.

After finishing a nightshift, I once couldn't sleep all day, and had to work the next night, so by the time I got into work, I was shattered.  It was a Saturday night and quiet as we don't get much work in over the weekend.  A workmate handed me a packet of Pro Plus and said they'd do the trick.

They did work well, and I took around 5 or 6 during the course of the night (11 hours) as ever 2 hours or so, I could feel them wearing off and my eyes starting to shut.

I got home and thought 'great, now I can sleep' - WRONG! couldn't get to sleep for another day and a half :(

[Ambient Sheep]

The doctor wasn't much help, nor the specialist they referred me too so in the end I went to see a Trichologist who tested my hair...

There's a lot of lead in there - did you eat paint at all back then?

A lot of mercury too.  Do you have a lot of and/or some root fillings, Abbie?

[Abbie]

A lot of mercury too.  Do you have a lot of and/or some root fillings, Abbie?

No fillings in my mouth Sheepy (OK there are, but just the one), the high mercury levels were attributed to my eating lots of fish  - specifically Prawns and Tuna - though i'm not entirely convinced.  I grew up in a house surrounded by farm land, and the more likely explanation is that the high levels of mercury came from pesticides.  Again, after 6 months of supplementation, the amount had halved to an acceptable level.

[Ambient Sheep]

...and the more likely explanation is that the high levels of mercury came from pesticides.  Again, after 6 months of supplementation, the amount had halved to an acceptable level.

Interesting, I wonder what component of the diet purged the mercury?

[Abbie]

Interesting, I wonder what component of the diet purged the mercury?

It was actually the Vitamin B Complex  I took once a day, which included Brewers Yeast, along with the Royal Jelly (or so I was told anyway).

[Ambient Sheep]

It was actually the Vitamin B Complex  I took once a day, which included Brewers Yeast, along with the Royal Jelly (or so I was told anyway).

Fascinating - I didn't know there was any way to purge it.  I might start trying that, as I'm half-convinced that my fillings are slowly poisoning my brain and have been for 25 years...

[Gazeuse]

With regards to vitamin pills, I think they're all completely unnecessary and amybe unhealthy unless you have a fairly specific problem in the first place. As a runner I get told by coaches to take the 1000mg Vit. C in the winter each day to avoid colds but... as Jammer said, it's a placebo. Eat more fruit and veg instead.

As a vegan, I only eat fruit and veg. The vitamin C stops gout...No placebo there.

Yes, a balanced diet will see you OK, but I've chosen an unnatural diet to be happy and kind and take suppliments accordingly.