One of the most common questions I get asked about is supplements. The following is a breakdown of the pros and cons of some of the more popular over-the-counter products.
Before considering supplementation, the most important thing to do is to think about the quality. It is far better to take one carefully selected high-quality vitamin than a whole lot of poor quality ones.
Let’s look at the following
1. Vitamin D
Vitamin D deficiency is associated with many issues from low mood, poor immune system, fatigue, autoimmune disease, increased risk of some cancers and more.
In some places it can be hard to get adequate vitamin D from the sun, so a good quality supplement is often helpful in the winter.
Best practice would be to have a blood test done to check your own level before a practitioner then prescribes an appropriate supplement.
2. Magnesium
It is quite difficult to tell if someone is deficient in magnesium as blood tests are often not helpful. Chronically low magnesium can have a number of symptoms such as poor sleep, cramps, headaches and fatigue.
Magnesium supplements are often poor quality and if overdone can cause diarrhoea, so it pays to use supplements cautiously under the supervision of a practitioner.
It will however be beneficial to eat foods rich in magnesium like leafy greens and nuts as well as taking epsom salt baths — where magnesium can be absorbed well through the skin.
3. Vitamin C
Vitamin C has a critical role in DNA repair and chronically low levels have been associated with an increased risk of cancer.
There is no evidence that taking a vitamin supplement will reduce cancer incidence but ensuring your diet is full of a wide variety of plants (especially broccoli) should give adequate daily intake.
There is also some research suggesting that a vitamin C supplement during a cold can reduce the duration of the illness.
In general my recommendation is to first and foremost get most of your vitamins and minerals from whole food. It is much more available to the body to be absorbed in real food as opposed to a supplement.
The exception to this is vitamin D.
If you do choose to utilise supplements ensure you do this under the guidance of a practitioner and that the supplement is good quality.
- Dr Liz Williams is an Internationally Board Certified Lifestyle Medicine Physician and GP at Aurora Health Centre
For more information (including links to relevant studies), tips and recipes as well as access to the rest of this article which includes more tips for reducing sugar cravings, visit drlizwilliams.com or find her on facebook and instagram.
