B- weary of B-vitamins and excess vitamins

[stephen_kid]

Hello forum,
                  I just wanted to take a quick minute and inform people to be conscious of the vitamins they are taking, especially the dosages.  When I first found out that I had EBV I was alramed, yet relieved, because I knew something was off in my body, and I didn't want it to be something worst.  My doctor immediately told me that I needed to take B-vitamins and I should be fine.  Many of us know that is not the cure/ total solution for EBV, but I did as he instructed...I went to the store and bought HIGH POTENCY B-vitamins...and it was an absolute mistake...I peed dark yellow and almost orange after taking that supplement.  I figured I was getting too much B-Vitamins, but people say those are good for you..and you can overdose....Well, in the B-vitamin I had, I was getting over 3,000 percent of some B-vitamins, and the pill had thiamin, and niacin, and other nuerological minerals needed for the body, but I was getting too much.  On top of that, if my body didn't feel good...or felt excessively tired, I took my typical vitamin....just because I thought, since I have EBV I really need to make up for it.
                     The symptoms I got from that stuff was tingling in the legs, numbness, upper abdominal (maybe liver) pains, blurry eyes, a sense of feeling rundown, and not 100%.  I'm sure many people out there monitor there vitamins well, and this will never happen to you...But when I researched what side effects excess vitamin B- can have on the body, and excess Niacin...and excess Thiamin, and excess vitamin C, or D, A, etc...It just reminded me that even with an illness, the body gets most of its nutrients from the foods we eat.  Yeah, we all want to boost our immune system...and energy...so we are smart to take a multi- but all bodies aren't meant to consume 2,000 calories..and to take a multi- 24/7....if you think about it...it might be smarter to take the multi less often...especially if it doesn't agree with your body.  
                      Good luck everyone...and I hope this benefits someone.  I'm off the vitamins for the most part...and I'm feeling good.

[chel 81]

People just need to error on the side of caution when getting advice about vitamins. One day they tell you to take this much of this vitamin and then they tell you it's bad to take that much or you're not taking enough. The best thing to do is consider what would be the healthiest diet you could possibly eat on a daily basis and if you can't get all of those things in find out what you are not getting by not eating those foods. If you can't eat dairy and don't eat enough things with calcium- take calcium. If you don't get enough vitamin C in your diet supplement it. That's the reason they are called supplements in the first place- it's meant to supplement the diet. I'm not a big eater (have no metabolism) so I do need several vitamins but I watch how I feel and don't overdo it even if the doc suggests taking more. Also, so many of the vitamins you can find in the store are synthetic- they are a mirrored copy of the original vitamin made from carbon- gross. For this reason they react different than what you'd get from food itself. Finding a vitamin that comes from foods is key don't waste your money on anything else.

[123xyz098]

true, too many B vitamins can do a number of unpleasant things.

in the u.s. the soil is more depleted of nutrients than in a place like europe where typically the farming practices are better. there's nothing wrong w/ taking a multi-vitamin as long as you are getting a quality brand (which isn't always the store bought kind, mail order i've found are better), and as long as you don't over do it.

things build up in the body over time so what may have been a fine dosage in the beginning might be too much after you've built up a reserve of something.

i had a similar experience where i found how much better i felt taking vitamins but then after a while they made me ill feeling. i figured out what worked for me was not taking them religiously, but taking them after a few days of not taking them. i would also take half the dose in the morning and the other half in the afternoon so it didn't spike the levels in my bloodstream and also probably didn't lose as much through urinating.

i've heard vitamin intake has to be balanced overall as well, for instance, sometimes if you take too much of a certain vitamin it will deplete another type of vitamin in the process.  

the best vitamins come from food, but if you live in the u.s. or your diet isn't as complete as it could be, vitamins can be good if you find what works for you.