Vitamins

Vitamins can be so confusing. Do you take them or not? Isn't it better to get your vitamins from food? Are all vitamins made equally? So confusing, right?

I get these questions all the time from my dental patients. When I look in their mouths and see their tissues are "struggling" with chronic inflammation, I do chat with them about foods, and vitamins. Although this is not in my scope of practice as a dental hygienist, I give them a  gentle, friendly reminder that it's wise for everyone to have a well balanced diet. And I visit the fact that taking vitamins may help fill in nutritional gaps, and that they should take to their doctors about it. Because honestly, if their tissues are red, inflamed and struggling even when someone has decent oral hygiene habits, I take it as a sign that their immune system is struggling deep down. And to get to the root cause, diet and lifestyle need to be addressed.

Again, I am not a doctor, so I can not diagnose deficiencies. But I am familiar with the mouth tissues and how they respond to the immune system and how they respond to diet. So, here is my *friendly* advice.

For me, I absolutely believe in both taking vitamin, and working to get as many vitamins as possible through the food you eat. I believe you have to be educated about which vitamins to take and why. And most importantly, how to get good quality foods into your body to deliver the vitamins you need.

There are three main vitamins I recommend for everyone to take:

1. A good quality multivitamin,

2. A good quality fish oil,

3. A good quality probiotic.

I stress the the part about good quality, because it is, indeed, severely important that you put good quality foods, vitamins, and anything really, into your body.

I think these are the most important three to begin with because they help aid everything else. Yes, someone may be deficiency in, say, vitamin K or selenium. However just taking a strictly vitamin K or selenium pill may not help the nutritional issues. Vitamins and minerals often times need each other to be absorbed properly. And fat soluble  vitamins like, A, D, E and K all need fat to absorb in the body. This is why the fish oil is handy to take with a multivitamin. And the probiotics are like a strong army, on your side to defend your gut. They help break down the vitamins and minerals you ingest to be in a more absorbable form. They also help make sure your food makes it all the way through your digestive tract. So really, I always say probiotics help you get more bang for your buck with the foods you eat! ;)

I do have a couple fav brands that I like. I do not get *anything* from recommending these brands. They just have worked well for me personally, and I would recommend them.

1. MULTIVITAMINS

For a good quality multivitamin, I love these Garden of Life multivitamins. I like these because they are in tablet form with the "raw" powder inside. I can appreciate that this vitamin comes with a probiotic already incorporated into the formula. It also has a digestive enzyme, which further helps the digestive process along. Plus, and an extra plus :)! I have also tried some other ones in the Garden of life brand like this solid pill one. But I just felt physically better with the powder tablet. That's just me. I truly like this brand though. They seem to strive for superior ingredients, and their customer service is great. Once I had a question about the wording on the labeling, it sounds like they took out the digestive enzymes. Anyhow, I called their customer service line, and got through to a live person immediately. She answered all my questions about if the formula changed, and she assured me of their quality ingredients. Again, seems like a great company.

2. FISH OIL

For fish oil, I like the company Green Pastures. I have tried a couple of their products, and have loved them all. From the capsule form, to the straight up just gel fish oil. I truly saw a major change for the better in the health of my skin when I started taking their fermented cod liver fish oil pills. My skin become less broken out, and I even felt a change in the moisture of my eyes. This is to the high quality, healthy fats in the fish oil being "held" in my skin and eyes.

Another brand of fish oil I personally like is Barelan fish oil. I've only tried their fish oil capsules. But they also have flavored gels for kids, that I would like to try soon for my daughter. It seems like a great way to get the omegas in the kiddos. And definitely a more affordable way to go :)!

This stuff is truly getting back to basics of health by minicing an ancestral diet. Westin A. Price, a 1900's Dentist, brought this age old super food back into the modern world.  He traveled all over the world to study isolated cultures' diets, their mouths and their overall health. Sea food, and the omega rich oils that goes with it, is one of the main foods he attributed to health of many of the isolated, untainted civilizations.  Price's book Nutritional and Physical Dengeneration is a great read for more details of his findings.

3. PROBIOTICS

Now on to probiotics! One of my favorite topics. If you knew in my inner circle of friends, or a family member, they would tell you that I have pushed probiotics on them somehow. Somehow I always work probiotics into the conversation, and often times give them as gifts, or give friends a weeks worth of whatever probiotic I am trying out that season! I think everyone, their mom, their neighbors and their dog should all be on probiotics. Yes, even dogs! THATS HOW IMPORTANT I BELEIVE THEY ARE!

Probiotics, in case you didn’t know, are the healthy “army” of bacteria in your stomach; your gut. These little fighters help keep everything moving and flowing through your system. Know what I mean ;)? Hellloooo.... number 2! ;)

But more than just help things move along, probiotics help boost your immune system. These little health workers break down foods into smaller molecules and nutritents so they are easier to absorb. Yay! This is great news, when you help alleviate some of the physical job of digestion, you should see a positive change in your energy levels. Possibly clearing out brain “fog” as well.

Just like the seasons change, I try to often switch my brands of probiotics. I buy one bottle of probiotics and takes them about every 3 days or so, then, when I finish the bottle. I buy an different brand and different strains, or types of probiotics. This helps make sure you have many different types of probiotics strains in your gut lining, ie: more lines of defense against infection.

I've found that a good maintenance dose for myself is around 5 billion CFUs. There are higher dosages out there, like 10 billion CFUs, but I’ve found for me personally, these should only be taken for a short period of time. I’ve found that high of a dose makes me uncomfortable with bloating. You can experience some gas and bloating when starting probiotics, so start with a low dose or take half a dose and work up to a full dose.

I currently am taking these Jarrow brand probiotics.

And I have also taken these kind of Garden of Life probiotics I like. They have probiotics that are gender specific and age specific which is awesome.
***

In my experience it is best to work to get your vitamins through proper nutrition and through your diet. However, a good “insurance policy” is to get on some supplements:

1. good quality multi-vitamin

2. good quality fish oil

3. good quality probiotic

So I encourage you, to be your own best health detective :). Play around, do a lot of research for yourself, and see what works best for your body. And let me know how it goes ;)!