Take a look in your medicine cabinet.
How many bottles do you have in there for random vitamins that are supposed to make you better?
The vitamin clutter quiz
- What does each of them do?
- What do they do for your body?
- How often do you take them?
- Do you feel better or worse when you take them or stop taking them?
Congratulations!
You have become aware of what you are doing and whether or not it is working.
The real reasons you should be taking supplements
- To correct a deficiency of a vitamin or nutrient that is not generally found in your diet, and/or that your body does not easily retain when you are eating a diet full of this nutrient (i.e. iron for menstruation when you have very heavy periods, and you eat little-no meat)
- To support a medical condition that is known to benefit from taking this vitamin
- Example #1: Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is very beneficial when you are taking a statin because statins deplete Coenzyme Q10
- Example #2: Vitamin D for most autoimmune conditions
That’s pretty much it people.
Oh and here’s the kicker. If you’re taking more than 2–3 things daily that you haven’t been recommended specifically for a certain condition and for a specified period of time, you’re doing it wrong.
You have become a supplement junkie.
Questions to ask yourself before you start taking something
- What do I expect to happen when I start taking this support?
- What is the timeline that I expect that outcome to occur?
- Do my expectations match a realistic timeline?
- Do I actually know how to assess this properly?
If you can’t answer the above four questions, you probably don’t know why you’re taking them.
I’ve seen it a lot — the “magic pill” promises to be the easy way, but often, we have asked the wrong questions. We know how we want to feel, but the pill may not be the answer.
There are times that supplements are supportive. There are times that money would be better left where it is — in your bank account.
Ask for help, and get educated!