I recently made more changes to my supplement regimen due to low-dose supplements that were causing problems. Many people tout the dangers of supplementing at high doses, but even at low doses and even in a multivitamin, supplements you don’t really need can cause issues like nutrient imbalances.
For about a year and a half, I stopped many of my supplements because I thought they were causing problems. Instead, I started taking 400 IU of vitamin D along with a probiotic and omega supplement. I eventually had to add 400 mcg of folic acid every other day. I ended up becoming very iron-deficient and anemic on this regimen, so in June 2018, I decided to add the Nature Made Multi for Her multivitamin along with 600 mg of calcium and 250 mg of magnesium. I stopped the vitamin D and folic acid.
Around the middle of June, I began taking 65 mg of ferrous sulfate along with 100 IU of vitamin E twice a week because the hematologist I’d begun seeing for my anemia didn’t think the multivitamin would be enough to correct my anemia. The hematologist wanted me to work up to taking multiple tablets a day, but I knew with my past history trying to take iron supplements that doing so would most likely be impossible. However, even at that low dose, I had to stop after three weeks. I found out after I stopped that some blood work I’d had done about a week and a half before showed worsening anemia with normal iron, a result the doctor who had ordered the blood work thought was strange. About three weeks after I stopped the iron and vitamin E, I went back to the hematologist for follow-up. My hemaglobin had jumped up at least a point since stopping the extra iron and vitamin E.
In August, the symptoms being brought on by visual motion were becoming worse. I wasn’t sleeping well at all, and I was beginning to develop gastrointestinal symptoms like stomach cramps and nausea. I hadn’t seen my neurologist yet, but I’d already had testing done to rule out inner ear problems. The doctor who tested me for inner ear problems thought my symptoms might be due to migraine. I found
out by searching online that CoQ10 could help with migraine-related symptoms. I decided to give a 30 mg supplement a try. The sites I read suggested doses much higher than that, but I don’t normally do well with high-dose supplements. It felt like I had more energy, but it didn’t do anything for the symptoms I was experiencing, which resembled symptoms of motion sickness. In fact, a change I made about a month later had the biggest impact on my symptoms, positioning my computer monitor as far away from me as I could manage.
In September, I started on a 300 mcg biotin supplement. My nails just didn’t seem strong enough, and I thought a low-dose biotin supplement might help. I’d tried a 1,000 mcg dose before, but I ended up developing really bad acne from it within about a two-week period. I was thrilled to find a smaller dose online and decided to give it a try. I didn’t notice feeling different on it, but I thought my nails were getting better. I never noticed worsening acne or any other symptoms, so I continued to take the supplement.
At the end of October, I found out that I was still iron-deficient. My hemoglobin was still a bit low. My hematologist wanted me to take a different form of iron but still at a dose that would be too high for me to handle. She also wanted me to have an iron infusion done, but I refused. I figured that it would be worse on me than the iron supplement. I wracked my brain trying to figure out what to do. I thought my multivitamin, the Nature Made Multi for Her, might be to blame, but I wasn’t sure which one to try next. I thought about the Centrum Adults multivitamin and how it allowed me to uncover my copper toxicity and how much better I felt on it in the beginning. It looked like it would be easy to incorporate the Centrum Women’s multivitamin by taking it with cocoa powder for the added copper and iron, so that’s what I began doing in an effort to correct my anemia. I felt a difference the first day on the Centrum multivitamin. I began feeling a lot better.
When I finally saw the neurologist in November, she suggested I take 400 mg of riboflavin with 500 mg of magnesium a day. I found a 100 mg riboflavin supplement at CVS, but it ended up being way too much for me. I was able to find a 25 mg supplement online, so I ordered it and tried it. I could tell that I felt better taking it. I used up my 250 mg magnesium tablets first before I started to take 500 mg a day. I wanted to see how I would handle the riboflavin before increasing the magnesium. Both seemed to be working well. In fact, I was beginning to think that my regimen was where it needed to be, especially when I had my CBC and iron checked at the end of December and saw that both were improving, although some of the results for my iron status were still low.
At the beginning of March, I wondered if I could get by without some of my supplements. I thought I would start by stopping the biotin, riboflavin, and CoQ10. My nails were not good like I thought they would be, and there were other things that just didn’t seem quite right. I was still on the Nature Made multivitamin when I’d started the biotin and the CoQ10, and it was possible that the biotin supplement is what made me need more riboflavin. I felt a pretty big difference the first day I didn’t take these, but the second day, it felt like my energy levels had really bottomed out. I decided to go back on the CoQ10 and continue without the B vitamin supplements. I felt a lot better after starting back on the CoQ10. However, a few days later, I started noticing other issues. I got up feeling very tired and hungry and wondered if the 500 mg magnesium supplement might now be too much as well. I thought I’d remembered reading in the past that biotin can raise magnesium requirements. I went without the magnesium supplement and picked up a couple of bottles of 250 mg tablets. I seem to be doing better on the lower dose of magnesium as well. I’m hoping that I now have my regimen where it needs to be. I’m on a multivitamin that seems to be helping with my iron deficiency and anemia, and the CoQ10 seems to help with energy levels. All my other supplements I’ve used for years without any issues.
All the supplement issues I’ve had over the last several months have been from low-dose supplements. It’s easy to buy in to the idea that supplements at low doses are safe, but they can be dangerous and cause problems if you don’t need the supplements or if even at low doses they’re still too much. On the other hand, it shows that results can be had even at low doses. I’m not sure if higher doses of CoQ10 might be more helpful for my issues with visual motion, but I can tell a huge energy difference at 30 mg, the smallest dose that I’ve seen. I think the 25 mg dose of riboflavin was helpful, even though my neurologist thought it was an insignificant amount. That dose is still nearly 1,500% of the RDA. I felt that I was able to keep up my vitamin D levels with a 400 IU supplement and diet when I wasn’t taking other vitamin/mineral supplements. Even after starting back on my other supplements, my 25-hydroxy result still stayed around the same level. Also, at that level, my parathyroid hormone tested normal. I feel in some cases, when supplementation is needed, high-dose supplements may not even be necessary. Lower doses may be just as effective if not more so. At the very least, the risk of running deficiencies in other nutrients is lessened.
Another caution is about multivitamins. They are not created equal. One formulation may work poorly for you while another may work very well. I’d taken One-A-Day for most of my life until around 2011, when I tried Nature Made to get what I thought was a better balance of nutrients. At the time, I thought I especially needed iodine and selenium, and it had 100% of both, while the One-A-Day had no iodine and only a small amount of selenium. While I felt better on it at that time, I didn’t realize that it was poorly-formulated for iron uptake and utilization, at least in my case. Right now, it seems like Centrum is the best fit for me, and I plan to stick with it unless other problems emerge.
Another thing to keep in mind is that problems with supplements may not show up right away. In fact, it’s possible you may never develop obvious symptoms. It was six months after starting the biotin that I decided I might want to try stopping it to see if I really needed it and if it was causing problems. I didn’t notice huge symptoms, just subtle signs that something didn’t seem quite right. It’s very important to pay attention to how you’re feeling and to keep in mind changes that could have led to your current state.
One thing I’ve found to be true for me is that what doctors recommend and what I read online about what’s effective and safe may very well not work for me. One of the biggest examples for me is iron supplements. The higher doses just don’t work for me at all, and I hope I never have to find out what an iron infusion might do. There’s also no way I would have been able to take 400 mg of riboflavin a day. Others have done so safely from product reviews of riboflavin supplements that I’ve read online. I’ve also read that taking magnesium and calcium in a 2-to-1 ratio can be safe, but I’ve found that for me that’s just too big of a gap, especially when the amount of magnesium I was taking wasn’t quite that much more than the calcium I was taking. Having them closer to 1-to-1 seems to work better for me. Even 300 mcg of biotin a day proved to be too much for me even when others can use this amount and even larger amounts safely.
Always be cautious about taking supplements, even at low doses, because the risk of causing deficiencies in other nutrients always exists, even though it’s less with lower doses. Always make sure you tell your doctor which supplements you’re taking and discuss any questions with him or her. If you decide to be like me and try supplementation on your own, do plenty of research, and don’t be surprised if you find that what others say is effective and safe just doesn’t work for you. I’ve found that to be very true for me. Also don’t be surprised if you don’t notice problems for weeks, months, or longer. You may also find that smaller doses work just as well if not better than larger doses.
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