Vitamins and Supplements I Use

(Note:  This regimen is current as of June 10, 2024.  If you’ve come here from an update post with a previous date, then that update is no longer current.)

I’ve had multiple struggles with supplements since I first posted my regimen back at the beginning of 2016.  I believe the root causes are the Nature Made multivitamins I used, my copper and zinc imbalance, and my iron and vitamin E imbalance.  I found a properly-formulated multivitamin, corrected my dietary imbalances, and added other supplements I found I needed.  I’ve been on a consistent regimen for quite some time now that I believe is working.  I’ve detailed it below.  I’ve removed anything referencing previous regimens since I can no longer recommend those.

My Current Regimen

I believe the most important aspect of taking vitamins and supplements is balance.  I believe that anything supplemented needs to be balanced with supplementation of its complementary vitamins and minerals. I’ve found for me that this is the most important for copper and zinc as well as iron and vitamin E. The regimen below keeps these pairs in balance as well as provides other things that I need.

• Centrum Women’s: I started taking this multivitamin in November of 2018 in an effort to correct iron deficiency anemia that my Nature Made Multi for Her multivitamin was not correcting.  Since I started taking it, my anemia disappeared, and most every iron measurement has improved significantly.  I could tell a difference the first day I started taking it.  I highly recommend this multivitamin.  If the Centrum brand is too expensive, or if you just want to save money anyway, there are many store brand versions of this multivitamin available.  I used to take this multivitamin with a warm drink containing a tablespoon of cocoa powder and a tablespoon of sweetener, but in July of 2022, I decided to stop doing so to save time in the mornings. Since the percentage differences between copper and zinc and between iron and vitamin E are pretty small in the multivitamin, I’ve actually been just fine taking the multivitamin with water only.

• Calcium (600 mg):  I take extra calcium because the multivitamin only contains a small amount. I don’t take any with other added vitamins and minerals, like Vitamin D, because I’m getting them from other sources, including my multivitamin.

• Magnesium (250 mg):  I take extra magnesium because the multivitamin only has a small amount and to balance out the extra supplementation of the calcium.

• CoQ10 (30 mg, 50 mg, or 100 mg):  I started taking CoQ10 when I was really struggling with my motion sickness symptoms from visual motion during the summer of 2018.  I wasn’t certain that my issues were related to migraines, but CoQ10 was said to help with migraines.  I decided it wouldn’t hurt to try it, so I bought the smallest dose I could find.  While the supplement didn’t help with my visual motion issues, it did help me feel better, and I ended up feeling worse after skipping a dose one day.  I’ve stuck with it ever since.  I’ve taken 30 mg, 50 mg, and 100 mg doses.

• Fish Oil (1,000 mg):  I take this to get a mix of omega fatty acids.

• D-ribose (850 mg):  I take this supplement for extra energy, to combat the fatigue caused by the inner ear damage.

• Acetyl-l-carnitine (500 mg):  I began taking this supplement when I saw that it has heart-health benefits.  Since I could tell a difference shortly after beginning to take it, I continued taking it and still plan to do so since it doesn’t seem to be interfering with my levothyroxine or with other things.

Menopause Supplements

• Soy Isoflavones:  I take these mainly to keep acne from flaring and to prevent hot flashes.  I’m currently taking 150 mg in the morning and 300 mg at night.

• Evening Primrose Oil:  I originally took one capsule a day to combat breast tenderness and soreness.  I then started taking it twice a day, 1,000 mg twice or 1,000 mg plus 1,300 mg, mainly to help control hot flashes.

What Didn’t Work for Me

• Biotin:  When I complained to my dermatologist about weak and brittle nails, he suggested I try 5,000 mcg of biotin. I found some 1,000 mcg tablets at the drug store and thought I’d start low and work myself up if I felt it was necessary. It turned out that even the 1,000 mcg supplement caused me to develop some serious acne breakouts. About a week after stopping the supplement, I could tell my skin was calming down.  In September of 2018, I thought I would try a 300 mcg supplement to see if my nails would strengthen.  Several months later, I ended up abandoning it because it was just too much.  I felt much better after stopping it, and I was able to eliminate or come down on other supplements as well.

• “Gluten-Free” probiotics that contain probiotic strains derived from wheat:  Even though they may contain less than 20 ppm of gluten allowing them to be labeled gluten-free, the presence of trace amounts of wheat from the wheat-derived strains caused me to start having symptoms within a few days to about a week and a half after starting use.

• Iron:  Iron supplements by themselves or not balanced by the vitamins and minerals that work with it caused constipation and a worsening of my acne.  At one point I could not even handle a 27 mg supplement.  When I developed anemia and went to a hematologist in the summer of 2018, she wanted me to try taking multiple iron tablets a day.  By this time, I knew I needed to have iron balanced with vitamin E.  I was hopeful that taking a higher-dose iron supplement with a balancing amount of vitamin E would work, but I decided to start slowly to see how things would go.  I decided to take 65 mg of iron with 100 IU of vitamin E twice a week.  Even after three weeks of this regimen, I had to abandon it.  My body just doesn’t seem to tolerate even moderate increases of iron.

• Nature Made multivitamins:  This is one I thought I would never have to list here.  I had used Nature Made multivitamins for years and thought they were working wonderfully for me.  I did try the Centrum Adults multivitamin for a short time, but I thought the reason I felt so much better on it was that it was correcting my copper and zinc imbalance.  When I felt like it was causing copper deficiency, I went back to the Nature Made multivitamin and corrected the imbalances in my diet.  I stopped the multivitamin when I thought it was causing me problems but went back to it in June of 2018 in an attempt to correct iron deficiency anemia.  In October, while my anemia was only slightly improved, I was still showing iron deficiency.  At the time, I was taking Nature Made Multi for Her.  I decided to switch to the Centrum Women’s multivitamin and found that it was actually improving my iron status and correcting my anemia.  I can now no longer recommend Nature Made multivitamins.

• Calcium with Vitamin D:  I decided to buy a calcium with vitamin D supplement when I couldn’t find my usual supplement at the store.  I didn’t feel like having to go to another store, and I figured it wouldn’t hurt.  Over time, my acne began to get worse, and my ferritin, which had been steadily improving, went back down to undetectable levels.  I had taken the supplement for about four months.  When I went back to the store to buy another bottle, I saw that my usual supplement was back on the shelf, so I just bought it since I noticed no difference from the extra vitamin D.  I noticed I felt better the first day I started taking it.  My acne began to clear about two weeks later, and a follow-up check of my iron and blood counts showed improvement.  I now know to stay away from the extra vitamin D as long as my multivitamin contains enough.

• Black Cohosh (540 mg):  I tried taking this when my acne started getting worse while taking the 60 mg soy isoflavone supplement.  I noticed feeling worse when I started taking it.  I began taking it after I started the l-cysteine supplement, so when I read that black cohosh can increase GABA, I felt that might be the reason I was feeling worse on it.  However, I thought my body could adjust over time.  I was wrong.  I quit taking the supplement and decided to double up on my soy isoflavone supplement instead.

• Omega 3 Supplements from Fish Oil:  These supplements, from what I can tell, contain only omega 3 fatty acids.  They also contain them at a higher dose than ordinary fish oil capsules.  I felt a lot worse after just a short time, probably a day or two, of taking these.  I’ve found that ordinary fish oil supplements and combination omega supplements work better because of the lower amount of omega 3 fatty acids and the balanced blend of different omega fatty acids.

What I’m No Longer Using

• Country Life Power-Dophilus (2 capsules/day):  I stopped taking these capsules when I began adding more supplements to deal with the issues being caused by my inner ears.  When I noticed no difference after stopping them, I never went back to taking them.

• 5-HTP (100 mg):  I stopped taking these when I began taking the l-cysteine supplement.  The l-cysteine supplement corrected the imbalance which caused me to need the 5-HTP, so the 5-HTP supplement was no longer necessary.

• Estroven:  I started taking this when I realized that menopause symptoms were most likely causing my acne.  It made me feel better the first day taking it.  I stopped taking it when I began trying a vertigo supplement that contained black cohosh.  I added on a soy isoflavone supplement when my acne came back.  Today, I’m only taking the soy isoflavone supplement.

• L-cysteine (500 mg):  In July 2021, I found out I needed this supplement when I started taking it to see if it might help deal with potential neurological issues the inner ear damage was causing.  It turned out that I felt a lot better on the supplement along with 250 mg of vitamin C.  However, in September 2022, I stopped taking it due to feeling worse, I believe after I started making changes to help with my inadequate vision correction.

• Sensoril Ashwagandha:  I began taking one capsule a day to deal with the chronic stress caused by my inner ear damage.  I stopped taking it when I stopped taking the l-cysteine and vitamin C.

• Rhodiola Rosea (500 mg):  I began taking one capsule a day not long after starting the ashwagandha.  I also stopped this one when I stopped taking the l-cysteine and ashwagandha.

• Combination Omega Supplements:  These are supplements that contain a blend of omega fatty acids, like the omega 3-6-9 supplements.  For years I thought I could not tolerate fish oil, so I took these.  Fortunately, I found out that fish oil supplements were actually fine and what I truly could not tolerate were the “omega 3 supplements from fish oil”.

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