How much vitamins is enough?

[CurlAhead]

I am currently taking 3000 mg fish oil a day, + B1,2,3,6-vitamins a day. Is it dangerous to start taking a "multi-vitamin" on top of that? With almost all vitamins?

[ZeppHead]

I wouldn't take a multivitamin that contains the B vitamins you are already taking. If you can find a multi with the B vitamins that would be ideal along with the fish oil. It would cut down on the amount of pills you take which makes life a lot easier. I have taken super potency vitamins that caused bad acne and can cause serious health problems as well, so I wouldn't recommend taking more then you need. I take 2 1000 mg fish oils a day but I used to take 3 of them twice a day.

[torrilin]

The vitamins you can overdose on are the ones that are fat soluble. Vitamin E, Vitamin A, some of the B vitamins. Generally, you get your vitamins from fruits and vegetables, so if you eat a lot of plant foods, you're probably doing ok. There are a few special cases like Vitamin D, which we get from sun exposure, and some B vitamins can only be obtained from fish, milk, chicken, eggs, beef, pork or other animal products.

If you're concerned, it would be a good idea to get an overall vitamin and mineral workup with your doctor. This is a routine thing to do as part of a physical exam, so your doctor should have old test results that you can compare to. I would not recommend taking a vitamin pill without talking to your doctor. Vitamins can interfere with the way some medications are absorbed, and not all multivitamins have safe levels of the fat soluble vitamins. If you are taking a pill, even something seemingly harmless like a multivitamin, your doctor should know about it.

The other reason to go this route is it isn't safe to treat some deficiencies by yourself. It takes really specific treatment to clear up an iron deficiency, and a regular multivitamin won't do the trick. And the pills you take for an iron deficiency would be toxic to a lot of people who are healthy! Since normally people don't go deficient in a vitamin or mineral at random, your doctor will also want to monitor you to make sure that the treatment clears your problem up over the long term.

And if your doctor doesn't care or can't be bothered to check? That's a clue that it is time to find a new doctor. This is routine preventive care, and it's as basic for your health as things like keeping your tetanus shot up to date or getting a Pap smear.

[Panth]

The vitamins you can overdose on are the ones that are fat soluble. Vitamin E, Vitamin A, some of the B vitamins.

...not entirely true. Overdosing on water-soluble vitamins may not cause a build-up in the same way overdosing on fat-soluble ones can, but it can still cause problems, particularly by over-taxing the systems (e.g. kidneys) that excrete water-soluble vitamins.

Other than that, that comment is very good advice. ^_^

[CurlAhead]

Thank you for the replies. I will not add multivitamins, just stick to what I am currently on. I don't know if I am imagining that my hair grows faster just because I want it to, but I hope it does because of the vitamins and the fish oil.