Juggling Medications and Supplements

It is a juggling act with medications and supplements.

I take my levothyroxine in the early morning hours (usually 1-3 a.m.) when I wake up to use the bathroom. This hormone stopped my hair from falling out! 

I take my first dose of CBD and a probiotic with breakfast. 

I take most of my vitamins and minerals and my second dose of CBD with supper, my largest meal. These include my calcium/magnesium/vitamin D3 supplement, multivitamin, zinc, selenium, citrus bioflavonoids, vitamin C, vitamin D3, natural vitamin E, lutein with zeaxanthin and others. 

I take my SrC and simvastatin a couple of hours before bedtime and about 30 minutes apart. 

I get magnesium in my Ca/Mg/D supplement. I had been taking a magnesium glycinate capsule at lunch time for a while, but I stopped taking it due to multiple bowel movements. I still give it to my husband. It is best to take magnesium at bedtime, but lunch seems to fit in better for us.

I take sublingual methylcobalamin (Vitamin B12), 5000 mcg, one tablet per week. My husband takes this high dose every day around 3:00 p.m. to keep his canker sores from returning.  

Sometimes Less Is More

I take several supplements. Recently, I have reduced the dosage or eliminated some of them.

AOR Strontium Support II, 341 mg strontium (from citrate)/capsule

Reduced from two capsules (682 mg Sr)/day to one capsule/day for four days/week and two capsules/day for three days/week

Reason: My DXA scan of August 18, 2022 showed "normal" bone density. Due to the bone strontium effect, my BMD is more likely at the osteopenia stage. Sure beats osteoporosis! 

Magnesium glycinate 

For about a year and a half, I took one capsule per day of Innate Vitality Magnesium Glycinate, 500 mg/capsule. The label does not give the amount of elemental magnesium, which would be 70.5 mg (14.1% of 500 mg magnesium glycinate). I think it is misleading to not provide the amount of Mg. I switched to Doctor's Best High Absorption Magnesium Glycinate Lysinate, which has 100 mg of Mg from 1000 mg magnesium lysinate glycinate chelate per tablet.  

Eliminated magnesium glycinate 

Reason: I was having multiple bowel movements with Doctor's Best, although not with Innate Vitality. There is Mg in my calcium supplement and my multivitamin. I also eat magnesium-rich foods. My husband is still taking Doctor's Best magnesium.

Horbaach Sublingual Methylcobalamin (Vitamin B-12), 5000 mcg/tablet

I was taking 5000 mcg/day, which is a huge amount. I knew it was a huge amount, but my husband needs that amount of B-12 to keep from getting canker sores. He got recurrent sores until he found out about B-12 for canker sores from a scientific article. More recently, I read that, in some people, B-12 can worsen acne because Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) need B-12. I have always had acne-prone skin. 

Reduced from one tablet/day to one tablet/week. My husband still takes it daily.

Reason: Worsening acne flareups, and recommended doses are much lower than I was taking

Probiotic, Various Brands

Eliminated probiotic. 

Reason: Not sure the ones I tried were helping my gas and bloating. For many years, I used Nature's Way Primadophilus Bifidus, which seemed to help my digestion. It had to be mailed overnight with a cold pack, but many vendors, such as Amazon, are not keeping it cold.  

Digestive Enzymes, Various Brands

Eliminated digestive enzymes

Reason: None of the various brands made a noticeable difference for my gas and bloating. I am not lactose intolerant. If I were, I would take Lactaid, or a generic lactase supplement, as my husband does. 

My Daily Supplements Update

I take one of each supplement daily, except for strontium. I take two capsules of strontium per day.

  1. Bluebonnet Lecithin, 1365 mg in one softgel

  2. Solgar Citrus Bioflavonoid Complex, 1000 mg per tablet

  3. Country Life, Gluten Free, Calcium Magnesium Complex (500 mg Ca, 250 mg Mg per tablet)

  4. Doctor’s Best Lutein with Optilut, 20 mg lutein esters yielding 10 mg minimum of free lutein, 2 mg zeaxanthin per capsule

  5. AOR Strontium Support II, 341 mg strontium (from citrate) per capsule (two capsules daily)

  6. Nature Made Multi for Him, No Iron (Not a typo. My husband and I both take this multivitamin.)

  7. Nature Made Vitamin C, 500 mg

  8. Solgar Natural Vitamin E (as d-Alpha Tocopherol plus d-Beta, d-Delta and d-Gamma Tocopherols), 400 IU

  9. Nature’s Way Primadophilus bifidus (This is a probiotic.)

10. Solgar Sublingual Methylcobalamin, 5000 mcg

11. Solgar Zinc (as zinc gluconate), 50 mg

I have made a few changes since my last daily supplements update on June 11, 2015:

http://strontiumforbones.blogspot.com/2015/06/my-daily-supplements.html

The most significant change was the switch from Doctor’s Best Strontium Bone Maker to AOR Strontium Support II. I made this change after Doctor’s Best was sold to a Chinese company and before discovering that Doctor's Best Strontium was discontinued in July 2016 (60- and 120-count bottles) and September 2016 (360-count bottle).  

I reduced my dosage of Bluebonnet Lecithin from two to one softgel, which is a serving per the label. Many years earlier, I had been taking three softgels per day. The reason for my latest dosage reduction is that there is currently some controversy about the health benefits of lecithin. I’ve been taking it for many years for cardiovascular health.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecithin  See the introduction and the section on “Biology” in Wikipedia for an overview of lecithin, choline, and phospholipids, such as phosphatidylcholines, a class of phospholipids that incorporate choline as a head group.  

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26108618  “Effects of choline on health across the life course: a systematic review.”

I also switched from Nature’s Bounty Vitamin E to Solgar Vitamin E, from Twin Labs Zinc to Solgar Zinc, and from Country Life Citrus Bioflavonoids and Rutin to Solgar Citrus Bioflavonoid Complex. These changes were due solely to unavailability at my online supplement distributor, iherb.com, which no longer stocks Nature’s Bounty Vitamin E or Twin Labs Zinc. Country Life Citrus Bioflavonoids and Rutin is out of stock at iherb.com until 12/25/2016. I may buy whichever bioflavonoid brand is available when I reorder.

I like my supplier’s next day air expedited shipping (at extra cost) because some vitamins and supplements are heat labile. I am unhappy with its current policy of giving a discount, based on total amount of current invoice, for my NEXT purchase rather than for my CURRENT purchase, as was previously done. This policy has raised my costs.