Hi everyone!

I have been enjoying reading your posts for a few weeks now,
and I finally made the time to compose this.

I take a LOT of supplements, and although I feel that I have good basic knowledge about each one that I take, I would love to have some help in terms of combining them. I imagine that I am taking some together that do not work so well together, and I am likely missing opportunities elsewhere. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Like most people, I mainly take supplements to improve my long term health, and to assist my body in dealing with a few minor ailments. I am a 47 y/o male with good general health. I get plenty of exercise, but I have bad (large and small) vericose veins in my left leg. Although my blood profile was good overall (April, 2012), I did have slightly high Triglycerides and LDL, and HDL that is at the low end of what is considered to be "Good." I have lost 35 pounds since then, due to planting and enjoying a large veggie garden this year. In addition to the details above, I also developed Panic Disorder after dealing with some traumatic family deaths. Additionally, after a difficult few months this year, I had been experiencing some late morning and early afternoon nausea, so I recently added a few supplements to help with that. Fortunately, I have not had any issues with these, but I do have a family history of Heart Disease and Diabetes.

With these factors in mind, here are the supplements I use and (roughly) the times of day that I take them:

Around 6am, without eating - then back to sleep...
Now DGL (1 lozenge)
Doctor's Best Serrapeptase 40K IU
DB Nattokinase 2000 FU
DB Proteolytic Enzymes (1 cap)
DB Quercetin / Bromelain (1 or 2)

Around 9am, without food,
DB L-Theanine 150mg
Now D3 5000 IU
B-100 Complex (currently NatureMade)
Now Butcher's Broom

Around noon, after eating,
American Health Esther-C 500mg
Healthy Origins MegaNatural-BP Grape seed 150mg
Natures Bounty Cold Water Salmon Oil 1000mg - Switching to Now soon
Now Ubiquinol CoQH-CF 50mg

Around 4pm,
Now Taurine 500mg
Now St. John's Wort 300mg
Natures Bounty Acidophilus
Spring Valley Odorless Garlic 100 to 1 extract 10mg
Natures Bounty Curcumin 450mg - just ran out of Now Brand

Around 7:30pm, after eating,
Healthy Origins Astaxanthin 4mg
DB Trans-Reservatrol 100mg
DB 100% Chelated Magnesium 200mg Elemental
Centrum Silver - thinking of changing to a multi mineral

Around 10pm,
DB Saw Palmetto 320mg
Natures Bounty Cold Water Salmon Oil 1000mg - Switching to Now soon
Sundown Naturals Milk Thistle Xtra 240mg - will switch brands soon
Osteo Bi-Flex Double Strength (1 caplet)
DB 100% Chelated Magnesium 200mg Elemental

Around 1am, before sleeping,
Natures Bounty Green Tea 315mg - switching to Now EGCg 400mg
Now Chromium Picolinate 200mcg
Natures Bounty Melatonin 1.5 mg (3mg broke in half)
Zoloft 50mg

Due to a recent very severe thigh cramp during sleep with a repeat a few hours later (after I had run out of bananas for 2 days) I added a few 595mg Potassium Gluconate pills throughout the day.

To decrease nausea and aid digestion, I also take 1 or 2 of these randomly before taking other supplements and/or before meals:
Now Slippery Elm 400mg
Now Ginger Root 550mg
Natures Way Marshmallow Root 480mg

Finally, I add 400mg of Echinacea occasionally... usually 1 week on, 1 week off.

Please let me know if you see any issues, or have any recommendations.

Thanks very much for taking the time to consider my situation!

Read this:

https://orthomolecular.org/library/jo...05n04-p297.pdf

Thanks Mindy, although I'm not sure what you had intended for me to take from that. I don't have time to read all of those books, but I'm sure you can see by my supplement list that I do agree with Hoffer's basic premise of Orthomolecular Medicine (that Natural substances can achieve the same results as drugs.)

Does anyone have any insight into how the supplements within my groups interact, or recommendations for more effective groupings?

Thanks again!

Sorry bout that. He talks about Hypertension in this paper. I should have pointed that out.

Blessings,

M

Hello SevenWonders, welcome to NMT
Unfortunately, I can't help with your original request for guidance on the LARGE amount of supplements you consume as I only take a couple on & off.. Do you suppose the nausea you're experiencing could be due to one or more of the supplements?
I'm sorry for your losses. I hope you can find the strength to explore ways to help you adjust to what has happened. There are natural ways to help you reverse that Panic Disorder you developed. Gardening is a very good one Simple Yoga is another as it teaches you deep breathing exercises & there's usually programs you can tune into on TV or DVDs you can borrow from the library.


Love love love that you have a veggie garden! What did you plant this year?

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Thanks for the reply Cookie

I was beginning to think that the Forum was no longer welcoming new members,
or perhaps I should have titled it "Stump the Experts" (Just kidding.)

I know it is a large amount of supplements for the average person to sort out,
which is why I am asking for assistance. I do think it is entirely possible that the nausea could be attributed to a supplement or one of the combinations. I tried eliminating them one at a time for a few days each, and I have recombined them several times, but I never really figured out "the" problem. Some of it is likely anxiety as well. I am hoping that someone who really knows how supplements interact will notice something that I am doing wrong.

As far as the garden, we went nuts this year. I was fed up (so to speak) with all of the Genetically Modified junk they are feeding us these days, so I decided to at least take control of some of it. We started with 24 different types of tomatoes (29 plants total) but I have made second generations of several of them from cuttings, which put us at 37 plants!

We also planted 5 kinds of zucchini, plus squash, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, spinach, onions, yellow and red potatoes, cucumbers, several types of lettuce, cabbage, napa, bok choi, eggplant, asparagus, artichoke, daikon, soybeans, sugar snap peas, yellow and red peppers, garlic, cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, and 5 herbs.

So, considering all of the watering, pruning, weeding, harvesting and eating, it was very easy to lose weight this year! (Well, I also have a FT job and I take care of 6 lawns, and 3 different sets of kitties as well.) We recently planted more veggies for the fall, so it should continue nicely. I am now about 15 lbs above my ideal weight, so guess I'll have to come up with a plan to stabilize before long.

Thanks again Cookie

More like "stump the experts", though we are not really experts as much as we have a lot of experience. Several of us take large quantities and varieties of supplement. You appear to be very disciplined, certainly in contrast to me.

I can't see anything in your list that would make me nauseated. I do get nauseated when I take minerals on an empty stomach, except magnesium.

Instead of Centrum, I would recommend a new brand that I've been using. I'm impressed with their Alive! line of products. Check out their multivitamins as well as their single supplements. https://www.iherb.com/Nature-s-Way/Alive-Multi-Vitamin Seems to be whole food, instead of synthetics. I'm showing you iHerb, because I like them for online buying. I have found Alive! locally though.

Second to Natures Way, I very much like this multivitamin https://www.iherb.com/Now-Foods-Adam-...blets/380?at=0

__________________
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- Jim
"A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something." �Wilson Mizner

Thanks for the feedback and the suggestion.
I have been considering Alive! and I'll take a look at Adam, as I like Now products as well. Yes, I like iHerb - the function their site provides to search by condition and the user reviews are largely responsible for converting me from a 15 pill per day person into the Supp-Junkie I am today!

Please do dump the centrum. Add trace minerals or mineral complex.

Regarding zoloft.... as a nurse for a long time I seriously recommend that you find your way off of this drug.

please research GABA. It can take care of panic disorder for many people.
I do not approve of St Johns wort either, especially for someone who spends so much time outside. It is a photo sensitive compound. Look into SAMe instead.

Between SAMe and GABA your panic issuse may fade away.

Butchers broom is fine for your veins but you need to up your vitamin c to 4,000 mg a day, divide the dose if you want. This will take care of your veins and is good for heart disease also. The very best way to take vitamin c is in the lipsomal form which you can either purchase at www.livonlabs.com or www.letstalkhealth.com or you can make it yourself. Search "making lipsomal C" and you will find instructions. The extra lecithin may also help your mood too. I've been making now for a month and am very pleased with it. If I dont get sufficient vitamin c to my vericosed vessels I get pain, and this was huge issue for me until I figured it out.

These supplements should not be giving you stomach disorder. Something else is going on here. You can take ginger in pills but you may find that just ginder tea works better. There is also peppermint tea that can be very effective for all kinds of stomach distress.

Try a vacation from your pills for a few days to rule out that they are the cause of the issue. You need to know for sure. if nausea continues then you know and you need to seek the cause of this situation. look to see if zoloft can cause this.
If you stop zoloft do it gradually... decreasing dosage over a couple of weeks!
Never cold turkey an antidepressant... and have your subsitute ready to go.

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Thanks very much for all of the information!

I had been on paxil, but after having a panic attack that would NOT stop (took about an hour!) in April, I immediately ordered a bunch of things from iHerb. I was really struggling, so I took too much of everything (5htp, gaba, valerian, theanine, taurine, True Calm, Natra Sleep, Calm & Calmer) in an effort to try to make it through a shift without having another attack, and I turned myself into a zombie. I was still having attacks despite barely being conscious, so I ended up going on 100mg of zoloft. Once I started to calm down, I tapered down to 50 mg, but I added the St John's Wort to "replace" the zoloft, since they both increase seratonin levels. It was my intention to add another dose of the SJW and stop the zoloft (taper of course.) Do you have other reservations about the SJW aside from the photosensitivity issue? When I work outside for more than about an hour, the only skin showing is my nose - I wear long sleeves, long pants, gloves, hat and cover my neck. And since I started taking Astaxanthin, I barely get any tan and have not burned at all this year.

Thanks for mentioning GABA - I will try to work it in again.
What do you think about adding other amino acids like glycine?
Should I try to take GABA with Taurine and Theanine?

SAM-e... WOW, that is expensive, even at iHerb!
I will research it... if it can get me off of the zoloft and help me to feel normal, it would be worth it.

It seems that many people are recommending more C in general -
I will start to increase it and check into the liposomal form.

I am not experiencing the nausea as often now - I think it is mainly from anxiety, as eliminating each supplement for a few days didn't seem to make a difference.

Thanks again for your time and ideas - I really appreciate it!

You could try TMG https://www.iherb.com/Jarrow-Formulas...blets/141?at=0 Uses different pathway as SamE, but works for most. And promotes stomach acid too.

You could also try Ashwagandha, which promotes production of GABA in the brain.

Thanks for the ideas - also for the link to alternativementalhealth -
there is a wealth of information on there!!!

I too take a lot of supplements and with my recent discovery of iHerb, the amount is definitely going to increase! I also struggle with nausea and have wondered if it is a result of taking supplements; not so much the supplements themselves but the number of pills I ingest at one time. Eating something beforehand seems to help, but as I am gluten-intolerant (and continue to eat things I shouldn't) and also have a "nervous stomach", I feel like eating sometimes exacerbates the problem.

My current regimen consists of:

-Acidophilus+Bifidus -Evening Primrose Oil
-Fish Oil
-Flaxseed Oil
-Glucosamine+Chondroitin
-Melatonin
-Olive Leaf
-Oregano Oil
-Rhodiola Rosea
-Spirulina
-B Complex
-C
-Calcium+D
-Iron
-Plantiva AllerDX
-Plantiva ColdDX
-Plantiva ImmuneDX

I plan on adding these soon:
-Bilberry
-Coconut Oil
-Echinacea
-GABA (anxiety)
-Lobelia (asthma)
-Lutein
-White Willow Bark (migraine)
-Zinc (ADHD)

I REALLY want to try Sea Buckthorn Oil, but it’s on the expensive side, so I’ve decided to hold off on that for now.

Something I was told by a vitamin sales representative last year has stuck with me. He said that our bodies get accustomed to supplements over time and as a result our bodies stop experiencing the full benefits of them. He recommended skipping 1 or 2 days a week, in theory giving my body a chance to "appreciate" the supplements I take. Plus it gives my liver a break. I take my supplements M-Tu-Th-F and take the rest of the days "off".

I recently went through basic training (Army) and was prescribed Zofran for nausea and vomiting. I had a lot of gastrointestinal issues while I was there, including a peptic ulcer, and this stuff was amazing. You might want to look into it.

Good luck!

That's a good idea. I've practiced that for decades. I take supplements on weekdays and give myself a break on weekends. This is true for antibiotic supplements as well, such as olive leaf extract, oil of oregano, coconut oil. Some definitely should only be taken for a short period like only a month, then take a break - yucca root, licorice root, pau d'arco, chaparral.. Those can affect the kidneys. It has to do with pathogen resistance. Just like pharmaceutical antibiotics.

Glutamine is a great general health supplement with lots of different types of benefits. It's a staple in my supplement regiment, you might wanna consider adding it to yours too. Here's a good Natural News article about glutamine (I love that site):

https://www.naturalnews.com/035956_gl...s_healing.html