Why It’s Important Not To Just Pop Vitamins
Vitamins can be amazing, and sometimes they can be toxic or cause symptoms. Sometimes people take too high of dosage or just take vitamins because it’s trending on instagram, someone famous recommended them without knowing your body, or advertised them to help give you energy.
For example, the problem with this is you need to find out why you’re lacking energy. As it might be something serious or an easy fix. Plus your lack of energy, might not have anything to do with getting more sleep, working out or taking vitamins. It may be something where you need medication. Not knowing and taking the wrong vitamins, might make your symptoms worse.
Also, you can end up taking a vitamin(s) that cause symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, nausea without realizing it and thinking it’s something else.
You should only be taking vitamins if you can’t get them with your nutrition, you have a deficiency or other reasons as you’ll see below. You find this out by seeing a doctor and getting blood work done.
For me, I only take the necessary vitamins my body needs/lacks. Read my story below.
My Story
Vitamins can really help you if you take only what you need and right dosage. So many people take vitamins they don’t need.
I’ve been using and researching vitamins since my young 20s so that I know which ones to take for symptoms and correct dosage.
It’s not till I turned 40 that I started getting my blood work done every 3 months from my Gyno who specializes in hormones to help women as they get older. She checks my hormones, vitamins, mineral levels, stress and more.
Why every three months? Our hormones and bodies are constantly changing daily, weekly, monthly. For example, in the summer months we may have more vitamin D and in winter less. This way I take the right dosage and not just assume. Getting too little vitamin D when your body needs it or too much, all can cause symptoms.
It’s not just Vitamin D, she also checks my stress levels as they change. Some months my body is stressed and she’ll put me on vitamins to help, and other months decrease it.
Getting your blood work done tells you many other things about your body. See my examples of my journey below. I wish I had done this sooner in life to learn more about my body and what’s really causing my symptoms rather than just assuming and popping a vitamin or drinking more coffee.
1. Testosterone - This is what started my process of getting tested every 3 months. I went to my gyno about my low drive. I just wasn’t myself. I didn’t have the drive that I always had, even working out I wasn’t into it. I didn’t care about my work or about dressing up as much. Something was gone.
She suggested I get my blood work done so she could take a look.
She came back and told me my testosterone was almost non-existent. I was literally at 0.
She immediately started me on a testosterone cream and WOW! I was like a new person all of a sudden. It was like a high almost. My drive came back! I felt sexual again, pretty and wanted to feel beautiful by dressing up.
It eventually evens after after your body is on it and things went back to normal. Until I started feeling tired again. This time she said let’s do more blood work and check your thyroid because the symptoms I had told her before, she knew it was low testosterone.
But when I came back a second time, she knew it was probably my thyroid and it was.
2. Thyroid - We found that I had low thyroid and I have grave’s disease in my family (which my grandma had by not checking her thyroid early on). Left unchecked can cause major problems and with mood/energy.
Luckily I caught it early as it’s not too low. But before I took it I was starting to have low energy. I was just tired all the time and took naps which I had never done before. Once I took the thyroid medicine daily, my energy levels have been amazing.
I’ve been on it for 4 years and my dose has stayed the same, and hopefully it will keep me from getting grave’s disease by keeping it in check.
3. Vitamin B12 Deficiency - Again, I never knew I had this but wish I had known sooner. It’s not a pill I take but shots as they work better.
In the beginning I got weekly shots, then every 2 weeks, and now monthly. A deficiency in B12 can cause many issues which you might think is something else and not get treated properly. That’s why it’s important to get blood work done than treating yourself without knowing.
As soon as I got my B12 shots, my energy improved. And getting tested every 3 months, helps my Gyno to make sure my levels are good and whether or not I need less or more. Remember having too much Vitamin B12 can cause issues too.
4. Vitamin A Deficiency - if I had known this as a child, I probably would have better vision. I didn’t find this out till I was 40. Again, get this done early on to avoid so many future issues.
I now take a daily vitamin A supplement. Also, since I wear contacts I get my eyes tested yearly and this helps with catching anything early.
I have early onset of Macular Degeneration, it doesn’t mean I will go blind, as it runs in my family and no one is blind from it. But my eye sight can get worse. I’ve seen a retina specialist to confirm this where I get early testing to make sure it hasn’t gotten worse and I take special vitamins for this disease.
The vitamins have definitely helped my eyesight as I use to get really bad dry eye but has helped me tremendously with that.
5. Vitamin D - Even though I live in sunny CA and travel to sunny destinations, I don’t layout a lot. And when I’m home, I stay inside all day as I work from home. So my levels were really low.
They are now normal but we check them as sometimes they change depending on the season and whether or not I’m traveling.
6. Hormones - She’s always checking my hormones to make sure all is going well. She was worried that when I got off birth control, because I had been on it so long, that my estrogen levels wouldn’t come back or take a long time too.
Luckily, my estrogen levels came back full force within the first month. So they are all good for now but one day they will get lower and lower, and we will know when my body is entering menopause. And this way I can decide how I want to take action for that phase in my life. But until then, I’m still very fertile!
Conclusion
This is why it’s SO important to get blood work done when you feel something is wrong. Don’t just pop vitamins because you’re tired. They could be making your symptoms worse. Just because something is a vitamin doesn’t mean it’s good for you.
Go to a doctor first, get blood work and find out what’s the cause. Maybe it’s nothing and you’re just tired and need more sleep but it’s better to know.
I’m so happy I listened to my body, as our body speaks to use daily, many of us just don’t listen.
By listening to my body and going to my doctor, who’s extremely knowledgeable about female hormones, we discovered so much that has helped me.
I’m not saying you have to do this at all, I’m just sharing my health journey to hopefully help others make more informative decisions about their bodies.
