Thread: How long until my vitamins kick in?

Vitamins alone will not cure an anemia. The iron may start benefiting you immediately upon digestion of the vitamin. But what do you mean by "notice a difference"? A difference in... what??

I don't know what form the iron is in One-a-Day vitamins, but if it's not in an organic form such as "ferric citrate", you're wasting your money. (If the iron is listed as "iron oxide" or "ferric oxide", you're eating RUST!)

try liquid vitamins faster working

You can always take them with a high caffeine drink, caffeine helps things be absorbed into the body faster.

I have to agree with the above posts. Ive been studying vitamins for just over 2 years now and One a day wont work. It is a waste of money!

Im anemic as well! This is when I started looking into it.

I am a long time lurker and not one to post on forums, but felt I had to respond.
I have struggled with both iron deficiency and anemia in the past.
If you are anemic, you should be taking an iron suppliment, not a multivitamin.
Has your doctor done testing to figure out the cause of the anemia. Many different things can lead to iron deficiency, some related to other mineral deficiencies or inability to absorb certain vitamins and minerals.

Please do not take your iron with caffeine. Caffeine actually hinders the absorption of iron. If anything take it with a something rich in vitamin c. Also your body absorbs it better if you space out iron throughout the day, rather than taking it all at once.

I agree with the comment about the liquids. They are usually easier to take as well, less likely to cause constipation, but they are usually more expensive.
You should also be cautious with iron suppliments because they can leading to bleeding of the stomach, which just makes the whole situation worse.

When I had a blood transfusion I felt the immediate effects of the increase in iron rich blood, but another time with suppliments it took over a month to start feeling even somewhat normal.

I think it depends on several factors 1) how anemic you are
2) what is the cause of your anemia
3) how high of a dose you are taking
4) how regularly you are taking it
and 5) are you being sure not to take it with any food, drugs or vitamins that will interact with it.

One a day is not a bad vitamin, but if you are anemic you need more, you need ferrous sulfate, which is an iron suppliment.

I have to agree with some of your points about Iron! The Dr. facts and Caffine!

Have you read the book the Compartive guide to supplementation? There is an excellent book to read and how the Vitamins and the amounts affect your body.

When you're deficient in a vitamin or a mineral to the point where the actual item can be singled out, that tells you your diet is deficient in that nutritional component.

Generally, when you're deficient in iron, you eat spinach. In the past, one serving of spinach was enough to prevent anemia in growing children. Other foodstuffs such as parsley and so on also have iron and the B vitamins among other things such as minerals.

When you try to target a single nutritional component, you are committing essentially a nutritional sin against your body. Your body didn't evolve to take one vitamin or mineral at a time. Your body evolved to intake a balanced nutritional spectrum and it works best when you eat properly.

Deciding to take a supplement in lieu of eating your vegetables is asking for trouble. You're treating your body like an amateur lab experiment and dabbling in chemical and physiological reactions that have not even been researched thoroughly by professional scientists.

By taking a supplement, you are endeavouring to effect a solution or cure for your body without having done any research and without any experience. That's no different from jumping off a pier before determining whether or not you can swim.

This sort of casual experimentation is exactly why the medical community in the US and Canada toyed with the notion of making vitamins and supplements governable by medical authorities. To not do so would have been irresponsible. Well they tried and failed. So now the public is on its own and free to nutritionally harm themselves and the medical profession cannot be faulted.

If you are deficient or think you are deficient, research the subject thoroughly. Then see a doctor. As much as I think most doctors are quacks when it comes to health restoration, they do have one thing going for them - case histories and over time, a lot of experience in what people do to themselves in the course of treating their bodies like lab rats. Often symptoms from very different conditions are exactly the same. If you treat yourself for the wrong thing, you can do permanent, severe damage to your organs and every other part of your body.

If you must experiment, do it with food containing the material you're lacking; not a supplement.

You're much less likely to hurt yourself with cabbage than you are with a supplement overdose.

The other consideration is financial. Why would you spend money on something that isn't even food when you don't know for sure what the effect is going to be? Buy a lottery ticket instead.

Originally Posted by RobertT

You can always take them with a high caffeine drink, caffeine helps things be absorbed into the body faster.

Just to let you know, that caffeine does the complete opposite, if you must drink coffee or any other caffinated drink, drink it about an hour before taking your iron supplement. Take Vitamin C right when you take your Iron Supplement THAT is what helps with the absorbsion of the iron. NOT CAFFEINE... Please Google it if you have any questions. Oh and for some women they get naussiated after taking the Iron Supplement so try and take it with a full meal.

Great tips Babyface77! I didn't know about this either and it's good that you shared this knowledge with us. I really appreciate it. I do take vitamins and medicines with a meal because I know my body will work better if I have enough nutrition to help absorb the vitamins/medicines that I take.