Vitamins and supplements advice

[cc251254]

I would be very grateful for advice on which brand of and what dose to buy in the following please?

Selenium

Magnesium (to help with sleep, I'm haven't been sleeping well at all)

Vitamin B1

Vitamin B12

I am currently taking:-

Vitamin D3 (1000 iu) with K2-MK7

Vitamin C & Rose Hips 1000 mg

Gentle Iron 20 mg

Vitamin B complex

I have Graves Disease (3 years in) and currently on Carbimazole Titration and down from 40 mgs per day to 5 mgs (after being on B & R for 22 months taking 40 mgs Carbimazole and 75/100 mcgs Levo).

Thank you in advance

Christine

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

cc251254 I'm a great believer in you get what you pay for with supplements, buy cheap and you get the least absorbable form of the vitamin or mineral, possibly the wrong form, and lots of fillers. So I spend my money on brands that give the most bioavailable, active forms and try to avoid too many fillers. So budget comes into it. The words I look for are bioavailable, food state, wholefood, active.

For selenium you need the L-selenomethionine form. I take Cytoplan brand, it is food state and has good absorbancy. Cheapest place I've seen it is healthmonthly.co.uk/cytopla... but it's always worth checking Cytoplan's own website as they quite often have 3 for 2 on selected items, also they send you vouchers when you've registered. 200mcg is the usual recommended amount.

Magnesium - have a read through this naturalnews.com/046401_magn... and see if one jumps out at you. I take Natural Calm Magnesium Citrate powder in the evening. However, I can't say it really helped my sleep problem.

For B12, dose depends on what your B12 level is. Have you been tested, if so what is it? A sublingual methylcobalamin lozenge is best as it gets absorbed directly into the blood stream by dissolving under the tongue (important to let it dissolve and not chew it). Take a B12 tablet orally (swallowed with water) and it mostly gets destroyed by stomach acid. Cytoplan, Solgar and Jarrows are all good.

As for B1, do you have a special need for this? I see you take a B Complex, is there not enough B1 in that for you? I've never bought a separate B1 so can't suggest anything.

Brand names to look at, but I always check ingredients and bioavailability

Cytoplan/Nature's Own (same company - practioner brand/retail brand)

Thorne

Doctor's Best (some)

Lambert's/Nature's Best (same company - practioner brand/retail brand)

Swanson (some)

BioCare

There are probably others.

Ones to avoid - H & B own brand, high street and supermarket own brand as they tend to use the cheapest and wrong forms of the vitamin/mineral eg cyanocobalamin instead of methylcobalamin for B12, magnesium oxide (worst and least absorbable).

Of course, this is just my opinion, I am not trained in nutrition.

[cc251254 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you Seaside Susie, very much appreciated once again.

I don't have a special need for B1. I recently read a post from a fellow Graves patient who is feeling better than she ever has and is in "remission" from Graves and says she still continues to take the vitamins and supplements that she took because she believes that it's these and not the thyroid meds that have helped her and even weaned herself off Carbimazole by replacing it with L-Carnitine which she says is the natural "form" of Carbimazole. I have also read about L-Carnitine and Acetyl Carnitine working extremely well for some patients with Graves/Hyperthyroidism (NOT if you have HypOthyroidism) on other forums I am a member of.

So, I made a list of the Vitamins/Supplements the lady on this forum (HU) is taking in an attempt to find the "recipe" for feeling GOOD again :).

What are your thoughts/views on L Carnitine ?

I have to admit to being a dummy regarding all these vitamins and supplements and have spent a fortune on various ones and then decided that they could do more harm than good if taking too many different ones. I already have in my medicine cupboard and haven't taken any yet - L Carnitine x 2, co-enzyme Q10 x 2, high strength Zinc with Copper, Calcium with Vit D (presumably this isn't the same as D3 ?), Redoxon Immune Support with 11 vitamins & minerals effervescent drink x 3 (and then saw that it contains ASPARTAME) and finally Twinlab Stress B-Complex Caps x 4 that I bought from Canada at GREAT expense because Elaine Moore had stated that a friend of hers had taken these and never suffered another panic attack !

And of course I already have the ones listed in my earlier post that I do take along with daly Carbimazole.

Oh dear - confused.com

Christine

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to cc251254]

cc251254 I don't really know anything about Graves so can't say what vitamins and minerals may help. I know nothing about L-Carnitine either. I only really know what is recommended for us Hypo patients.

I've had a quick look through Dr Peatfield's book and can't see any vitamins and minerals listed specifically for Graves/hyper patients.

Of the ones you've listed, Q10 my practioner has me on, zinc with copper I think you'd need to be tested, calcium with Vit D again you'd take calcium only if you test and shown to need it and it would need to say cholecalciferol for it to contain D3. The Redoxon, and any multis, contain too little of anything and all sorts of gunk we don't need, but certainly the wrong form of B12 - cyanocobalamin and we should take methylcobalamin. The Twinlab Stress B doesn't contain anything that a good quality B Complex like Thorne, Jarrows, Doctors Best; however it does contain folic acid and we're recommended to take methylfolate and it doesn't say which form of B12.

bluebug and greygoose know more about Vits and mins than me so I hope they don't mind me giving them a shout. If you don't get any further replies on this thread you may want to re-test with a title that specifically mentions vits and mins for Graves patients.

[greygoose in reply to SeasideSusie]

I don't know anything about hyper, either. I can only second what SeasideSusie has said.

The most important rule is never to start more than one supplement at a time - so that entirely rules out multivits! - and know your body well enough to notice any change. We're all individuels, and all react differently. My daughter, for example, has reactions to supplements that aren't in any of the text books, and shouldn't really happen at all! So, we have to go slowly and carefully, trying things, to see what suits us best. And discard all those that don't suit us - I have a cupboard full of stuff that doesn't suit, myself!

Sorry I can't be of anymore help than that.

[cc251254 in reply to SeasideSusie]

I had B12, Ferritin, Folate and Vit.D tested a while ago and was Vit. D deficient and was given a booster dose over 8 weeks and now take a maintenance dose as recommended by the GP. He stated that the results for the other 3 were "fine". I posted the results and neither you nor Clutter agreed with my GP that the other 3 were fine and kindly recommended top up/maintenance doses.

I'm just trying to get my head around which "recipe" of Vitamins/Supplements are needed for my thyroid condition. I just confuse myself more with all the posts containing information on these vitamins and supplements and I want to take only the ones that are deemed necessary for Graves patients. Like most people, I had to ask for B12, Folate, Ferritin and Vit D to be tested and neither the Endo (apart from him recommending RAI !!) nor the GP had no further recommendations for self help other than the maintenance dose of Vit D.

Thanks again.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to cc251254]

cc251254 I think (but am happy to be corrected) that the info on vits and mins is generally aimed at hypo patients, possibly because there are more of us, and probably because Graves/hyper patients eventually become hypo. However, if tested to be deficient in those we recommend testing, then supplementing is for general health as well as just us Hypo patients.

It would be an idea if you researched vitamins and minerals for Graves disease and if anything comes up that's recommended to take, then if not already tested for it it would be an idea to see where your level lies before supplementing. Here's one site for starters gravesdiseasecure.com/suppl...