(untitled)

What's the deal with vitamins and supplements? I can't fuarrrk around with the fun stuff as much anymore but I still like to take pills for some reason (maybe I'm just addicted to the feeling of changing my body state) so I have been buying a bunch of vitamins and supplements like DHA, 5-HTP, Vitamin C, all 3 vitamin Bs, L-theanine, etc. but am I just literally pissing away my money or what? pic unrelated

Vitamins and micro nutrients craze is just snake oil health myth. If you eat regularly and different various foods then you most likely have all your vitamins in check and don't need supplements.

The Flintstones ones taste good.

>>2525 >am I just literally pissing away my money or what Yeah probably. At least based on the research I've seen vitamins are at best mostly worthless unless you have a specific deficiency, and at worst harmful in the long term. >>2527 I always liked the purple ones.

>>2525 They're pretty good if you know you aren't getting enough of something or if you know you're depleting something with drugs. (B12 for nos, 5htp + green tea extract for MDMA) Probably quite lame if you don't actually need them.

>>2526 some of these vitamins in clinical trials have proven effects such as 5-htp. I think you are either thinking of homeopathic supplements or are assuming OP is trying to get a "high" off of them. If he is then definitely you can not get a high off of vitamins and almost all supplements. While your point about diet is mostly correct, your acting like getting all vitamins through diet is an easy feat or something common. Also you are neglecting genetic imbalances that often cause people to immediately resort to addictive prescriptions when key vitamins might be needed. I can also see you imagining those people who eat those emergenC packets and take vitamin D or calcium, which yeah almost does nothing seeing as how many of our packaged foods are fortified with them and taking 1000% the rda does almost nothing for things like this. But vitamins like l-tyrosine, 5-htp, and adenysylmethionine are often products of a different nutrient found in food. Often times your body will simply not use these precursor nutrients past a certain point. However when you take the metabolized versions your body WILL use them. And some of the other seemingly snake oil vitamins like Vitamin B sometimes can do something in combination with nutrients like the above because they are used in the final synthesis or conversion into dopamine, endorphins, whatever. Also consider that taking too much 5-htp for example can cause serotonin syndrome, thats no snake oil. You wouldnt be able to come close to getting that much serotonin from diet, you wouldnt want to anyways of course. My point is just when a vitamin is doing similar things to a prescriptiom SSRI it isnt a "myth" or "fad". Clearly using certain supplements we can increase key chemicals in our brain beyond what would normally be possible with diet alone. Im also not claiming them to be as good at what they do as prescription medication of course, but I am claiming they may be more effective for some. Im not some biology expert, just a druggie like many here who used vitamins a lot for harm reduction, but id make a point that the advantage of one or the other depends on how much you want to interfere with your bodies checks and balances. So with say this in terms of how good are they at making dopamine: L-Phenylaline -> L-Tyrosine -> Adderall If you take the first you just are supplementing your diet, it would be as if you were getting it from food, what you would call snake oil. Your body chooses when to convert it into the second Tyrosine and will at its leisure. Taking the second your body still will choose when to process it into dopamine and noephinephrine or whatever, so it wont result in a increase in dopamine the whole time its in your system. When you are stressed L-Tyrosine is called into action. If you are stressed very frequently (as many are) the introduction of this supplement will allow you to keep synthesizing happy peace chemicals where you might naturally run out because your body metabolizes the natural l-Phenylaline from diet too slowly. Now adderall will instantly fire up the transmitters and order them to produce dopamine and co. They will go up and then come down once it wears off. The advantage to L-Phenylaline is building up your storage of the precursor if you arent getting enough of it. The advantage to L-Tyrosine is allowing your brain to synthesize more chemicals if you are depleting precursors too quickly. The advantage to the Adderall is if your transmitters simply do not produce these chemicals in enough quantity regardless if the precursors are there or not. Hence why I think vitamins should always be tried first, you have to be very sensitive with amphetamines so as to not build up a tolerance too quickly. You also have to have the self control to not take a ton. Even if you have ADHD im fairly sure (would be surprised if im wrong) you can increase the dosage to where you arent feeling focused and calm but getting that speedy euphoria. >>2525 OP you might be pissing your money away you might not be. Depending on how long youve been "fuarrrking around with fun stuff" and how long since you stopped l-theanine, 5-htp, omega3s, GABA and SAMe are probably some safe bets to look at. SAMe seems pretty unresearched long term and could have side effects. Just remember its never gonna be like pills where you get a rush. Id keep a journal and record a week or two on nothing, then do the same on various vitamins and see if any seem to help. Remember to look into each one and see if it will also require more of a different vitamin to be used. As I hinted at I know L-Tyrosine can be ineffective if you dont also increase vitamin B6 as its needed in synthesis. I dont know if youve ever taken a low reccomended dose of a prescription medicine, but this is similar. You arent supposed to feel different cause the average person using vitamins or a prescription doesnt want to feel different. Even good things like euphoria or hyperfocus can be perceived negatively by someone who just wanted to stop spazzing out. SIDE NOTE: Long post there is probably some errors in it. However I did double check mostly everything im saying, mostly anything wrong I said was just me trying to simplify things for my own understanding and thus also yours (unless your a big brain unlike myself). Mainly as someone who has been addicted to almost every kind of pill I just strongly support OP looking to vitamins for a boost instead and dont want him to be dissauded by an over simplification of supplements/vitamins as purely snake oil.