In order to be the best human being physically possible, I think taking care of your body should be top on everyone’s priority lists. If you feel good, you look good, and you do good! Super simple and straightforward.
That being said, it’s important to take care of your body the best way that you can, and sometimes this means using a little extra help from vitamins and supplements to keep our bodies going in the most effective ways we can.
Pill Perplexity: Why There’s No Reason to Worry
I know, pills can feel totally unnatural and ever seen scary, but believe me: there’s nothing to fear, AND you’re doing yourself a favor when you provide your body with all the nutrients it needs. There’s no reason to be worried just because vitamins and supplements come in pill-form, since they’re there to help your body where regular foods fail.
To break it down further: too much of anything is no good, even if its a food that is rich in a nutrient your body is lacking. For instance, I tend to have low iron in my blood. It’s been like that since I was little, and something I’ve learned to deal with in a variety of ways. One type of food that tastes great and is super high in iron is eggs! Eggs also happen to be super high in cholesterol though. So while they’re awesome for incorporating into my breakfasts a few times a week, eating them anymore than that would be more detrimental to my cholesterol levels than helpful for my iron levels.
This is where supplements come into play. Since they are usually pills, they’re a more concentrated way to get your body exactly what its lacking: no more, and no less. For instance, one of the best supplements you can take to help up the levels of iron in your blood is folate, and Pure Encapsulations makes a super easy-to-take pill that contains just that, as well as some B-12 vitamin to help keep your skin and hair soft and healthy. A little extra glowing, healthy blood and no cholesterol spikes? Sign me up!!
Supplemental: It Means What it Sounds Like
I also like to make an active effort to be award of and care for my microbiome. Microbiomes are the good bacteria that live inside each and everyone of us (and if you want to learn about the uniqueness of each of our microbiomes, click over to my science writing blog and read all about it here!).
Our bodies are actually pretty good at regulating these little personal ecosystems, but sometimes a crazy amount of bad bacteria can just show up for what seems like no reason. This spike in bad bacteria can lead to all sorts of weird digestion issues and general abdominal discomfort, and so far some of the only causes scientists can tie these spikes to are things like stress, lack of sleep, or over exercising.
Basically, all things that aren’t very good for our bodies anyway, but that sometimes just happen! One great food for this type of problem is Greek yogurt, which is one of my favorite foods anyway. But, it helps to supplement this with… you guessed it, a SUPPLEMENT! Bad bacterial spikes are an issue where things like probiotics are absolute life-savers to get your body back to a balanced state when the Greek yogurt just isn’t doing enough. Garden of Life has lots of probiotic options that are super easy to take and help combat overgrowth of bad bacteria in your microbiome.
Of Course, Lets Not Forget About Our Mental Health
Wow, this post is getting way more into my personal life than I anticipated. It’s good stuff though, I’m excited to share.
Okay anyway! Finally, I want to talk about vitamins for mental health. And, my particular area of expertise when it comes to mental health is anxiety, since I was diagnosed with panic disorder about two years ago. I’ve got a tight grip on things now, but believe me, it did not start that way. And actually, interestingly enough, that diagnosis is what got me started on natural remedies in the first place.
Anyway, people who knew my whole anxiety story have heard this before. But, when I was first diagnosed, I was living alone and starting a new job that I hadn’t realized yet that I didn’t particularly like. So, I started having panic attacks. I went to the doctor, got diagnosed, and the first thing the doctor I saw did was prescribe me a variety of pills, mostly Xanax-related drugs. I started trying to take them, and things got about a hundred times worse.
Long story short, too many drugs leads to too many problems. I’m off all the crazy medications now, and much happier. But, I think for what I was going through at the time, I wanted something that felt like a quick fix. That was why I was so open to taking a bunch of insane pills that were supposed to make all the anxiety just disappear. While it’s never that simple, sometimes things like natural vitamins and supplements can have a similar, almost placebo effect: I took a pill, so the problem should go away.
For instance, Nature’s Bounty makes a valerian root vitamin that is supposed to work miracles for anxiety, especially if your anxiety leads to bouts of insomnia. And while the effects of this pill are not as strong as the mass-produced chemical pills you might get prescribed in a medical office, they work just as well for calming your mental state in more ways than one. Plus, valerian root is actually a root, that grows attached to a plant, from the ground. It just happens to be easier to stomach in pill form.
There you have it everyone! Now you guys know all my deepest darkest natural-pills secrets, and hopefully they help you out with any pill perplexity you might have had going into this post!