Does DS turn you into a pill popper?

I was a little alarmed by the amount of vitamins I had to start taking. 

But then I remembered that I was taking 3 drugs for my diabetes... and I was buying test strips for my blood sugar meter and that was almost a dollar per stick.... and I was testing my blood sugar several times a day, then popping more glucophaze as needed....

The sleep apnea machine was 1300 out of my pocket... has to be worn when ever I sleep.  It needs new filters/face mask stuff every month... so that had to be dealt with.

Then I took vitamins before surgery, and some of those were to help me lose weight and metabolize sugar better... and now they are replaced by other vitamins, so that is a wash....

There are high blood pressure meds.... statins for high cholesterol.... other pills to fix other health issues related to obesity....

The longer I went being obese, the more pills I popped.  The more I spent on these meds/machines.  It's a wash.

And I stopped jabbing my finger with a needle several times a day at 3.5 weeks out from my surgery.  Cost: Priceless.

Look forward to the day you get rid of the CPAP - I did, and I have. 

As for vites and minerals, I take pills and capsules all day long, about 6 times a day to get everything in.  There are some vitamins and minerals that can't be taken together, so those I separate those from everything else.

I knew I would be taking above and beyond the calcium, multivitamin,  B12 and Thiamine recommended by my NUTs, so even going into surgery I did the "smile and nod", then did my vitamin thing based on Vitalady's regimen for the DS, then for deficiencies.  I continue with the deficiency plan to this day, as it seems to be the one that works better *for me*.

I take them 4 times a day and as someone else said I do them in batches.

Trish

Everyone is different as you have read.  I don't think twice a day is sufficient for about anyone.  I am obsessed with my bone health because if I break a hip I have no one to help me and I would wind up in a rehab joint.

So I take two big batches morning and night and I take additional Calcium, Magnesium Citrate and Dry D between 3 and 6 times during the day spaced at least 90 minutes apart.  I try to get in five but sometimes I just don't but I figure it averages out to be between 4 and 5.

Vitamins and the correct vitamins are so critical after the DS that you really have to onboard with it.  If you can't get complete labs done 4 times a year to start and at least twice a year for life and take a lot of vites then the DS is not for you.

But I freakin' love my DS and would do anything to have the health I have now.  My only regret is that I didn't do it 30 years sooner.

~Becky

My nutritionist told me there is a new powder out for DSers with all the vitamins and calcium you will need in it. YOu take one scoop three times a day in water. It is suppose to taste pretty good. The only thing missing from it is the B12 and protien. There is another powder you can get in tiny packets that have protein in it and mix it in with the vitamins. I am going to look into this because it will help me get some of my water in as well. I can mix it ahead of time in the baby water bottles and put it in the fridge for the the next day. It will help keep me hydrated since I am on the road all day. =)

I'm sure that nutritionist means well, but the reality is that most of them know little/nothing about the vitamin and mineral needs of someone with the DS. You will need to read the labels on these products for yourself to determine if they have the right stuff in the right amounts. Most such products come nowhere near the amounts needed for someone with the DS, so don't let yourself be fooled into thinking you will get away without pills.

Even ADEK's, which sound perfect for someone with the DS because those are the fat soluble vitamins we need to supplement - when you read the label, you find out they contain so little of each component as to be useless for us, and a sure path to deficiencies.

Oh, and regarding B12 - many of us don't need this. However, people with RNY have much more difficulty absorbing B12 than we do. Yet another area that nutritionists don't understand.

I would not trust these powdered products to provide what you need. I would not trust anyone to know more than you know yourself. You would hope we could count on the professionals, but this is an area where you need to become well informed on your own behalf.

Larra

hahah...I am a pill popper and sometimes I get sick of it, I look forward to blood work draws as i stop taking pills for 2 days.  but there is no way i am not going to take my vitamins, and it does become routine, .......  Because I have no thyroid and malabsorption I have to take pills 8xs a day since everything interferes with thyroid medication and I take that 2xs a day  then all the ca, and fe, now you can see where the 8xs a day comes in, no thyroid and malabsorption is a *****  but you do what you have to do.  I take about 42 pills a day.....vitamins and RXs....this comes from someone who in 2011 took no pills a day...nothing not one, so yes you can do it, it is a small price and the alternative is a slow and painful death brought on by years of malnutrition by not taking your vitamins

I'd rather take vitamins five times a day than carry around the extra 150 pounds I was carrying.   To me, the trade-off is obvious.