Do personalized vitamins play a role in avoiding vitamin horror stories? The process of being assessed and recommended for a specific daily routine can circumvent common pitfalls of self-prescribing.

A thirty-one-year-old man drinks several energy drinks early one morning to combat feeling tired after a late night of drinking. He then spends much of the day doing physical activity both at the gym and then outdoors playing sports with friends. While playing in a pickup basketball game, he collapses and the paramedics are called. He is found to have extreme dehydration and muscle breakdown (a condition known as rhabdomyolysis). This then causes kidney damage when broken-down muscle floods the kidneys.

Aggressive hydration and treatment in the ICU ultimately reverses the damage. Most likely, the large doses of caffeine found in the energy drinks contributed to his extreme dehydration and gave him a false sense of energy throughout the day.

A thirty-six-year-old woman is told by her family doctor that she has high cholesterol. She mentions this to her chiropractor, who then advises she try taking niacin, a B vitamin for lowering cholesterol.

She begins taking the dosage he advised and provided to her. Within two weeks she feels poorly and notes abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, dark urine, and her skin color is yellow. She develops severe hepatitis and liver failure due to the supplement. She is transferred from her community hospital to a major medical center for liver transplantation. Enough said.

Just because something is sold over the counter doesn’t mean it can’t have potentially major side effects. Here are a few takeaway messages when it comes to vitamins and supplements:

• Make sure you are taking pure, well-made products from a reputable source. GMP, USP and NSF certification can be a useful way to ensure higher quality.
• Make sure products are taken in appropriate doses.
• Make sure products do not have potential interactions with other medications or supplements.
• Review concerns with your physician and do not fail to mention over-the-counter products that you are taking at your doctor’s visits.

Bettering your health is clearly not a one-step process. Looking globally at your habits and health should involve a consideration of vitamins and their role. This is no simple answer; there are many factors that each individual needs to consider when weighing his or her vitamin options.

Safety and avoiding danger are of the utmost concern, as you probably can see from the horror stories above (as the Hippocratic Oath goes, “First, do no harm”). Then it is essential to look at yourself as a whole person (made up of your diet, lifestyle, and health issues) to start figuring out what vitamins personalized are both necessary and useful to you going forward. Try a personalized vitamin assessment as a tool to understand your profile and specific needs.