I have taken most of my vitamins in the morning, with breakfast. I take a few in the evening, like the Slow-Mag. I take one in the morning, one in the evening.

How about you? I wind up taking a lot of vitamins with breakfast, should I split them up more?

I take most of mine in the morning, but I leave the Magnesium and Evening Primrose Oil until bedtime.

I'm not sure that time taken makes any difference, but because I have lots of pills to take in the mornings, I've just re-allocated some to bedtime for my own convenience.

Interesting topic. I saw my dietician a few weeks ago and asked him this question, as not only do I want to prevent any interaction with my meds, I want to make sure my body gets the most benefit from the vitamins & supplements.

I take all of mine in the evening/night, with the exception of my calcium/vit d supplements. I take that supplement either 2 hours before or 2 hours after I eat which usually ends up being around noon (my eating schedule is weird and I don't eat at noon).

I can take my evening/night ones at anytime, but I choose to take them at night simply because it is easier for me to rememeber (to take them) as I take quite a few of my daily meds at night as well.

With the Calcium/Vit D I am told that your body absorbs it better when not taken with food.

I guess it really just depends on what supplements you take, your lifestyle, any other meds, and that sort of thing.

L2L

taken with food.

Time of day affects some. For example, zinc is better absorbed at night, I have read.

Some people get very hyper on high dose B-complex, so taking that in the morning is best. It also makes you go to bathroom, so at night you don't want that. Some people reflux or get heartburn from B-complex, so taking with food is better for those folks.

I have found that B12 taken alone, is best at night, for me.
And I take my magnesium after food in the evening. It is less laxative after food, for me.

Oil soluble vitamins and EFAs are best taken with food.
That is when the gall bladder empties and helps to emulsify fats for absorption.

We get our vitamins naturally thru food, so for the most part taking with food is not an issue. The only exception is stand alone B12 which is best absorbed passively on an empty stomach. As we age the intrinisic factor that latches onto B12 is often low or absent so we are dependent then on passive absorption of B12. So if you take 1mg or more a day then do that on an empty stomach first thing in the morning, or last thing at night with no food.

Right now, as I mentioned earlier, I take two 100mg B1 tabs during the day and a complete
B complex vitamin. So the B Complex I take with Breakfast, along with most of my vitamins and a few meds.

I take the rest of my vitamins at dinner, around 6pm. NOW I see that I might want to rethink this.

My worst problem with any medication or vitamin is taking Qualiquin and 300mg of Neurontin
about 9pm. They are capsules. They are 324mg and 300mg respectively and they repeat at least once. I then hurry in to eat a fruit flavored yogurt to get the taste out and to settle my stomach. I take the quinine for leg cramps (down from 3 at night to 1 and trying to stop that) and the Neurontin for RLS. I also have been taking 6 mg of ReQuip (generic) for RLS. IF I take all 6mg at once, it nauseates me. So I take 3mg with dinner and 3mg about 8pm.

My weight loss program is still doing well. I eat everything but sweets. I eat at least one melon a day and half a watermelon a day (small ones) when we can find them. I figured out I actually gave up sweets about August 4th, so in 60 days I had lost 22 pounds. I still eat everything else I have ever eaten and all the fruit I can handle. Even some popcorn. But no chocolate or candy. My weight goal is 180 pounds (down from my max of 230 pounds on August 3rd or 4th. Prednisone and detoxing off the morphine combined to balloon me up to that weight. Good choices in vitamins (thanks to you...) has helped me keep my energy up.

I do not have true Narcolepsy, but I am falling asleep a lot when I am sitting down watching TV. NOT while walking or talking, etc. I am having trouble finishing this. I keep yawning and wanting to go lie down. When I do that I take Tolly with me (back to the bedroom), leave the door open so she can leave if she wants and I put my mask on, turn the oxygen on and take a comfortable nap.

Is their a vitamin that helps us stay awake? Besides the B series?

Wow... You are doing great!

I think some of your "problem" is the high dose Requip.
Here is a list of side effects...and you are on the high end dose wise:

http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/ropinirole_ad.htm

As you continue to improve, discuss with your doctor perhaps reducing the dosing of it (titrate down slowly).

Keep up the great work!

Thank you for the kind words. I always try to reduce any meds I take. Not always with success unfortunately.

We started with the Ropinirole (ReQuip generic) at 2mg. It did not help. I called my Neurologist and he said to increase it to 6mg, then back it off slowly. 6mg stopped the RLS. As you so wisely put it, I will reduce the titration to see where it has to be. During the morphine detox I felt like I had my plate full and did not want to "mess around" with guesses. Let's knock the RLS out and I will worry about reduction of dosage after the detox is completed. The other problem was I was trying to detox off opiates and then was forced to use 7.5mg of Oxycodone to relieve the RLS. Tough to detox if you are still taking opiates every night.

I had a complete blood work up done, as you suggested, and everything but the Creatinine levels are still elevated. 1.5 for the 2nd year. I go in for kidney testing in an hour. My Vitamin D tests took a lot longer than the other blood work, I am not sure why. I have the print out from the lab ... can't remember what Vit. D numbers were. In the normal range per Dr. My PSA is always elevated. From 7 to 9+, but no cancer. Yet.

If I may digress for a moment, I would beg all of you to tell the men you care about, whether husband, brother or friends .... get a blood test when you are around 40 ... ask for a baseline Testosterone Test. It IS a blood test. When my PSA jumped in 1999 they put me on meds to lower my Testosterone (since some cancers feed on it) and they forgot I was on the meds I guess. They lowered my levels too low, then told me they don't have a baseline to go by, now I am fighting to get the dosage increased. I take shots every 3 weeks. It goes much further than than sex. Muscle mass, energy levels, desire to get up in the morning ... quality of life issues. If the lab says 300-900 is "normal", most doctors will put you around 350 and leave you there. Please don't think I am having a "pity party".
I am very lucky. People need to be educated as to the potential problems they will face on down the road. The baseline blood test is a "first step".

Thanks to mrsd and others on this forum, I am now focusing on my vitamins, hoping to help rebuild what 5 years of heavy meds has torn down. Thanks so much for your help.