Why do I feel sick after taking my vitamins?

This is very common, especially certain vitamins and minerals when taken in large doses, but assuming you are talking about an average daily vitamin that only has 100% of the USRDA or less for each ingredient that would not be a large dose. Many people feel nauseas from iron on an empty stomach in a big dose. Also vitmain C in those super megadoses. Eating some food, even just a few crackers should help, but be warned iron is best absorbed on an empty stomach, so if you are iron dificient you might need a little extra if you eat with it to get enough. If you have no problem with iron, you might prefer a vitamin without iron, on the chance it is the culprit. Other vitamins like D and B12 are better taken with food. This is one of the problems with multi vitamins. Even so, I think it is a great idea to take a daily vitamin especially if you are not eating well.

As @JLeslie pointed out, usually taking your vitamin while eating something helps. If the dose is still too high you could try cutting them in half. In all honesty you really aren’t making use of all of the nutrients in every vitamin, as your body can only process so much at once… More than half of that vitamin is likely ending up in your toilet within a few hours of you taking it.

Forget vitamins, unless you have been assessed by a doctor and are in need of them and they have been shown to be absorbed into your system by a before and after blood test.

There is no substitute for food. You have to eat. Learn how to mange your time, buy things you can take along, pack yourself a lunch when you are packing the kid’s lunches, but EAT. (I say this as a person who struggles with food and eating and time management myself…) Juices are your friend. Start buying smoothies at the grocery store that you can drink on the run. Prune juice is absolutely chocked full of iron. (if you are seriously anaemic, you need iron from meat sources…) I love carrot juice and I find that it holds me over. Keep crackers or granola bars in your purse. Bananas are another good ‘on the run’ food. I can eat one while I drive or walk.

Mixed nuts and dried fruit mixes are also good. Throw some in a ziplock bag and you are good to go.

If you are worried about vitamin and mineral absorption, keep the tea and coffee drinking to a minimum.

We were never meant to take our nutrients in a pressed little capsule. Not how our bodies work. You just need to get a bit more clever and look after yourself. As a mom and wife and now employee, you owe it to yourself and those who depend on you.

I tend to disagree. I think vitamins, especially since our society is D deficient is important to supplement nutrition. Take with toast or crackers.

Vitamins are NOT a substitute for food. You disagree, @jazmina88?

Another possibility of what might be bothering you is some of the ingredients in your vitamin tablets themselves. Many over the counter vitamins and other medicines use a lactose base for instance which can cause stomach upset in people who are lactose intolerant. Also the coatings of some pills bother some people, for instance the red coloring on Sudafed. If you think it might be one of these you might want to carefully read the ingredients on an all natural vitamin and also consider the liquid form. (While I agree that many people who take them don’t actually need vitamin supplements, that’s not what this question is about)

I feel your pain! The same thing happens to me. I would take the multi-vitamin and about 10 minutes later notice that I felt sick for 10 minutes or so.
Rather than waste the bottle, I found that if I broke the vitamin in half and took it after eating a meal I would not be bothered.
Now I only take a 400 IU of Vitamin D, 2 or 3 times per week. I’ll probably stop that when the weather gets nice and I can go outside more.

I had asked this question about 6 months ago, because I had multi-vitamins that I would throw up immediately after taking (including the vitamin itself). I returned those to Costco, where I had purchased them, which has a very good return policy. I went to a holistic person who told me it was the ingredients in them. I started taking gummy vitamins, and the problem went away.

No. I think we need SUPPLEMENTS., i.e. to supplement foods. Never did I say SUBSTITUTE.

Vitamin D is not efficient by gettin in the sun. Not all have time to learn about which foods help with each nutrient and to budget foods for each. Our society as a whole is deficient in vitamin health and need to have these vitamin levels measured and be of higher concern.

Mine upset my stomach also so I take them before bed rather than during the day. I think the consistency is more important than the time.

Thanks everyone! I will take all your advice and study up on some of the different kinds of vitamins and what I need!

I don’t think this is related to taking the vitamins. To feel the effects of vitamin poisoning this requires more time and taking far more than the recommended dose.

I think it’s psychosomatic, perhaps anxiety related.

@mattbrowne I am thinking it has more to do with the stressful schedule. She needs to slow down a bit and EAT food.

@mattbrowne I have had the same symptoms and it certainly was not psychosomatic. I had no idea.of the cause and didn’t even recognize the pattern until it happened a few times. I’d eat breakfast, brush my teeth, and start to go out he door and start to feel the sick feeling as I reached my car. Hmmmm. Bad day at work.? Worry? Nope… It did not happen every day. It only happened on the days I had that particular vitamin. Once I figured it out, it was easy to pick another brand/type.

As I stated above, I had the same issue with the vitamins I took. I was not stressed out at all! I asked the question on Fluther and I also googled it, and apparently it happens to a lot of people. I don’t have the issue with gummy vitamins, so apparently it was those specific vitamins- I am guessing an ingredient in them.

@cazzie and @LuckyGuy- Well, the overall stress might make reactions like this more likely. Yet the “when I take them I feel nauseous for about 10–20 mins” part clearly links this to unconscious thinking after taking the vitamins. Chronic stress usually leads to increased cortisol levels affecting the brain, especially the hippocampus and the amygdala. Now worrying about what vitamins could do, can increase amygdala activity tiggering the nausea. The simple term here is ‘psychosomatic reaction’ because the psyche has the power to affect the soma, i.e. the body. Another term that applies here is ‘nocebo effect’.

An unlikely alternative explanation here could be the vitamin coating having a reaction with the stomach leading to nausea. Yet the human psyche is far more powerful. The best treatment is stop unnecessary worries. So again, it would take a while to create bodily symptoms from massively overdosing vitamins. This does not happen right after taking the pill.

Best check with a doctor. He or she will be in a better position to reassure @ShanEnri.