My dad was funny as he got older. After I was an adult anytime that I
would call and maybe have a cough or a catch in my throat or runny
nose you would express his concern about my health and then asked me
did you take your vitamins?
According to him vitamins would prevent a whole array of illnesses. I
think he just took a basic multivitamin, nothing fancy. But he took
one every day.
Despite all the stories about vitamins passing through your system
undigested I remember one where Geritol had been pushed for a couple
of years through marketing as baby boomers were getting older. And
then they did big stories on how porta potty companies would find that
after they filtered through the sludge and waste they had all these
whole Geritol pills in the screens left over. So I guess the
marketing was working, but the pills weren't really being digested and
absorbed.
I went through a time where I thought you had to take all your
vitamins separately instead of a multivitamin plan. So I bought the
little packets that he ripped open and ate a handful of vitamins.
That was expensive, so I figured out if you spent a little extra and
by individual bottles of the different vitamins and you could make
your own mix and feel better about yourself and feel like you're
smarter than everybody else because you're only taking what you need.
I guess that's what it boils down to. The placebo effect is real and
if you put your faith in taking a vitamin to keep you well more than
likely it will. I know that through the COVID experience I have
picked up the habit of taking zinc every morning. I read in several
places where the common cold like what COVID started out as before it
evolved, however it evolved, was a lot like the common cold. So I
take zinc to prevent several things. And so far it seems to be
working!
But I always thought it was funny how Dad. would ask that every time
I or my wife would get sick. I'm glad that he cared!
