Vitamins

DrSugar is in the house! And she's answering your health-related questions, like this one submitted in our Ask Anything group.

Q: Does it matter which brand of vitamins I take? Are the more expensive ones better for you?

A: This is a great question to ask because I'm sure many of FitSugar's readers, including me, have become perplexed and overwhelmed when at the health food store or vitamin store shopping for a daily multivitamin! I think it's great that you are taking a multivitamin, as vitamins have been recommended for years because they help you get the key nutrients your body needs if your diet is low on fruits and vegetables. To learn if high price equals high quality in vitamins, keep on reading.

We all know that sunscreen is a tool to protect our skin against a host of ailments, including cancer and premature aging, but according to the Environmental Working Group, vitamin A derivatives retinol and retinyl palmitate, which are a popular additive in antiaging sunscreens, could speed the development of tumors when used on skin that's being exposed to the sun.

It's pretty common knowledge that vitamin A increases skin's sensitivity to light — anyone who's ever used Retin-A or Accutane gets a warning from their doctor about avoiding sun when they get their prescription — so this isn't surprising. It's the fact that vitamin A is being put into sunscreen in the first place that's weird. Why put a photosensitizing agent into a product people are buying expressly as sun protection?

I know that some people are going to blow this off as an "everything gives you cancer" story, but they shouldn't. The takeaway is really about connecting the dots, and finding out what's in the products you use. Do you use sunscreen that contains this vitamin, and if so, would finding out it had vitamin A in it make you think about changing brands?

You might know that Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP newsletters, while sometimes mocked by bloggers, actually do contain lots of great content straight from industry insiders. And whether you're a fan or not, you have to give the longtime actress credit for her efforts in trying to bring insider tidbits to the masses. Today's edition is one after my own heart, offering up some pretty cool hairstyle tips and tricks from her pals in the hair biz. See five of my favorites when you read more.

Children may be the sunshine of our lives, but they are not getting enough exposure to the source itself. Following the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics to double lil ones' daily dose of Vitamin D a year and a half ago, a new study shows that few kids are actually receiving the recommended dosage. In this week's edition of Pediatrics, researchers found that only 1-13 percent of infants under 1 year old receive Vitamin D drops and that exclusively breastfed babies had lowest levels of the vitamin in their system (only 5-13 percent received the daily amount).

Scientists are urging doctors and parents to reevaluate their intake of Vitamin D supplements to reduce the risk of rickets, bone problems, heart disease, cholesterol issues, and diabetes.

Do you give your tot a Vitamin D supplement?

If you down your vitamins with a little bit of tap water, chances are high you store them in your bathroom or kitchen. Unfortunately, a new study indicates that the watery elements of those two rooms make them the worst places to keep these pills. High humidity and high temperatures, often found in both the kitchen and bathroom, can degrade the potency and decrease the shelf life of certain supplements — even if the bottle caps are screwed on tight. Opening and closing the bottles allows humidity to creep inside, and that moisture can dissolve ingredients in the vitamins, decreasing their quality. The chemical changes are irreversible. It doesn't make your supplement unsafe, just less potent.

Check your vitamins and if you notice irregular brown spots, darkening, or signs of moisture in the container, you may want to replace them. And when you do, store your bottles away from the bathroom and kitchen. I keep mine on my desk at work. Where do you store yours?

Two common morning routines for many busy women are drinking joe and popping vitamins — often using the coffee to swallow the pills. The problem is, according to Fitness magazine, these two morning rituals don't play well together.

Since coffee is a stimulant, it makes everything move through the gastrointestinal tract more quickly than usual, and this increased speed hampers the body's ability to absorb all the nutrients your vitamin has to offer. The magazine advises waiting 10 to 15 minutes after finishing your cup of joe before taking your vitamins — it's well worth the wait.