Whatâs in Your Prenatal Vitamin?
Doctors recommend them before, during and even after a pregnancy. But regulation is spotty and finding the right pill can be hard.
Credit...Eleni Kalorkoti
Published Feb. 3, 2021Updated Feb. 4, 2021
When I told my doctor that I was thinking of getting pregnant a few years ago, she advised me to start taking a prenatal vitamin right away. So I stopped by the grocery store on my way home and made for the supplement aisle. As I studied the array of options before me, I quickly grew overwhelmed.
I noticed that different brands contained slightly different concoctions of ingredients, with wildly different amounts in each. Each multivitamin extolled its benefits, but also bore the familiar disclaimer that its claims had ânot been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration,â which I found unsettling. Who, I wondered, was looking out for pregnant people?
December 21, 2020
Don’t let the cold keep you from working out outdoors. The sunlight can help boost vitamin D levels.
Rob and Julia Campbell/Stocksy
Wondering how you’re going to keep your spirits up when the sun sets in the middle of the afternoon, the temperatures are bitter, and the COVID-19 health crisis is worsening — and increasingly limiting leisure and social activities?
It’s been a tough year. And on top of whatever hardships you've been dealt, you may now be facing the reality that some of the usual wintertime activities you do (holiday gatherings, winter getaways, dinners with friends, indoor sports, and just about anything indoors) are going to be much more difficult or canceled, thanks to the pandemic.