A friend of mine was telling me about this Astaxanthin supplement, it is a naturally-occurring carotenoid found in shrimp, lobster, crab and salmon. It is sort of like an antioxidant, supposed to help joint inflammation, support eye health etc. I have never heard of it.
I always wonder if all the “health supplements” really work, but there got to be enough people buying them for them to sustain in the market.
I take my daily multivitamins, Calcium and Vitamin D, and glucosamine chondroitin, that’s it. I started taking glucosamine about 10 years ago when I had problems with my knees, it seems to have helped. I was looking into magnesium supplements a few months ago, but never follow up with it.
I love shrimp and crab, not salmon though, so maybe I can start eating a lot more of them!! I don’t enjoy swallowing pills!
The market is so flooded with various vitamins and supplements, do we really need some of them?
People say if you eat a well-balanced diet (who does that lol), you don’t need any supplements, not even multivitamins.
I absolutely need my calcium and Vitamin D, my bone density report is getting worse each time, and my diet is just not good enough to provide sufficient amount.
Jokes aside, I agree with you. Cranberries, turmeric, raspberries and many other food substances have been reduced to supplement form. I walk through the isles of supplements at Costco and just shake my head. So much stuff! I too take Vit. D and maybe I will have to take calcium because I am cutting down my consumption of cheese. Other than occasional magnesium or electrolyte pill when I am exercising heavily, I prefer my nutrients to come with food.
I’ve never heard of this, but as someone with chronic inflammation (and a weak stomach in part because I’m picky and in part because my meds make me nauseous), I’m interested. I’m making a note to look into this.
My H has a bottle in his cabinet. His dermatologist recommended it to him since he gets a lot of sun. He isn’t good at taking it.
I also have a distant relative who reps it.
Since H and I are allergic to crustsceans, we avoid supplements that are derived from them. H had to stop taking a supplement for joints because it also contained crustaceans and jade him itch.
Seems like eating salmon would be a more enjoyable way to consume astaxanthin if that is your goal.
In crustaceans, it is mostly found in the shells. While some shrimp and prawns have edible shells, it may be difficult to eat lobster or crab shells to get the astaxanthin.
It’s good to see the thoughtful and cautious comments on this thread.
It always amazes me when people are willing to take concentrated supplements of various substances without any concerns about whether it’s safe to do this, just because the same substances are present in smaller amounts in food.
We don’t think that way about other food components.
People realize that the amount of caffeine in two cups of coffee is safe for most people but that the amount in 200 cups of coffee probably wouldn’t be. And they understand that consuming 100 times your normal intake of salt, sugar, or even water would be a very bad idea. But they don’t apply the same logic to the types of food components found in supplements.
I don’t know of any problems with astaxanthin. But the amounts that we get from food are relatively small. We don’t eat salmon or crustaceans every day, and in the case of crustaceans, the astaxanthin is mostly in shells that we don’t consume. Is it safe to consume much larger amounts of astaxanthin in supplement form? I don’t know, and I suspect that nobody else does, either. But I would like to know the answer to that question before swallowing any pills.
"A friend of mine was telling me about this Astaxanthin supplement, it is a naturally-occurring carotenoid found in shrimp, lobster, crab and salmon.
Seems like eating salmon would be a more enjoyable way to consume astaxanthin if that is your goal."
Eating salmon requires planning, preparation, time, and makes things dirty that then I have to clean. Swallowing a pill does not. I don’t take any supplements, personally, but if one were needed, it’s kind of hard to argue that it’s easier to cook food than take a pill.
many many times vitamins and supplements that have become the latest fad among the health “conscious” fail to stand up to scientific study as anything more than snake oil or at best a placebo effect. if you like shrimp ,lobster , crab etc…eat and enjoy. if you think that taking a supplement based on shell fish or fish is beneficial take that “pill” with a grain of salt! (I am a skeptic)
Since it comes from red colored seafood, I hunted up a pair of reading glasses to see the tiny print on the bottle of krill oil that I occasionally remember to take (supposedly better than fish oil). I finally deciphered the label to say: “contains 100% krill oil”. Well, that was worth running up and down the stairs for!
So then I just Wikipedia -ed it. Yes, that’s the stuff that makes krill oil red as well. I eat salmon at least twice a week but I may also take the supplement. My Dr did recommend fish oil but I didn’t like the size of those capsules. The krill oil ones are tiny.
All I know us H was reacting to something in Move Free and would get hives. He’s allergic to crustaceans–gets hives. Stopped getting hives after avoiding MoveFree and crustsceans.
I agree with others that supplements are usually worthless (I only take D and B12 per instructions from my physician) but when you’re in chronic pain and nothing seems to work for you, every possibility looks like a possibility worth exploring
