In April 2007, I started to lose my feelings the third and fourth finger of my left hand. It felt like they where "half-asleep", and I also lost some strength. Sometimes they were aching. I was afraid it was carpal-tunnel, or some nerves in my elbow, but I waited patiently for 6 months, hoping it would cure itself. No improvement whatsoever. Needless to say, it affected my drumming ability to a great degree.

Then, I stumbled onto a webpage describing vitamins, minerals and their effects. Magnesium immediately caught my attention. Lack of magnesium causes numbness, among other things. Causes for lack of magnesium in the body are: Too much coffee, sugar, alcohol, emotional stress, junk food and too much refined foods in general. Not too uncommon for a musician 

The next day, I purchased a multi-vitamin/mineral powder, along with calcium/magnesium tablets and Omega-3 (to be on the safe side), all of high quality. In 5 days, the numbness of my fingers where totally gone! I had full strength and control of my left fingers again, as well as an energy boost I hadn't felt in a long time.

Now, I have had problems with some sort of bad eczema for many years, that ended up covering almost half of my forehead. I let my hair grow long to hide the most of it. I had tried many, many cures for this, without any success. Guess what, after three weeks, my eczema started to slowly dissappear. Now there's approximately only 10% left of it, and it's still going away. Can't say for sure what caused this, but my mother, who has the same eczema and eats the same type of vitamins as I do, has experienced the same thing.

There are a lot of people in the world who wants us to believe that extra intake of vitamins and minerals is all hype, and has no medical effect. I only say this: medicines can be patented, while vitamins/minerals can't be patented.

Not to say that there aren't vitamin pills out there that are worthless. Always go for quality, and always use one multi-vitamin/mineral as a base.

I can't remember any medical professional who actually said vitamins/minerals are unimportant either, but the general perception is that only women can suffer from lack of iron, and older people from B12. Infants are given supplements of A and D vitamins. However, people are starting to realize that lack of magnesium is fairly common. The people who wants us to believe that vitamins/mineral-supplements are useless, are the drug companies. They even tried to ban the selling of these supplements, at least here in Europe. I believe they tried to do the same thing in USA, a few years back.

Believe me, I've attacked the problems at their sources before. The effects were much too subtle to motivate me to continue. But since I started eating these supplements, I have the energy (and knowledge) to change my lifestyle. I realized that the Coke (soda pop) were probably the main cause of my lack of magnesium. One can (33cl) consumes about half of your whole recommended daily magnesium intake (which you may or may not be getting). Also, I didn't drink milk. Big mistake!!

Regarding the kind of eczema in our family: we've all been to doctors, "skin-experts", and have all come out with some really expensive moisturizing creams. Of course, none of them has had any kind of effect. No one has ever suggested that it could be caused by a lack of vitamins/minerals. The general perception of eczema in the medical business is, at least currently, "it can't be cured". Anything that can't be cured with patented medicines can't be cured.

It's not merely about going out and buying expensive supplements, but rather to investigate vitamins and minerals and where you find them in foods. Raw cereals and seeds are very good sources of magnesium.

It should be noted that I live in Sweden, and it's hard (often impossible) to get fresh fruit here, which is why vitamin supplements can be a good thing.

Interesting! As for water, everyone drinks tap water here.....but I try to look for food naturally rich in vitamins and minerals. As for table salt, I use something called Himalaya salt, which is supposed to contain lots of trace minerals from the mountains of Himalaya. People from this part of the world are known to live to be very old

Trace minerals is a very interesting subject....in mineral supplements, only a few of them are present.....but the body needs many more minerals - we just don't know how much it needs of each one, and if it's beneficial to include them in supplements. For instance, garlic contains germanium, bananas contain silver....there's much research to be done on this subject. I think a lot of diseases could be cured, with more knowledge about these minerals. But there's no money to be made, since there are no patents to be taken. 

The earths are different in all parts of the world....for instance, in Scandinavia, we know that the earths contain relatively small amounts of selenium. And that is of course reflected in all the cereals and vegetables that are grown here.

And yet all the things you are supplementing with are from "nature"? I don't understand this statement.

Not exactly!  There are thirteen vitamins classified as either water soluble (C and B complex) or fat soluble (A, D, E and K).  Once absorbed into the circulation these vitamins are carried to the liver where they are stored.  Water-soluble vitamins, such as Vitamin C and the B vitamins are stored in the body for only a brief period of time and are then excreted by the kidneys. The one exception to this is vitamin B12, which is stored in the liver. 

Fat soluble vitamins should not be consumed in excess as they are stored in the body and an excess can result in side effects. An excess of vitamin A may result in irritability, weight loss, dry itchy skin in children and nausea, headache, diarrhea in adults.

An excess of water soluble vitamins except for B12 should not result in any side effects as they will disperse in the body fluids and voided in the urine.

The best bet is eat a balanced diet.  If you do take supplements do not exceed the RDA. 

that's a rather synical view... I really don't think its a conspieacy... 

It doesn't seem unlikely to me - they are only defending their financial interests, right?

Thinking of how many people who die or become seriously ill because of prescribed drugs every year, it's seems a bit odd that the drug companies are putting pressure on governments to ban the sales of vitamin/mineral supplements "because they can be dangerous". Where are all the vitamin victims, then?

excessive use of vitamins & minerals can be dangerous... that's why governments take action.