Is it ok to take some vitamins???
 

Good morning!!!

I was wondering if someone here could help me... I was thinking about start taking some vitamins for mental focus. I was wondering if that is legal to take and fly. and just to make sure, would this accuse anything on a surprise drug test???

here is a link to a specific vitamin

Neuro-PS® Gold Plus | Vitamin World

thank you all

Call it a weakness.... sometimes I have a hard time passing up an opportunity to be a wise-ass. This would be one of those times.

There are these guys with "Dr." in front of their name and some are specifically authorized by the FAA to clear you medically to use your pilot's license privileges. :D

If you have a pilot's license, I'll bet you know at least one of these people. Call me crazy, but no matter what answer anyone on this anonymous internet forum happens to give you, don't you think the FAA Doctor would be a good person to ask? Are you really going to pop one of those pills and fly if someone here happens to say... "Oh yeah, go for it."?

Oh yeah, go for it.

The manufacturer of Neuro-PS acknowledges that limited and preliminary clinical studies suggest that Phosphatidylserine may reduce the risk of cognitive dysfunction in the elderly. The FDA concludes that there is little scientific evidence supporting this claim.

Apparently Silicon Valley is convinced this stuff works.

Silicon Valley?s Eating Up Super Ritalin. I Got the Best of It. - The Daily Beast

Good God, if you want to take vitamins, don't spend $70 on an over-packaged, over-priced, over-marketed box of nothing more than inflated B vitamins. Just take a multivitamin and some regular B-vitamins. What you have here are just B vitamins with a "proprietary blend", meaning that they included enough vitamins in specific concentrations in order to make the product "unique" and thus proprietary. Horsemuffins... save your money and go buy an $8 bottle of Nature Made B vitamins. If you eat a balanced diet and get enough iron, you don't need any extra B anyway.

As for the medical certificate, there is NOWHERE that says you can't take vitamin supplements.

Vitamins should be just fine, but be aware that the medication question on the medical app asks about "any medication, prescription or non-prescription"

So what exactly is a non-prescription medication? Only something approved by the FDA? What's the line between medication and supplement? It's not clear. Would the FAA care about vitamin C? No. Would they care about the herbal supplement St. John's Wort, which is commonly used to self-treat mild depression? I'm betting they probably would...

Precedent has shown you can get away without reporting common vitamins. Beyond that, who knows?

As far as DOT drug tests, those only detect specific drugs which are commonly abused to get high, ie the usual narcotics, weed, and maybe a couple others. They don't detect medications or supplements, except for meds which happen to contain opiates (ie cough syrup).

So the concern is not drug tests, but what would the FAA think if they found out which is not likely in the case of run-of-the-mill supplements.

Although one airline pilot was recently incapacitated in flight because he took a bunch of a vitamins on an empty stomach so don't do that.

If in doubt it wouldn't hurt to ask your AME. The FAA does have a list of flight-approved meds which you can find online, but that is not intended for pilots to circumvent the AME since the underlying condition might be of concern even if the medication is not. But the list is a good for things like cold medications, some of which are non-narcotic but can still make you drowsy. Generally you need to try any new medication, including FAA approved meds, for a period of time before flying just in case you have a bad reaction.