Best Brand or Type of Vitamins

AT0M1CR00ST3R
AT0M1CR00ST3R Posts: 17 Member
in Food and Nutrition
1) tabs vs chewables vs gummies vs liquigels etc. ?

2) best vitamins for men, best for women, seniors, children, etc. ?

3) best time of day to take ?

4) any other relevant factors to consider ?

All thoughts and opinions welcome.

Replies

  • bpetrosky
    bpetrosky Posts: 3,911 Member
    Must of it doesn't matter. For most people who don't have a specific deficiency, a simple multivitamin is more than enough.

    The body will use what it can and the rest is just expensive pee. You don't get 'extra-credit' for megadoses.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    The only instance where I think timing matters is if you take thyroid medication. You shouldn't take a multivitamin containing iron, calcium, or magnesium with thyroid medication. I take my multi at night to avoid this.
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    Do you have reason to think that you're not getting adequate amounts of vitamins? Have you had blood tests to confirm this?
  • Keto_Vampire
    Keto_Vampire Posts: 1,670 Member
    edited December 2018
    USP logo - means a 3rd party regularly/randomly inspects manufacturing facility to ensure the product is what it is essentially. Most (but not all) Nature Made products have this logo/seal
    https://www.quality-supplements.org/verified-products
    vdyyvgb6sf3s.png

    Other questions regarding timing (varies based on specific product(s) & other drugs taken), gender, age, etc. are too broad of questions to give a general answer for & often need objective lab values to warrant an actual need (vs. "general health use"...why waste money on something unnecessary?).

    One of the few drugs/vitamins with significant difference in response with gender is actually niacin (B3); more beneficial for women vs. men (exact logic/reasoning is unknown...gender response difference is extremely rare with drugs other than obvious ones like hormones)
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »
    The only instance where I think timing matters is if you take thyroid medication. You shouldn't take a multivitamin containing iron, calcium, or magnesium with thyroid medication. I take my multi at night to avoid this.

    Well, timing is important in that fat-soluble supplements should be taken with food, so I time these around lunch or dinner.

    Others should be taken on an empty stomach, so I take these before breakfast.

    I just look at the bottle and have one container for the empty stomach ones and one for the take with meals ones, and make an executive decision for the ones that don't specify. I have a weekly pill organizer with AM and PM compartments.

    I'm thinking of simplifying things somewhat by switching to Ritual, as I already take 8 of the 9 components in their multi, and I liked their ad, and I am a very hard sell. These are for women and they are vegan, which I appreciate - I am not myself vegan but applaud the ethical stance. I also like the way they detail their sourcing: https://ritual.com/ingredients/
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,944 Member
    Don't do it unless you have a proven deficiency. And then supplement only what you need with a good quality vitamin or mineral, and not with this multivitamin crap. Many of those are a) rather low quality b) too low dose, or too high dose (vitamin B6 can cause nerve damage if taken too much) c) many don't work together with others. Plus very big: in a few cases, taking a multivitamin can actually mask a deficiency in blood tests, yet the dose is far too low to be of any use. Vitamin B12 is one of those. And guess what: you want to identify a deficiency because this one the one that can cause huge health problems if present. Think nerve damage, permanent if identified too late.

Categories