ASMBS guidelines for vitamins and suppliment

okay - my friends...  A few weeks ago one of you posted the ASMBS guidelines for post RNY vitamin and supplement requirements

I NEED IT NOW!

I am one week and one day post op and have discovered that my surgeon has me on Viactive which is Calcium Carbonate.  I have read enough to know that I need Citrate.  I was Calcium defeciant leaving the hospital and was told to take an extra Viative - what???

I am on  - by my choice - a liquid Calcium Citrate that gives me 1500 units per day.

The Chewable Daily Vitamin they have me on is Optisource - and since I am a good girl I did just what they told me to do and bought the stupid $40 bottle that I have to chew 4 wafers per day ( keep in mind that I have to allow 4 hours between that and the calcium) 

I believe that the chewable from GNC has the same amount of nutrients as the optisource, less than half the price and I only have to chew 2 of the things...but I want to make sure that it includes everything that I need and know what I need to suppliment with.

I have been on the asmbs website but can't find the guidelines...
I know you all will not let me down :-)

Here's what the ASMBS says you should start with:

A multi with 100% of the RDA of most nutrients.  Take two a day.  Stay away from kids' vitamins and gummy vitamins, because those will not have what you need.  They recommend a multi with iron.  If you take a multi with no iron, you’ll need additional iron at a separate time.

1500-2000 mg calcium citrate.  Make sure it's citrate, not carbonate.

18-27 mg iron for menstruating women, unless your labs show you need more.  (If you’re using a multi with no iron, that would mean you’d need at least 50 mg iron.)

B12.  You can use a sublingual, 350-500 mcg per day, a patch once a week, nasal spray once a week, or shots once a month.  Unless your labs show you need more.

They say a B complex is optional.

Many people also need D3 so you should get your vitamin D level to find out if you do.

Optisource is not a good vitamin for us at all.

First, you'd need eight a day, not four.  The ASMBS says you need 200% of the RDA of most things but four of those only gives you 100% of many things.  So you'd need eight.

It has calcium carbonate, not citrate.

You'd still need extra iron because even though they have lots of iron, they have enough calcium that it will prevent you from absorbing the iron.

You'd still need B12 because we can't absorb B12 we swallow because we lack intrinsic factor in our pouch.  You'd need a sublingual, or patch, or nasal spray, or shots.

Kelly

Drop the Optisource - it's crap.

Go with Centrum.  Cheaper, get by with 2, and you're golden.

Kudos for figuring out the carbonate.  Gotta love ignorant surgical programs (makes you wanna Gibbs-smack them, eh?)

Like Andrea said, get some centrum - I prefer the centrum silver chewables and take 2 per day.

The calcium citrate, make sure it is 1500mg of elemental calcium = check the bottle.  Many of us take chewable calcium citrate from bariatric advantage - many of them taste really good. I love the cherry lozenges and raspberry chewies.

Did your NUT tell you to take carbonyl iron with vitamin C, Dry D3, sublingual B12 and vitamin B1?  These are all essential.

Unjury has a chewable multi  and a chewable calcium citrate specifically made for bariatric surgery and you only have to take 1 a day. My nutritionist reccomends it... Just googlt unjury and you'll see it on their page.  Good Luck

Just make sure you take copper with the multi  because it has none in it.

Kelly

As rbb... I love the chewable Centrum Silver. 

Here are the articles.  Download them, read them, and keep them for reference:

ASMBS guidelines:
www.asmbs.org/Newsite07/resources/bgs_final.pdf

AACE, Obesity Society, ASMBS recommendations:
www.asmbs.org/Newsite07/resources/aace-tos-asmbs.pdf

I hope these help