Question:
What multi-vitamins do you use?
I was told to take chewable vitamins after surgery. I got overwhelmed at the choices when at Walmart today. — 120wannabe (posted on April 11, 2009)
April 10, 2009
You should take an adult multi vitamin with iron chewable. I took Centrum
early PO but I am sure there are far cheaper brands at Wally World. Watch
the main board because there is a girl named Andrea U that is very
knowledgeable about vitamins and minerals. She will post at least once a
week about good and bad choices.
— ChristineB
April 11, 2009
I use Flintstone's. If you read, it's for adults too.
— Bootsee01
April 11, 2009
I use Viactive multivitamins, 2 a day and take an iron pill with it. My doc
told me to try them because I can't stand the taste of flintstones. They
are chocolate flavored and have the same amount of vitamins as 2
flintstones.
— Dawn A.
April 11, 2009
I use Bariatric Advantage supplements. They are very cost friendly. I
purchase mine from my surgeon's office, but you can also find them online
at the Bariatric Advantage website.
— Sherri_tx
April 12, 2009
I really like Nutrilite:
http://lsmith97.qhealthbeauty.com/
— smith2la
April 12, 2009
Bariatric Fusion is awesome! Two flavors as well.
— shearosie
April 13, 2009
I use Nature-made liqui-caps. They have no funky taste, and they are well
absorbed. Plus if you collect points, you will get a $7.00 coupon every so
often, and alot of stores offer buy one get one free (so watch your weekly
adds)! So, you get two bottles for about $4.00, great deal!
— SkinnyBird
April 13, 2009
After taking 2X Centrum ADULT chewables for years...I SLOWLY realized they
didn't have the proper forms of the fat soluble vitamins for RNYers. ...I
became malnourished and very low or totally deficient in several vitamins
as well as having Iron Deficiency Anemia...I was chewing TWO centrum and
taking TWO chewable iron with Vit C...and calcium citrate with Vit D3 and
B-12 sublinguals...I was not very good at taking it all daily, I admit, but
I didn't go more than a few days without though and I was eating very
healthy and well by 4 years PO...Yet at 4 years PO, I became anemic (shows
up in your CBC's) and no special tests needed and when I asked about my
other vitamins, found out that no one had done specific vitamin labs in the
entire time pre op and post op RNY surgery!!! Some are covered in the basic
labs, but not all! (So Now when I have labs, they take about 20 tubes of
blood and not just 3!) I asked my doc to run them all and we found out I
was deficient in magnesium, iron, Vit's A and E, selenium and low in D and
zinc...I was hyper-parathyroid (calcium related defs) and I had GAINED 10
pounds...and when I went on a diet to try to lose the ten pounds I became
hypothyroid...Oh YAY for me! I was in bad shape...Doctor ordered bed rest
two months trying to avoid a heart attack from low oxygen in my blood from
anemia and my magnesium defs as well...So...It took me 6 months to get
everything under control and into normal ranges...4 months to lose my 10
pounds while trying to avoid a rapid heart rate or any stress...It was a
scary time. I had to take all my regular supplements as well as all my
defs and lows ( zinc, dry Vit A, D and E...magnesium, iron and extra vit
C...extra of all the B Vitamins...Omega 3's for my heart)...ALL the
individual vitamins I was deficient in! Then I had to get tested often to
see how well I was doing in getting the defs under control...Since then, I
have switched to Bariatric Advantage for the RIGHT forms and doses for RNY
and Chewable Carbonyl Iron from Vitalady or whereever you can find it! I
will ONLY chew my vitamins ever...No hard tablets that might not
dissovle...I chose BA multi-vits because after all my research to get
better again, these are the closest thing I can find to perfect or rather
"best" for the RNY body. But you still have to take the other
main supplements! So in addition to the multivitamins, you still take B-12
sublingual daily, as well as calcium citrate with Vit D3, 2-4 times a day
and Iron (all hours separate from each other...and get labs every year (I
go every 6 months until I can find the right doses of my personal supps for
my personal labs for prevention and til I have good labs regularly for a
two years straight) I get all my vitamins tested...20 tubes or more of
blood to insure my vitamins are working...Otherwise take what you
want...Just get labs to make sure you are not slowly losing your bodies
storage of vitamin levels (LOOK AT YOUR LABS PERSONALLY, Are they testing
for all the vitamins on your vitamin bottle?)...It's really slow to drop
the first 3 years and then when you get low/but normals (which your doc
won't even mention!) it drops so fast off the charts you don't even know
what the heck hit you because it's too late a year later when you get your
next labs! Then it can take months to raise some levels if there is not
already permanent damage from some defs...and many doc don't even RUN ALL
THE TESTS!!!...People do not get the whole malabsorption thingie...They
LOVE how they lose the weight and forget that malabsorption is not only
calories and fats but NUTRITIENTS as well and long term po, it catches
up...75 % of all RNYers experience vit defs by year 5 even if they ARE
taking vitamins REGULARLY! They usually learn from the symptoms that have
grown increasingly worse and even irreversible, such as brain damage and
crumbling teeth, that do NOT grow back...It would shock me if you could
find ONE 5 year PO who will recommend you chew kids multivitamins or take
your vitamin taking casually and who get labs yearly...New post ops do not
GET IT.... YET! Other than RNYers also DO NOT GET IT! I TOTALLY get it...
NOW! I was 4 years post op telling people I was fine, fine, fine taking 2
Adult chewables when I remembered! At 5 years...You won't hear me saying
that ever again! More importantly than vitamins are yearly labs...Just
remember, it takes a while to deplete the bodies vitamin stores and once
one starts it can set off a chain reaction, throwing EVERYTHING out of
balance...You know what's even more scary? I was THAT sick and the symptoms
were so mild and slow or random that I didn't even think they were symptoms
of anything but getting older and winter blah! And I ignored some that were
just weird or I didn't think were serious. It was when I started taking
supps of all my vit defs that it felt like someone turned on the lights and
all my symptoms started to fade and I felt alive again! I had no idea how
bad I actually felt because I am such a happy, bouncy kinda person...and it
takes a lot to bring me down...I just thought I was feeling
"lazy" in my older age! ...That was the word I used to tell my
doc how I was feeling...After she saw my labs, she said "LAZY" is
so far from the truth of how dangerously sick I was from malnutrition!
(That 10 pound gain really threw me off...how can one gain weight and be
malnourished???) Yep...you can!
— .Anita R.
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