Bariatric line vitamins worth it?

Hi everyone!
I'm currently taking a mix of vitamin brands, everything from Rite Aid store brand b-complex and calcium with D to GNC liquid B12 and Baratric Fusion multi that I get from my surgeon at 25$ bottle that I take 4 a day of.

I was just on the Bariatric Advantage website and they are selling all of that for about 125$ - for 3 months I think.  I don't think I spend that much on everything now.  My question: is it worth it? Are they formulated in such a way that makes for better/easier absorption versus the normal folks?

Thanks!

I'm going to give my best answer which is: Not always...

If you are making sure you are taking absorb-able versions of the vitamins in strengths appropriate for a post WLS patient, then you are probably doing fine... But, if you are not taking dry versions of fat soluble vitamins, you could end up severely deficient. Also, some of the stuff I've found in stores is the "right" stuff, but the amounts are so low that they wouldn't do me much good.

For instance, Vitamin D. I'm deficient in Vitamin D so I need to take a lot of it. Before, I was taking 5,000 IU of DRY vitamin D every day. My labs came back with low Vitamin D numbers, so my surgeon wrote me a prescription for 50,000 IU of Vitamin D a day, but it was in a gel capsule, so I can't absorb it. I got the 5,000 IU online. I checked it out in stores and I can't find any pills larger than 1,000 IU of dry D. SO, I ordered the dry d from vitalady at 50,000 IU of dry d.

The 1,000 IU pills are certainly acceptable and the right version of Vitamin D, but they aren't going to do me any good because I'm deficient and mal-absorptive.

So, this is the case with quite a bit of the vitamins we need to take, so in some instances the bariatric versions of things take out some of the legwork on stuff like this. But, for the most part if you are getting the right version of the vitamin you need, you'll probably be fine picking them up wherever they are most affordable.

Dry A, D, E, & K
Calcium CITRATE (not carbonate)
Carbonyl or Heme Iron
etc...
and most people are doing just fine on Centrum Vitamins 2 times a day if you can swallow that big of a pill, or the silver chewables if you can't.

Yeah... I got awfully rambly, lol... Sorry 'bout that!

Huggles!!
~Sarah~

I don't know about the absorption, but I have been taking the multi and calcium for a couple months and had labs done recently and they said to keep doing whatever I was doing.  Labs looked really good.  I like them because I can just put them in my pocket and don't have to take powders or liquids.
My 2 cents.....

I think it depends on the brand.  I don't think the Bariatric Fusion ones are worth it because four a day only gives you 100% of the RDA of many things and we need 200%, so you'd have to take eight a day.  Plus buy calcium and iron and B12, even though they say you won't need all that.  You will.

The multis from BA I think are great.  The calcium and B12 is good too but it's no better than any calcium citrate and B12, any brand.  

Kelly

I can tell you my experience, backed up by just a little science.
From a point about one month post-op (as soon as I dared) I began taking whole pills for my vitamins and supplements, largely because I did not like the taste or mouth feel of the liquids and chewables I had been using.
I got a large bottle of Centrum Adult Multivitamins at Costco.  This joined another large bottle of calcium citrate pills that I had previously gotten there, too, along with some B-12 sublinguals.
So, from a point about four weeks post-op, I've been taking two Centrums and four calcium citrates every day, and two of the B-12s every week.  It can't get any cheaper than this, I reckon.
So, about a month ago, after being on the above regimen for about eight weeks, I got blood drawn in preparation for my first post-op follow-up visit with my surgeon.  Whatever I'm doing must be working pretty well, since three pages of lab reports generated from my blood assay showed me "in the green" on every item measured, with one exception.
The exception was in my iron levels, which was just a tiny bit on the low side of the green range.  My doc didn't have anything to say about that other than to recommend that I eat a few more dark green veggies as a means of raising the iron levels.
So, from at least one source, you have a bit of evidence that the higher-priced vitamins and supplements available from the typical OH vendors don't really do any better than the low-end stuff available at the big box store.
Hope this helps.

I use Bariatric Advantage Vita Band supplements and Bariatric Advantage Chewy Calcium. I spend $100.00 for 3 months. Since I save so much on my food budget, the cost is worth it to me.

We can't absorb gel caps?

Not the ones that are filled with oil.  There are capsules that are filled with dry ingredients we can absorb just fine, but the oil is a big problem for us, since we mal-absorb fats. That means all the fat soluble vitamins have a hard time getting into our systems! 

Huggles!!
~Sarah~

Hmm.. things are starting to make sense.. the prescription Vitamin D I've been on for 2 months did not seem to be helping anything....and ofcourse it's a gel pill.  *Awesome*
I just ordered the liquid vitamin D, calcium, and devrom (anti-stinky) from BA.  Looking forward to my order :)

I use BA Multis and Calcium but everything else i get either at walmart, or the vitamin shoppe