Vitalady opinions

I don't spend a lot of money on Vits and Supplements. After reading this post I do have to wonder if your Nut might have a conflict of Interest in this matter since she stands to benefit from you taking HER brand. Let your labs be your guide.

Kat

Um... yeah... I am with the others.  It sounds like your NUT is trying to scare you into buying the overpriced vitamins from her rather than giving you good information.  They often make SIGNIFICANT amiunts of money off of products that they sell.  Not all, but many.

As I indicated before, and Kelly chimed in on as well, it takes HUGE amounts of these vitamins to reach vitamin toxicity levels even for people who DON'T malabsorb vitamins.  I have never, ever heard of anyone -- RNYer or not -- having vitamin toxicity.  

Keep in mind that we have had the portion of our intestine that does the majority of the vitamin absorption bypassed.  We malabsorb so much that the ASMBS says we need DOUBLE the daily multivitamin of folks without a bypass.  Go to heir site to see what THEIR vitamin recommendations are.

Also, just out of curiosity, how did your NUT find out what amounts of the different vitamins are in Vitalady's pre-packaged ones?  I was not able to find that info online (although it was quite late last night when I looked, so perhaps I overlooked it).

Lora

If your low in something then taking a higher dose to get it back up won't be toxic,if your high in it and continue the higher dose then yes it may be toxic, most nutrishiolists( from my experience) have little to no understanding of rny patients and how they absorb vitamins( or in my case anything!)

she says right on the site who manufactures her vitamins.  i think it's biotech, but that's just going off memory.  she makes it clear she's not a health care professional, but she does offer vitamins that are of benefit, we are just all responsible for making our own educated choices.

i need the 50k vit d, others don't, but i do and she is an easy place to get it.  I need her iron (and much much more actually lol), and hers is the easiest place to get it.  if it doesn't work for someone else, then that's fine too.

Vitalady has been around since before I can remember - she's very experienced but has no formal education.   She is a good source for vitamins though in terms of quality.  

I am always surprised by how much people are willing to just blindly accept "vitamin gurus" advice for vitamin and mineral supplementation - and I know of a few people on here who have ended up with toxic levels of Vitamin D because of this advice - and by toxic I mean 3 times as high as the highest levels recommended for us (80-100).  See a health professional freak if you get over 100 and you'll understand how BAD this is!!

We are our own best educators and advisors - take the time to read, research and learn for yourself.   Let your labs AND TRENDING be your guide as to what YOU need to take and not take!!!   I'll be happy to bet it won't be the same as me ...

I have yet to find a health professional that knows what *I* need to take to keep my labs in a healthy range but I would never advise anyone else on here (who's medical history is unknown) what they should take.   Anyone that does this is walking a very thin line in my opinion!!!

I agree with this.  It's important for us to know our own lab values, trends etc.  Right now I am struggling with a quickly dropping ferritin level over the last year, but my doctors don't want to do anything about it yet (they don't think it's that bad).  So I am researching and doing additional supplementation on my own.  But we have to be accountable for our own choices.

I have a lot of faith in Vitalady (Michelle).  We've communicated through email and by telephone.  She isn't a health care provider and doesn't portray herself to be one.  What she IS is a long term WLS patient that has experienced various deficiencies and has worked with manufactures to get the best quality of vitamins she and others use or need.

I order several of my vitamins from her but not all.  Why because I can use some that are cheaper and work just as well for ME. 

I have to agree it sounds like your NUT has a conflict of interest in the matter.  Of course she wants you to buy from her, she makes money from those she sells.

My suggestion is put a schedule together and set reminders to take them.  Get copies of all your labs and set them up in a spreadsheet.....look at trends and supplement according.  My experience with my medical team is they do not understand my needs nor do the worry about any downward trends until it researchs deficiency level.  My old PCP freaked out about my B-12 being too high, it was around 1200 nothing IMO for me to worry about I like it ABOVE that number as it can trend down quickly.

Wonderful reflections and information.  I am going to email vitalady myself to get the clarification I need and then maybe, hopefully order from her!  Thank you all for your replys!