Intermediate/Advanced Level Vit Questions

I think taking the Proferrin with food is fine too.

--g 

Chewable/gummy vites are usually not strong enough and they can be loaded with sugar.  Someone on another board posted that she was getting 42gr carbs per day from her vitamins.

No one really knows for sure how many receptors are left in their small gut.  Or how much they absorb.  Start out with what's recommended then tweak as necessary.  BTW, I have never needed anything even close to that much A.  I don't need extra iron either.  This is trial and error.

You can take D3 in pill form.

There are some people with serious problems who need to analyze these things.  Honestly a lot of us don't we just take the pills every day and don't worry about it.  OK so sometimes we take something late, early or out of order.  What matters most is that we do take the pills consistently over time.  It's always better to take them than skip them.  Me personally, I don't want to make all this so complicated that I won't do it at all.

1) By my labs, I only had to take 100,000 IUs of dry vitamin A for a few months. I was able to start cutting back and even stop vitamin A. Now I only take a 25,000 IU capsule every 2 weeks. It's better to space out your vitamins a bit, sort of treating them like meds.

2) 300mg of Tender iron was all I took at one time but I also take Proferrin (heme) iron at bedtime. So, Tender iron in the mid afternoon away from all the things that compete or interfere with iron and Proferrin at bedtime. Worked very well for me.

5) Her sublingual D3 is white but only 10,000 IUs. I used it to add to her regular D3 capsules but not too much.

7) I only give them an hour apart. We have very fast transit times through our guts, no need to wait 2 hours.

--gina

Since I'm seeing some questions that don't match the answers I had in mind.

D3-10,000 are sublingual, white

only B12 is pink-red-burgundy. It's the deep burgundy in shot form, too.

The D3-5,00 and 50,000 are white itsy teensy capsules. You can melt them a bit in saliva down the hatch, or swallow as usual.

The heme-iron is Colorado BioLabs, so you won't find it at BioTech. I know it's confusing. Colorado Bio Labs makes one product. Heme Iron, tho it is sold under different brand names. We have visited both factories twice. CBL is very small, like maybe a decent house size. I like to put my eyeballs on the quality controls if I'm going to take it or hook my name to it.

Between our visits in 2008 and 2011, BioTech added facilities, they once had about 8 QC in place but I think more like 12 in 2011. By now, prolly 30! LOL

Both of these biz are meticulously ethical, as well as meeting or exceeding any standards. I'm not excluding any others, of course, but I'm highly impressed with these 2 places. They are not set up for public visits, so no way to put on a dog and pony show just for me.

Mag oxide doesn't DO anything except organize the rhythm of your colon. It doesn't enter the blood stream. Mag citrate PILL FORM (not the bowel prep!!!) will organize other muscle contractions, twinges, etc. Although I've heard people say they keep increasing til their stool is uncomfortably loose, I've never seen this effect. I take about 14 per day of those, but just the 2 mag ox.

In THEORY, iron maxes out at 150mg per dose. The correct C to iron ratio is 30mg iron to 200 mg vit C (not ever buffered or ester C). See the orange caps for this ratio.

We've taken ours at 300mg in one dose since the 90's. Our iron levels reached "stellar" and stayed there all these years. While our surgeries are the same kind, they're not identical. Our docs gave the boys a couple moire inches going with the theory that boys need more calories. i won't go into my thoughts on that, but just that once you hit the dose of (anything) that works for you, go with it.

A lot of people ask me if they should change iron or calcium or whatever, while reciting levels that *I* consider fabulous, but I'm not medical, so I know nothing at all. I only have opinions. Rather strong ones, sometimes.

In THEORY not more than 500-600 mg of calcium (measuring only by elemental) can be absorbed in one sitting. And I'd prolly not suggest otherwise. I personally TAKE 3 of the calc only (300mg each) so 900mg four times per day.

An average lab range for calcium is 8.5 to 10.5. I want 9.0 to 9.4. Why? asks any doc I've recently acquired. Because higher means the calcium is wandering around in my blood - migrating - to my heart (and critical organs) and will short the bones and teeth to do that. Too low and my heart loses rhythm, and then can stop. I frown on either of those for this body, so I adjust whatever to hold that level mid-range.

Again, follow the advice of your own medical professional, or whatever you feel safe doing, combining all the info at your fingertips. My endo would like my D level to be 50. I'm appalled. We can meet at the PTH and calcium level, but we have agreed to disagree on a good D level. He uses a lab that is still using early 1990 levels. My lab uses modern levels.

I take my copper with iron, but I've seen research both ways.

I only wait one hour either side of iron. I take it with fruit or veggies personally.

I don't count the calcium or the iron in my multi. I mean, they're in there side by side already, so while I know some mg and type combos will absorb, the total is so low that they are just invisible to my eyes.

Did I cover everything? And again, the disclaimer that I'm not medical, don't pretend to be.

You are spot on as always, Michelle. Thank you.

--gina

Oh. HECK NO!

Thank YOU for never missing one of these!