Another one of those "vitamin" threads

So while we are on the subject I wanted to ask the following:

Is there a material difference in how much Vit A, Vit D etc that you must take sublingually vs as a pill that goes through the digestive tract?  In other words, if one were to swallow 50k or 100k IU Vit D tablets, how much of that is actually absorbed?  I'm trying to figure out how the sublingual vitamins compare to dry formulations in how much you absorb.

I have several supplements now that instruct you to place under the tongue or on top of the tongue and it gets absorbed in your mouth vs going through your digestive tract.  I've linked many of them here, but basically my Vit A, D, E, K, B12 and Biotin supplements are all taken this way.  It implies that absorbing it in the mouth is more effective since the product is water soluble and doesn't reply on the absorption of fat.

I can't find a straight answer.  Anyone have experience with this?

An example for Vit A, from the seekinghealth.com site where I got Vit A and Vit D drops from.

"Highly bioavailable: As a fat-soluble nutrient, vitamin A is more difficult to absorb than water-soluble vitamins. Fat-soluble nutrients must be made water-soluble through several body processes in order to reach the absorptive cells of the digestive tract. Unfortunately these body processes are frequently inefficient even in healthy individuals. To support optimal absorption of this vital nutrient, this product provides vitamin A that has been micellized into extremely small, water-soluble droplets that are easily absorbed and readily assimilated."

According to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), not only do the majority of people go into bariatric surgery with vitamin deficiencies,  it is common to see DS patients have issues with the following vitamins:

• Vitamin A (almost guaranteed needed by 4 years post op)
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin K
• Zinc

They also say that most women will have issues iron, especially if they do not use birth control pills or do not eat enough red meat.  And the majority women (bariatric or not) will have calcium issues at some point in their life.  (FYI: RNY patients typically have issues with B12). 

Bottom line:  The vast majority of their patients will have issues.  Not only is it a lie to say "Everybody prospers following their advice" but the majority do not.    I can promise you that the insurance companies would not be paying for regular "extremely exotic" blood tests if most people were doing just fine. 

Even for us DS's there is such a thing of too much vitamins.  A sad lady posted here about taking too much folic acid and losing a year of her life to acid poop.  She used to sit on ice bags for relief.  It wasn't until she got so depressed that she went off all her vitamins that she started to figure out what was wrong.  I don't think this is a common thing though, but I try to keep it mind to keep from embracing the "more is better" philosophy. 

In reality, this is a short term problem.  Honestly, I'm not sure it matters too much what you choose for your first three months.  I had swallowing complications and didn't get everything in too often and when I did, I had cut it down to a minimum levels of supplements.  Three months is actually not very long when it comes to most nutrients.   Your three month blood work will show you anything dangerous in time to do something.  Once you are on a roll and have three and six month blood work behind you, you make up your own program.   It will take a ton of research to do a good job of owning it.  I think some people decide just to do the full VitaLady program, rather than dig in to do their own research.  But here is another bottom line:  as long as you stay on top of your blood work, you will know specifically what to do and be fine.