Vitamins

Hi All

I am 9 years RNY post op and I take 6 vitamins everyday. But a friend of mine just had her RNY and she only has to take like 3 vitamins. Has the amount of vitamins we have to take changed and how many do you take? I would like to quit taking some of them if I don't have to.

Curious

Mini-Me

Here are the ASMBS guidelines for vitamin regimen after RNY. 

Minimal daily nutritional  for patients with RYGB and LSG, should include 2 adult multivitamin plus mineral (each containing iron, folic acid, and thiamine) supplements(Grade B, BEL 2), 1200 to 1500 mg of elemental calcium (in diet and as citrated supplement in divided doses) (Grade B, BEL 2), at least 3000 international units of vitamin D (titrated to therapeutic 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels >30 ng/ml) (Grade A, BEL 1), and vitamin B12 (parenterally as sublingual, subcutaneous, or intramuscular preparations, or orally, if determined to be adequately absorbed) as needed to maintain B12 levels in the normal range (Grade B; BEL 2). Total iron provided should be 45-60 mg via multivitamins and additional supplements.

With that being said, it depends on what vitamins you are taking and what the mg delivery it.  There are some vitamins that have a higher mg, so this might be why she is only taking 6 vitamins a day.   I myself, use PatchMD for all of my vitamins and that is a total of 4 patches per day.. 

Nik

You need two multis every day. You can take those together. You need 500mg of calcium citrate 3 times per day, separated 2 hours each. If your multi has iron, you need 2 hours between the multis and calcium.

Those are the minimums. Most people need other things. I take a sublingual B12 once a week. I take extra D3 every day. Those things can be taken anytime. Most also need extra iron. That should be taken at bedtime, two hours apart from anything with calcium, as well as many other things like coffee or tea.

But really, you need full labs done to see where your levels are, so you can see exactly whst YOU need. A full set of labs with all vitamins and minerals will be 14 or 15 vials of blood.

I take:

(2) Centrum Chewable multivitamins, 1 each at breakfast and dinner;

(3) Bariatric Advantage Calcium Chewy, 1 each at breakfast, lunch and dinner;

(3) Vitamin D 1,000iu at lunch;

(1) Bariatric Advantage 60mg iron at bedtime;

(1) Trader Joe's Vitamin B-12 1,000 mcg sublingual once a week.

Although not required, today I will be adding Biotin disolvable 10,000mcg once a day.

Biotin caused me to grow a lot of facial hair.  I was getting facial waxings until I figured out what was doing it and threw it away.  Just be aware of what can happen.

Thanks for the warning.  I've taken it for the last 4 months (excluding these 2 weeks post-op).  No extra hair growth...yet.

Thank You all for your help

I take....

1  children's multivitamin

2 viactiv chews

1 vitamin D3  1000IU

1 B-12 sublinqual  1250mcg

2 Vitron-C

1 Zinc  25mg

Well it doesn't look like I will be coming off of any and probably need to up the multivitamin. 

Children's multivitamins are missing LOTS of things. You really should have two adult multis. 

The Viactive chews are calcium carbonate. You are absorbing very little of that calcium. You need calcium citrate, 3 times a day. 

Please, get complete labwork done to see what you need. Get a printout of the report. Don't take someone's work for it that you are ok. And if I were you I'd get a bone density scan. At 9 years out, you could be looking at some serious deficiencies.

What do YOUR labs say? That's really all that matters. Personally, I'm surprised you're getting by with just six. Are they all multivitamins?

The only way to know what exactly your body needs is to get a full nutritional blood panel done to see what your levels are right now.  There are 'standard recommendations' and a lot of lessons learned between one doc and another's recommendations.  It's important that your regime is a personal one.