Vitamins

Hi 

When you take your vitamins do you space them out over a little while. I started mine and took the breakfast ones and almost threw up maybe because it was on an empty stomach?, not much better with dose 2 or 3. Thanks for any help.

Michele 

your tummy is still healing. It will take a little while to get fully to speed with the vitamins.  Eventually you will work out a routine for yourself, where some pills are on an empty stomach, some with meals.    It does get easier

At five plus years out, I take 8 vitamin doses over the course of the day, at least 2 hours apart for each.  The largest does has 8 pills in it, three of them large ones.  I easily down the whole lot in one swallow with a little water.  

thanks for letting me know it does get better, my biggest group has 10 pills in it 5 I can take at one time 4 of them really small and one small, all the rest are big ones (horse pills :) ). I think part of it is I am just over whelmed by the totally number of pills I have 31 total. I think tomorrow I might spread them all out and not try to take them all at one time. :)

how many batches are you taking per day?   It might be one particular one that is bothering you, like zinc, for instance. But I think it would be fine to spread them out during 15 to 30 minutes after a meal.  Just don't forget.  I have often made the mistake of trying to get my vitamins down when there just wasn't enough room left in my tummy.  I felt like  And you might want to disolve Calcium Citrate horse pills on a spoon with a little water.

Before the DS, I used to take handfuls of vitamins all right before bed time with a little protein.  I just was not good about taking them in stages through the day.

I've learned that many of those vitamins are not absorbed in larger quantities, so taking them all in one dose is a waste of money.  I do them twice a day now (in the middle of a meal), and I'm trying to teach myself to do them 3 times a day.  The more I absorb from the vitamins I do take, the less vitamins I will have to add in the future.

I always take pills with food.  Food slows down the time it takes to go through the intestines, so the body has more time to break down the pill and absorb the nutrients.  Vitamins on an empty stomach is pretty harsh.

I never had a problem before the surgery taking pills on an empty stomach. Since the surgery I have to have 
something in the morning with my pills. 

I bought a pill organizer that separates the day into 4 batches. I typically do:

Wake up batch with protein shake.
Post Breakfast batch.
Pre Dinner Batch and then
Evening batch.

Chewables help. I just started back with Citrical and they are almost too big for me to get down (3 weeks post op).

I'm still experimenting but this schedule seems to work so far.

I also made the mistake once of laying back down after taking the morning pills and had them try to come back up. Now,
when I take the pills my head stays above my stomach.  Good luck.

Remember (or learn) the vitamin rules as you break out your vits for the day. 

Don't take Iron with dairy or caffeine.  Do take with Vit C, it helps you absorb the iron better.

Don't take Calcium with other vits.  It will bond with other vits and not enable your body to absorb them.

Those are the important ones.  There are other rules to follow for better absorption of what you take also.  Vitalady has the rules on her web site.