When to start our vitamins?

I see this question a lot and it seems many docs have different recommendations.  I thought I’d share what the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery says on the matter.

They recommend starting your multi and your iron as soon as you come home from the hospital.

They say you CAN wait up to one month to start your calcium.  Not that you have to, just that you can.  Personally, I would start it sooner than that but if it feels overwhelming to get everything in, hold off a bit.

They also say you can wait up to three months to start B12, which really seems like a long time to me, but that’s what they say.  Not that you have to wait that long, but you can.  Personally, I would make sure I had my B12 level checked pre op before I decided to wait that long and if I really didn’t want to start a sublingual ‘til three months out, I think I’d ask my doc for a B12 shot at my first follow up appt.

The reason we can wait on some things is that we store some things in our bodies for a while.  But some things we don’t, we really need every day.  Missing them for a couple days is no big deal, and you’re not gonna develop some terrible nutritional deficiency and die if you get no vitamins at all for two weeks.  But getting vitamins as soon as possible can help you heal.  And if you rely on what you have stored up, then you have nothing to fall back on later if you need it.

The ASMBS doesn’t address when to start things like D3 or biotin if you’re going to take those.  Personally, I’d start them as soon as I felt up to it and make the D3 a priority if I was deficient at all at the time of surgery.  But I wouldn’t stress about waiting a week or two if I needed to.