What Vitamins Can You Take Together?

I’ve posted this before but it was a long time ago so I thought I’d post it again.

Iron and calcium should not be taken together, unless it’s a very small amount of calcium.  300 mg of calcium or so will block the absorption of iron.  The reason some multis have both iron and calcium is because they often have only small amounts of calcium, maybe 200 mg.  That amount won’t block the absorption of iron but much more will.  Iron and calcium should be taken at least two hours apart.

If your multi has iron in it and you want to absorb that iron, do not take your multi with your calcium.  If your multi has no iron, it’s fine to take your multi with your calcium.  If you take additional iron at another time and so you don’t care if you don’t absorb the iron in your multi, then you can go ahead and take it with your calcium.

Now, if you use heme iron instead of ferrous sulfate or ferrous fumerate or carbonyl, etc., you CAN take it with your calcium.  Most people don’t use heme iron, though, because it’s so expensive.

Take your iron with vitamin C for best absorption (unless it’s heme iron).  The ratio is 200 mg C to every 30 mg iron.  That’s 30 mg elemental iron, so if you take 325 mg ferrous sulfate, for example, you’re only getting 65 mg elemental iron, so you’d need 400 mg vitamin C (but carbonyl iron is absorbed better than ferrous sulfate).  The point is, you would not need 2000 mg vitamin C with 325 mg ferrous sulfate because ferrous sulfate is really only 65 mg iron.

Keep in mind that people can only absorb about 500 mg calcium at once, so divide your calcium into doses of about 500 mg and take them at least two hour apart.  Keep in mind that the ASMBS recommends 1500-2000 mg calcium citrate per day, so you need three or four separate doses.  And make sure you’re taking calcium citrate, not calcium carbonate.  Understand that if you take a multi with 200 mg calcium and take that with another 500 mg calcium citrate, you will then not absorb the 700 mg total calcium you’re talking.  However, the calcium in you multi may well be calcium carbonate or some other form that is not absorbed so well anyway, in which case it would be fine to take your 500 mg calcium citrate with your multi, just with the understanding that you won’t absorb the calcium carbonate in the multi.

B vitamins work together so it’s good to take your B’s at the same time.  Your multi has lots of B’s in it, so take it with your B12 if you use a sublingual B12.  If you take a B complex and/or biotin, take that at the same time.

If you take vitamin D3 or vitamin A, it does not matter what you take them with.  If you take D2, it does not matter what you take it with either because you won’t absorb it or will absorb very little of it, which you must then convert to D3 in the body and by the time that’s done, if you took 50,000 IU D2, you may really only end up with less than 20,000, maybe as little as 5000.

Zinc and copper don’t work well with lots of other vitamins and minerals, so if you take those, it’s best to take them by themselves.

It can take quite some work to figure out what vites we need and when to take them.  Most of us need to take vites four or five times a day in order to get it all in so that the vites help each other and don’t interfere with each other.

Thank you for this information! I remember being so overwhelmed the first time I read about all this stuff.

I do have a question though. I don't care about the calcium in my multi (it's carbonate), so I was wondering if it was ok to take my iron and vit c with my multi. Right now I haven't been, but just curious if that is an option. 

btw - i take an iron carbonyl with v/c.

It's fine, as long as you don't take your calcium at the same time.

 Thanks, Kelly, hopefully by the tenth time I hear this, it'll all stick.

I'm now low on iron stores  at almost 4 years out ( not "depleted" yet, just "reduced stores" at 36 whereas 80 is the minum of normal according to my latest lab report). 

I am going to be taking Proferrin, one a day, which is Heme iron.  If I understand you correctly I don't have to take it alone, was planning at least 2 hours away from my morning multi and Vit B's?  I take calcium citrate and Vit D in 2 doses mid afternoon and evening, was planning on taking the Heme either just after lunch, or switching with my mid aft calcium /Vit D 1000ius dose, and instead taking the clacium/Vit D after lunch so as to take the Heme iron mid afternoon....
What do you advise?

You can take the Proferrin with any of those things - with your multi, with calcium, with the vitamin D, whatever works well for you.  That's one of the advantages of using Proferrin.  It's convenient because you can take it anytime, with any other supplements you want.  Just work out whatever will be easiest for you.  Personally, I like to take vitamins as few times during the day as possible because fewer vitamin times means less times that I can forget to take them.  And it's just less trouble for me.  However, I don't like taking a million pills at one time, either, so I want to take them in a few different doses.

Hmmm I take my zinc in the am and pm (doc has me taking 150 mg total) with my D3, Calcium citrate, Mag ox, and multi. So, this is bad? Would it be better to take it with my afternoon dose of C and Iron? I know if I add one more vitamin slot I will miss something, I barely make it daily remembering the three.