Biotin

How much should I be taking? My handbook says I need it but it doesn't say how much. Thanks in advance for any help. Also, a friend gave me a bottle of Celebrate multivitamin  with iron. They taste great but they are so expensive. Any suggestions on a less expensive one for when I finish this bottle?

I use one a day and I use a B12 sublingual from Walmart.

As far as chewable multi's, many people use Centrum or Centrum Silver (or store brand versions of them). They are 1/3 of the cost of the Celebrate and Bariatric Advantage vitamins!

On the Biotin, there really isn't an official dose. Some people take 1000mg per day, some take 5000 per day, and a few take much more. It is a water soluble vitamin, so you will pee out the excess, and taking a ton of it isn't going to do anything but waste money (and risk growing excess facial hair). When I was going through the hairloss and regrowth stages during the first year, I kept increasing my biotin because the hair was growing back in so slowly, and when I got to 7500mcg per day, the facial hair started to appear above my lip and along my jawline and lower cheeks so I had to stop it. When I started taking it again, I dropped it to 1000 mcg. (The facial hair is permanent, BTW!)

Lora

Lora

Unless you have a biotin deficiency, which is really really rare, you don't really need to take biotin.  You can take some if you want, and there's not an "official" dose.  It's a water soluble vitamin so you'll just pee out whatever you don't need.

As far as a multi, if you want a chewable, I like Centrum Silver.  It doesn't have iron so you need to take iron separately, but most people need more iron than they get in a multi, anyway.  If you can swallow pills, regular Centrum or a generic equivalent is fine.

Thanks to everyone for your input. I appreciate it! I am two weeks post op today and still having a tough time. Wow... Even though I'm a nurse, I wasn't prepared for such post op pain.

Anyways, I'm just trying to understand all this vitamin stuff and want to make sure I'm taking the right ones. My preop and postop classes talked about vitamins, but they really push the ones that they sell in their office. I want what I need, but I don't want to waste money if their are other things OTC.

Again, thank you!

And also, I am already anemic, even before the surgery. After a blood transfusion and ten iron infusions, I still struggle with anemia. Last month my Ferritin was up to 22 from 4 after my last five infusions. So I def need something with iron. I do have another hematology appt in four weeks to make sure my levels are going up or stable, at least. Thanks again!

We use Centrum Chewables, liquid Calcium citrate and Walmart B12. We were told by our nutritionist that with that combination, we don't need Iron.