VITAMINS...ETC.

I know everyone takes something different.  I, myself, only take a multi-vitamin 2-Xs a day, and a Calcium Supplement.  My nut or doctor never told me when I should be taking these other than the vitamin should be in the morning, and in the evening.  Now, here's where I am getting confused.  I thought I read somewhere on here that you shouldn't take the calcium with the vitamin.  By the way, the calcium are the chewables, if that makes a difference.   So, what's my question?  Does if matter if I take the calcium chew with the multi-vitamin, which I take when I eat breakfast and dinner, or should the two be seperated and taken at different times?  How would one know when to take anything if our doctor didn't specify it?  Also, I know we are supposed to take Calcium Citrate over the Calcium Carbonate, but why?  Where do we find all this information without asking? Thanks!!  Cathy

Better to take calcium apart from your multi if it has iron in it.  Iron and calcium need to be separate. Calcium carbonate requires stomach acid to be absorbed.  We have severely reduced acid levels due to the small pouch since much of the acid producing cells were in the lower part of the stomach and pouch is made out of the top.  Calcium citrate does not require stomach acids because the citrate in it does the job. My doc specifies the following from the start:  multi-vitamins, B12 sublingual or shots, B complex, calcium and iron for all patients.   Then dosage changes or other stuff based on labs.

Kathy

Thanks Kathy. I did forget to mention that I take Nascobal (B-12 nasal spray) every other week. I was thinking of finishing up some of my Calcium Carbonates, but I guess that wouldn't be a good idea, huh?  Ioriganally bought them before I realized that they weren't Citrate chews.  I was trying not to waste them, plus they tasted pretty good!!

I take my calc with my multi. That speck of iron is just dust in the air to me. The calcium will get in its way, not vice versa. (clear that up for ya, K?)

Do you want the long version or the nice short accurate version K gave you? LOL

I don't even let my STAFF take carbonate! It's chalk or dead animal bones. Really. Coral, oyster shell, dolomite (cow bones). Even if you had a vat of acid left in your pouch, the very MOST you could get from carbonate is 8%.

In our non-acid pouch, the best you can get is 48% from citrate.

To remember, what do you want in your xmas stocking? CARBON (coal) ate? or CITRUS (citrate)?

I take calcium 4x per day in pills AND in every shake, UpCal D. There is no top end on how much calcium we can take!

So, you're saying that it won't hurt to take the calcium with the multi.  I have to look when I get home to see if it has iron in it.  I just know that they are childrens chewables, so I would have to assume that there is some iron in there.

I was going to finish up what little bit of the carbonate chews that I had left, they actually tasted pretty good, until you told me what was in them.  But, with only absorbing 8% of that little piece of candy, I'd probably have to have about 10 of them a day!

I do remember my NUT said that when I bought them, they couldn't be any higher than 500mg of calcium.  I wonder why?

I guess there really is no way to learn all this stuff except from asking everyone.  However, it seems like everyone is always told something different, which shouldn't be.  Why can't there just be one set of guidelines for this surgery!

Thanks Michelle!

My surgeon and NUT also recommend NOT taking your calcium and multivitamin because of the Iron/Calcium cancelling each other out.    Now it's just me, but apparently I need both, so I simply don't take them together.

Thing is, there's calcium IN the multi, so the iron is already canceled, if it's in there at all.

I threw away about 40# of Viactiv that someone sent me. I could not, in good conscience, let my staff even take them or give them to their kids.

Kidney stones hurt, blah, blah, blah. BUT I nearly lost my dh to his 2nd set when the stent removal went bad and he went septic. Our copays ran into the thousands and he lost several weeks of work.

Since then, I have one cup of coffee in the morning only, rarely drink diet soda or iced tea and drink only water. I am very careful with oxalate foods, like spinach. He is less careful, 2 cups of coffee and his dieet coke is mega. If he leaves it where I get it first? It's EMPTY. He wasn't the one sitting there watching an unconscious man who has NO MEMORY of an entire week! I pour water into him.

And citrate actually helps PREVENT oxalate stones. Many PCP type docs or even surgeons will tell us to stop taking all calcium, but then you need to be seeing a urologist who knows the diff between carbonate (makes stones) and citrate (prevents). Citrate works kinda like a sponge to soak up the pesky oxalates. I actually had 3 months notice before I got my stone,. I stopped coffee, stopped spinach, stopped iced tea but kept my diet soda. 3 months later, I got my stone for Christmas. Don't remind me. It's been 10 yrs now, but I feel the pain as if it was yesterday.

Where do you get the upcal D?

I take the GNC Multi-Vitamin softgel without IRON so that I can take my calcium with my multi-vita