Multi Vitamins Tips
Read these 15 Multi Vitamins Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Vitamin tips and hundreds of other topics.
Multi-Vitamin Packets
If your family is always on the go, one of the best ways to make sure they take their vitamins and minerals every day is to purchase multi-vitamin packets that contain all the vitamins they need for the day. They can take them in the morning when they eat breakfast, and get into the healthy routine of taking their vitamins every day. There's no guesswork involved with multi-vitamin packets, and you'll never run out of one supplement while you still have another on the shelf.
In addition, if you need special supplements, such as workout formulas, calcium, extra iron, or other minerals, you can find specialized multi-vitamin packets that contain all the extras you need every day. You can always pop multi-vitamin packets in your purse, in the kid's lunch, or in your wallet just in case you forget to take them at home, so they are practical as well as good for you!
Convenient Daily Vitamin Packets Means No More Bottles to Open or Pills to Count
If you're busy and on-the-go, multi-vitamin packets are a one-stop shopping way to get a range of essential nutrients—more than in a single multi-vitamin. Several capsules are packaged together in a daily pack so you know just what to take each day.
Many multi-vitamin packets are customized with formulas for men and women, such as the Lindberg Pink Pack, which is designed for the nutritional needs of women and girls who have started their periods. Each daily packet includes 4 vitamin capsules, 4 mineral capsules, and one iron capsule. Because iron needs change over time, if you want an iron-free formula you can simply discard the iron capsule. Adolescent girls and pre-menopausal women are often low in iron and they may want to take the 18-milligram iron capsule each day. By contrast, post-menopausal women have less need for iron, and they may choose to take the iron capsule on alternate days, or only a few days each week.
The remaining capsules include 4 gold vitamin capsules and 4 white mineral capsules. Does that sound like a lot of pills to take at once? Don't worry, here's a vitamin pack tip: You can divide the daily dose and take 2 vitamin and 2 mineral pills with breakfast and the remaining four pills with lunch. The company recommends taking the vitamins with food so it is easier for the body to absorb and digest them.
Health and fitness enthusiasts who want the highest potencies of the best ingredients choose the Lindberg Varsity Pack 2 to support their active lifestyles. Each individually wrapped packet contains 8 easy-to-swallow capsules for fast delivery. The formula includes:
Special Vitamin Complex
Vitamin A 7,500 IU (natural)
Beta Carotene 7,500 IU (natural)
Vitamin B Complex (high potency)
Vitamin C 1,000 mg (non-acidic)
Vitamin D 400 IU (natural)
Vitamin E 400 IU (natural d-alpha)
Vitamin K 80 mcg
Special Mineral Complex
Calcium 1,000 mg
Magnesium 400 mg
Zinc 15 mg
Selenium 200 mcg
Copper 1 mg
Manganese 5 mg
Molybdenum 75 mcg
Chromium 200 mcg
Potassium 99 mg
Iodine 225 mcg
Boron 3 mg
Other beneficial vitamins found in multi-vitamin packets include calcium, vitamin D (to facilitate calcium absorption), vitamin C, natural vitamin E, selenium, lutein, and antioxidants such as alpha lipoic acid.
Daily Multi Vitamins
Before you invest in daily multi vitamins, be sure you know the quality of what you're buying. For example, studies indicate that many of the common over-the-counter daily multi vitamins you find in the supermarket are actually missing many essential vitamins and minerals, like calcium and magnesium, and they may be missing vital nutrients, such as CoQ10, as well.
It's important that the FDA does not require these daily multi vitamins to meet the recommended daily recommendations of minerals and vitamins, so you have to be an enlightened consumer to know what you need and what to look for in daily multi vitamins. Look for all-natural daily multi vitamins that contain all of the daily recommendations for vitamins and minerals, and add essential ingredients such as calcium and other nutrients. In addition, make sure to purchase them from reputable stores, health food stores, or other stores that specialize in high-quality vitamins and minerals.
Multi Vitamins for Women
Are you on the go from morning until night, don't eat right, and are stressed out about family, job, and everything else? Then you need multi vitamins for women! Studies indicate we don't get enough vitamins and minerals from the foods we eat in most cases, and women's nutritional needs are different than the rest of the family. For example, if you're pregnant, you need more of just about all the vitamins and minerals, and if you're over 50, you'll need different nutrients than when you were 25.
It just makes sense to take multi vitamins for women, because they contain everything you need to stay healthy, alert, and in shape to care for yourself and your family. Make sure the multi vitamins you take are formulated for your age, activity level, and contain calcium for strong bones. You wouldn't feed baby food to the entire family, so why scrimp when it comes to the all-essential multi vitamins for women you need?
Men's Best Multivitamin
Men and women are different. Duh. You knew that. But do men and women need different multi vitamins? Are there best multivitamins for men? Yes, there are men's formulas and women's formula multivitamins, especially for men and women over 50. Complete multi vitamins for men over 50 include extra vitamin D, vitamin B12, and calcium, above the recommended 100 percent daily value. Plus, men now need 90 mg or more of vitamin C, and at least 120 mcg of vitamin K to prevent hip fractures (and wrinkles in skin). Men and women are different when it comes to neatness, sports, communication...let us count the ways. When you get frustrated, remember you need each other, so give each other the best multi vitamin supplement you can find.
Multivitamin for Teens
Teens -- they pack so much into their schedules, with the exception of sleep and nutrition. Even if your future Olympic champion/nuclear physicist takes a body building supplement, she may still not get the nutrition she needs. Complete multi vitamins are the best way for your teen to get all the vitamins she needs. The best multivitamins for teens will include a combo of the high doses of vitamins B, C, D, A, E, calcium, folic acid, potassium, magnesium...don't be concerned if the doses are higher than your multi vitamin supplement. Your teen needs a greater supply of nutrients for growth and hormone changes. A little more sleep and time away from the phone and the computer won't hurt your teen's growth either. Luckily, with proper nutrition from multivitamins, she may be smart enough to heed your advice. She's brilliant anyway.
Multivitamins Post-Breast Cancer
You survived breast cancer. Good for you! Now the long haul is over, right? Wrong. You need to take care of yourself more than ever, with a sensible diet and complete multi vitamins. While there has been some concern over large doses of vitamin E in a multi vitamin supplement, breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy need increased vitamin E to boost white blood cell production. The best multi vitamins for breast cancer patients and breast cancer survivors include more than the recommended 400 IU of vitamin E. Magnesium and manganese, two overlooked minerals, should also be key components of multivitamins you choose during chemo. So now on your self-care list, you note the following critical items:
- Foxy wig
- Bubble bath
- Multi vitamins with more vitamin E, magnesium and manganese
- Party because I survived!
Multivitamins with No Iron
All your life you've heard that you should take iron. Of course, you always heard that alligators lived in the sewers and you didn't believe that either. The jury's still out on the alligators (because the gators ate the jury), but evidence suggests you don't have to have iron in your multi vitamins to have complete multi vitamins or the best multi vitamins. You can actually have too much iron. Women's multivitamins in particular might want to omit iron, because the body has a limited capacity to secrete iron--unlike, for example, vitamin C. If you are post-menopausal and get too much iron in that multi vitamin supplement, you can experience:
- Weight loss
- Abdominal swelling
- Fatigue
- Weakness
And that's just for starters. Makes the gators seem less nightmarish, doesn't it? Do yourself a favor. If you're over 50, don't go in the sewers, and take complete multivitamins without iron.
Best Herbal Multivitamin
Herbs -- great for cooking, great for health. White willow. Ginseng. Ginkgo biloba. Feverfew. Hawthorn. Valerian root. Good for multi vitamins? You're an herbalist and you've been trying to get your relatives to accept you, without success. Raw herbs are great, you say. Your relatives don't look at you as though you ride a broomstick, but they're less than convinced of herbal healing -- until they taste your fantastic chicken dish. You know, you say, if you don't like raw herbs, you can take them in multivitamins. Actually, Mr. or Ms. Herbal Honcho, the best multi vitamins don't contain high concentrations of ginseng and willow bark. You typically take herbs for specific purposes (black cohosh for menopause, ginkgo biloba for memory.) In addition. Dr. Andrew Weil cautions that some herbs interact with medicine you may be taking may interfere with herbs -- ginkgo, feverfew, and garlic may increase the risk of bleeding if you're taking Coumadin, for example. While Dr. Weil takes complete multi vitamins every day, he gives the straight dope (pardon the expression) on herbs and multi vitamins. None of his multi vitamin supplement recommendations, or the supplements that he manufactures, contain excess herbs. You trust Dr. Weil -- so, surprisingly, do your relatives. They also love your herb-encrusted chicken. Keep cooking and you'll help your relatives stay healthy no matter what their multi vitamins contain.
Green Multi Vitamins
You're strong to the finish 'cause you eat your spinach..and kale and broccoli. Unfortunately, unless you eat organic, and even if you do, the nutrients in your greens may leave you feeling blue. Green formula multi vitamins usually provide the full combo of spirulina, kelp, wheatgrass, barley grass, chlorella, and vegetable powder. Cleansing multivitamins can be the best multivitamins, especially if your food fails to do the job. Even people who eat organic vegetables take green formula complete multi vitamins. Right before Popeye lifts the huge boulder to save Olive Oyl, he doesn't just take his spinach, he takes green multivitamins. Of course, Olive Oyl takes real olive oil plus a multi vitamin supplement, so she hurls the boulder away! Who's strong to the finish now?
Better With Chromium?
Your mom needs to lose weight. She swears she doesn't need multi vitamins. Just as when you were a teenager, you're fighting--but now the roles are reversed. Sort of makes you wish you hadn't slammed the door so often. You apologize, and finally she agrees, mollified by those words, "I was wrong." Your mom's multi vitamin supplement contains chromium chloride. To decrease insulin resistance, does she still need chromium picolinate? Should you look for multivitamins with chromium picolinate? Chromium chloride is difficult for the body to absorb, so it's difficult to get all the chromium the body needs from complete multi vitamins that contain chromium chloride. Your mom needs a chromium picolinate supplement, 200-400 mcg a day, to reduce insulin resistance. If she's diabetic, she should only take chromium picolinate with her doctor's advice. Or your advice. You've given your mom your counsel for the best multivitamins, and she accepts you as an adult. That argument over dating what's-his-name even though she didn't approve? Forgotten--you're now married to what's-his-name, after all.
A-OK Multi Vitamin
It's aggravating how too much of a good thing, to mangle Mae West, can be harmful. Yes, too many vitamins now are harmful. Of course, you could just forget the health food and say "Come up and see me some time." Unfortunately, you still need a multi vitamin supplement--juggling men is hard enough without dithering about which vitamins and how much and how often! So you've chosen complete multivitamins. Just don't sing, "A, you're adorable," because while the best multi vitamins do include vitamin A, you don't need a surfeit of it. In fact, too much of Mr. A-OK can be far from wonderful. When you pick complete multivitamins, choose ones with beta carotene. It's a less risky form of vitamin A, and that way you'll have great vision so you can see the men who come up and see you!
Multi Vitamins for Men
You don't wear the same clothes or eat the same foods as a woman, so why should you take the same vitamins? Men have different nutritional needs than women, and so multi vitamins for men were developed especially with the additional nutritional needs of men in mind. Multi vitamins for men should reflect the fact that you need more calories and nutrients than a woman or a child does, and so you shouldn't rely on the same vitamins they take, you should take the ones especially formulated for your body and mind.
You should look for multi vitamins for men that contain the right vitamins and minerals for your particular lifestyle. For example, there are multi vitamin for men formulas for men with a more sedentary lifestyle, men with a more active lifestyle, and men over 50. Each of these lifestyles requires different vitamins and minerals, so choose the one that's right for your lifestyle and age.
Multi-Vitamin and Mineral Formulas
Do you really need multi-vitamin and mineral formulas? Well, in today's busy lifestyle, most people eat on the run, don't eat balanced meals, and juggle job, family, and personal lives. If you're like most people, you don't get all the nutrition you need from the foods you eat every day, and so yes, you do need good multi-vitamin and mineral formulas for the entire family, no matter your age or physical activity.
The USDA has a study that shows 90 percent of Americans don't get all the vitamins and minerals they need every day, and it's even more important for kids to get the right amount of vitamins and minerals. Multi-vitamin and mineral formulas are available for every age group, so there's no reason not to start the whole family on multi-vitamin and mineral formulas right now! Ask your pharmacist or doctor about what multi-vitamin and mineral formulas can help your family the most, and start on a regimen of better health right away.
Multivitamins: The Most Bang for Your Buck
If you don't want to pay for many pills but still be sure that you're getting all your nutrients, consider one of the many multi-vitamin and mineral formulas available. For example, Lindberg's Mega One Multiple vitamin, provides not only time-release doses of vitamins B and C but high potencies of other vitamins and minerals such as natural vitamin E.
Other multivitamin and mineral formulas are more comprehensive and may require you to take 2-9 pills a day. Generally, the more pills, the higher the potencies and the more calcium they provide.
If you have specific medical needs, the right multi-vitamin and mineral formulas may help promote and maintain good health. For example, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, a pre/post-natal multi-vitamin contains plenty of folic acid, calcium, and the B vitamins needed to keep both mother and baby healthy during and after pregnancy.
Similarly, you can find multi-vitamins meant just for men that include saw palmetto and lycopene to promote prostate health, in addition to the basic vitamins and minerals essential for overall wellness. Specialty multi-vitamin and mineral formulas are available for women, children, and seniors, too. Don't like to swallow a pill? Try this: Multivitamin and mineral formulas even come in liquid, powder, and chewable forms.
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| George Sayour |
