How To Choose A MultiVitamin
The foundation of any nutrition program is a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement. But not just the first one you lay your hands on. I recommend TwinLab Daily One Without Iron. Why? That ‘s what I’m here to discuss.
I pretty much don’t know how to be casual about my recommendations, so, after 30+ years spent studying the vitamins and minerals we all need, I spent more days doing computer research on multi ingredients, then more days going to health food stores to read labels and talk to people. I had ingredient labels floating through my dreams.
To arrive at my recommendation, I matched what we need against what each multi offered.
I have no connection with the TwinLab company. I receive no compensation of any sort from them. I based my choice strictly on the merits.
So, what are the merits?
TwinLab enjoys a good reputation as a quality provider of nutritional supplements. I like that.
This multi offers significant amounts of minerals. Many multis come up short in minerals, which I don’t understand. Studies show we all need more minerals. People dealing with fatigue and endocrine problems REALLY need more minerals. I want a multi that packs a punch.
The minerals are pretty well balanced, too. You can’t take minerals willy-nilly. For instance, zinc and copper have to hit a proper ratio to be a blessing and not a problem. And different forms of the minerals are preferable to others; most of this multi’s minerals come in the best form. (More on that later.)
And my recommended multi has a simple formulation, another plus. It covers the basics well, with no frills. I like that. Today’s multis make me tense with their large array of herbs. We have very little solid research on individual herbs and NO research on combinations of herbs. Bunches of herbs create an unnecessary risk.
I’m not opposed to herbs. I take a few herbs, and I’m researching more, but throwing them in by the handful is nuts.
I’m working with my brother as he fights cancer. I assured him that nothing I recommend will interfere with his doctor’s efforts. I can’t, then, recommend a multi with bunches of herbs. We just don’t know how they interact with each other, let alone with the cancer treatment. You don’t want to wade into uncharted waters when you have a fight on your hands.
Plus, the simplicity acknowledges our uniqueness. We’re all different, and our needs are different. By keeping things simple, we can spot and fix problems pretty quickly.
I also like the idea of one pill getting the job done. Taking pills doesn’t make anybody’s top ten list of things to do, so having to take only one increases the chances it’ll happen. And one-pill adds flexibility. With a known problem of absorbing nutrients, I take two a day. And I’m building my brother up to three a day, for a while, to maximize the cancer-fighting components. So, you can ramp up without reaching overwhelming numbers. And the minerals stay in their proper ratios.
Never take a multi with iron. Long story. Just don’t do it.
As I said, this is the best multi I could find. But I can’t declare perfection.
I wish it had a different form of chromium. However, it does have a goodly amount of chromium, which significantly compensates.
I wish it included boron. Among its several talents, boron helps us absorb the minerals we get.
Finally, I wish it didn’t include soy lecithin. Soy gets me crazed. But my research says lecithin doesn’t wreak the havoc of most soy. Plus, it shows up near the bottom of the ingredient list, so there’s not much. Also, it’s in all the other multis I checked, too. Sigh.
To sum up then, no other multi matches my positives, but all the other multis offer a bunch of negatives. Add the fact that TwinLab Daily One Without Iron is reasonably priced and widely available and you have it.
A multi-vitamin/mineral is where you always start, but because our food has so little nutrition in it, even with a good multi, there’s more to do.
Bette Dowdell is not a doctor, nor does she purport to be one. She’s a patient who’s spent the past 30+ years studying, with great success, how to get out of the endocrine ditch–the fatigue, brain fog, moodiness, I’m sure you know the drill. Now she’s out, doing great and wanting to share what she learned. Get a free, sample chapter of her new e-book, Pep for the Pooped: Vitamins and Minerals Your Body Is Starving For at http://PepForThePooped.com”. If you’re dragging your patooty, but the doctor says you’re just fine, this is the place to get some answers.
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November 10th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
I want the long story on the iron. WHy not take a multi with iron? I have low ferritin and take a multi with 18mg of iron and a separate 50mg of iron a day to get my ferritin up. It’s taking quite a long time too and it’s still low at 46, but better than 30. I’ve read in research that ferritin levels near 100 are the best for thyroid problems of which I also have a problem.
So what is the long story on multis with iron? Is it because many also contain calcium and then the iron is useless?
November 11th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Thanks for your question, Colleen. Most of the iron we find in supplements isn’t a kind we want to take. When inorganic iron builds in our bodies, it creates, in effect, rust. If we take iron, it should be the organic heme form, as found in protein sources, particularly red meat. And be sure to get adequate fat from your protein.
As you mentioned, iron does interact with calcium so neither is very effective. There’s evidence that iron interferes with a lot of minerals, and we all desperately need minerals.
A poor diet depletes iron. A diet high in dairy products does, too. And fiber. And extreme exercising.
Molybdenum does most of what iron does–without the side effects. Molybdenum is part of TwinLab Daily One Without Iron.
You can an even longer story in my e-book, Pep for the Pooped: The Vitamins and Minerals Your Body Is Starving For. Get a free sample chapter at http://PepForThePooped.com
May 30th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
I have been tired all my life. I gave up gluten, dairy, sugar and yeast about six weeks ago as I had a lot of the symptoms of a wheat intolerance (added soy to that list this past week). The bloating in my gut and the congestion that used to feel as if it was around my heart (but was probably my lungs) is gone. But I had hoped I would enjoy some improved energy. Granted, I am almost 60, so perhaps I won’t feel a lot of energy, but I have been in pursuit of energy all my life. When I told doctors I was tired, they tested for anemia and my thyroid. Neither was abnormal. So, I ran across your website last weekend, purchased and began reading your book. It is a work in progress, but I immediately hurried to the local health food store that had the Twin Labs Daily One without Iron so I could begin immediately. They didn’t carry the B vitamin recommended, so I ordered that yesterday. After a week on the multi, I notice a very slight improvement. Nothing to gush about, but then I don’t expect to cure years of tiredness overnight. I have also felt a certain level of depression growing through the years. Not full on depression, but when you’re tired, the world doesn’t look very rosy. However, there’s this little inkling of improvement in that department as well after taking the multi (I have also been taking SAMe off and on for a while, but that did not work completely…although it helps my joints somewhat). I have begun exercising again, and I am looking forward to continued improvement with the multi, and even more with the B vitamin. I hope I’m able to lick this lack of energy by following along in your book and systematically adding a vitamin or mineral when it seems appropriate. Thank you for sharing all your many years of research.
May 30th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Thank you, Barbara, It makes my heart sing to know I’m helping. When you buy the Pep for the Pooped e-book, you get a series of e-mails to help you use the book’s information. One of the e-mails has my schedule for the vitamins in the book, plus a blank schedule for your plan. Vitamins work on an incremental basis, so expect progress as time goes on. B vitamins can give a quick boost, but even the Bs take time for full results. Congratulations for your decision to be proactive. I don’t see any reason you can’t be energetic again–but probably not by tomorrow.
September 28th, 2010 at 8:39 am
I am always fatigued. I’ve been hypothyroid and had adrenal insufficiency since breast cancer treatment 20 years ago, and take Armour Thyroid and Cortef. Do you add other vitamins/minerals separately to your multivitamin or take the multivitamin only? I’ve been taking Natrol My Favorite Multiple Take One with Iron. I have consistently low ferritin levels and need to take iron. I am going to switch to the Twin Lab Daily One w/o iron. What Iron supplement would you suggest if my ferritin continues to run low? I have also been taking separate B vitamins, Zinc, selenium, molybdenum, Magnesium, and Fish Oil. Am I overdoing it? Could the extra minerals plus the multivitamin be harmful? Thanks for your help.
September 28th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
The Natrol multi you take is average. I don’t like the copper/zinc ratio; too much zinc for the amount of copper. You don’t want to take additional zinc. The calcium/magnesium ratio is to heavy in calcium. Especially since magnesium is far more important than calcium–despite all the calcium publicity. And the vitamin A is all the synthetic beta-carotene, which isn’t good.
I don’t like a multi with greens in it. Too many people get a kick in the gut from greens.
Your multi has boron, which is good. The betaine and enymes are good, too, but if they’re going to go that route, they should also include probiotics. Flavonoids are great, necessary antioxidants, but I prefer to take them separately so if I run into a sensitivity problem, I can tell which one did it. PABA is getting raised eyebrows of late; it may have negative side effects, although no proof positive is available yet.
Taking iron is tricky business, but at least this multi doesn’t use a ferrous form. Eating beef (grass fed to avoid hormones and antibiotics) provides a great source of iron in the heme form, and your body won’t over-absorb it. Also, see my comments below about the correlation between hypothyroidism and low ferritin.
The molybdenum you take does a lot of what iron does, but without the need to be so perfectly balanced. Molybdenum is amazing.
Since you’ve had cancer, you need to be sure you’re getting enough vitamins/minerals of all sorts, but especially selenium and D3. Dr. Atkins recommends 400mcg of selenium a day, but don’t go beyond that. 5000iu is a standard adult dose of vitamin D3; if you haven’t been taking any beyond what’s in the multi, you might want to take a double dose for a few months, then get tested. You want to be at the high end of the normal range.
And since your cancer was breast cancer, avoid soy like the poison it is. Soy is terrible for the endocrine system, and breast cancer is an endocrine disease–with a strong link to soy.
Never take any B vitamin unless you also take a B complex. B vitamins need the synergy of the complex, and it avoids overdosing on any specific B.
Well, now that I’ve swamped you with information, let me suggest you check out my e-book, Pep for the Pooped: Vitamins and Minerals Your Body Is Starving For. You can get a free, sample chapter at http://PepForThePooped.com. At the risk of sounding pushy, I think you need the information in this e-book–what, how much, why, etc.
And you might want to sign up for my free health e-zine at http://TooPoopedToParticipate.com. I write about all sorts of health issues, especially endocrine health issues.
Finally, no, you’re not taking too many vitamins and minerals. Our bodies need all the nutritional help they can get, and it doesn’t come from our food nowadays. I don’t know what brands of vitamins and minerals you’re taking, except for the multi, and you may need some fine-tuning, but you’re on the right track. I take a lot of nutritional supplements; they gave my life back to me.
If your doctor adjusts your Armour to make the blood tests come out right, you’re not getting enough. And undertreated hypothyroidism causes low ferritin. If you have a low body temp, that’s almost certainly where you are.
When doctors treated by symptoms instead of by the unreliable blood tests, patients took about twice as much Armour as doctors allow now–and they did a whole lot better. The last time my blood tests were on the money, I was nearly bald and all but comatose on the floor. And I’ve had to fight like a tiger not to go back there. Doctors no longer seem interested in patient well-being.
September 28th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Hi, Bette!
Thank you so much for the information you’re providing. I plan to order your book as soon as I can.
I currently take T3. Do you have any information regarding natural substitutions for T3? I know that Dr. Lowe has a natural supplement that contains T3 along with T4. Have you heard of anyone that takes T3 alone have success with this natural T3/T4 supplement?
Any and all information that you provide would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you again.
Dee
September 29th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Dr. Lowe’s nutritional supplement, Thyro-Gold, has the same five components as our natural thyroid. T3 only has one. If you took both T3 and Thyro-Gold, you’d get the other four parts of the hormone. I have no knowledge of anybody who did this, though, so I can’t I can’t say if it’s a good idea or not. To support the thyroid, you need a good vitamin/mineral program. The B vitamins and iodine would give the most noticeable results, but we need the rest of them working in the background, too. While vitamins/minerals don’t substitute for T3, they can enable the thyroid to get going.
September 30th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Bette, thank you for all the wonderful information. I have been taking extra zinc, so I will stop. I do take a B-100 complex, plus vitamin C 1000 mg, Vitamin D3 5000mg, Biotin 5000mcg, Selenium 200mg, Magnesium 800mg. My thyroid doctor does test my TSH, Free T-3 and Free T-4. He ignores my TSH because it is always suppressed. We try to get my Free T’s in the higher end of normal range. My body temp has always run low and still does. I really haven’t felt well since I was first diagnosed hypo. I feel better on meds, but I’ve just never regained my former energy level. It would be wonderful to actual feel like a normal person. Thanks again. – amc
December 19th, 2010 at 9:30 am
I bought these vitamins and I have to say they do make a difference, however, they make me extremely nauseous. I take them in the morning with my breakfast and a few minutes later I feel like I want to vomit. Any suggestions on how to avoid this? Take with milk? I even tried crackers and still felt this way. Not a very nice feeling.
Angie
December 20th, 2010 at 8:36 am
Some thoughts: Do you take the vitamins on a full stomach? Taking vitamins before eating can be a problem.
The fact the vitamins help would seem to say the vitamins are good, but perhaps you’re sensitive to the fillers. All pills and capsules have fillers, for various reasons, and sometimes they can do a number on you.
Besides the healthy dose of minerals, which most multis don’t have, I like the TwinLab multi because it doesn’t have a lot of extra ingredients.
But you might try Source Naturals Life Force Multiple No Iron. Source Naturals is a good company, and this multi has good ingredients. However, it’s light on minerals, as most multis are, so you’d want to check out the Pep for the Pooped e-book and see what you need to do to pump them up. Also, it has a lot of extra ingredients, all of which are terrific, but the more ingredients, the more a chance of sensitivity.
It has Milk Thistle, which is great for liver function, Grape Seed Extract, a powerful antioxidant, Bilberry, for night vision and so on.
And you have to take four capsules a day.
But, as you say, nausea’s not a very nice feeling, so Life Force might be worth a try.
February 3rd, 2011 at 11:20 am
Bette, thank you so much for all this usefull and informative info. I have been newly found to have hypothyroid and I am feeling terrible. I also had breast cancer and finished chemo 8 months ago. I was trying to get my life back and now this. Anyway, Do you think the Aumour natural thyroid is better to take than Synthriod? I have been looking into this because the sythroid I am now on does not make me feel good and is raising my blood presure. I have heard that there is a question about the purity and consistancy of the Aumour. I would love your thoughts on this. Thank you so much. Barbara
February 3rd, 2011 at 11:39 am
Hi, Barbara, Armour is the gold standard for thyroid medications. The stories about problems with purity and consistency are not true. Never have been true. Studies say the thyroid with the worst record is Synthroid, but they seem to be the ones who keep pointing fingers at Armour. Breast cancer and hypothyroidism are both endocrine problems. Most of us don’t know about much about the care and feeding of the endo system. You might want to sign up for my free weekly ezine at http://TooPoopedToParticipate.com
May 31st, 2011 at 10:02 pm
Hi Bette, Thanks for your info, it’s very good. Can you tell me if you know of any good multi vitamin brands in Australia? I can’t seem to find the brand you mention.
Thank you!
June 2nd, 2011 at 8:48 am
Hi, Chris, What I suggest whenever a supplement I recommend isn’t locally available is to click on the link (in this case http://budurl.com/multivit), click on “supplement facts” under the picture and print out the ingredients label. Then match it as best you can, using the information in this post and in the Pep for the Pooped e-book (http://PepForThePooped.com) to guide you. For instance, this article talks about beta carotene vs vitamin A.
This isn’t as slick or as quick as just clicking on a link, but you’ll become knowledgeable faster.
Good luck.
June 2nd, 2011 at 8:52 am
Hi, Charles, You’re a wise man to want to get off statins. It’s good to have a doctor that knows what you’re trying to do and will help as you do, but a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. Did you know statin use can cause diabetes? And a good cholesterol level is between 200 and 300? But if you want to get your level down, it’s easy to do nutritionally.
June 7th, 2011 at 8:58 am
Greetings Bette:
I love your “stuff” and I would like to share something I learned from a 92 year old who looks and acts 60. Several years ago he took an interest in my interest in improving my health. Among the many suggestions he proffered; the one I believe is most important, is a daily teaspoon of water from dissolved Himalayan Rock Salt. The mineral content is over the top and anyone who has commenced this practice has noticeable improvements within a few weeks.
respectfully,
Rick Weston
CEO Addiction Management Systems Inc.(AMS)
July 11th, 2011 at 7:25 am
what are your thoughts on “All One” vitamin/minerals?
July 22nd, 2011 at 8:07 pm
Hi, Rick, Sea salt works, too. I tell a lot of people about this, but then I have to work to convince them I’m serious. I guess it seems too easy.
July 26th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
Bette,
Just wanted to let you know that I’ve just ordered your book and am latching onto the Too Pooped to Participate ezines already. This info you are giving is great! I’m sure that the book Pep for the Pooped will be a great help when it comes. I’m all ready to order the TwinLab multi. Do have a question , though. How do I know how many additional supps I need to take besides the multi and will foods with those things in them (Like nuts for Mg) be enough or will I always require a supps for these?
August 12th, 2011 at 9:45 am
Angi, unless you have tests (notice the plural) to back up your need for iron, you shouldn’t take it. Too much iron is much worse than too little; we’re talking a quick slide downhill to disease. Synthroid doesn’t do anything for the vast majority of people who take it. Can you find a doctor who will prescribe Armour or Naturethroid?
August 12th, 2011 at 9:50 am
Well, Becky, here’s the deal. God went to a whole lot of effort to make us each unique. Faced with this infinite variety, a one-size-fits-all answer is impossible. However, the Pep for the Pooped e-book talks about 30 vitamins and minerals, what they do and who may need them. Check it out to see where you fit, the move ahead. Our need for vitamins and minerals is vast.
August 12th, 2011 at 9:55 am
Most multi-vitamin/mineral supplements don’t make the cut. First, vegetable-based multis are very weak in minerals. When an all-in-one multi throws in the kitchen sink, including herbs, it’s a problem. If you’re allergic to an herb, how can you tell which one is doing you dirt? Some multis contain soy–which we want to avoid at all times. And so on.