Vitamins & Labs forum: http://bariatricfacts.org/forums/vitamins-labs.16/
HELLO from Knoxville, TN 3 yrs Post-OP.. NOW learning everything!
- Thread starter Courtney Beard
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Larra
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@Courtney Beard the entire concept of these vitamins is wrong. The issue isn't the number of scoops. The problem is that these vitamins are based on the needs of someone with gastric bypass, not DS. The operations are very different in anatomy and nutritional needs. There is no formula where taking 50% more, or 200% more, of something designed for gastric bypass will work for the DS. You will end up with too much of some vitamins (and excess can be bad with some vitamins or minerals) and never get enough of others.
I tried to find out what was in this product. As best I can tell, and even their website doesn't do a great job with content info, you are getting way too little vitamin D and too much B12, just for a couple examples. And they don't tell you what form of calcium they contain, which is very important.
IMHO this is one of those follow the money things. If you purchase from their office, they make a profit on every purchase. In addition, I am just learning today, from @southernlady, that the doctor's wife is CEO of the vitamin company. So more profit for them, and a conflict of interest to boot. Whether this stuff works well for someone with gastric bypass I haven't analyzed and I can't say. I'm confident they are all wrong for someone with the DS.
I tried to find out what was in this product. As best I can tell, and even their website doesn't do a great job with content info, you are getting way too little vitamin D and too much B12, just for a couple examples. And they don't tell you what form of calcium they contain, which is very important.
IMHO this is one of those follow the money things. If you purchase from their office, they make a profit on every purchase. In addition, I am just learning today, from @southernlady, that the doctor's wife is CEO of the vitamin company. So more profit for them, and a conflict of interest to boot. Whether this stuff works well for someone with gastric bypass I haven't analyzed and I can't say. I'm confident they are all wrong for someone with the DS.
I found that out by following Dr. Boyce's FB profile...lists his wife. If you click on her link, that is where it says she is the CEO.
Courtney Beard
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I talked to a nurse and she said that there have been test done that people who use their vitamins are like 83 to 97 percent less chance of getting a deficiency. That the Ba/Ab whatever board approved them and etc..
Courtney, I am sure she honestly believes that. And yes, ASBMS has approved them...but then they approve most bariatic type vitamins.
Our biggest gripe is that he treats them as an all in one and there is NO way NO HOW we can do an all in one basing it on individual lab work.
If I did an all in one, I would need, 16 servings of it daily for my D (M-F and 32 servings on Sat & Sun) but that would also make me TOXIC on A & E. Plus, 16 servings when there is only 60 servings in a bottle would mean one bottle would last me less than 4 DAYS. I would need EIGHT bottles a month to the tune of almost 240.00 a MONTH.
Larra
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@Courtney Beard what the testing showed is that these was less chance of deficiency compared to patients who were NONCOMPLIANT, i.e. compared to people who took NO vitamins. Well, duh! Something is better than nothing. What they DON'T say is how their crappy vitamins compare to people who do it right and take the necessary vitamins individually, like we are advising you (and the woman on the other website) to do. So it's a false comparison, but gee, it sure sounds good, just like the whole comcept of an all-in-one product sounds good (and requires no effort and no thought).
The DS requires thought, effort, and self-advocacy. It disturbs me that any surgeon would create an environment where thought and effort are discouraged, on top of recommending and SELLING a product that is destined to be inadequate for our nutritional needs.
The DS requires thought, effort, and self-advocacy. It disturbs me that any surgeon would create an environment where thought and effort are discouraged, on top of recommending and SELLING a product that is destined to be inadequate for our nutritional needs.
Courtney Beard
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@southernlady @Larra Yeah, I am starting to understand. It is crazy to think I did not even think about it when I have the surgery but hello I started when I was 19. Of course A 19 year old is going to have the surgery without any thought. I do not regret it but I was TOTALLY misinformed and now I have been in a rut and having to basically start all over.. Is it possible to do the 3 a day vitamins from his office then do any extra stuff you need? Just curious.. I hate taking pills, and the powder was so easy for me.
Courtney, you may find, once you get sorted out that 1) you may save money and 2) you might not need as many as you thought.
The thing is, treat vitamins like medicine. You require it. And what would you do if BariLife disappeared tomorrow? As long as Boyce/Williams has a captive audience and it makes money, he will stay in business...and do not get me wrong, it IS business.
The basic to build off of is a good solid basic Centrum equivalent multi. I take the Costco Kirkland Daily Multi, 3 a day at the cost of .10 cents a day for all three. His BariLife tablets (3 a day) is 1.50 each and every day. The Equate (WalMart) Centrum equivalent is .3 cents each...at 3 a day, it is also under a dime a day for the multi.
The thing is, treat vitamins like medicine. You require it. And what would you do if BariLife disappeared tomorrow? As long as Boyce/Williams has a captive audience and it makes money, he will stay in business...and do not get me wrong, it IS business.
The basic to build off of is a good solid basic Centrum equivalent multi. I take the Costco Kirkland Daily Multi, 3 a day at the cost of .10 cents a day for all three. His BariLife tablets (3 a day) is 1.50 each and every day. The Equate (WalMart) Centrum equivalent is .3 cents each...at 3 a day, it is also under a dime a day for the multi.
Larra
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@Courtney Beard that's exactly how and why their product line sells - they make it so easy for you! Well, that is, easy until the deficiencies show up a few months/years later, and then you have a big problem that is not so easy to fix.
So I'll get real with you. No sales pitch here. It isn't easy. You will need to take the pills, and this comes to you from someone who has trouble swallowing pills if they are large or rough textured. I do it anyway because I know I need those pills to stay healthy. You can too. there are some products you can find in liquid or chewable form, such as chewable calcium citrate. Recently people have been discussing vitamin patches, but this is something new and I don't know how well they will work out, and have no personal experience with them.
If you continue with the scoops and then add stuff, you will still be taking more than you need of some vitamins and have more difficulty sorting out how much you need to add to them. You will only be complicating your life, and as @southernlady pointed out, paying big bucks for stuff you can easily get more cheaply.
So I'll get real with you. No sales pitch here. It isn't easy. You will need to take the pills, and this comes to you from someone who has trouble swallowing pills if they are large or rough textured. I do it anyway because I know I need those pills to stay healthy. You can too. there are some products you can find in liquid or chewable form, such as chewable calcium citrate. Recently people have been discussing vitamin patches, but this is something new and I don't know how well they will work out, and have no personal experience with them.
If you continue with the scoops and then add stuff, you will still be taking more than you need of some vitamins and have more difficulty sorting out how much you need to add to them. You will only be complicating your life, and as @southernlady pointed out, paying big bucks for stuff you can easily get more cheaply.
bearmom
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Welcome!
Groups like this are essential for me, as you are not the only one that has a surgeon that is a decent cutter, but horrid post op advice. My surgeon actually give me dietary and supplement information that said RNY right on some of the pages, even if some were crossed out and DS was typed over it.
I'm also guessing you have bpd-ds, rather than bpd. With the DS, you absorb different than the other bypass types, and some things that may not be a big deal for other surgery types can be a real need for us like fat soluble vitamins that we take dry forms of (a, d, e and k).
I'm glad you're here.
Groups like this are essential for me, as you are not the only one that has a surgeon that is a decent cutter, but horrid post op advice. My surgeon actually give me dietary and supplement information that said RNY right on some of the pages, even if some were crossed out and DS was typed over it.
I'm also guessing you have bpd-ds, rather than bpd. With the DS, you absorb different than the other bypass types, and some things that may not be a big deal for other surgery types can be a real need for us like fat soluble vitamins that we take dry forms of (a, d, e and k).
I'm glad you're here.
Hi Courtney, glad you are here
