DS Vitamin Regimen - Please Advise

[KathrynK]

As others have said, you have to let your labs dictate doses. Then, when you have a deficiency, you might have to try higher doses or different schedules.

The important thing is not to slack off on your labs over the years, since what works one year might change the next.

 

[RobinO]

I take vitamins 3X per day (all dry Bariatric Advantage pills except my calcium is chewable Viactiv). I take multi with iron, D, B complex, and calcium. Taking your vitamins is EXTREMELY important. No iron could develop into pernicious anemia (could be fatal). No multi = hair falls out among other things. No calcium for me meant extreme cramps in my back and legs. I was always faithful with multi and iron, but learned the hard way with calcium.

 

[Larra]

Actually, pernicious anemia is caused by vitamin B12 deficiency (or lack of intrinsic factor causing B12 deficiency). Lack of iron causes iron deficiency anemia. Both are bad, but B12 problems are much more common with gastric bypass than with DS, though as with all this stuff, there is much individual variation and we all have to follow our labs for guidance. Iron deficiency seems to be a problem with both gastric bypass and DS.
B12 deficiency also causes peripheral neuropathy, which if left untreated long enough can become permanent. Sad, esp because it's very treatable with injections and/or sublingual B12 even for someone who doesn't absorb B12 well.

 

[RobinO]

Larra, You are correct. It is a B12 deficiency. You are also right and everyone needs to follow their labs!!

 

[Stefanie S.]

I take NOTHING with multi ingredients for the same reason I got rid of ink jet printers with one multi-color ink cartridge and then had to toss out a perfectly good cartridge when I ran out of red. The first time you get your labs drawn at 3 months, you will have to adjust your vites. (It's not what you consume but what you ABSORB.) So what happens if you need less A and more D? Just get DRY (not in oil) individual vitamins. Skip all this multi-ingredient stuff. And forget about bariatric vites. You do not need chewables. Don't bother with the transdermal patches -- they don;t work. (I found it impossible in the beginning to swallow giant calcium pills as my baby sleeve was very tender and used a pill crusher and mixed in yogurt. Now I swallow 3 at a time along with a couple of smaller pills.)

And in addition to sugar, your Optisource Vitamin & Mineral Supplement has soybean oil in it -- we don't absorb 60% of oil soooo you're losing some vitamins right there.

Start with Vitalady's protocol. I've attached it for you. After that, let your lab results guide your regimen.

Oh, I take vites twice a day like Munchkin. (Three times if you count Nexium. I take my PPI when I first wake and then eat nothing and take no vites for an hour.) I did switch to Proferrin iron (expensive at $50 a month) because it says you can take it with calcium and I just couldn't tolerate having to think about if I was taking iron an hour before or three hours after yada yada. So a fistful of vites an hour after the PPI and another fistful sometime after dinner but before 9 so everything moves along before I lay down for bed. (Damn reflux. Had it before DS.)

1. Vitalady's protocol
2. Buy individual vites in DRY form
3. Take them twice a day
4. Adjust dosages based on twice a year lab work

Don;t overthink all this. It will drive you crazy.

(EDITED AS I UPLOADED THE WRONG FILE. "PROGRAMDRNY_ERNY_BPDDS" IS CORRECT)

Thank you SO MUCH for this post! I am in awe of the generosity that people like you take to help people like me. This is so valuable! I am going to do as you have laid out. I will be taking a PPI as well, so you've laid out a plan I can deal with. Thank you!

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Thank you SO MUCH for this post! I am in awe of the generosity that people like you take to help people like me. This is so valuable! I am going to do as you have laid out. I will be taking a PPI as well, so you've laid out a plan I can deal with. Thank you!

Just a heads up...of course, PPIs reduce acids, so there is less acid to process the food you eat and the pills you take AND have been linked to kidney stones.

Now...I take a PPI, but I also deal with stones.

Just so you know where it MIGHT lead.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

I take vitamins 3X per day (all dry Bariatric Advantage pills except my calcium is chewable Viactiv). I take multi with iron, D, B complex, and calcium. Taking your vitamins is EXTREMELY important. No iron could develop into pernicious anemia (could be fatal). No multi = hair falls out among other things. No calcium for me meant extreme cramps in my back and legs. I was always faithful with multi and iron, but learned the hard way with calcium.

Also, you have to kick some doctors in the ass to get them to test PTH to figure out if you are getting enough calcium.

For those who don't already know, your body does what it must do to keep itself running. If you don't get enough calcium from your food/supplements, your parathyroid kicks into gear and goes scavenging--in your bones and teeth--for usable calcium it can deliver to up your serum calcium.

Your blood tests show your (serum) calcium as within range, but you won't know if it is from calcium your are absorbing or from your PTH going wild...until you realize your teeth are in trouble and you have osteoporosis.

The end.

 

[southernlady]

Also, you have to kick some doctors in the ass to get them to test PTH to figure out if you are getting enough calcium.

Your blood tests show your (serum) calcium as within range, but you won't know if it is from calcium your are absorbing or from your PTH going wild...until you realize your teeth are in trouble and you have osteoporosis.

The end.

And then again, some of us get osteoporosis in spite of excellent PTH, D, and calcium. Called genetics

 

[Stefanie S.]

Just a heads up...of course, PPIs reduce acids, so there is less acid to process the food you eat and the pills you take AND have been linked to kidney stones.

Now...I take a PPI, but I also deal with stones.

Just so you know where it MIGHT lead.

Really? That's depressing! I'm sorry you have to deal with that. Are there ways to try to prevent stones? How do you treat them once you have them?

 

[Stefanie S.]

Also, you have to kick some doctors in the ass to get them to test PTH to figure out if you are getting enough calcium.

For those who don't already know, your body does what it must do to keep itself running. If you don't get enough calcium from your food/supplements, your parathyroid kicks into gear and goes scavenging--in your bones and teeth--for usable calcium it can deliver to up your serum calcium.

Your blood tests show your (serum) calcium as within range, but you won't know if it is from calcium your are absorbing or from your PTH going wild...until you realize your teeth are in trouble and you have osteoporosis.

The end.

You are not a ray of sunshine today! Thank you for the heads up though.

 

[Clematis]

Are there ways to try to prevent stones? How do you treat them once you have them?

There are open threads here talking about prevention. Once you get them, the "treatment" is to painfully pass them. Kidney stones are made of calcium oxalate so anything that could dissolve them would also dissolve your bones. If they get stuck, a urologist can put you under and go in and blast them into pieces (lithotripsy) but each time they do that they can cause damage to the tissues which can cause MORE stones to form. If at all possible, they want you to pass them yourself.

I had a couple of kidney stones before DS and PPIs, though, so I can't put all the blame on weight loss and PPI.