It can be challenging to get all the nutrients you need from food, especially if you are taking medications. That’s because many medicines can interfere with vitamin and mineral absorption. Some, like metformin for diabetes, can deplete vitamin B12 levels over time. Acid-suppressing drugs such as esomeprazole (Nexium), lansoprazole (Prevacid) or omeprazole (Prilosec) may lead to low levels of magnesium, iron, calcium or vitamin C, as well as vitamin B12 (Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety, June, 2013). Will the multivitamin you buy in a health food store or pharmacy live up to expectations?
One Third of Tested Multivitamins Disappoint:
A well-kept secret is that the Food and Drug Administration does not routinely monitor vitamins and other dietary supplements for quality. The industry is pretty much left to its own devices to deliver what it promises.
ConsumerLab.com is one of the few independent testing organizations that monitors dietary supplements, herbs and other natural products. A recent review revealed: “Defects Found in 33% of Multis Put to the Test.”
The organization purchased 45 different multivitamin/multimineral products and actually tested them for a number of standard ingredients. One third failed the ConsumerLab.com tests, either because the products had lower (“as low as 8%”) or higher levels (“as high as 226%”) than those listed on the label.
Problems with Vitamin D:
The results of the ConsumerLab.com tests did not surprise us. In 2013 a research letter was published in JAMA Internal Medicine (April 8, 2013) regarding vitamin D pills. Researchers in Portland, Oregon bought 55 bottles of vitamin D3 from a dozen different suppliers. The dose on the label ranged from 1,000 IUs to 10,000 IUs.
The results were alarming, to say the least. Some vitamin D pills had as little as 9% of what they were supposed to contain. Others had 140% of the labeled amount. Products from the same batch from the same manufacturer could vary between 57% and 138%, suggesting terrible quality control.
Are You Interested in Quality Supplements?
We have long worried about the quality of vitamin supplements, but we don’t know how much Americans care about this. That is why we are conducting a test to determine if people are interested in premium supplements.
We are very excited to have found a company that shares our passion for quality control. Every step of its process is stringently monitored. We have asked them to personalize supplements for you. In this test, we offer you the opportunity to try out either a multivitamin or a cardio health formulation. We designed both according to our analysis of the latest research.
To participate in our limited trial, take a few seconds to fill out this survey. It will take you to a shopping cart where you can sign up for two months of our supplements at a reduced rate and let us know how you like them.
An Added Bonus:
Like many members of our community, you might not like swallowing a bunch of big pills. If you take a few different supplements and some prescription drugs it can become a challenge to deal with so many tablets or capsules. Our personalized People’s Pharmacy Multivitamin and Cardio Formula come in easy-to-swallow packets. We will be very interested in how you like the spiced apple flavor gel.
Here is a link to the survey and the shopping cart. It will only take a few seconds to complete and thank you so much for participating.
