The concept of a daily intake of a vitamin pill has been around for nearly one hundred years. Healthy or chronically ill, the taking of a vitamin supplement seems like good nutritional insurance with no real downside. Offering 100 percent of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of many important vitamins, a multivitamin is a one-pill wonder that is less expensive than most prescription medications over a thirty day period.
When it comes to patients undergoing plastic surgery, or surgery of any kind for that matter, the preparatory use of a multivitamin preparation takes on even greater importance. Ideally a patient should start the taking of a multivitamin at least three weeks before the date of surgery.This gives the body time to begin using the vitamins to build tissues or store excesses in preparation for the needs required for healing of injured tissues.
But many types of vitamins exist and it is difficult to sort through the options to determine which is most effective. Effectiveness for a vitamin is largely about it’s ability to be absorbed. This is probably more important than what the vitamin may actually contain. Many feel that much of the vitamins they are taking are more likely to end up in their septic tank than end up in any bodily tissues. Chunky large pills have been replaced by variety of different vitamin formulations that offer easier and more rapid absorption.
Adult chewable multivitamins are the most commonly used and they offer the benefit of a single pill that you don’t have to swallow whole. This is advantageous for those that have trouble swallowing or develop stomach pain when they do. Even though children’s chewable vitamins taste better than most adult formulations, they don’t have the same vitamin levels. But for many adults that eat a well-rounded diet, those supplementary levels may be sufficient.
Liquid vitamins are an obvious method of delivery that should be easier to absorb as no carrier material has to be broken down first. As a result, some incredible claims have been made by numerous companies about their superiority. One of the potential drawbacks of liquid formulations is that when they enter the stomach and are subjected to an acidic environment, some of the nutrients may be destroyed before they can reach the upper intestines where they are best absorbed. But they are certainly easier to swallow than pills.
Powdered multivitamins offer a formulation that can also more easily be absorbed. Because pills contain fillers and binding agents which must be broken first before any of their vitamin content can be absorbed, a powdered form bypasses this inefficient step. A tablespoon or two of powdered vitamins offers the equivalent levels of a couple of solid pills. But powders require some preparation and they must often be mixed with a juice to avoid a bitter aftertaste.
Food-based multivitamins offer an innovative approach to the absorption problem. The vitamins are mixed with powdered whole foods such as vegetables and fruits and packed into capsules. Because the vitamins are mixed with real foods, they are absorbed better and usually have less chance of any stomach discomfort after being taken. While this vitamin preparation is often touted as more natural or organic, the vitamins they contain are still synthetically produced. Thus, the organic component by volume is nutritionally insignificant.
Cost is another consideration between these more easily absorbed multivitamin preparations. Chewables are, by far, the most economical. Food-based, liquid, and powdered forms are usually two to three times the cost of chewables when calculated on a daily basis.
Which of these multivitamin preparations is best? It is impossible to separate them based on their effectiveness. But the taking of vitamins is largely a nutritional insurance policy and taking any one of them is better than taking none at all.
Barry L. Eppley, M.D., D.M.D.
Indianapolis, Indiana