#313: Choosing a Multivitamin [Supplements Series with Dr. Viegas]

Michelle:
Hello there, health coaches! Welcome to our supplements expert series because the truth is health coaches, we don't learn much about supplements in health coaching school, and yet we're asked about them all the time. You're probably taking your own supplements. I know. I am. So today we are going to focus on multivitamins and Dr. Viegas from Fullscript is here with us. I'll introduce him in just a minute. This episode is brought to you by Practice Better. The practice management software that I have used myself and always, always recommend for health coaches because it is built for practitioners like us. Practice better handles everything from billing, scheduling, helping to run your sessions, and it integrates beautifully with fullscript. So you can share supplement options with your clients. Sign up for a free trial and save 30% off your first three months at healthcoachpower.com/pb. Dr. Viegas, I'm so glad you're here. Can you jump in and introduce yourself real quick?
Dr. Viegas:
Sure. Thanks for having me. Michelle. I'm Dr. Eric Viegas. I'm a naturopathic doctor in Ottawa, Canada. I'm also a medical product manager at Fullscript. Very much versed in supplement quality and educating providers on what to look for. Before that, I was actually, I worked for some of the larger supplement companies in Canada in their education team.
Michelle:
Fantastic. We're so glad that you're here. And for anybody wandering full script, which we've mentioned a couple times, is a platform where you can earn passive income and save up to 35% on over 350 brands of high quality supplements. It's completely free. And for more info on that, you can go to healthcoachpower.com/fullscript info. I'll put a link to that in the show notes. So Dr. Viegas, today we're focusing on multivitamins, which I feel it can be a little bit controversial because some people swear by them and others think it's better to take individual supplements as needed. So maybe you can help us out. Why might we want to take a multivitamin? Can that be good for our overall health? How do we know if we need this?
Dr. Viegas:
Yeah, great question. I would say start with diet first, right? Look at lifestyle. So evaluate your client's diet, lifestyle, and any specific health concerns. And if their diet lacks a variety or if they have an increased nutritional need. So for states like pregnancy, high stress, dietary restrictions, even drug nutrient, depletions, a multivitamin might be beneficial.
Michelle:
You said high stress. I'm not sure how many people don't fall into that category these days. So this is something to think about. Now, what about when we're going, gosh, when we go to choose a multivitamin, when I remember the chewable Flintstones when I was a little kid, there are so many. I remember two, right? We all took them. If you didn't take a Flintstones multivitamin, we have to talk. But these days we want something high quality and there's so many on the market. I know they're not all the same. How do we choose?
Dr. Viegas:
Yeah, that's another great question. So to your point, not all multivitamins are created equal. I would say a good place to start is to look for products that contain bioavailable forms of nutrients. So for example, methylated B vitamins. You might see on a supplement fax panel paridine, which is a non methylated form of vitamin B six. Instead look for Paradoxal five phosphate, which is a methylated form of B vitamin. Additionally, you can also look for things like chelated minerals, so magnesium glycinate versus something that's considered a lower quality like a magnesium oxide. Additionally, you want to look for products that are free from artificial additives and that are third party tested. To your point earlier, if your client is on a variety of supplements, a multivitamin may help reduce pill burden and help with adherence by sort of consolidating how many pills they have to take per day.
Michelle:
That's true. Now, all those fancy words you were saying a second ago, peroxide and this and such and such that a lot of us, including myself, we don't know these things. We don't know these things. I hope everyone was just taking notes right there. Is there anything that if we see it on the label, just run?
Dr. Viegas:
Oh, good question. Typically you'd want to look at dosages, right? If dosages aren't kind of in line with recommended daily intakes, then maybe not run, but maybe look for a different product. You can also look under excipients or what might be listed as sort of inactive ingredients, avoiding certain preservatives, avoiding again, artificial colors, artificial flavors, generally. That's kind of the route that I go.
Michelle:
Yeah, that sounds like, I mean, anything we're going to put in our mouth, let's look for those artificial colors and maybe all those added sweeteners, right?
Dr. Viegas:
Absolutely. Yeah, that's another big one for sure.
Michelle:
Back to those Flintstones. But I like that comment you made about if someone is taking five or six different individual supplements, it does get old popping a million pills down your throat in the morning. This could be a way to consolidate. What about our clients who we're doing the opposite? There's just nutrient gaps. What are some common areas that people are not getting enough nutrients and this could help them maybe just cover their bases?
Dr. Viegas:
Great question. I think it would depend on the case, but common gaps could include things like vitamin D, magnesium, calcium, B vitamins. Because B vitamins are generally water soluble. They don't really stick around in our bodies for very long. So a multivitamin can help to bridge those gaps. Again, particularly for clients with restricted diets or increased nutrient needs.
Michelle:
You mentioned magnesium and I just thought, oh, we're doing probiotics today. We're doing multivitamins. Tomorrow we're going to do vitamin D, and I thought magnesium needed to be in there. Maybe next time we'll hit magnesium. That's one of my favorites. Favorites.
Dr. Viegas:
Mine too. Yeah.
Michelle:
Everybody, we need a magnesium, but are there any risks? Again, we're always going to have our clients talk to their doctor before they start taking anything. This isn't a risk we're going to be taking on ourselves as health coaches, but even if it's just for ourselves or if the client starts taking things on their own without really consulting anybody, I'm curious what might be the downsides or risks associated with that? Especially if we don't know how much to take. How much vitamin D do we need? How much of any of the fat soluble vitamins that we could overdose on?
Dr. Viegas:
Yeah, great point. So yeah, taking too much of certain vitamins or minerals such as vitamin A or iron can certainly be harmful. So it's important to choose a multivitamin with doses that meet but don't significantly exceed recommended daily allowances or recommended daily values unless it's been medically advised. So there are a variety of different sources online where you can get that information, but typically following the recommended dose on the label will ensure that you're within those daily values
Michelle:
And then not doubling up, not also still taking the iron supplement at the same time.
Dr. Viegas:
Yes, though for some cases that might be medically advised if there's a severe iron deficiency or some other condition going on, it might be sort of worthwhile to pair that multi with a standalone supplement like a vitamin D or a magnesium just to ensure that you're getting that optimal amount that you need.
Michelle:
Okay, magnesium next time. Iron. Next time. I got a little list going here. There's so much to discuss. Oh boy. Alright, so if we are taking this sort of all in one solution of a multivitamin, some, I know I always take my iron with vitamin C, some nutrients absorb better when they're taken with something else. How do we handle that if we're taking everything in one pill?
Dr. Viegas:
Yeah, great question. Typically they're formulated with ratios that sort of don't impact one another in terms of absorption. But generally most multivitamins are best taken with a meal that contains some fat to enhance the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins that might be in there as to your point earlier, so vitamins A, de and K are all fat-soluble vitamins. Vitamin K actually comes into a few different forms. So you might see like K one or K two, and K two itself actually comes in several forms. So there's MK four and MK seven being the most researched. MK seven has a longer half-life, meaning that it stays in the body arguably than MK four, making it a viable choice for some clients for their treatment plan. I would also say avoid taking multivitamins at the same time as your other standalone nutrients like calcium, zinc, or iron supplements, which can interfere with the absorption of certain minerals and other nutrients.
Michelle:
Good tip, and I hope you guys were all taking lots of notes there. There's going to be a pop quiz after this and everything that we've learned today, oh, thank goodness it's recorded. Fantastic. Thank you so much for helping us with the multivitamin thing. It seems like the most obvious vitamin for people to take, especially if they're not taking anything. But then it's also kind of like the most complicated one, so much going on in there. So I really appreciate your help. And for all of our listeners, you can go to healthcoachpower.com/fullscript info for more information about the platform. By the way, in the platform, there are a lot of educational resources. So if you like what we're doing here, you want to learn more about supplements, that's a great place for you to go. And of course, it's free to set up an account.
Again, that's healthcoachpower.com/fullscript info. And keep on listening because our next and our final episode of this series, at least for now because I got to add magnesium and iron next time, but at least for now, we're going to be talking about another biggie in the supplement world in the next episode. Good old vitamin D. This episode has been brought to you by Practice Better, a powerful client management tool for health coaches that integrates seamlessly with fullscript. I used it all the time with my own clients and still to this day earn passive income from clients recurring supplement purchases. Nice, right? It's super easy for you. It's super easy for your clients because of that practice better integration so you get everything in the same place. You can Get your free practice, better trial, and save 30% off your first three months at healthcoachpower.com/pb. We'll see you soon.