Do you take them? If yes, any preference for the type? Regular, for Women, for Seniors?
For me, I am a woman, and I am a senior (50+), I wonder which type is better…
If you’re postmenopausal and therefore not losing iron every month, you don’t need the extra iron in women’s formula multivitamins. In fact, too much iron can be undesirable. Senior formulas don’t have a lot of iron. So I think they’re the better choice.
If you’re still having periods 
, you might want to stick with women’s formulas a little longer.
I am not a believer- you pee out most of what you take in! I take Vit D and calcium for bone density, but that’s it. Best to eat a balanced enough diet to get the nutrients that way.
What MOfWC said. There’s ample literature that says pretty much the same thing in less direct terms. 
I take one, plus some vitamin D. Resulting from a bout with iron & vitamin D deficiency a few years ago that wiped me out. Ended up at the doctor, and blood testing showed these deficiencies. After they were corrected, my doctor recommended the current regime. But every time I get settled in with a multivitamin, they stop making them! I have the added complexity that I had kidney stones related to calcium intake, and my doc also advises that I not take in too much supplemental calcium in pill form. The women’s multivitamins all have a lot of calcium, so i stay away from those.
There’s ample literature on both sides of the multi-vitamin arguments. I like the Harvard School of Public Health statement: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/vitamins/
I found a small tablet, moderate dosage multi for 50+: http://www.amazon.com/Rainbow-Light-Mini-Tablet-Multivitamin-Mini-Tablets/dp/B0039VVP9C and take 1/day instead of 3. It’s easy to swallow.
As for vitamin D, I’m chronically low (the curse of living in the Pacific NW) so I don’t use sunscreen and take vitamin D pills from time to time. A friend of mine pointed me to research done in Sweden that showed that death rates there are HIGHER among women who use sunscreen than among those who don’t (the same is not true in Australia). I’d rather make the vitamin D naturally!
I take specific ones that I’m low in- vit b12 and vit d.
Unless you’re chronically low due to medical reasons, there’s very little evidence that multivitamins do anything good and you can even be getting too much. I’d run it past your doctor before starting anything.
I am a firm believer in normal strength multivitamins. The way I see it, at best, your body has a full supply of whatever it needs to stay healthy, and at worst, you pee out the excess. It is a win-win situation.
Nobody eats a perfectly balanced diet every single day… and if you do, good for you! B-)
I appreciate everyone’s input and everyone makes sense.
I don’t drink milk at all, I remember my ob/gyn told me years ago even with calcium, the best is to get it from natural food, since milk was out of the question, she did suggest drink orange juice with calcium plus taking calcium supplements, she did warn me that supplements won’t get all absorbed in the body but it would be better than nothing.
I never took vitamins in my younger days, except prenatal vitamins during pregnancy, but started taking multivitamins when I was close to late 40’s. Then I had my first bone density at 51, wow, what an eye opener!!! Next thing you know I was taking calcium supplements, after my second bone density test (which had worse result than the first one), my ob/gyn recommended vitamin D, now I take it faithfully.
I must admit that I don’t eat a healthy balanced diet, and I got to cut down on junk food!!! So I think I will keep taking multivitamins, even though I probably pee out most of it!
Again, at worst, you can be harming yourself. Not all extra vitamins and minerals are peed out.
Vitamin D prescribed by Dr, B12 and Krill Oil on my own. I read everywhere that B12 vitamin pills don’t do any good but I swear they keep me awake after lunch when I sometimes get sleepy…so, even if it’s all in my head, they seem to work.
If you’re taking D + calcium, you should also take vitamin K2. K2 directs the calcium to the bones; without it the calcium tends to deposit in the arteries. There’s a recommended ratio of D (D3 really) to K2 but I don’t recall what it is offhand.
Here’s some articles on it from the NIH website.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=K2+vitamin+d+calcium
Does anyone have a Vitamin D brand recommendation?
NatureMade Vit. D capsules from Costco brought my blood Vit D from basically abysmal to within normal range.
Anything can be harmful at a high enough concentration. Water can be harmful if you drink enough of it. The real question is, at what concentration does something start to become harmful?
The concentrations of vitamins within a normal strength multivitamin are so low that the risk of any health problems is negligible, even when you factor in a normal diet on-top of the multivitamin. Vitamin E, for example, has an TUL of 1,500 IU, even though the typical multivitamin has around 45 IU (or 150% of your daily value) in it… Vitamin D, 4000 IU upper limit, 400 IU in a typical multivitamin. Vitamin A, 10,000 IU upper limit, 3,000 IU in a typical multivitamin.
Logically speaking, we know that 1) A deficiency of vitamins can cause health problems, 2) Most people don’t get their recommended intake of every vitamin, every day, 3) A deficiency of vitamins can be corrected by taking more of said vitamins, and 4) For the vast majority of people, taking a regular multivitamin will either be neutral to their health or beneficial to their health.
Be careful with making conclusions that if something is present in a lesser dose than upper limit it is not going to hurt you. There is acute tox (your example with water) and there is the long-term, cumulative effect. Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that the body stores in the liver, processes into active metabolites… “reasonable” doses taken over prolonged period of time can have a nasty effect, especially if you get adequate amount from carrots (or if you use Retin A or another retinoid medication).
This is a pretty comprehensive source:
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-HealthProfessional/
I don’t take a multi. I take Vit D and B-12.
Does anyone take a “mini” calcium pill? I really can’t tolerate the big pills and my compliance goes down to zero. I’ve tried the chews from Costco and became noncompliant with those too. Would love a mini pill that I can take with the other things I take each morning.
I finally found a multi vitamin I like – it’s a gummy.
Oops, scratch that question. Just looked at the label of the “mini” multi vitamin posted upthread and it has calcium. I’ll try that when I’m done with my current bottle of gummies.
My mom puts the huge calcium citrate in a small amount of water (like less than a tablespoon and it instantly dissolves and then she swallows it in the spoon. It works great and she doesn’t choke on it and it’s the inexpensive Costco Calcium Citrate. Me, I just swallow it, as I can swallow most things with little to no problem.