IRON & Vitamins?

Sherri said:

I am now done with my weight loss on Atkins and I'm now at the
lifestyle catagory for staying at my weight, etc. For the past 8
months I have been taking vitamins from GNC nutritional store that
specifically said NO IRON! I'm tired of paying the prices for them
though, so today I asked my Dr. what multivitamin he would recommend.
He said Centrum! I ended up picking up Centrum Carb Assist (for
people who live the low carb lifestyle). However there is 18MG of
IRON in each pill, you take one pill a day. Every Centrum vitamin
has IRON in it, there is none that don't have it. I asked a
pharmacist about the 18MG of IRON and she said that it was such a
small amount to not even be concerned with it, that most pills that
have IRON in them have at least 350MG per pill. She said the reason
why most people don't need to add IRON in their vitamin is because
you get enough IRON from the foods you eat everyday (which is also
stated on the atkins website), but again, she said an additional 18MG
a day is not going to cause any problems.

The pharmacist is incorrect. 100% RDA of iron is 18mg. I looked at several
bottles of vitamins I have and none of them have more than 18 mg of iron
listed.

Centrum Silver does not contain iron. It also has more calcium, B vitamins,
and a couple others I can't recall off the top of my head. I use the store
brand equivalent to Centrum Silver.

Quoted message said:

I just wanted to know if anyone here was taking Centrum as their daily
multivitamin and if there would be any problem in taking it? Again,
my Dr. recommended it and he knows that I have been on Atkins since
early this year so obviously he didn't see any problem with taking
it. He recommends Centrum to all his patients.

You should ask your doctor if he meant Centrum Silver or regular. You should
also ask him about the iron. Don't assume he understands what being on
Atkins involves. Many doctors don't have a clue.
--
Jeri
"Change is inevitable, except from vending machines."

He recommends

Quoted message said:

Centrum to all his patients.

Thanks.

Here's my personal experiance with centrum for the low carb lifestyle.

There's been some more health issues with me. About 6 months ago I
started noticing that I was having trouble breathing. I talked to my
doctor about it and she agreed that I was having symptoms consistent
with asthma. She offered to put me on an inhaler but I'm allergic to
epinephrine so she put me on Singulair instead. it took about 10 days
to get enough into my body that I was finally having a much easier
time breathing, in the mean time I read up on it and adults do get the
onset of asthma, mostly women because it's hormone related. well then
my urine changed color and I kept thinking that it would go away. It
didn't. Then my hair started falling out. Not drastic but enough that
I cut my hair, it just hits my shoulders now. Then I called my doctor
and asked her if these symptoms were a problem, she told me to stop
the singulair right away. well my urine never changed back after a
month so I had her run some tests, the blood work came back with a
dangerously high level of iron in my blood, so she ran a ferretine
test. In the mean time I started reading about iron overload. Which is
dangerous. The most interesting thing I found out was what causes iron
deficiency, and how they treat it. When someone is anemic they are
instructed to take massive doses of vitamin C because vitamin C causes
you to absorb iron at a very high rate. Oh [censored]! I take a one-a-day
and supplement it with extra vitamin C. It turns out that I was
causing my body to overload iron. Guess what two of the symptoms of
iron overload is.... hair loss and asthma.

my internist told me that this low carb diet has all the vitamin C I
need because there is vitamin C in most foods and the more this diet
allows of these foods, the more vitamin C I'm getting from
sources most people don't know exist. i.e. nuts, broccoli,
spinach etc. so supplementing vitamin C in the presence of high iron
intake was dangerous. She told me to follow my diet without any
supplements and she'll draw my blood once a month for the next few
months and she believes all will be well.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that low carb is a balanced
diet. By the way... my cholesterol, triglycerides and blood glucose
levels are still outstanding. and my iron levels have returned to
normal. I'm still having trouble breathing, but I am starting to have
hormone changes, and I think the hair loss has slowed to normal.

Broccoli has very much iron and vitamin C, so I'm thinking that since
i eat broccoli more than any other veggie, there's a problem there.

Patti

Quoted message said:

Thanks for the info, the post was actually posted for my husband, he is 32
years old so Centrum Silver would be a no no🙂 His Dr. knows he has been
doing the Atkins lifestyle since early this year but I will have him ask
again to double check. Like I said, for the past 10 months he has been
taking GNC's brand of multivitamins with NO IRON but he's tired of paying 15
bucks for only a 30 day supply of them and frankly I don't blame him. I
believe there is also a vitmain on the market called "one a day" and it's
also for the low carb lifestyle, it has NO iron in it, I checked today at
CVS. So I will tell him to also mention that to his Dr. and see what he
suggests. He hasn't been taking any vitamins now for the past several weeks
(he's been 12lbs below his goal weight now for a good month) and he just got
tired of paying 15 bucks for a 30 day supply so I guess a few more days
ain't gonna hurt him and he never even took vitamins before he did Atkins so
I'll just tell him not to take anything for now.

Thanks!

--
E-Mail: SseadoubleyouATyahooDOTcom
AIM: Sseadoubleyou
Yahoo! Messenger: Sseadoubleyou
MSN Messenger: SseadoubleyouATyahooDOTcom

"Jeri" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Sherri said:

I am now done with my weight loss on Atkins and I'm now at the
lifestyle catagory for staying at my weight, etc. For the past 8
months I have been taking vitamins from GNC nutritional store that
specifically said NO IRON! I'm tired of paying the prices for them
though, so today I asked my Dr. what multivitamin he would recommend.
He said Centrum! I ended up picking up Centrum Carb Assist (for
people who live the low carb lifestyle). However there is 18MG of
IRON in each pill, you take one pill a day. Every Centrum vitamin
has IRON in it, there is none that don't have it. I asked a
pharmacist about the 18MG of IRON and she said that it was such a
small amount to not even be concerned with it, that most pills that
have IRON in them have at least 350MG per pill. She said the reason
why most people don't need to add IRON in their vitamin is because
you get enough IRON from the foods you eat everyday (which is also
stated on the atkins website), but again, she said an additional 18MG
a day is not going to cause any problems.

The pharmacist is incorrect. 100% RDA of iron is 18mg. I looked at several
bottles of vitamins I have and none of them have more than 18 mg of iron
listed.

Centrum Silver does not contain iron. It also has more calcium, B
vitamins,
and a couple others I can't recall off the top of my head. I use the store
brand equivalent to Centrum Silver.

Quoted message said:

I just wanted to know if anyone here was taking Centrum as their daily
multivitamin and if there would be any problem in taking it? Again,
my Dr. recommended it and he knows that I have been on Atkins since
early this year so obviously he didn't see any problem with taking
it. He recommends Centrum to all his patients.

You should ask your doctor if he meant Centrum Silver or regular. You
should
also ask him about the iron. Don't assume he understands what being on
Atkins involves. Many doctors don't have a clue.
--
Jeri
"Change is inevitable, except from vending machines."

Why would Silver be a no no for a 32 year old? The main difference is the
absense of iron. Take a bottle of the GNC vitamins and compare the
ingredients to the Silver (or generic equivalent).

In news:[email hidden],
Sherri <[email hidden]> stated
| Thanks for the info, the post was actually posted for my husband, he
| is 32 years old so Centrum Silver would be a no no🙂 His Dr. knows
| he has been doing the Atkins lifestyle since early this year but I
| will have him ask again to double check. Like I said, for the past
| 10 months he has been taking GNC's brand of multivitamins with NO
| IRON but he's tired of paying 15 bucks for only a 30 day supply of
| them and frankly I don't blame him. I believe there is also a
| vitmain on the market called "one a day" and it's also for the low
| carb lifestyle, it has NO iron in it, I checked today at CVS. So I
| will tell him to also mention that to his Dr. and see what he
| suggests. He hasn't been taking any vitamins now for the past
| several weeks (he's been 12lbs below his goal weight now for a good
| month) and he just got tired of paying 15 bucks for a 30 day supply
| so I guess a few more days ain't gonna hurt him and he never even
| took vitamins before he did Atkins so I'll just tell him not to take
| anything for now.
|
| Thanks!
|
|
| "Jeri" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
| news:[email hidden]...
|| Sherri <[email hidden]> wrote:
||| I am now done with my weight loss on Atkins and I'm now at the
||| lifestyle catagory for staying at my weight, etc. For the past 8
||| months I have been taking vitamins from GNC nutritional store that
||| specifically said NO IRON! I'm tired of paying the prices for them
||| though, so today I asked my Dr. what multivitamin he would
||| recommend. He said Centrum! I ended up picking up Centrum Carb
||| Assist (for people who live the low carb lifestyle). However there
||| is 18MG of IRON in each pill, you take one pill a day. Every
||| Centrum vitamin has IRON in it, there is none that don't have it.
||| I asked a pharmacist about the 18MG of IRON and she said that it
||| was such a small amount to not even be concerned with it, that most
||| pills that have IRON in them have at least 350MG per pill. She
||| said the reason why most people don't need to add IRON in their
||| vitamin is because you get enough IRON from the foods you eat
||| everyday (which is also stated on the atkins website), but again,
||| she said an additional 18MG a day is not going to cause any
||| problems.
||
|| The pharmacist is incorrect. 100% RDA of iron is 18mg. I looked at
|| several bottles of vitamins I have and none of them have more than
|| 18 mg of iron listed.
||
|| Centrum Silver does not contain iron. It also has more calcium, B
|| vitamins,
|| and a couple others I can't recall off the top of my head. I use the
|| store brand equivalent to Centrum Silver.
||
||| I just wanted to know if anyone here was taking Centrum as their
||| daily multivitamin and if there would be any problem in taking it?
||| Again, my Dr. recommended it and he knows that I have been on
||| Atkins since early this year so obviously he didn't see any problem
||| with taking it. He recommends Centrum to all his patients.
||
|| You should ask your doctor if he meant Centrum Silver or regular. You
|| should
|| also ask him about the iron. Don't assume he understands what being
|| on Atkins involves. Many doctors don't have a clue.
|| --
|| Jeri
|| "Change is inevitable, except from vending machines."

Sherri said:

I am now done with my weight loss on Atkins and I'm now at the lifestyle
catagory for staying at my weight, etc.

Just as an aside, I ONLY use vitamins made by top-of-the-line pharmaceutical
companies like Roche.

There was a recall a few years ago of vitamins containing cheap vitamin C
sourced from China of very dubious quality.

And here in Australia one pharmaceutical company put scrapings from the
factory floor back in the pills.
http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/comment/pan.htm

gtoomey

On Thu, 09 Dec 2004 01:44:51 GMT, "FOB" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Why would Silver be a no no for a 32 year old? The main difference is the
absense of iron. Take a bottle of the GNC vitamins and compare the
ingredients to the Silver (or generic equivalent).

I suspect she meant that her husband would be upset to think that a
"senior" label applied to him in any fashion at 32. If her husband
doesn't pay a lot of attention to the pills themselves she could buy a
big bottle of Centrum Silver and fill up one of the old GNC bottles
for him as being "more convenient."

As for the iron itself, I believe the pharmacist was off by a factor
of 10 or so, that typical separate iron supplements have around 35 mg,
not 350 mg, i.e. 200% not 2000% of RDA. While some multivitamins with
iron have 100% (18 mg), others have only 50% (9 mg).

Iron absorption also varies quite a bit from person to person. I tend
to run borderline anemic unless I make a deliberate attempt to get
extra iron in my diet. That's rare for a man, but a while back I was
deferred a few times when attempting to donote blood because of low
iron. So it makes sense FOR ME to get a little extra from my
multivitamin, and I am taking one with 9 mg (if you supplement without
a doctor's advice, the NIH recommends 10 mg in a supplement for
teenage and adult males). I also supplement with Vitamin C, so if
that helps me absorb iron I'm getting that effect too. OTOH, my
better iron levels may simply be the effect of NOT eating as much of
foods that REDUCE the absorption of iron. From the NIH site, these
include cheese, yoghurt, milk, spinach, eggs, whole wheat bread and
bran. At the time I was deferred I was not doing lowcarb and was
getting a lot of milk and yoghurt. In any case, my iron levels have
stayed in the "normal" range doing my current diet/supplements. Some
other people might be getting "too much" at this same intake level.

Calcium appears to be an offender in reducing absorption, so a
multivitamin with both calcium and iron might well use the 18 mg level
of iron because the calcium will make it only partially absorbed.
Antacid tablets that use calcium (or straight calcium supplements)
should be taken a couple of hours separated from taking supplements of
iron.

Another iron inhibiter is caffeine. Every site I've found says to take
iron supplements on an empty stomach at least 1 hour before or 2 hours
after meals and to avoid anything with caffeine.
Most people following an LC plan are getting enough iron in their diet if
they're eating properly (i.e. real food, not LC junk). You might want to
have your iron levels checked by a doctor after you've been LC for a few
months.

on Thu, 09 Dec 2004 04:39:19 GMT, [email hidden] (Harold Groot)

Quoted message said:

better iron levels may simply be the effect of NOT eating as much of
foods that REDUCE the absorption of iron. From the NIH site, these
include cheese, yoghurt, milk, spinach, eggs, whole wheat bread and
bran. At the time I was deferred I was not doing lowcarb and was
getting a lot of milk and yoghurt. In any case, my iron levels have
stayed in the "normal" range doing my current diet/supplements. Some
other people might be getting "too much" at this same intake level.

Calcium appears to be an offender in reducing absorption, so a
multivitamin with both calcium and iron might well use the 18 mg level
of iron because the calcium will make it only partially absorbed.
Antacid tablets that use calcium (or straight calcium supplements)
should be taken a couple of hours separated from taking supplements of
iron.

-----
Bev

Quoted message said:

Sherri said:

I am now done with my weight loss on Atkins and I'm now at the
lifestyle catagory for staying at my weight, etc. For the past 8
months I have been taking vitamins from GNC nutritional store that
specifically said NO IRON! I'm tired of paying the prices for them
though, so today I asked my Dr. what multivitamin he would recommend.
He said Centrum! I ended up picking up Centrum Carb Assist (for
people who live the low carb lifestyle). However there is 18MG of
IRON in each pill, you take one pill a day. Every Centrum vitamin
has IRON in it, there is none that don't have it. I asked a
pharmacist about the 18MG of IRON and she said that it was such a
small amount to not even be concerned with it, that most pills that
have IRON in them have at least 350MG per pill. She said the reason
why most people don't need to add IRON in their vitamin is because
you get enough IRON from the foods you eat everyday (which is also
stated on the atkins website), but again, she said an additional 18MG
a day is not going to cause any problems.

Most men get enough iron through their diet. Some men (a small
percentage) have difficulty eleminating excess iron. That's often why
you see some doctors/nutritionist recommend against (men) taking
vitimans with extra iron. Really though, it's an individual thing,
and only affect a small percentage of men. I'm not sure how you would
tell whether you have a problem with iron or not (a blood test maybe?)

Women often don't get enough iron from their diet, and also need to
replace the iron they lose every month.

One-A-Day (from Bayer) has a vitamin formulated for men (without Iron)
and one for women (with iron) where, I think, the formulation is
pretty close to Centrum's.