Whilst I certainly don’t see a multivitamin as being the cure or solution to all of someone’s health problems, there’s no question that it is a foundational supplement for pretty much everyone, can be an incredibly important part of your daily routine and can help to support a healthy lifestyle whilst acting as an insurance policy against nutrient deficiencies.  

After all, vitamins and minerals at optimal levels are essential for optimal health. 

A multivitamin certainly shouldn’t be used as a replacement for a healthy varied diet or lifestyle but the fact is that most people do live with several nutrient deficiencies (due to a variety of reasons) and it affects how they feel each day.

Recent studies showed that the average person was deficient in 7 out the 9 most common minerals which is why something like this can be so important.

The problem is that not all multivitamins are created equally, and picking the best product is not always easy. There are many available, and plenty of debate exists about how beneficial they even are.  

This debate is largely driven by the HUGE variety in the quality of products on the market.  Some are such poor quality they will very likely be ineffective at best. Therefore, below we’ll talk through some of the most important elements to look for below when buying a multivitamin to help you distinguish between what can be beneficial for your health and what ones will just give you expensive wee!

What to Look For in a Multivitamin

There are a few features that are important to look for in a multivitamin supplement. The best will help to support a range of areas including:

Immune Function

Heart Health

Brain Health

Hormonal Health

Energy

Bone Health

Eye Health

And much more

Absorbability / Conversion / Effectiveness

Vitamins and minerals are absorbed into the bloodstream via the gut wall. The form in which the vitamin / mineral is provided will affect how well the body is able to absorb it.  

This is why, with "Advanced Multi" we have very carefully chosen the forms of the ingredients used, helping to ensure optimal absorption and, therefore, effectiveness.

Without proper absorption, you’ll just end up weeing them out when you go to the toilet!

What’s more, certain vitamins need to be converted into an active form so that the body can use them effectively.  However, many people can have difficulty with this conversion. Therefore, using vitamins in their most active form is important.

One really important example of this is with Folic Acid (which is something many people are advised to take and which is found in most multivitamins).  However, Folic Acid is actually the synthetic form (that isn’t much use to the body) of Folate (which is what most people truly need)…

Our multivitamin uses Folate in an active form (known as 5-MTHF) that the body can readily use.  

This is just one example, there are many others.  For example we use vitamin D3 as opposed to D2 (the form most readily recognised by the body), Vitamin K2 (MK-7), and Vitamin B12 as Methylcobalamin.

Suffice to say we use the most active / preferred forms when possible.

Ingredients and Doses

The ingredients and doses also matter.  It’s not necessarily just about having as many vitamins and minerals as we can (though a good range is normally beneficial) or maximising the dosage.

Our “Advanced Multi" provides 29 different nutrients at what our team of health experts consider to be the levels suitable for optimal health for the majority of people.

We certainly don’t say you just need to meet the RDA (recommended daily allowance) or NRV (nutrient reference value) for each amount (as those levels are primarily designed to just help avoid severe deficiencies as opposed to helping to maximise health).  But too much of something could actually be harmful too.

There have previously been only 1 or 2 different types of multivitamin that I’ve been happy to use myself or would recommend to clients.  These are some of the few that use Folate instead of Folic acid (as the Folate ingredient is so much more expensive you know a company are serious about quality if they use it).

But even those products have not been ideal because of the dose of some of their ingredients.  Some use too little of some things, are far too much of others.

The doses we use in “Advanced Multi” are what we consider to be best for optimal health for most people.

One example of something that Advanced Multi does NOT contain is iron.  This is because most people don’t need to supplement with iron, and doing so can lead to an iron overload which can be very harmful. Those who do need iron can do so with a separate product – it makes it much safer and more effective all round.

 

A similar story can be said of Copper, which we have also deliberately left out.

We also include ingredients that are extremely beneficial at supporting overall health, not typically found in other multi vitamin products.  This includes things such as COQ10 and Alpha Lipoic Acid.

This page https://autoimmuneinstitute.com/pages/advanced-multi shows the full list of vitamins and minerals found in the product.

One final thing to note is that many multivitamins will contain high levels of added (non-beneficial) ingredients such as fillers / excipients.  This is one reason we use capsules (as opposed to tablets) as it means these added ingredients can be kept to an absolute minimum, and don’t require binders, flavouring or colouring. The ingredients can also be absorbed faster and aren’t damaged from the heat created during tablet compression.

Quality

“Advanced Multi” is manufactured in the UK to ISO:9001 quality standards, and is gluten, dairy and soy free.  It is suitable for vegetarians, and comes in a convenient, one per day, capsule that is easy to swallow.

Summary

In conclusion, multivitamins can, if you get the right product, be a very important product for overall general health, but the majority are a huge waste of money.

We believe what we have created with “Advanced Multi” to be the best product available, as far as we know of, worldwide, and is something that can help you to look, feel and live your best. Its certainly something I plan to use daily forevermore.

Click here to find out more

https://autoimmuneinstitute.com/pages/advanced-multi