What is the Right Multi-vitamin for You?

When choosing an appropriate multi-vitamin, what are the major factors that you should consider? It is important that you choose the right one for you so that maximum benefits could be obtained. TDM (Therapeutic Drug Monitoring) is one way of ensuring this.

In therapeutic drug monitoring, drugs are administered to a certain person and observed for their therapeutic effects. The drug dosage is adjusted until such time that the dosage is therapeutic and is neither sub-therapeutic nor toxic to the person.

A more practical way is to take into account all of the factors that may affect the ingestion of the drug. In this process there are several factors that you should take into consideration.

First and foremost is your physiologic make-up. The "organ function" should be considered first. Do you have a dysfunctional liver or heart? Are your excretory organs functioning well?

The vitamins for a person with a heart ailment should be one that have no side effects on his heart; likewise the vitamins of a person who has a dysfunctional liver should have no toxic side-effects on his liver. Organs that are functioning normally would ensure that the purported boosting effects of the multi-vitamins would come about.

Second, your age. Very young children and very old people usually have a slower body metabolism. Young people in their teenage years have the strongest. That is why vitamins are not commonly given at birth but only after 2 months. For geriatric (old) patients, the same principle applies too. The easily metabolized vitamin is a good choice.

Third, your weight or body mass. The higher your weight and body mass, the stronger would be the dosage. There are vitamins which have a higher concentration than others. These maybe selected for optimum results for those with higher body mass.

Fourth, your economic status. The question: "Could you afford the prolonged maintenance of the multi-vitamins? If not, then cheaper alternatives should be selected. It is of no use if you just take the vitamins for a week then stop because you cannot afford to sustain the financial responsibility that comes with it.

Fifth, you have to be aware of the effectiveness of the multi-vitamins as documented by people who have used them. The best advertisement of a product is still through word of mouth from actual users. Try asking around and get opinions from various users and compare them.

Sometimes, it is only through trial and error that you would be able to choose the correct multi- vitamins for yourself. Individuals have different responses to drugs.

Before you commence on finding out what's good for you however, you have to consult first your family physician.