What Vitamins Can You Take Together?

You might already know that some vitamins should not be taken together. But which ones? It's important to know because taking some vitamins together interferes with the absorption of some of them, which taking some together actually improves the absorption.

Iron and calcium should not be taken together, unless it's a very small amount of calcium. 300 mg of calcium or so will block the absorption of iron. The reason some multis have both iron and calcium is because they often have only small amounts of calcium, maybe 200 mg. That amount won't block the absorption of iron but much more will. Iron and calcium should be taken at least two hours apart.

If your multi has iron in it and you want to absorb that iron, do not take your multi with your calcium. If your multi has no iron, it's fine to take your multi with your calcium.

Take your iron with vitamin C for best absorption. The ratio is 200 mg C to every 30 mg iron. That's 30 mg elemental iron, so if you take 325 mg ferrous sulfate, for example, you're only getting 65 mg elemental iron, so you'd need 400 mg vitamin C (but carbonyl iron is absorbed better than ferrous sulfate).

Keep in mind that people can only absorb about 500 mg calcium at once, so divide your calcium into doses of about 500 mg and take them at least two hour apart or four separate doses.

B vitamins work together so it's good to take your B's at the same time. Your multi has lots of B's in it, if you also take B12, a B complex, folate (B9), thiamine (B1) and/or biotin, take those at the same time.

If you take vitamin D3, it does not matter what you take it with. We need adequate levels of vitamin D in order to absorb calcium well, but it is not necessary to actually take them at the same time.

If you take vitamin A, you can take it with anything else you like.

Zinc and copper don't work well with lots of other vitamins and minerals, so if you take those, it's best to take them by themselves.

Sources:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. http://web.mit.edu/athletics/sportsmedicine/wcrminerals.html . Optimizing Your Diet.

Journey to a Healthier Me. http://pamtremble.blogspot.com/search/label/Nutrition-Vitamins . Nutrition - Vitamins.