Multivitamins are nutritional supplements that generally come in the form of pills, capsules or tablets. They combine essential and nonessential nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and herbal supplements to create a simple way to supplement nutritional needs.

• • Nutritional Deficiencies: Multivitamins may help to prevent certain nutritional deficiencies. A nutritional deficiency happens when you don’t get enough of a particular nutrient from the diet alone – or when your body has difficulty absorbing those nutrients. Multivitamins are certainly not intended to serve as a replacement for a healthy diet – but they can help fill in some nutritional gaps in certain situations.
  • Men & Women’s Health: Multivitamins are designed to support many aspects of overall health, but some are more important for women than men. Multivitamins are very important for women’s health – and some estimates show that without them, around 75% of women would be deficient in at least one nutrient. There are many important nutrients that you can obtain through multivitamins, but some of the most important for women include: B vitamins, vitamin D, vitamin K, folate, iron, calcium, and magnesium.
  • Pregnancy: Pregnancy significantly increases the need for certain nutrients. You’ve surely heard the “eating for two” saying, but there is some truth to it. During pregnancy, women should take extra care to get enough of the key pregnancy nutrients in their diets, including folate, calcium, vitamin D and iron. Many nutrients are important during pregnancy, but perhaps most important is folate. Folate, otherwise known as folic acid or vitamin B9. Pregnant women should speak with their doctor as soon as possible to ensure proper nutrition during all stages of pregnancy.
  • Overall Health: Multivitamins provide “a nutritional insurance policy”, according to Harvard School of Public Health researchers. By providing a wide range of nutrients that are important to overall health, these supplements provide a relatively inexpensive and easy way to ensure adequate nutritional intake. They are NO replacement for a healthy diet, however.

As a dietary supplement, 1-2 tablets daily with breakfast in the morning.

If the multivitamin you’re using is a once-daily, it’s best to take it in the morning. This will help provide energy for your day, and allow plenty of time for the nutrients to digest.

For most people, taking multivitamins will not cause any side effects. That being said, consuming too much of particular vitamins can cause side effects. If you take more than the recommended dose of a multivitamin or take other vitamin supplements in addition to a multivitamin, you may be consuming too much of these nutrients.