How To Choose The Best Multi-vitamins

What's the best multi-vitamins and multi-nutrients available in the world today? In fact, there's so many available out there that any research may overwhelm you.

I've written on what's the best ranked multi-vitamin for men (out of 10 products) and what's the best ranked multi-vitamin for women (also comparing 10 products) that can help you too.

Is It really Important to Choose The Best Multi-vitamin? Aren’t All Vitamin Supplements The Same?

Short answer: no, they're not all made the same, which is really over-generalizing, like saying all bags are the same (note: nope, not all bags are the same too).

Poorly made ones are either destroyed in your stomach and disposed through urination, bowel and sweat (literally flushing money down the toilet); some are so weak, might as well don't take.

In fact, up to 90% of multi-vitamin supplements are actually flushed the toilet (seriously).

Don't believe me? Sure, try this test:

Go to any grocer store or pharmacy, and get any regular over-the-counter vitamin, and follow their recommended daily allowance. Wait an hour (or up to 2 or 3 hours, sometimes less) and then you will urinate out a urine that is a much darker yellow color (there's the vitamins that you just took that was destroyed and flushed out).

Proper multi-vitamins are absorbed and NOT flushed out.

I know it's not fun talking bout toilet and urination stuff, but I'd like to highlight what is truly happening, and that is why choosing the best multi-vitamin can and will a significant difference in your health (plus: you will be able to tell the difference).

Next question - how come more than 90% of mutli-vitamins are urinated or sweated out?

The answer is this:

The large majority of vitamin supplements are not assimilated or absorbed by the body, because they're not well made. Interesting enough, the health supplement is a large industry, of multi-billion (or trillion) dollar per year industry.

How to Find The Best Multi-vitamins

Here is a list of things you should look for when selecting a top quality multi-vitamin supplement:

1. Product Research, Development and Nutrient Reactions
   
   The multi-vitamin supplement should have been made to go through multiple research and rigorous testings and its manufacturing processes to be managed by certified and qualified professionals.
   
   Quality vitamin supplements work in very exact synergistic applications, so it's very scientific and exacting.
   
   This is to say that any health supplements, including multi-vitamins, should be scientifically researched and formulated and EACH batch needs to be tested and certified (refer to point #2) - this is part of being cGMP-compliant. It's very important to be cGMP-compliant, which indicates high quality and stringent adherence and compliance to pharmaceutical productions standards that is of worldwide recognition.
   
   
2. Manufacturing Processes
   
   The best multi-vitamin supplements are made only in cGMP-compliant facilities, any facilities that aren't cGMP-compliant needn't even be mentioned. Any supplements that doesn't have cGMP stamped on it - do not buy, it is not regulated.
   
   The best supplements are made with the best technologies, equipment and processes, such as using "pharmaceutical blending" that guarantees that every tablet/capsule in that batch process has the exact same nutrient content as every other tablet/capsule in that batch. The old school style of paddle/ribbon will cause inconsistencies, some tablets will have too little nutrients, some will have too much - leading to possible health complications.
   
   A good way to check if any company is creating good products is to simply call or email them, and ask them if they have a Certificate Of Analysis (COA) on file for any and every product they created.
   
   
3. The Best Delivery System
   
   Health supplement should have enteric coating for optimal assimilation and absorption in the human system. Enteric coating protect the precious nutrients from the harsh stomach acids, and bring the nutrients to upper intestines for rapid absorption into the blood stream, which is then quickly dispersed throughout the body to work its wonders.
   
   
4. Product Quality & Freshness:
   
   The best multi-vitamin and health supplements are made in smaller, controllable batches to maximize quality outcomes...and for obvious reasons, manufacturing shouldn't be outsourced to other manufacturers, because of 2 reasons:
   
   #1 - you can't control what went into the manufacturing
   #2 - you can't control the manufacturing processes
   #3 - most manufacturers are not GMP or FDA compliant
   
   ...and these three leads to poor quality products with poor/unknown manufacturing processes.
   
   To add to that, a high majority of health supplement makers don't even put into the supplement what they indicated on the product label. I'll say it again - supplement fraud is common, and often time product labels do not represent actually what went into the supplement (this points back to the importance of seeking only GMP-compliant pharmaceutical-grade health supplements)
   
   
5. Pharmaceutical Quality
   
   Buy a health supplement that is pharmaceutical grade (most cGMP-compliant ones are)
   
   
6. Value for Money and Affordability 
   
   For high quality pharmaceutical-grade supplements, you can anticipate and expect a price range between $50 - $60 or so for a 30-day supply. You truly get what you pay for.
   
   I've mentioned this before, but I'll mention it again: I'm in/from the health and healthcare industry, and I've seen families struggling raising monies to pay for health, ranging from low 4 figures to high 7 figures. Xtend-Life health supplement products are high quality and very value for money, and studies are showing/confirming that taking health supplements can help to mitigate risks and severity of diseases/illnesses.
   
   
7. Vitamins & Co-Factors, Standardized Herbal Extracts, Amino Acids, Active Enzymes, & Essential Minerals and Trace Elements
   
   An excellent multi-vitamin shouldn't just contain vitamins, that's basic of course, and these vitamins needs to be tested and certified for their quality, purity and potency, yes...
   
   ...but it also needs to be packed with synergistic and symbiotic co-factors, extracts, minerals and enzymes to work cooperatively and enhance the total health supplement health benefit to the users.
   
   
8. Quality Binding Agents.
   
   Any binding agents that are used needs to be the highest quality possible.
   
   
9. Ease Of Use
   
   Pretty self-explanatory - the health supplements should be easy to use and swallow.
   
   
10. Product Delivery
    
    Health supplements including multi-vitamins needs to be easy to make an order, shipping should be safe and the best if shipping is free (of course that's good heh)
    
    
11. Product Guarantees
    
    It's always good for product including health supplement purchases to have guarantees, and the longer the better. The longer the guarantee is, the more confident the health supplement manufacturer is of their health supplements.
    
    
12. Contact Information
    
    The manufacturing company should be easily contactable be it by phone or email, even raising complaints or giving feedback should be a very easy process (don't we all hate those faceless corporations where you can't reach anyone and always placed on hold?)

manufacturing process

There are four key areas of manufacturing that is significant and will be raised here in this article:

• scientific formulation
• potency of ingredients
• type of facility
• verification of ingredients on label.
  

This is really where the rubber meets the road and is critical to getting a top quality vitamin brand. Let’s discuss these now in more depth.

#1 scientific formulation

Any good and great (and the best) health supplements needs to be scientifically researched, tested and formulated - pretty fair statement right?

Yes, a high majority of health supplement manufacturers do not follow this simple rule (it's too easy to just outsource health supplement manufacturing and slap on a label and start selling without knowing what goes into the products).

You see, it's vital that health supplements with multi-nutrients and ingredients needs to be formulated with cellular-understanding and knowledge, because if you don't know what you're doing, you can:

• place vitamins that cancels each other out
• place vitamins that need a certain mineral for it to be effective
  

Let me give you some examples. You know, Vitamin D enhances calcium absorption in your body and decreases calcium disposal by the kidneys; boron plays a large part in calcium utilization and Vitamin B5 is vital to metabolize amino acids.

To add to that, a thoughtful and good multi-vitamin will help stimulate your liver to enhance the production of co-enzyme Q10 that will help you avoid/decrease the need to purchase this important (and very expensive) ingredient.

Inadequate understanding of physiology and science will inadvertently lead to poor quality and poor/non-effective health supplements (if not, ones that are bad for health).

#2 potency of ingredients

The ingredients should be of the highest purity, quality and potency, and before they are used, they should be independently tested and certified first to confirm their quality and purity levels.

They should also be given Certificates Of Analysis, for those that pass the standards set.

#3 manufacturing Facility

I'm going to share and emphasize again on buying health supplements only from GMP-compliant facilities that are certified and approved by governmental bodies and authorities.

Please do not overlook this, for anything such as going with the other non-GMP-compliant company "because they're cheaper".

Let me share an incident what examples of supplement fraud is:

That's why looking and buying only cGMP-compliant health supplements are the surest way to ensure that the health supplements you buy, actually help you build your health and NOT poison or kill you.

Many manufacturers, especially non-GMP compliant ones don't have the ingredients as stated on the product label, and can put in anything they want, or print anything they want on the product label. Please, take note.

#4 verification of product labels

All cGMP/GMP-compliant manufacturers:

• products have ingredients in the products as per label AND
• they print the label as per ingredients as stated

Also, these cGMP/GMP-compliant manufacturers also guarantees that the nutrients contained in the ingredients will be released into the bodies at a given time - that's a scientific statement, not a hyped-up sales talk.

Why The Best Health Supplements and Multi-vitamin Products all Have Enteric Coating

I had mentioned enteric coating earlier in this article, but I'd like to revisit it and go deeper into this point, as it's pretty noteworthy.

Delivery systems are paramount to assimilation and absorption by the bodies - you can have the best nutrients and ingredients, but if the delivery systems fail you, these nutrients will simply be lost and destroyed in the harsh stomach acids, and urinated out (remember that talk about destroyed vitamins being urinated out as dark yellow?)

An example of this is:

Likewise, these best and high quality and purity nutrients needs to be protected from being destroyed by our stomach acids, so the enteric coating is the organic layers of protection that takes the brunt of the acid whilst keeping the nutrients safe passage to the upper intestines, to be absorbed in the upper intestines into the blood stream and delivered throughout the organs and systems in the entire body.

For a health supplement and multi-vitamins manufacturer to opt for the expensive enteric coating for their supplements says a lot about the quality they aim to deliver to their customers.

Enteric coating binds several active ingredients with a larger molecule size to selected enzymes, and when they are released in the duodenum (upper intestinal area), these molecules are broken down to smaller, more absorbable sizes for effective and efficient transfer through the intestinal walls into the blood streams.

Enteric coating can withstand the harsh acids of your stomach, but when they get to the alkaline-environment of the duodenum, they breakdown in about 30 minutes. and the active ingredients are release over another 20 - 30 minutes, and this timeframe is vital because it's made to be completed before it leaves the duodenum, for maximum absorption into the bloodstream.

This is the difference of enteric coating, rather than the usual and more common, cheap pharmaceutal glaze and most other supplement companies take because it's cheaper/convenient.

Key Nutrients to Look For in multi-Vitamin Supplements

When you look for multi-vitamins, you need to ensure that they contain more than just vitamins and minerals (ya, they're multi-vitamins, but you'd need more than just that) - look for additional special and unique additions such as:

• potent and pure herbal standardized extracts
• active antioxidant combinations
• ingredients that helps prevent diseases and illnesses
  
• varied combinations of nutrients that creates synergistic health benefits for your body

Herbal medicines and herbs are beginning to be more well-known and accepted by western medicine and members of the public. Previously, they've been slapped severely by the old western medical groups (and the big Pharmas) who wants to ensure they control power and the profits.

For example, the niche pharma industry of cholesterol lowering/controlling drug is estimated a more than $20 billion USD per year niche industry? If you come up with a herbal alternative that does the same but without the side effects (and the high costs) - of course they'd be worried. And that's just ONE condition.

It's a slow process, but it seems like we're coming one full circle, because my understanding of TCM (traditional chinese medicine, a widely practiced medicine in Asian countries including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Japan), herbal medicine has been around for more than 4000+ years, and the western medical world? Way less than that.

Herbs such as ginger and red clover that potent nutrients and compounds that help to decrease high blood pressure, acts as a blood thinner as well as boost our immunity.

conclusion

I hope this guidelines and advise will help you make a good health supplement decision, as well as save money to not buy unsafe/non-GMP supplements.

Remember, only buy GMP-compliant health supplements, including multi-vitamins.

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