Why you need them after any type of weight loss surgery.

Whether you have had gastric bypass, bileopancreatic diversion, duodenal switch, or gastric banding surgery, you will need to take vitamins and minerals following your surgery. Here’s why:

People who have had gastric bypass, bileopancreatic diversion or duodenal switch will need to take vitamins and minerals for the rest of their lives following surgery, since the surgery they chose causes malabsorption, which permanently limits their ability to absorb vitamins and minerals from the foods they eat. Without vitamin/mineral supplements, people who have had these surgeries will become deficient in nutrients and become ill, and possibly even die from their deficiencies.

People who choose gastric banding surgery, LapBand or the Realize Band, also need to take vitamin and mineral supplements daily following surgery. While the person who has gastric banding surgery doesn’t malabsorb any of the food they eat, they are eating dramatically less food. Studies have shown that people on low-calorie diets usually require vitamins and minerals added to their diet in the form of a supplement, to  make-up for the nutrition they are unable to get in their diets.

So what are vitamins and minerals and why are they important? Vitamins and minerals are compounds that are necessary to human survival, yet our bodies cannot make these substances, so we must get them in the foods we eat.

One well known story of vitamin deficiency is the plague of early explorers known as scurvy. Scurvy’s symptoms can be stomach churning and can include: severe bruising, skin ulcers, bleeding  and rotting gums, teeth falling out, difficulty breathing, weakened bones, pain, weakness, severe fatigue, and eventually death. Explorer Vasco da Gama lost two thirds of his crew to scurvy while making his way to India in 1499. In 1520 Magellan lost more than 80 per cent while crossing the Pacific. Two voyages made by Pedro de Quiros early in the 17th century resulted in great number of deaths from a sickness  called ‘the plague of the Sea, and the Spoyle of Mariners’. In 1747, Scottish naval surgeon James Lind discovered that an nutrient (now known to be vitamin C) in citrus foods prevented scurvy. From that point on, Vitamin C rich foods were a staple on all exploring vessels and the scurvy problem was resolved. Vitamin C was the first vitamin to be artificially synthesized in 1935.

What vitamins and minerals do people who have had weight loss surgery need? Based upon research published by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery in 2009,  (http://www.asbs.org/Newsite07/resources/bgs_final.pdf) the following recommendations were made:

• Gastric Banding: complete multivitamin/mineral with 100% daily value for all vitamins and minerals; calcium with magnesium and Vitamin D; B-Complex
• Gastric Bypass: complete multivitamin/mineral with 200% daily value for all vitamins and minerals; Vitamin B-12; calcium with Vitamin D and magnesium; iron; B-Complex
• Bileopancreatic Diversion and Duodenal Switch: complete multivitamin/mineral with 200% daily value for all vitamins and minerals; calcium with magnesium and Vitamin D; iron; Vitamin A; Vitamin D; Vitamin K; B-Complex

One of the most important decisions you will make post-surgery is what brand of vitamins/minerals you will choose to take each day. Literally thousands of nutritional products are on the market today, but there are vital differences in the quality of these products. The key is choosing a quality product, that has in it what it says it does, so you will not only stay healthy following surgery, but become healthier than you have ever been. 

Metagenics vitamin and mineral supplements are recognized around the world for setting the standard of high quality and purity. Their top priority is to make products that work. Metagenics stringently adheres to five markers to five markers of quality:

1. GMP-Certified Manufacturing – Metagenics manufacturing facility is certified for good manufacturing practices (GMP) by the Natural Products Association (NPA), National Sanitation Foundation (NSF), and the Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia (TGA) to ensure the highest quality standards.
2. Comprehensive Scientific Evaluation of Ingredients – Metagenics conducts comprehensive evaluations of ingredients and formulas for all of their products at their Research Center.
3. Comprehensive Safety Reviews – Metagenics scientific professionals conduct literature reviews of their ingredients before a formula is ever developed to assure their products are not only safe to use, but also to assure that the product will do what it supposed to do.
4. Human Clinical Evaluations – Metagenics has the Functional Medicine Research Center, where studies are conducted to further evaluate their products for safety and efficacy.
5. Scientific Staff and Facilities – Metagenics employs one of the largest in-house scientific staffs—including MDs, PhDs, and more. These experts are involved in researching and evaluating Metagenics products.