Vitamin recommendation

[afreeder]

My doctor has recommended strovite one as multi vitamin with minerals.  Are there any over-the-counter vitamins that provide the same as strovite one.  I am looking for a less expensive alternative or generic form.

[miracleair]

What's the most absorbable form of B12?

[Paxiled]

I don't know anything about cost, but this isn't a particularly good vitamin product.  For one thing, it contains the least absorbable form of B12, which isn't unusual in a multi but doesn't make it anything special.  It's also not particularly complete.  Docs like to tell you to take pharmaceutical products because that's what they know -- they are sold to by pharmaceutical company detail reps and not by, say, manufacturers of natural vitamins.  For another thing, among the fillers and binders are several toxic chemicals, which is common in drug store and pharmaceutical company vitamins but are largely absent in the best health food store multis.  But a good multi in a health food store will have higher doses of some things, will have a whole lot more nutrients, and the best aren't one a day since you can't fit absorbable minerals in any one a day -- they take up too much space.  So the question is, why did the doc recommend a multi?  And why this one and not just a good multi?  And why not one made by a health food store brand that also uses pharmaceutical quality ingredients, which is actually most of them, but uses none of the toxic coloring agents and other fillers such as titanium dioxide?  I would recommend companies such as New Chapter, Mega Foods, or, for something more like drug store vitamins but better in quality, Nature's Plus if you just need a multi.  On the other hand, there might be something specific you need, but I doubt it -- normally, multis are just for prophylactic purposes, not for anything specific since none of them have especially high quantities of anything in them.  The ones I take are six a day, but I take four, so you can tailor them to your needs, but the best vitamins are expensive no matter who makes them.  Cheap vitamins are cheap for a reason, which is the use of preservatives and forms of nutrients that aren't very well absorbed.