5 Top Multivitamin Supplements Recommended by Chiropractors and Functional Medicine Doctors

Erin O'Maley, D.C.
One big mistake I see many smart,  well-intentioned people making with their health is taking a typical drug store vitamin, or giving their children something like Flintstone chewables, containing ingredients known to compromise health, like artificial colors, aspartame and hydrogenated oils. These products, at best, are only accomplishing giving you pretty yellow urine, and at worst, could actually be causing you more harm than good.

 

The problem is where these nutrients come from, mostly created in a lab rather than derived from food, as well as the forms they come in. In fact, the most commonly sold form of calcium supplement in stores is only about 5% absorbed by the body because it’s not in its whole food form. Your body knows exactly what to do with real food. I’ll get into more detail when explaining the following formulas, but it’s really as simple as that. Real food first.

 

Here are the top multivitamin supplements I see recommended by my colleagues, the top 2 are the ones I have used and regularly recommend in my own practice. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of reputable brands, only based on my observations during conversations among professionals. After we go over why these are the top recommended by doctors who are on the cutting edge of clinical nutrition research, my hope is that you’ll be better able to understand the difference between these and drug store vitamins, and make better informed decisions for yourself and your family.

1. JuicePlus+

JuicePlus+ is unique because it is not truly a multivitamin, but allows you to meet your vitamin and antioxidant needs from 100% real, whole foods concentrated in convenient, small capsules. It has 25+ years of clinical research behind it, showing it’s effectiveness at improving nutrient balance in the body, and providing excellent support for a number of health conditions. It’s designed to bridge the gap between what we should be eating, and what we really do eat, and basically no one is eating the recommended  7-13 servings of colorful produce every single day. There is a vegetable, orchard, vineyard, and omega formulas in capsule (all gluten-free and vegan). My family has used a similar powdered fruit and veggie supplement for a long time, which is fantastic, but difficult to do consistently because we had to make shakes every day. JuicePlus+ has more flexibility because it gives you the micronutrients you need from 20+ fruits and vegetables concentrated in capsules, but you also have the option of emptying the capsules into a smoothie. It’s even appropriate to meet your needs during pregnancy, and many who experience nausea during pregnancy and have a hard time tolerating vitamins are able to take JuicePlus+ comfortably, and gummies are also available. I like recommending it because it’s simple, science-based, affordable, and easy to be consistent.

2. Designs For Health

I’ve been using Designs for Health supplements and offering them in my practice for a long time. Their many professional-grade formulas are designed by doctors of functional medicine based on the latest clinical research. They have many options, including a great, basic Twice-Daily Multi, as well as powerhouse Twice Daily Essential Packets that also include a mineral complex for bone health and an omega-3 formula. They have fantastic Essential Pre-Natal Packets, too, including the Pre-natal Pro Multivitamin as well as the omega-3, and bone health complex.

3. Standard Process

Standard Process are probably are among the most highly recommended supplements in chiropractic practices. They are whole food products and, like JuicePlus+, are very transparent about their manufacturing process and very proud of their farming standards, even taking physicians on tours of their organic farm so they can see exactly where the supplements come from. They have a Daily Fundamentals Package similar to Design’s For Health’s Essential Packets, that looks very complete, containing a whole food micronutrient blend called Catalyn, a B-12 and trace mineral complex, and Tuna Omega-3 DHA/EPA.

4. Biotics

Biotics is another brand extremely common among chiropractors, with an excellent reputation for being innovative and science-based for 40 years. Their Bio-Multi Plus™ looks nice to me for food-derived ingredients as well as its simplicity, having vitamins and minerals in one formula, as well as having the option of a liquid version.

5. DōTERRA

DoTERRA is a popular, high-quality essential oil company, but their best-selling product is actually the Lifelong Vitality Pack whole food nutrient supplement package containing the MicroPlex VMz whole food supplement for vitamins and minerals, Alpha CRS+ for cellular energy, detoxification, inflammation, and liver support, and a high quality omega-3 supplement, the xEO Mega. I have no experience with this product myself, but it also comes up often among my colleagues when discussing foundational supplementation. Like all of the above brands, it clearly has piles of research behind it and was carefully crafted.

 

I encourage you to look at the ingredients in these formulas and compare them to a typical drug-store multivitamin. Here’s what these great micronutrient supplements have in common:
1. Higher purity standards than required. The label NSF certified means it has been checked by a 3rd party to ensure quality.
2. The nutrients are in their original forms when they come from “whole food” or “raw” sources rather than synthetic. For instance, vitamins should contain folate instead of folic acid. B-12 in drug store vitamins is in the form of cyanocobalamin, a cheap synthetic form that does not occur in nature and is attached to a cyanide molecule, while a high-quality supplement with contain it in the form of methylcobalamin. 95% of supplements on the market are synthetic and stuffed with fillers. Just because “Nature” is in a supplement’s name does not mean there is anything remotely natural about it. When vitamins come from the raw sources, they also are complete with all the synergistic nutrients they need to be absorbed and used by the body.
3. They all have a general nutrition support package (except for Biotics from what I could tell), which includes a high-quality, thoughtfully sourced EPA/DHA omega-3 (important due to the contamination of certain fish). The JuicePlus+ formula is plant-based, the others are fish, and DoTerra has both options, but a significantly higher price on their vegan formula.
4. They all have a significantly higher price-tag than you see on drug store supplements because of the raw sourced high-quality materials, and the third-party certification for potency and purity (no cheap fillers), so your not throwing that money away like with the store brands. They’re all similarly priced, with JuicePlus+ and Standard Process being the most affordable  (less than a cup of coffee daily), and Designs for Health and DoTerra being the priciest.

 

As I’ve said, I’m especially partial and have personal experience with JuicePlus+ and Designs for Health, but all of the above are recommended by doctors who really know their nutrition. I would also note that people are biochemically individual, so it’s not surprising to me that anecdotally, some doctors may report one working fabulously when another didn’t work as well for a set of particular patients, while other doctors observe the opposite. In my opinion, there is no harm in trying one for 4 months to a year, and switching to another to see if one really agrees with your unique biochemistry, or if a certain type makes it easier for you to stay consistent. This is why I  believe you can’t go wrong starting out with a whole-food supplement in it’s simplest form, like JuicePlus+. If you really want to get serious about knowing your micronutrient status, functional medicine testing can help you test, rather than guess.

 

I could take up pages and pages going over why drug store vitamins are terrible, so if you’re still unsure, bring your vitamins to my office and I will evaluate them for you. Finally, let’s compare labels: