# Vitamin questions.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-questions/151129>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 27, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-questions/151129 "2003-01-27T01:07:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-questions/151129/1 "2003-01-27T01:07:15Z")

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Two questions about taking vitamins:

1. I take a couple of supplements including a multi-vitamin pill, calcium pills, and a vitamin C pill. I would prefer to take them all at once and get it over with. Does taking all these pills at once in any way hamper absorption? Should I be spacing them out?

2. The vitamin C supplement I take is 500mg of C, which is 833% of what the USRDA is. I know that the USRDA is something some people debate (claiming it’s too low.) Assuming that it’s good to take higher doses of some vitamins, is it better to take them all at once, or should I be taking, say, 250mg of C twice a day? Or does it not matter?

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**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-questions/151129/2 "2003-01-27T01:10:55Z")

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I know that ‘C’ is water soluable as opposed to fat soluble. It only stays with you for a certain period of time , so it’s better to take it twice a day. ‘E’, on the other hand is fat soluble. It will hang out in your system all day, thus, take it once a day.

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**Author:** ![ladydisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@ladydisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladydisco)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-questions/151129/3 "2003-01-27T01:23:27Z")

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I’m not sure of any vitamin C recommendations, but it’s [generally accepted](http://www.berkeleywellness.com/html/ds/dsCalcium.php) that calcium is best absorbed in, say, 2 500mg doses per day as opposed to one 1000mg dose. I don’t know what your mulitvitamin has in the way of calcium, but you may want to space it out with your calcium supplement.

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**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-questions/151129/4 "2003-01-27T02:38:24Z")

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Your body can only absorb about 200 mg of vitamin C every two hours (see [supplementwatch.com](http://supplementwatch.com) for a cite). Take several pills a day.