Multiple Vitamin-Mineral Supplements
What do they do?
Multiple vitamin-mineral (MVM) supplements contain a variable number of essential and/or non-essential nutrients.
Their primary purpose is to provide a convenient way to take a variety of supplemental nutrients from a single product, in order to prevent vitamin or mineral deficiencies, as well as to achieve higher intakes of nutrients believed to be of benefit above typical dietary levels.
Many MVMs contain at least 100% of the Daily Value (DV) or the U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowance (USRDA) of all vitamins that have been assigned these recommended values.
Mineral levels may be lower, or in the case of high potency MVMs, most or all mineral levels may also be at 100% of DV or USRDA.
Micronutrients that should be included in a complete MVM are vitamin A, vitamin B-complex (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and/or niacinamide, vitamin B6, folate, vitamin B12, pantothenic acid, and biotin), vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K, and the minerals calcium, magnesium, zinc, iodine, selenium, copper, manganese, chromium, molybdenum, and possibly iron.