# Source Naturals Women's Life Force



## Zara (Jul 5, 2006)

I plan on trying out Source Naturals Women's Life Force Multiple No Iron vitamins because some people have had good results with them (http://www.ibsgroup.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=96386).However, I plan on becoming pregnant in the future and these vitamins have a warning to consult with a physician if used by pregnant/lactating women. I am currently taking other stuff that I'll probably need to stop, and need something that would help me yet be safe for the baby. Could someone please explain what ingredient in these vitamins could make them harmful? Thanks!Here's a link to the vitamins' description:http://www.vitacost.com/Source-Naturals-Wo...ultiple-No-Iron


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## leeballz (Mar 12, 2009)

Sorry I don't know what ingredient would be harmful but this should probably be a question for your doctor... have you started taking them yet? I just started today, so hopefully they'll help me out =)-Leeann


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Too much of some vitamins (like fat soluble vitamin A) can be bad for a developing fetus. We studied vitamin A on development of mice for an Embryology class as it was a lot safer to have with the students around and damaged more embryos per litter than some of the nasty toxic stuff. It didn't hurt the adult females so you also didn't have to worry about killing off the pregnant females before we could look at their pups.You probably want to go over your whole vitamin regimen and often there are ones specifically for taking while pregnant and taking those and other vitamins could lead to overdoing some things. Certain herbs can promote uterine bleeding or uterine contractions so that can also be an issue with some supplements that have botanicals in them as well as just the vitamins (which this formula does)Natural, or your body needs it at some dose, does not mean safe at all doses and unable to effect development. Sometimes too much can be as harmful as too little.


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## leeballz (Mar 12, 2009)

I was wondering if these vitamins would be safe to be taking with probiotics?


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

There shouldn't be an issue with probiotics.


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## Zara (Jul 5, 2006)

leebalz - no, I haven't started taking them yet. Right now I'm doing better on Zelnorm so I'll stick to that, I was just looking for an alternative when we'll start trying for a baby in a few months.Kathleen, thank you for your very informative post. What I will probably do is compare these and their pregnancy vitamins formula and see what's in excess and how that could affect the fetus. However, I'll probably suck it up just not take anything, I'd never forgive myself should something happen to the baby. For a majority of my IBS I'd gone without taking anything; it's just hard going back to feeling worse when you know there's a supplement/medicine. Oh well, it will just be for a few years at the most (planning on two kids and I want to breastfeed both).btw, do you know if taking a Mg supplement could be harmful (again, talking about pregnancy)? I take about 500mg every night, it does help with my BM's.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

It shouldn't be a problem as that is in the range of magnesium you need to be getting anyway. The USRDA minimum is usually in the 400 mg per day range and the recommended maximum is about 1000 mgs a day.You would want to check what your amounts are if you take a prenatal vitamin (and even if you don't take a mixed supplement you may need to supplement with folate to prevent spina bifida types of defects) just to make sure you aren't over doing it. We tend to eliminate excess magnesium really well even when we go over the maximum (most of the issue vitamins are ones we store in our fat) but you can run into problems if your kidneys aren't working quite right.My worry with this formula is more all the herbs they put in it than it seems to be megadosing any of the vitamins. A lot of herbs increase bleeding (why you have to stop most of them before surgery) and so that maybe the issues more than the vitamin levels. Gingko is usually recommended as something to avoid during pregnancy because it can increase bleeding http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginf...ent-ginkgo.html


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