Buying vitamins is oftentimes an impersonal experience.
We go to the store or shop online for the vitamins of our choice, without stopping to figure out what deficiencies or nutritional needs we may have beforehand.
Recently, a duo of doctors, Dr. Arielle Levitan and Dr. Romy Block, decided to put their own unique twist on the vitamin industry by creating the company Vous Vitamin, which aims to provide a more personalized vitamin-buying experience.
Vous Vitamin doesn’t offer an online store like traditional vitamin companies.
It all starts on the company’s website with a personalized quiz that prospective buyers can take in order to give the Vous team a better feel for the vitamins they may be lacking.
From there, the company creates a personalized multi-vitamin package for the customer, which is mailed directly to their house, apartment or place of business.
It’s an approach that the doctors envisioned for helping to provide more personalized care in a fraction of the time without the need for a prescription.
I personally tried these vitamins after taking the quiz. It was a simple, enjoyable experience and the results I got seemed to match my needs.
I needed lots of Vitamin B12, which my personalized vitamin tablets came with in the amount of a whopping 10,417% of the daily value, as well as iodine, of which my Vous vitamins contained 100% of the daily value.
My Vous vitamins also came with 8,333% of the daily value of Biotin, which is a nutrient especially useful for hair, skin and nails, areas of my body that have needed improvement in recent months and years.
One thing I didn’t like about Vous Vitamins was that they contained additives I am not a fan of including titanium dioxide, polyethylene glycol, FD&C blue #2 and FD&C blue #1 (lake). Although they are included in tiny amounts, they have been linked to health concerns including hyperactivity in children.
The vitamins are non-GMO and personalized, however, which is a big plus.
An Interview With Vous Vitamin’s Founders
The following is an email interview with Dr. Levitan on the inspiration and execution for her and Dr. Block’s unique new vitamin business.
Q: How did you get the idea for personalized vitamins?
A: We were both practicing doctors and friends. We would often talk about our patients and issues coming up in our practices. Even though we were in different specialties (primary care and endocrinology) we found that so many people were coming to us confused about vitamins.
Patients were often coming in vitamin deficient, thinking that their symptoms were due to another medical condition. Conversely, people were sometimes taking excessive amounts of vitamins that could be harmful or various products that were also unsafe.
But everyone is different in their vitamin needs and we could not tell everyone to take the same thing.
For this reason, we created Vous Vitamin.
This way, people can take an online survey that is similar to the questions we would ask them in our office and get a personalized daily vitamin that is medically sound and tailored to their individual needs.
Q: How has the feedback been so far on your products?
A: Great. People love having a doctor created all-in-one daily vitamin to meet their individual needs. The online quiz is simple to take, and our pills are easy to swallow. People often feel better and are confident they are helping to improve their health by taking this simple step.
Q: How do you feel that taking a quiz before purchasing the vitamins has an impact on which vitamins are recommended?
A: Our quiz is comprehensive, but in about 7 minutes we can find out all we need about each person to tailor their ingredients and doses of their multivitamin to their needs We ask about diet, lifestyle, health conditions and symptoms. Because we are doctors, we are also very attuned to how vitamins may interact with certain prescription meds people may be taking.
Q: Can you talk a little more about the importance of a consistent routine when it comes to supplements and vitamins? It seems like this is something that is not emphasized very often, but something your company focuses on.
A: It is very important for people to make taking the right vitamins a regular habit. Consistency is the best way to improve your deficiencies and get your body what it needs to function optimally. It is also important mentally to have a consistent routine for your health. It can sometimes start with vitamins and then carry over into other aspects of health such as sleep, diet and exercise.
Q: If you had to pick one vitamin that people should focus on taking more, can you choose one? Or is it more of a personalized thing?
Vitamin D is important for many people to take but overall, I would suggest a personalized approach.
Special thanks to Dr. Levitan for answering our questions, and to Vous Vitamin for providing samples to try for the purposes of this review. To learn more, take the quiz or order your own vitamins, check out their website by clicking on this link.
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About Nick Meyer
