I'm seeing a doctor who's treating my Lyme with integrated medicine, and he has me on LOTS of supplements. I'm looking for ways to cut down on expenses so I can continue with this protocol.

So far, I've been shopping online for a lot of the supplements I use, and it's generally a lot cheaper than the health food store prices. www.vitaminshoppe.com has been my main source, but I've used others occasionally. Still, I know that even these discount prices are marked up.

I'm wondering ... have any of you ever tried to order supplements directly from the manufacturers? I don't know if companies would be interested in selling directly to patients, but it sure would be nice to get wholesale prices.

In case any of you know of good sources, or have had experience in working directly with companies, here's a list of the main brands I use:

Allergy Research/Nutricology
Source Naturals
Twinlab
Trace Minerals
Planetary Formulas
Garden of Life
Nutramedix (Samento and Noni)
Heel Biotherapeutics
Bio Active Nutritional

Thanks for your input!

Have you looked at the website of the shop in NC? Think it is http://www.organic-pharmacy.com

Sometimes they have better prices.

www.vitacost.com

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Originally posted by lou:
I also use Vitamin Shoppe for most everything, but lately have found that the CVS drugstore chain has frequent sales on various brands, including their own store brand. So when they have a two for the price of one sale or something else cheap, I stock up.[QUOTE]

Hmm ... I'll have to check into this. Two for one sounds great!

Only problem is, I don't get a newspaper, so without the sales flyers I'd have a hard time knowing when these sales are on. Wonder if their website lists their sales?

[QUOTE]
Of course, if you are mail ordering, you have to get a bunch at once or the shipping charges eat away at the savings.

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In the past I've been able to get Vitamin Shoppe promotion codes, etc. that would at least provide free shipping. However, VS is changing things up this year and it looks like the coupons will be harder to come by. Bummer.I may end up switching to one of their online competitors. Several offer free shipping on orders over a minimum dollar amount. Herbs MD is one of these.

Still wondering if anyone has figured out a way to deal directly with the manufacturers...

Just remember, all supplements are not created equal. It may be more expensive to stick to a particular brand recommended by your doctor; but this may be the best way of getting exactly what you need to get well.

I use Costco to buy CoQ10. It's about $25 for 75 capsules at 150mg per capsule.
I have also noticed that Costco has some other supplements that seem to be at pretty good prices, like grapeseed extract. However, I don't think they are all equal. I tried their calcium and returned it. It has a green coating and it made me feel sick.
www.sportsnutritionoutpost.com
has some of the best prices I've seen on Jarrow supplements. Just make certain that after shipping you are not paying more. Sometimes a higher price can be easily offset by a lower shipping charge.
www.iherb.com has pretty good supplement prices as well as a large range of products. I believe the shipping charges go down the more products you purchase.

I also watch the ads for supplements from CVS, etc. I remember reading at www.consumerlabs.com that some of the CVS supplements were rated as well as some of the brand name supplements. Really, you may want to purchase a subscription to the consumer labs site because they do evaluate a large number of products to determine which ones actually have what they claim. It's a very individual thing but I found that some of the brands I might have turned my nose up at in the past were actually reputable. However, this has to be done on an item by item basis because while a company such as Sundown or something similar may have a good product in one area, they may not in another - and the same goes for many of the makers of brand name supplements. Frankly, you have to watch them all pretty closely. My subscription expired a long time ago but I may get it renewed, I need to review some of the supplements I am taking as well.

Hope that helps.

The doctor I see is very aware of toxins, allergens, etc. in some of the supplements out there, and continually researches the available products to come up with the safest ones for his patients. When he recommends something, he's very specific about brand and product. I trust his judgment and tend to stick with what he tells me. Unfortunately, his picks are sometimes more expensive ... but to me it's worth the extra money to know I'm helping my body rather than harming it.

Each time I see my doc, I bring along everything I'm taking and he muscle tests me with each thing, just to make sure they still agree with my body. On my first visit with him, he told me to stop taking about 3/4 of the supplements I was on because I was either sensitive to an ingredient or there were impurities in the product! I ended up feeling much better after I quit the offending items ... surprise, surprise!

Every so often the doc finds something he likes better than his current recommendation, so he switches all his patients from one product to another. A couple of times I've lucked out and the new product has been cheaper than the old one! But sometimes it goes the other way too ...

I've done some comparison shopping online for the brands and products I use. Even though I don't struggle with brain-fog as much as I used to, I find it quite bewildering and frustrating after a while! It's not just comparing product prices, but also trying to factor in discounts and shipping charges that drives me crazy. I feel zapped after only a little while at this.

Guess I need to just check a few stores per day, perhaps, and write it all down someplace so I can compare later. ???

I really think these supplements have been helping me a lot over the past year. Just wish they weren't draining my resources so quickly!

I have bottles here of stuff that was good before, and not good now, and new bottles that I now supposedly need that cost a fortune.

I had a long talk with a friend just yesterday, and realized that despite the fact that I am feeling better on these expensive supplements, we have to draw the line somewhere. My guy uses Nutri-west a lot, isn't really making a big profit because I checked some websites, but it adds up. Between the treatments in his office and the supplements, it's pretty scary.

Someone in his office quietly made a suggestion to me that might help you. He recommended I take my bottles to a good local health food store, and ask if they can compare ingredients with other products there that may be cheaper. I may do that, or confront the dr. that I don't have a money tree.

I share some of your frustrations. It's very expensive to follow my doctor's advice and take all of these supplements.

At first, I was pretty freaked out about it because my husband and I were spending so much and we didn't even know if it would help me. Now that we've been following this program for a year and I've seen significant improvement, I have more confidence in what the doctor's doing.

Like you, I've ended up with bottles of things I can't use anymore, but I don't feel like it's my doctor's fault. He doesn't sell supplements in his office and, as far as I know, has nothing to gain financially from recommending one product over another. If he sold stuff, I might wonder about his motives.

I've made a point of letting my doctor know that my funds are limited and that the cost of his recommendations is quite stressful. On several occasions he has given me different options to choose from so I could save some money.

The doc says that once I reach a certain point in my improvement, I should be able to stop some of the supplements I'm currently taking. I keep hoping that will happen soon.

This whole thing is very frustrating ... but in my case I feel like I have little choice. Abx are not an acceptable option for me at this point, so I have to go with what I believe will work, expensive or not.

Hope we will both get well soon!

I get all my stuff from these two.

If I need it fast with no hassle I use iherb.

robi

You can click on these sites and do a search of those. I found that Vitamin Life seems to have the lowest overall prices for the things I use. They have lots of different name brands. Mostly one-stop shopping for me.

Good luck....

That's what I did from the get-go, as I just don't have the resources to spend, so we worked out how much it was going to cost per month BEFORE I bought anything, then I went back and figured out if I could manage it.

Then we made some concessions back and forth - instead of the super-expensive Allergy Research Group whey protein, I buy an appropriate substitute for less than half the price at the health food store, for example.

NO KIDDING!

I battle with this a lot ... trying not to be stressed and keep a positive state of mind when I know the money is all but gone.

Thanks for the suggestions about working out a budget with the doc. I see him again in a week and will ask what more we can do to cut costs.

Somalimom