
Multiply Labs (YC S16) Puts All Your Supplements into One 3D Printed Pill - stvnchn
http://themacro.com/articles/2016/08/multiply-labs/
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tiffanyamykuo
Hey guys! Co-Founder of Multiply Labs here. We want to make staying healthy
and energized a lot easier with your own personalized supplement pill! Happy
to answer any questions here!

~~~
zzz157
As someone who has to take a LOT of supplements under supervision of a doctor,
this would be great. Unfortunately, of the 7 supplements you offer that I
actually take, you can't even get them in a high enough concentration to
replace any supplement that I'm taking. I guess these are just for healthy
people without any actual deficiencies? B12 for example, is basically
impossible to overdose on but your 100mcg is useless to me when I inject about
2CCs of it a week, and your 100mg of Vitamin C is useless to me when I take 2
grams a day. Can't take the B9 because my MTHFR problems make me require
Folinic Acid instead. I take 5,000IU/day of D3, and I have no idea how much
"0.05 mg" is since D is measured in International Units.

The other, less common supplements I take like Acetyl-L-Carnatine, L-Arganine,
and R-Alpha-Lipolic-Acid, you don't offer.

~~~
FredParietti
Hello! Thanks for your detailed feedback! For all of the vitamins and minerals
that we offer, we can put 100% of the recommended daily value in the Multiply
Pills. These values are determined by the National Institutes of Health, and
they can be expressed either in mg or in IU (there are equivalence tables).

~~~
FredParietti
About Vitamin B12, if you need to inject it for medical reasons you should
definitely continue to use your medications. About Vitamin C, 2g/day is 2000%
of the recommended value. We plan to include the possibility to increase the
dosage beyond 100%, but we will not reach such extreme values as they are not
recommended for the vast majority of the population. Finally, about the
additional supplements that you mentioned, we do let our customers suggest us
new supplements to include in the Multiply Pill. Our list of supplement is not
static, and we will expand it including the supplements that meet our
scientific standards (validation in the medical literature) and have
sufficient demand!

~~~
smt88
> _they are not recommended for the vast majority of the population_

> _meet our scientific standards (validation in the medical literature)_

There is mounting evidence[1][2][3][4][5] that only people with known vitamin
deficiencies and the supervision of a doctor should take vitamins. They're not
even just a placebo -- in many cases they can be dangerous.

It seems as though you'll be capitalizing on what is increasingly revealing
itself to be a shady, snake-oily industry. You actually have irresponsible,
untrue, and potentially dangerous statements on the front page of your
website, including the ideas that people should take vitamin D[6] or that
Omega 3s boost brain function[7].

1\. [http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-
supplements/news/20131216/...](http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-
supplements/news/20131216/experts-dont-waste-your-money-on-multivitamins)

2\. [http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/dont-take-your-
vitamins/](http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/dont-take-your-vitamins/)

3\. [http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2014/01/13/the-
to...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2014/01/13/the-top-six-
vitamins-you-shouldnt-take/)

4\. [http://greatist.com/grow/why-you-dont-need-a-
multivitamin](http://greatist.com/grow/why-you-dont-need-a-multivitamin)

5\. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/sunday/dont-
take-y...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/sunday/dont-take-your-
vitamins.html?_r=0)

6\. [http://theconversation.com/the-sun-goes-down-on-vitamin-d-
wh...](http://theconversation.com/the-sun-goes-down-on-vitamin-d-why-i-
changed-my-mind-about-this-celebrated-supplement-52725)

7\. [http://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/omega-3-fatty-
ac...](http://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/omega-3-fatty-acids-fish-
oil-alpha-linolenic-acid/evidence/hrb-20059372)

~~~
FredParietti
I am sorry, but your post is inaccurate. You are literally claiming that we
said or wrote things that never appeared on our website (nor in our minds, for
that matter). Here are our actual positions, explained in more detail. In
order: 1) Our position is that the privileged source of nutrients should be a
healthy diet, whenever possible. In many cases, though, customers who have a
healthy diet still want to integrate their nutrition with supplements (for
example, getting all of the daily recommended omega 3 from fish is sometimes
impractical). For this reason, we offer customers the possibility to
personalize their supplements, so that they will add to their Multiply Pill
exactly what they need, and nothing more! This approach is completely
different from the standard multivitamins, that just overload their products
with high quantities of supplements in the “one-size-fits’all” approach. 2)
The number of people with some sort of vitamin deficiency is surprisingly
high, even in the US (one example:
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271531710...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271531710002599)
). In these cases, once more, our approach can provide these customers with
exactly what they need, without unnecessary additions. 3) We do not claim that
vitamins or omega 3 boost brain function. Please review our website. You are
confusing us with other products/companies, that are less careful about their
sources. 4) The supplement that we include for productivity is caffeine. As
with all of the other supplements, rather than suggesting a pre-fixed dosage,
we let customers pick exactly the quantity they want. And we can also add our
unique control of the release time of the caffeine (the release performance of
our functional containers is backed by our peer-reviewed, award-winning
publications:
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1773224715...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S177322471500132X)
and
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378517316...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378517316304161)
). If you can’t access these publications because your institution is not
subscribed to ScienceDirect, we’ll be happy to send you the pdf’s!

------
gautamdivgi
Very nice... Just browsed out the site. Now, you seem to have a lot less
vitamins, etc. in your selection compared to what is on most off the shelf
products. Is that by design (or researched evidence) or just that you haven't
found a way to print them into the pill yet?

~~~
tiffanyamykuo
The current list is based on extensive research that we have done. We can fit
additional supplements in the pill and are continuing to research additional
supplements. We welcome any additional recommendations from our early
customers!

~~~
IVDV
I was surprised to not see Creatine available, given it's popularity among the
bodybuilding/gym community!

~~~
tiffanyamykuo
We looked into the supplements taken into the bodybuilding community, and
found that the bodybuilding community prefer to take their supplements through
shakes! We currently are focusing on other forms of exercise, such as
endurance exercises!

