To successfully follow their treatment plan, your patients need a practical, simple supplement routine.
You probably see it every day: Patients who patients who are trying to do the right thing, but their schedule, stress load and nutrition consistency are a mess. That reality is why delivery format matters. A multivitamin can only support health if a patient takes it regularly and if the product dissolves and releases its ingredients in a way their body can absorb.
Dee Cee Laboratories’ gender-specific multivitamins, Vita-men Time Release and Vita-women Time Release, are designed around a simple idea: Provide foundational nutrients in a time-release tablet format intended to release gradually throughout the day.
Time-release in a vitamin matters for two reasons: First, once-daily compliance is the real battlefield. Many patients will not take multiple doses of anything, even if it is optimal. Second, time-release formulations are designed to avoid the “all at once” nutrient dump that results when patients take all their pills at the same time. Time release can be a practical advantage for patients who are sensitive to supplements or who forget to take them with food.
Time release and absorption
Time release does not automatically mean “better absorbed” for every nutrient. However, disintegration and release behavior can influence bioavailability, and that is one reason quality testing exists. For example, a classic study comparing different vitamin C dosage forms found bioavailability varied with disintegration time, with a moderate disintegration time performing best in that study design.1
The “quality” baseline also matters. USP disintegration testing is a standardized way to evaluate whether tablets or capsules break apart under defined conditions. Dee Cee Laboratories highlights USP disintegration standards in its product descriptions for these time-release multis.
The most defensible, patient-centered way to frame time release is this: It is designed for steadier release across the day, which can support a simple once-daily habit.
Why gender-specific formulas still make sense in practice
Men and women often have different nutrient priorities across life stages, and they also tend to present with different common concerns that come up during a wellness conversation.
Vita-women Time Release is a comprehensive women’s formula and includes iron (18 mg per serving), along with a broad vitamin and mineral profile. This aligns with a common reality: Anemia prevalence is higher in females than males in several age groups, including adults 20–59, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.2 The formula also contains a proprietary blend of fruits and vegetables, along with collagen.
Vita-men Time Release is a men’s formula with a broad vitamin and mineral profile and a men’s blend that includes ingredients, such as saw palmetto and L-arginine, and special blends to boost energy (featuring green tea and soybean extract) and libido (featuring Panax ginseng). Those ingredients can fit the “men’s health foundation” conversation, especially for midlife and older men who want proactive support as their bodies change. (For context, benign prostatic hyperplasia is extremely common as men age.3)
How this affects the demographics you treat
You are not treating conditions with a multivitamin but supporting baseline nutrition, while you address the bigger plan: movement, sleep, stress, recovery and diet. Here are a few realistic patient archetypes for whom gender-specific time-release multis are a natural fit.
Women of reproductive age who are tired, busy and inconsistent with meals. If a patient reports fatigue, heavy cycles or “I’m always running on fumes,” low iron levels and overall diet may be part of the broader picture. Vita-women includes iron at 18 mg per serving. The time-release format supports the “one daily habit” approach for patients who will not manage a complicated routine.
Peri- and postmenopausal women focused on strong bones. Many women in this stage are thinking about strength, bone health and energy stability. Vita-women includes calcium and vitamin D, among other nutrients, and gradually releases throughout the day. While it’s not a magic solution for increasing bone density, it lends support to the bones so your musculoskeletal work will yield better results.
Men under high stress who want energy and recovery support. Work, sleep debt, caffeine and inconsistent meals are modern men’s health habits. Vita-men’s supplement facts list a broad set of vitamins and minerals (including vitamins C, D, K2 and B vitamins), and time-released so the routine stays simple but can still offer broad support.
Older men with increased interest in prostate-related wellness conversations. Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) prevalence rises sharply as age increases. Vita-men contains saw palmetto, which in some research studies has been found to have modest efficacy in addressing BPH symptoms such as nighttime urination. To set realistic expectations, explain to your patients how this multivitamin offers general nutritional support.
Adults of any age who dislike taking supplements. Some patients stop vitamins because they initially feel nauseated, jittery or “off.” A time-release format such as Vita-men or Vita-women can be an easier sell for those patients because it combines ingredients into one convenient capsule they’ll only have to remember once a day.
How to use time release as a practical clinical tool
The time-release element offers a simple way to make your supplement recommendation stick so the patients follows through with taking it daily.
Step 1: Start with the routine. Ask: “What is one time of day you reliably do the same thing every day?” Then anchor the supplement to that habit.
Step 2: Make it gender-specific. For women, mention the iron-containing formula option and life-stage support. For men, mention the men’s blend and the general foundation approach for energy metabolism support.
Step 3: Keep expectations reasonable. Use words such as “nutritional support” and “designed to release gradually.” Avoid “treat,” “reverse” or “fix.”
Step 4: Tie it to the care plan. Position the multivitamin as the baseline, while you also address movement patterns, sleep, rehab compliance and diet.
Step 5: Use quality as part of the conversation. Patients assume all vitamins are the same. Briefly explain that disintegration testing exists because tablets must break down appropriately to release ingredients for the body to absorb.
Step 6: Re-check in 30 days. Not to measure “miracles,” but to assess compliance, tolerance and whether the routine is working.
Step 7: Keep it simple when patients already take too much. If a patient is stacking five different products with no plan, a gender-specific multivitamin can offer a rational reset while you sort out priorities.
Final thoughts on gender-specific supplementation
Gender-specific supplementation is about reality: Matching foundational nutrient support to real-life stages and real compliance behavior. Time release is not a magic trick, but it is a rational delivery approach when the goal is steady support across the day in a format most patients will actually take.
If you want clinic-friendly multivitamin options that can fit into almost any care plan, Dee Cee Laboratories’ Vita-men Time Release and Vita-women Time Release give you a way to offer gender-specific support with a time-released delivery design.
References
Bhagavan HN, Wolkoff BI. Correlation between the disintegration time and the bioavailability of vitamin C tablets. Pharm Res. 1993;10(2):239-42. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8456071/. Accessed February 24, 2026.US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention NCHS Data Brief No. 519 (Dec. 2024). Anemia prevalence: United States, August 2021–August 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db519.htm. Accessed February 24, 2026.NCBI Bookshelf (StatPearls). Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (prevalence increases with age; 50%–60% in men in their 60s). Updated October 20, 2024. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK558920/. Accessed February 24, 2026.
