About MicroVitamin
Most multivitamins are designed around the label. This one is designed around the research.
Every ingredient had to earn its place, and each dose was chosen to match the research. If the human evidence wasn’t there, it didn’t go in, no matter how good it would have looked on the label.
About five minutes to read, with links to the studies.
Who made MicroVitamin
Brad Stanfield spent years working through the human trial data on individual nutrients. Then the COSMOS trial changed his mind about multivitamins as a category. He went looking for one that matched the research on each nutrient, and when he couldn’t find it, he made MicroVitamin.
COSMOS randomised 21,442 adults against placebo, the largest test a daily multivitamin has been put through. And a multivitamin has one practical advantage: a single product can bundle most of the nutrients that already have good human data behind them.
Finding one should have been the easy part. Instead every formula he looked at failed on at least one of four counts: the doses were inflated far past anything the research had tested, the expensive evidence-backed ingredients were missing, the cheap form of each nutrient had been used, or nothing protected the fragile ingredients from degrading in the bottle.
Brad didn’t want to create a supplement.
Always remember: supplements don’t replace the basics. Sleep, movement and a good diet matter more. MicroVitamin is here to cover nutritional gaps.
The products
Two formulas. Same standard.
The capsules are the core formula. The powder is that same core plus four additions that are too bulky to fit in a capsule.
MicroVitamin Capsules
The core formula · vegan
- B vitamins in the form your body uses directly
- 5 capsules a day, 30 servings a bottle
- Every dose printed on the label, with no blends
MicroVitamin+ Powder
The core formula, plus four
- Everything in the capsules, in one scoop
- Collagen peptides 12.5 g
- Creatine monohydrate 5 g
- Soluble fibre and added taurine
- Mixed Berry or unflavoured
Our standard
Five things that go wrong in most multivitamins, and what we do instead
None of these are secrets. They’re just easier to spot once you know where to look. Each one is a rule the formula has to pass, which is why some versions have fewer ingredients than the last.
500% or 1000% of the daily value looks generous on a label. Past the amount the research used, more isn’t better, and for several nutrients it works against you.
High-dose zinc competes with copper for absorption, and sustained megadosing can tip people into copper deficiency. Large folic acid doses can hide a B12 deficiency instead of correcting it, so a real problem goes unnoticed. And the bright yellow urine a megadose multivitamin produces is riboflavin (vitamin B2) that your body had no use for, on its way out.
What we do
We choose each dose to match the research.
We start from the amount the trials used, rather than the most you can safely swallow or a number that looks impressive on the label. You don’t pay for an excess your body will simply get rid of.
Hyaluronic acid at 200 mg, the exact daily dose used in the 2021 randomised controlled trial it’s drawn from.
Two products can both say “vitamin B12” and “magnesium” on the label and contain quite different things. The cheap versions either have to be converted by your body before they do anything, or are barely absorbed at all. Magnesium oxide is poorly absorbed and is better known as a laxative.
What we do
We use the forms your body can actually absorb.
The B vitamins are already in the form your body uses, so nothing has to be converted first, and a common genetic difference makes some people poor at doing that conversion. The minerals are bound to an amino acid. All of this costs more, which is exactly why it’s the first thing cut elsewhere.
Copper, for example, is copper bisglycinate rather than cupric sulfate, a change made in version 7 after the older form reacted inside the capsule.
A “proprietary blend” lists impressive-sounding ingredients and then one combined weight for the whole lot. You cannot tell whether something is in there at the dose the research used, or as a pinch. That is the point of the format.
What we do
Every dose is printed on the label.
No proprietary blends, ever. Every ingredient is on the label with its form and its exact amount, so you can check any of it against the research yourself, without taking our word for it.
The science page has the key ingredients and the studies behind them.
Vitamin A and vitamin E are still standard in most multivitamins, and a Cochrane review of 78 randomised trials in 296,707 people linked beta-carotene and vitamin E supplements to a higher risk of dying from any cause. Both are stored in the body rather than flushed out, so any excess builds up.
Meanwhile hyaluronic acid, TMG (trimethylglycine, a compound also found in beetroot), lutein, zeaxanthin and lycopene each have human trial evidence behind them, and almost no multivitamin includes them. They cost considerably more than the vitamins everyone already has.
What we do
The evidence decides, in both directions.
A compelling mechanism with a thin human record is interesting, but it isn’t an ingredient yet. The same test that keeps vitamin A and E out is what puts hyaluronic acid and TMG in.
What we left out, and why, including several that would have made the label look a good deal more impressive.
Almost every brand says it. Far fewer publish anything you can actually check: a certificate, with the lab’s name and a lot number on it. The phrase takes the place of evidence.
What we do
Every batch is tested, and the independent lab reports are public.
A third-party lab checks every batch for heavy metals, and independent labs have tested the label amounts as well. Production happens at facilities certified to good manufacturing practice (GMP), the standard regulators audit manufacturers against. We publish the results we’d rather not have had, too.
See the testing page. The independent lab reports are downloadable, including the time one marked us Not Approved. For your own batch’s certificate, send us the lot number.
Dose vs studied dose
What the research used, and what’s in the bottle
The clearest test of whether a formula is evidence-led: put the two numbers side by side and see whether they agree. Here are ours, including where they don’t.
| Ingredient | In MicroVitamin | Used in the study | Study | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyaluronic acid | 200 mg | 200 mg/day | Michelotti 2021, Eur J Dermatol | Matches |
| Creatine monohydrate (Powder) | 5 g | 3–5 g/day maintenance | International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand, 2017 | Matches |
| TMG (trimethylglycine, or betaine) | 500 mg | 2.5 g/day | Cholewa 2013, JISSN | Below |
Scroll the table sideways on a small screen.
On that last row. TMG sits well below the amount used in the exercise trial it’s best known for. It’s there to work alongside folate and B12, not to reproduce that trial. Rather than quietly leave the comparison out, we’ve shown it. A table of only the flattering rows would prove nothing.
The key ingredients and their studiesWhat we left out
The formula is defined as much by what’s absent
Most brands publish what’s in. The more useful list is what was considered and rejected, because that’s the list that tells you what the standard actually is. Vitamin A and vitamin E are covered above; these are the ones people are more often surprised by.
Supplemental calcium
Left out in favour of supporting the calcium already in your diet, through vitamins D3 and K2, magnesium and boron.
Resveratrol
One of the most heavily marketed ingredients in the category. Very little of it actually gets absorbed when you swallow it, and the human results have been inconsistent. Popularity isn’t evidence.
NMN and nicotinamide riboside
The cell and animal work on NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide) and NAD+, a molecule cells use to make energy, is genuinely interesting. The human data is thin relative to how confidently these are sold. MicroVitamin includes a modest dose of nicotinamide instead.
Apigenin, sulforaphane, fisetin
The mechanisms and the mouse studies are promising, but there isn’t enough human data to justify a place in something taken every day.
Titanium dioxide, dyes and fillers
No artificial colours, and none of the usual bulking or anti-caking agents: no silicon dioxide, no magnesium stearate. The capsule shell is plant-based.
Testing
Anyone can say “third-party tested”. Here are the actual results.
Including the one that didn’t go our way. It’s the more useful one to read.
Independent review
MicroVitamin and Sleep are third-party tested by Labdoor. The review pages are public.
Every batch
Every batch is tested for heavy metals: lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium. Certificates of analysis are published on the testing page.
The result we didn’t want
In early 2026 an independent lab marked MicroVitamin “Not Approved”. We published the full report and the certificate of analysis so anyone could check the explanation.
The obvious objection
Why five capsules and not one
It’s the first thing people ask, and it’s a fair question. The answer is arithmetic.
Effective amounts of magnesium, hyaluronic acid, TMG and choline take up real physical volume. They do not fit into one capsule.
So a one-a-day is a formulation decision that has already been made for you, and the usual way to make it is to cut the doses until they fit.
Five capsules is what honest doses look like.
More common questions
Where it’s made
Made in five regions, not shipped from one
Rather than manufacture in one country and freight it everywhere, MicroVitamin is produced locally in each major market, at facilities certified to good manufacturing practice (GMP), and batch-tested in region.
Start with whichever you’d rather read first
The science page covers the key ingredients and what we left out. The testing page has the certificates.