Vitabiotics Wellman Original review

Our take: convenient, but more is not better

Wellman Original is the men’s multivitamin on every UK pharmacy shelf, and it is easy to see why. It is one tablet a day, it is not expensive, and current UK listings give 10 µg of vitamin D — exactly what the NHS advises in autumn and winter.

The trouble is the rest of the tablet. Wellman is built on the idea that more nutrients is better, and the evidence for well-fed men does not support that. Its vitamin B6 is just under the NHS’s safe limit from supplements, leaving no room for a pre-workout or a second product. It contains iron, which most men do not need and some should actively avoid. And it lists extras — Siberian ginseng, co-enzyme Q10, L-carnitine — at doses far below anything studied.

This is a desk review. We have read the published label details, UK retailer listings and the research on multivitamins in healthy adults. We have not taken these tablets, tested their contents or run a trial. We could not open Vitabiotics’ own product page while writing, so the next section says where each figure came from.

What exactly are you buying?

Wellman Original is one tablet a day, sold in packs of 30 and 90. Current UK listings give it 10 µg of vitamin D. The fullest panel we could find, from retailer listings, gives per tablet:

• Vitamins: vitamin A 750 µg plus 2 mg of beta-carotene, vitamin D (10 µg on current listings; 5 µg on older ones), vitamin E 20 mg, vitamin C 60 mg, thiamin 12 mg, riboflavin 5 mg, niacin 20 mg, vitamin B6 9 mg, folic acid 400 µg, vitamin B12 9 µg, biotin 50 µg, pantothenic acid 10 mg.
• Minerals: zinc 15 mg, selenium 150 µg, iron 6 mg, magnesium 50 mg, iodine 150 µg, manganese 3 mg, copper 1 mg, chromium 50 µg.
• Extras: L-carnitine 30 mg, arginine 20 mg, methionine 20 mg, PABA 20 mg, Siberian ginseng 20 mg, bioflavonoids 10 mg and co-enzyme Q10 2 mg.

Because the vitamin D figure has changed between versions, some other amounts may have too. Read the panel on the pack you buy against these numbers.

The extras are too small to matter

Studies of co-enzyme Q10 typically use 100 mg or more a day; this tablet has 2 mg. L-carnitine is studied in grams, not 30 mg. Siberian ginseng extracts are usually tested at hundreds of milligrams. These ingredients lengthen the label without plausibly changing what the tablet does. Our guide to what a supplement label hides explains why a long ingredient list is not the same as a strong formula.

What does the evidence say about multivitamins?

The largest randomised trial of a daily multivitamin in men, the Physicians’ Health Study II, followed 14,641 male US doctors aged 50 and over for a median of 11 years. The cancer results showed a small reduction in total cancer, and the cardiovascular results no reduction in heart attacks, strokes or cardiovascular death. The US Preventive Services Task Force’s 2022 recommendation found the evidence insufficient to say whether multivitamins prevent heart disease or cancer, and a 2024 analysis of 390,124 healthy US adults found daily multivitamin use was not linked to living longer.

The NHS says most people should get the vitamins and minerals they need from a varied diet. The clear exception is vitamin D: the NHS advises everyone to consider 10 µg a day in autumn and winter. Wellman’s current formula provides that. Our guide to which vitamins to take daily sets out the short list of other exceptions.

The “energy release” and immune claims on the pack are authorised claims on the GB nutrition and health claims register for B vitamins, vitamin C, zinc and others. They describe what those nutrients do in the body, and matter when intake is low. They do not mean extra vitamins give extra energy.

Is anything in it too high — or unnecessary?

We checked the panel against the NHS guidance on how much of each nutrient from supplements is unlikely to cause harm.

• Vitamin B6: 9 mg, against the NHS advice not to take more than 10 mg a day from supplements unless a doctor advises it. On its own that is within the limit. With a pre-workout, an energy drink powder or a second multivitamin, it is easy to go over. Long-term high intakes of B6 can cause nerve damage.
• Iron: 6 mg. Most men get enough iron from food, and the NHS notes that too much iron can be harmful. Men with haemochromatosis, a common inherited condition in people of northern European descent that often goes undiagnosed, should not take iron supplements.
• Beta-carotene: 2 mg. Trials of high-dose beta-carotene (20 mg or more) found an increased risk of lung cancer in smokers, and the NHS advises smokers not to take beta-carotene supplements. The dose here is far lower, but smokers may prefer a product without it.
• Zinc 15 mg, selenium 150 µg, manganese 3 mg, vitamin A 750 µg: all within NHS guidance on their own, though manganese is above the lower 0.5 mg figure the NHS gives for older people.

None of this makes Wellman dangerous for most men taking one tablet a day. It does mean it is not a product to combine casually with others.

Price: how much is a day of Wellman?

In listings read on 28 September 2026, the 30-tablet pack ranged from £4.29 at the cheapest listing on a price comparison site to about £6.30 on Amazon and £7.00 at an online pharmacy — roughly 14p to 23p a day. We read these prices from listings rather than taking an order through checkout, and pharmacy multi-buy offers are common.

That is less than half the daily cost of Optimum Nutrition Opti-Men, which we priced at about 50p to 67p. It is two to four times the cost of a supermarket A–Z multivitamin at about 5.5p a day, and many times the cost of a plain 10 µg vitamin D tablet.

Best alternatives

The ones we have fully reviewed are linked, and appear in the comparison cards below this article. The others we name for comparison only: we have not reviewed them in full, so do not read their inclusion as a recommendation.

• A plain 10 µg vitamin D tablet — the best alternative for most men, because vitamin D is the one gap the NHS expects most people in the UK to have in autumn and winter. Supermarket own-brand tablets cost a few pence a day.
• Nature Made Vitamin D3 1000 IU (reviewed) — a single-ingredient, USP-verified vitamin D at 25 µg. A US product, so UK buyers usually pay import prices; the point is the approach.
• Tesco A–Z Multivitamins & Minerals (reviewed) — if you want a multivitamin as insurance, about 5.5p a day, roughly a third of the cost of Wellman.
• Optimum Nutrition Opti-Men (reviewed) — the sports-shop men’s multi, with B6 at 5.4 mg and no iron on the European formula we reviewed, but three tablets a day at roughly three times the price.
• Myprotein Alpha Men (reviewed) — another sports-shop men’s multi at about 20p a day, two tablets rather than one.

Who should skip it, and what to watch for

Skip it if you eat a varied diet and only need vitamin D; a plain vitamin D tablet is cheaper and simpler. Skip it, or check with your GP first, if you have haemochromatosis or a family history of it, if you smoke, or if you already take a pre-workout, energy product or other supplement containing vitamin B6.

Anyone taking prescription medicines should check with a pharmacist first. Iron, zinc and magnesium can reduce the absorption of some antibiotics and thyroid medicines if taken at the same time. Take the tablet with a meal to reduce the chance of nausea.

Food supplements sold in Great Britain are not approved by a regulator for safety or effectiveness before sale, so the label is the manufacturer’s responsibility rather than a regulator’s endorsement.

Sources and shopping: our UK buying checklist

Before you buy, check that the pack says 10 µg of vitamin D, and read the B6 and iron lines against anything else you take. Compare the price per day with a supermarket A–Z and with a plain vitamin D tablet. Pharmacy and supermarket offers are frequent, so the 90-tablet pack on offer is usually the cheapest way to buy it.

Our commercial link for this product is our Wellman Original link. It earns us a commission at no extra cost to you, and it has no influence on the score above — which is a 5.4, held back by weak evidence that well-fed men benefit from a multivitamin, B6 just under the NHS limit, iron most men do not need and a list of token extras.

The fair summary is this. Wellman Original gives you the right vitamin D in one convenient tablet. Most of the rest you probably do not need, and some of it is worth checking before you add anything else.