supplements
What Should You Take?
You may have heard the statement that vitamin takers “have the most expensive urine” and “a good diet is all you need." Yes, indeed some excess vitamins and unutilized vitamins are eliminated in the bowel or urine from time to time. How many of us eat the perfect nutrition-rich, organically grown, well-balanced meals each day? How many people want to be average?
If you were seeking a high-performance above normal function and life span, then there are a few things to consider from high-quality vitamins. I experiment with a lot of products, but the “ low hanging fruit “ include:
-
Enough vitamin D to keep your level over 50 mg/mL dose will likely be 8 to 10,000 IU per day with intermittent brief sun exposure to activating.
-
A good quality omega 3 oil - 2 to 6,000mg per day ( consider Nordic Naturals, Carlson’s or Bulletproof Brands or even an algae source of which there are many, remember if you get a vegetarian source such as flaxseed or Chia seed, buy them whole as when you grind or mill them they quickly become rancid and are inflammatory).
-
Magnesium- 400 to 1000 per day possibly at night to help with sleep and elimination in the morning, find a mixture of the various subtypes (glycinate, theonate, oxide, and citrate).
-
Zinc - this forgotten mineral is low in many that are over 50 and greatly helps with sex hormones, taste, and immune function and there is an important ratio between zinc and copper in the body (consider a 10 to 20 mg dose especially if one has low testosterone).
-
Iodine - surprisingly this is a missing link in a lot of peoples thyroid function and a supplement of 100 to 200mg a day is not unreasonable.
-
Other products to consider is supplemental digestive enzymes especially at times of stress with the larger meal of the day, and consider probiotics before, during, and after any course of antibiotics along with many highly fermented foods
There is one more topic that is quite complicated and controversial; genetic variances of methylation, where a third of the population have significantly reduced in their ability to add a methyl group to mostly B vitamins and make them useful in the body. Without going down into a big rabbit hole, one can get their methylation status from their 23 and Me data, or a specific methylation profile from a laboratory company, or you can just make sure to take “methylated” folic acid and B12. If your homocysteine level is greater than 8, a marker for methylation dysfunction, look into this further.
