Do you take any supplements?

Irish_Tom said:
Vitamin D3
Helps regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in the body. It's good for bones, teeth and muscles. The NHS recommends that even healthy people should consider taking a daily supplement, especially as we head into the winter months.

EPA / Omega-3 from fish oil
Good for your heart, brain, eyes, and joints. I like fish, especially oily fish, but I hate the smell and cleanup after cooking fish, so I inevitably don't eat enough to get the required amount.

L-Theanine and Ashwagandha KSM-66
I use these two in combination for better sleep and to reduce stress.
I find L-Theanine helps reduce caffeine jitters and some research has shown that Ashwagandha can improve athletic performance, including increasing VO2 Max.

Creatine
As-per my previous post.

General multi-vitamin
Just as a top-up for anything I might be missing out on through my normal diet. Although I try to eat a healthy diet, I'm probably (literally) ****ing away 99% of this one.

As to why I don't take other supplements — I've looked into quite a few others such as Magnesium Threonate and Glycenate and Beta-Alanine but I've discounted them either because of the cost (in the case of a good Magnesium supplement) or because I doubt I will benefit from the marginal gains in taking it (in the case of Beta-Alanine).
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How much caffeine do you have that leads to the jitters?
 
I take vitamin D after my blood test shows that I require it. My doctor said that hardly anyone in the uk produces enough vit d in the winter months and they use up their stores that was created in the summer months. But if your darker skinned or if it’s been **** over summer, then some people just don’t create enough.

I also take multi vitamins and cod liver oil.

I try to exercise everyday but if I’m having a heavy session or going to the gym, I have a pre-workout shake.

I used to take creatinine and have been on huel diets before.
 
Grim5 said:
What study says creatine supplements are good for long life? Please show me. I'd love to know how taking a supplement that causes the body to hold a excess water can be good for long life, and is also known to put strain on the kidneys


As for red meat, idc, I still eat it. Red meat is a high fat meat, meats high in fat can lead to higher cholesterol and put strain on the heart, there is also some link between high red meat consumption and stomach cancer, but idc about that either as the last 3 generations of my family on both sides have no history of cancer or heart problems - strong genes FTW
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I said performance OR longevity

Cholesterol is not causal for heart disease, it's only very weakly associated, the latest data on cholesterol is actually that LDL over 200mg/dl is associated with lower rates of death and disease than the recommendation of keeping it below 200. Since I switched to a diet high in animal fats (eggs, bacon, beef, real butter etc.) my blood pressure has gone from 148/110 to 110/78, I've also lost 50kg of weight. As obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes are far more highly correlated to heart disease I'm really not worried about my cholesterol results, in fact if anything my cholesterol results are excellent as my HDL is high and my triglycerides are very low and this is considered to be a much better analogue to heart disease risk than LDL.

You also have to look at a lot of these studies as to what they've defined as "red meat" because usually they lump lasagne, burgers, sandwiches etc all under "red meat", so is it the red meat, or all the other crap that most people have when they eat "red meat". It usually boils down to healthy user bias, we've been told for so long that red meat is bad and so people trying to be healthy, not eating junk food, doing exercise, don't eat red meat, and people who do eat red meat more tend to not care, drink more, smoke etc., they say they adjust for these factors but really that's nonsense, the data they collect is so heavily biased that it's not possible to account for.

I saw one study claiming protein causes diabetes, in the study they gave people a "protein drink" which had more sugar in it than protein.
 
Some interesting scatter gun approaches to nutrition supplements on here, I agree with the vit d requirements and also I am vegan (did I mention it ?) so need to watch the b12 but it's pretty well covered in fortified products oat and soya milk for instance.
Btw I am a Haemochromatosis carrier (carrier not developed by lifestyle it's genetic)so is my ex so is my son in law and a handful of others I know , if you actually have the condition (some of them do.and have to have blood treatment) excess iron destroys the organs , I don't.think it can be picked up on a normal blood test .
 
Richie said:
The only "supplement" I take is the soluble Vitamin C + Zinc tablets you get (like 1000% RDA of VitC). I only take them when I feel a cold coming on for about 3-4 days (slightly sore throat about 2 days before cold starts) and it seems to either shorten the cold down by a few days or even stops it completely - YMMV of course.

I dont take any regular supplements though
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That reminds me, I've got some zinc defence lozenges that do the same thing — you take them when you feel a cold coming on and they reduce or stop the cold. They seem pretty effective the couple of times I've used them. Not cheap though.

andybird123 said:
I like how studies keep coming out telling us about wonderful supplements we can take for performance or longevity like creatine, taurine, omega3 etc... then when you look it up all these things are in beef, but we're told beef is bad for you.

No I don't take any supplements, not even vitamin D, my blood tests show I don't need any.

I do eat beef though, preferably grass fed.
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A healthy diet absolutely should be the starting point before supplementing anything, and if your bloodwork says you don't need to take anything then that's great.

But take creatine for example. An 8-ounce steak contains about 1 gram of creatine, so to get the 5g per day of creatine that studies show has an effect on muscle performance, you would need to eat 1.1kg of steak every day. Plus, cooking can destroy the creatine in a steak, so you would probably need an even bigger steak (or eat it blue).

Or you could have a 5g scoop of creatine powder with some water on the side of your steak and take out the guesswork. The same goes for protein, and it's the same story for omega-3 and oily fish, etc.

Semple said:
How much caffeine do you have that leads to the jitters?
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I usually have:
  • 1 cup of tea with breakfast at about 7.30am
  • 1 cup of coffee at 9am
  • 1 cup of coffee around 10.30/11am
The coffee is freshly ground from whole beans, 11g coffee grounds to 250g water. So the total caffeine content is hard to measure, but it's going to be more than a couple of cups of instant. I try to avoid caffeine after noon (although yesterday I made an exception and had a bottle of Coke Zero at 1pm).

Let's be clear, I'm not talking about heart palpitations or anything, but I do seem to be caffeine-sensitive. I don't know how to describe it but the L-Theanine alleviates some of the 'tightness' that I can feel without it, while still 'enjoying' the additional focus from the coffee. It's probably time I did a caffeine detox but I recently bought a new coffee grinder which my wife thinks was too expensive, so I'll never hear the end of it if I stop using it. :D
 
Haze said:
People should not be necking back pills, unless it's proven you are deficient in something, taking too much of something is just as bad as not getting enough
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Calm down brother, it's just multivits lol. We aren't taking nootropics here.

Majority of vitamins are excreted out in urine if you have too much. Vitamin D3 is almost impossible to poison yourself on and nearly everyone in this country needs it in some form. Nothing wrong with fish oils either.
 
adam cool dude said:
My grandad lived through two world wars. Lived till 93. Was driving till he was 88. Was strong as an ox. Ate what he needed when he needed it. Had the odd beer etc.

Genetics is far more critical than what supplements and diet you take. Obviously loading up on sugar is not good but eating normally and getting rid of processed food is far more beneficial than any supplements will give you.
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Yes, but you can't change your genetics, whereas you can change / supplement your diet. And how do you know your grandad wouldn't have lived to 103 on a supplemented diet?

I'm not much of a supplement user - I have some rehydration tablets which I use during long runs or cycles in the summer, but otherwise don't take them. I'm just not sure that your argument adds any weight either way.
 
Irish_Tom said:
But take creatine for example. An 8-ounce steak contains about 1 gram of creatine, so to get the 5g per day of creatine that studies show has an effect on muscle performance, you would need to eat 1.1kg of steak every day. Plus, cooking can destroy the creatine in a steak, so you would probably need an even bigger steak (or eat it blue).
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I eat about half a kilo of beef (either steak or more typically mince, I also get heart/liver enriched mince). I've tried taking creatine for over a month and noticed no benefit so stopped taking it as a supplement and again noticed no drop off in performance from stopping. Typically nutrients from whole foods are more bio available. Grass fed beef is also more nutrient dense than regular supermarket beef which is usually grain/corn/soy finished to get more marbling, I can't find numbers for creatine specifically, but for some nutrients it can be double to 10 times more in grass fed. Even phytonutrients not present in supermarket beef at all.

I also get bone broth which is high in amino acids and a quick Google suggests the human body can create creatine from arginine, glycine, and methionine.
 
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Biggest change I did was starting to eat just better food. I was always eating just whatever because I had no time. Now that I do I eat better quality food because it's one of biggest things we do to our body.

Aside from that I occasionally supplement with some whey, vitaminD and creatine in my quest not to be so skinny at 95KG...
 
Jokester said:
Talking about side effects, I used to use the marg with statins in it. ****ed me up, was getting joint pains like I had the flu all the time, seems it’s a common side effect of statins. Also reading the small print you were meant eat 1/2kg of the stuff a month!
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Thats 17g a day, it's not exactly a big amount. If replacing butter, then you probably use that much butter a day if you have a couple of slices of bread/toast.
 
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Recently been put on a dual pro-biotic tablet by a consultant (along with being told to go dairy and caffeine free). Its to get my digestion working better. The consultant would be well regarded, and having talked to him he does change his guidance as more research is carried out. For example, he told me that there was a suggestion some years ago that there was some association between proton pump inhibtors and dimentia, but there has been a well founded study recently that has concluded there is no link. So I assume he's seen some study that is sugestive that the two pro-biotics I'm on have some value to aid colon flow.

I think Vit D for our neck of the woods, especially in the darker months, is a no brainer.

I see some people saying glucosomine is working well for them. Around 20-25 years ago, GPs would prescribe it for joint pain. But is was then removed from the prescription list, I had assumed there had been more up to date studies that didn't validate the presumed benefits, but maybe it was dropped for another reason.
 
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Lion's Mane extract, I find this is noticeably good for improving focus.
Caffeine. (duh)
L-Theanine (for sleep, not convinced this does anything, so won't buy any more)

Best dietary modification you can make is to not deliberately poison your body with alcohol.
 
Kelt said:
I've just bought a soup maker, trying to cut down on ultra processed foods and sugars.

Eating more veggies has got to be good.
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Ah yes I wouldn't be without my Ninja or my red wine (or as @mid_gen calls it, poison)


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