How many supplements do you take for health benefits?

[badatmath]

Just bit of an update on this:

• Selenium - tested my selenium level and it was too high so cut way back.
• Baby aspirin - have started bruising too much and worse, bleeding a bit too much when having labwork done so stopped the baby aspirin - I've taken it for 12 years and gotten all the benefit of cancer reduction at this point anyway (and have no history of heart disease)
• Niacinamide - found niacinamide bulk powder from which I can get the typical 500mg dose as 1/8 of a tsp and not have to gag on a horse pill. Can't wait to experience a reduction in skin lesions!

Do do you mind if i ask if you are taking selenium for thyroid support and/or what you cut back to?

 

[Focus]

We're becoming an oversupplemented nation, for sure, cheered on by influencers aplenty. I think it's often unhealthy and even dangerous. Before I add a supplement, I have to read a lot of convincing evidence from reliable sources. I started taking Vitamin D3 daily decades ago. Then a few years ago, I added magnesium. More recently, I added 5 grams of creatine. That's it.

So much for "that's it." I've now added AGE (Aged Garlic Extract) and nicotinamide/niacinamide (per my dermatologist's recommendation).

 

[JBTX]

D3-1000IUs
K2- small dose tablet
CQ10 tablet
100mg Magnesium Glycinate
Methyl B12+Folate

I am generally skeptical of supplements and have low confidence that these make much difference. For years I took none but added them when I got a positive calcium score in the remote hope that they help

I took baby aspirin daily about 15 years but dropped it a couple of years ago due to updated guildelines

I actually take 500-1000 metformin even though I am not prescribed it - my blood sugar borders in pre diabetic range and I’m no on a statin

The methyl b12 is to accompany metformin. The methyl folate is to help synthesize medicines like SSRIs for those who have common genetic deficiency

 

[reneeh63]

Do do you mind if i ask if you are taking selenium for thyroid support and/or what you cut back to?

I was taking it because I had a thyroidectomy about 30 years ago due to papillary cancer (pretty common but very low actual risk). Selenium helps the body convert T4 to T3 (both thyroid hormones that I replace now with medication).

My blood level was about twice the upper reference range when I was taking 100 micrograms/daily. I stopped taking it entirely but may recheck in a year to see what it comes down to and might consider taking half the dose I was previously.

 

[wrigley]

Probiotics, Vitamin C, Fish oil, and Men's over 50 multi-vitamin.

 

[Onda]

Red wine

 

[badatmath]

I was taking it because I had a thyroidectomy about 30 years ago due to papillary cancer (pretty common but very low actual risk). Selenium helps the body convert T4 to T3 (both thyroid hormones that I replace now with medication).

My blood level was about twice the upper reference range when I was taking 100 micrograms/daily. I stopped taking it entirely but may recheck in a year to see what it comes down to and might consider taking half the dose I was previously.

Thanks for the reply. I have a follow up with my doctor to discuss my blood test results (from last week) as they refuse to answer me on the portal. Very annoyed about this but I will ask what they think about selenium. I have a hard time getting direct answers from them on supplements even ones I've tested low on and need to take. I'm going to ask (AGAIN) about taking T3.

 

[6miths]

Zero but I do drink milk fortified with Vitamin D, eat salt with added iodine and various flour containing products fortified with folic acid (which I probably don't need and is just increasing my cancer risk).

 

[sengsational]

I actually take 500-1000 metformin even though I am not prescribed it - my blood sugar borders in pre diabetic range and I’m no on a statin

How do you source it without a prescription?

 

[tmm99]

I take a handful of supplements, including 2.25G of creatine every day, and the most recent one I added was NAC. I was chatting with Google Gemini (AI), and it recommended NAC because I have ALDH2 deficiency. I recommend this for Asians who get red in the face with very little alcohol, like me. I've read NAC helps with a lot of other things as well.

Since starting it, my recovery from exercise has definitely gotten much faster. At first, NAC made me really sleepy, so I could only take it at night. I’m taking a total of 1000 mg per day. Gemini said the sleepiness was from NAC doing a lot of initial cleanup, and that actually matched how it felt. After a couple of weeks, the sleepiness went away, and now I feel fine with it. This is basically what Gemini told me.

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[JBTX]

How do you source it without a prescription?

My adult kids had/have prescriptions they didn’t always use. I fully realize taking prescriptions not prescribed to you is not advisable

 

[sengsational]

My adult kids had/have prescriptions they didn’t always use. I fully realize taking prescriptions not prescribed to you is not advisable

No judgement from me, certainly. I just wondered if there was a way to import or get while on vacation or something. Metformin is a long established drug with a good safety profile and is thought to have anti aging properties. I even think some doctors prescribe it to non diabetics.

 

[reneeh63]

Thanks for the reply. I have a follow up with my doctor to discuss my blood test results (from last week) as they refuse to answer me on the portal. Very annoyed about this but I will ask what they think about selenium. I have a hard time getting direct answers from them on supplements even ones I've tested low on and need to take. I'm going to ask (AGAIN) about taking T3.

Docs really don't like to prescribe T3 though there are some studies in peer-reviewed journals supporting the need for at least some folks to take T3 (almost always in combination with T4).

 

[badatmath]

Docs really don't like to prescribe T3 though there are some studies in peer-reviewed journals supporting the need for at least some folks to take T3 (almost always in combination with T4).

Yeah I've been refused T3 before but my "total t3" is the bare minimum of the range and I'm so tired of freezing. . . IDK. Definitely has gotten worse with age like everything else! I've been on T4 since childhood.

 

[djhep6]

Man, 80 pills a day sounds like a full-time job. You're right to be skeptical, half the stuff those "experts" push online is just overkill and impossible to keep up with.

I used to have a shelf full of different bottles myself until I got fed up with the clutter and switched to Performance Lab. It covers the essentials like energy and focus without the headache of managing twenty different doses.

If you're looking to keep your stack effective but manageable, you should check out their NutriGenesis range. It's high-quality stuff and keeps things a lot cleaner than following every random YouTube advice.

 

[John Galt III]

Waste of money to me. I don't like taking pills.

At least D can be verified with blood work that it is changing. Though I can tell anyway cause my hair quit falling out!

I am a male plagued by thinning hair. I recently reduced my thyroid med dosage (synthroid) a little bit, and also started taking vitamin D3. Currently the amount of hair coming out in the brush is less than usual ! Could be the lower synthroid dose, the addition of D3, both, or something else. I think it is the D3. Only taking 2,000 IU per day, with food.

 

[TheQuestionGuy]

Last year was the first full year of tracking expenses.
Supplements were tracked under medical so the total amount was a bit blurry.
This year created a Supplements category to track.
$1,100 so far this year for Jan/Feb combined.
Once officially retired, will scale back and get under control.

 

[badatmath]

Last year was the first full year of tracking expenses.
Supplements were tracked under medical so the total amount was a bit blurry.
This year created a Supplements category to track.
$1,100 so far this year for Jan/Feb combined.
Once officially retired, will scale back and get under control.

Holy cow!

 

[TheQuestionGuy]

Holy cow!

I'll have a better picture at the end of the year.
I am doing the expenses and my wife does the shopping.
It may have been one of those "large" re-ordering scenarios that all happened at the same time.

 

[Jeffman52]

I only take two right now. COQ10 and Macuhealth. The Macuhealth is supposed to help with eye health and was suggested by my eye doctor when they noticed some Macular degeneration.

 

[hesperus]

The more I research about getting better health after 60, the more variety of supplement ideas I see. There was one guy I saw on YouTube who takes about 80 pills per day.

Currently, I am take 400 mg of Magnesium Glycinate; 5 Gram of Creatine Monohydrate; 25 gram of 85 to 90% dark chocolate, and two Whey protein shakes. I am thinking of adding 2000 IU of Vitamin D3, some melatonin and some probiotics.

If you believe these "experts" on internet, you could probably end up with 80 pills. What are you taking and how is it working for you?

Honestly that stack you listed already sounds pretty reasonable compared to some of the crazy routines online. I’m in the camp of keeping it simple. I take vitamin D in winter, magnesium at night, and fish oil a few times a week. Creatine is one of the few supplements that actually has solid research behind it for muscle and even some cognitive benefits as people get older. Beyond that I try to focus more on sleep, resistance training, and decent food because those seem to move the needle more than adding another bottle of capsules. The 80 pills a day crowd always makes me wonder how much of that is just expensive urine.

 

[engineernerd]

[snip] The 80 pills a day crowd always makes me wonder how much of that is just expensive urine.

Yes, and multivitamins now seem to include ridiculous amounts of some vitamins and minerals and much smaller amounts of others, with no apparent rhyme or reason or explanation. Each multivitamin has different things overrepresented, or so it seems to me.

I've started wondering what we're doing to the poor fish where the wastewater-plant outflow goes. So I don't take multivitamins and I keep my supplements few and limit the amounts I take.

 

[DogDad]

Unfortunately being on Medicare, at least my PCP, does not test for vitamin deficiencies. I probably take too many supplements, but the main ones are fish oil, D3/K2, Magnesium, B12, zinc, and multi-vitamin. I do consume two protein shakes as well.

 

[engineernerd]

Unfortunately being on Medicare, at least my PCP, does not test for vitamin deficiencies. I probably take too many supplements, but the main ones are fish oil, D3/K2, Magnesium, B12, zinc, and multi-vitamin. I do consume two protein shakes as well.

Try an internet search on "order my own blood tests in [yourstate]" and you will see multiple companies offering this option. You do have to pay for the tests yourself, but most aren't that expensive.

Quest and Labcorp are the two big testing companies, I think some of the other companies are just pass-throughs, though that doesn't matter if their price is actually lower. It looks like Quest charges $75 for a vitamin D test and Labcorp wants $99.

If you eat meat, especially beef, you probably won't be deficient in B12 or zinc, and I read somewhere that testing for magnesium isn't that useful because you can have normal blood levels but too little in your bones and other places.

 

[Gary Smith]

I have been a supplement kind of guy since the late 1970s when I read the classic book Prolongevity. I take 21 presently. Not sure if they are a waste of time and money or what. But I turn 79 in a few weeks with zero adverse health history including colds, flu or Covid and taking no prescribed medications, So something must be working. Perhaps just luck/randomness as I am coming more around to that theory in my longevity journey. Then again, it could be the decades of hiking and running almost daily. Some obsess over their finances while I have always obsessed over aging healthfully. Regardless, I thank God daily for blessing me for whatever reasons,