How To Choose The Best Supplements for Optimal Health | Dr. Mark Hyman

Coming up on this episode of the Doctor's Pharmacy. Nobody really needs supplements, but only under certain conditions. They need to hunt and gather their own wild food. They need to drink only pure, clean water, breathe pure, clean air, be exposed to no environmental toxins, wake up with the sun, go to bed with the sun, have no chronic stress. And if that describes you, then no, you do not need supplements. Today, I'm excited to talk about a true pioneer in the healthy aging space timeline. Between 20 and 30% of all doctor visits are due to fatigue or lack of energy from people wanting to know why they're so tired all the time. And the answer often has to do with our mitochondria, these little factories in our cells that create energy needed to run every organ and function in our bodies. But as we get older, our mitochondria can decline and lose their spark. Timeline's Mitopure is a first of its kind supplement that's clinically proven to revitalize mitochondria. And in fact, I write about it in Young Forever. Now, studies show that it not only improves cellular energy, but it boosts muscle strength and endurance without any changes in exercise, if you can believe that. But it's true. It's backed by more than 15 years of clinical research, and I can tell you personally that my workouts have never felt more productive with improved stamina and recovery times. And ready for the best part? Timeline is giving my listeners an exclusive 10% off your first order. Just head over to timeline.com/DrHyman and unlock a healthier, more vibrant you. Hey everyone, Dr. Mark here. You've probably heard of omega-3 fatty acids, maybe even omega-6. These are essential fats we need for health and longevity. But science has recently discovered a third essential fat and one with three times the cellular benefits as omega-3s. I'm talking about pentadecanoic acid, or C15:0. There's mounting evidence that can help us repair and replenish our cells, strengthen cell membranes, and ultimately reverse the multiple drivers of aging. If you're looking for a way to take advantage of C15 yourself, Fatty15 has harnessed that power to reverse 36 clinically relevant and aging-associated changes at the cellular level. Fatty15 does this by acting as armor for your cells, strengthening cell membranes for an 80% improvement in cellular stability. I like Fatty 15 and I've noticed a big improvement in my joint health. My glucose levels are better than ever. Just one tiny pill a day will have a big impact on your health. So why wait? Age on your own terms with Fatty 15. Right now, Fatty 15 is offering listeners an exclusive 10% off a 90-day starter kit of their award-winning science-backed C15. Just visit fatty15.com and use the code DrHyman10. That's F-A-T-T-Y-15.com. Now, before we jump into today's episode, I'd like to note that while I wish I could help everyone via my personal practice, there's simply not enough time for me to do this at scale. And that's why I've been busy building several passion projects to help you better understand, well, you. If you're looking for data about your biology, check out Function Health for real-time lab insights. And if you're in need of deepening your knowledge around your health journey, well, check out my membership community, Dr. Hyman Plus. And if you're looking for curated trusted supplements and health products for your health journey, visit my website, Dr. hyman.com for my website store and a summary of my favorite and thoroughly tested products. Welcome to Doctor's Pharmacy, another edition of Health Bites. I'm Dr. Mark Hyman. Today I'm giving you the ultimate supplement stack to complement your wellness routine so you can feel and live better every day. But before we get into that, we need to cover some ground rules for why I strongly advocate testing over guessing when it comes to dialing in your supplement staples. Here's the deal. Without testing, it's like throwing darts blindfolded. You'll never hit the bullseye and you end up wasting a lot of money on supplements you don't need, which could be like flushing money down the toilet, literally. And that's why I urge you to work closely with your healthcare provider to get the specific test done that you need. And this way, your doctor can tailor your supplement intake based on your body's individual needs guided by your unique biological makeup. Optimization is all about personalization. However, getting your doctor on board with getting the tests you need can be a challenge sometimes. Not all practitioners are open to suggestions from their patients. I've been dismissing these requests for additional tests as unnecessary or too expensive or not covered by your insurance, but don't let that turn you away. There are a lot of options out there, like Function Health. I co-founded Function to help put the power back in the patient's hands, offering a comprehensive look at over 110 biomarkers for less than 500 bucks a year. We're talking about critical nutrients like vitamin D and magnesium, plus detailed assessments including omega-3 levels, ferritin, zinc, iron, selenium, plus C-reactive protein for inflammation, a lipid profile that's way deeper than you'd get your average checkup, extensive panels covering sex hormones, thyroid hormones, immune markers, and lots more. So with that in mind, there's a lot of controversy around supplementation. Should you supplement? Should you not? Is it a waste of money? Is it worth it? Can you get what you need from food alone? Well, let's get into those questions. Why do we need to supplement? Well, there's a lot of reasons. You know, I joke that nobody really needs supplements, but only under certain conditions. One, they need to hunt and gather their own wild food. Two, they need to drink only pure clean water, breathe pure clean air, be exposed to no environmental toxins, wake up with the sun, go to bed with the sun, have no chronic stress, and if that describes you, then no, you do not need supplements. But everybody else, because of a lot of reasons I'm going to detail, we need to take supplements. Now, not surprising, 95% of the US population and 2 billion people around the world have at least one nutrient deficiency. I mean, even if you're eating the perfect diet, and let's just define that as a whole foods, unprocessed diet of fruits and vegetables and so forth. Now, it may be if you eat only regenerative food from a regenerative farm, you might do better, but basically that's very hard to get at this point. And so even if we ate completely or perfectly all organic whole foods, no ultra processed food, basically the declining nutritional quality of our foods and the stresses of our modern life and our toxic environment, it just increased the demands on our body for extra nutrients and it makes it harder to get what we need from food alone. So you need to eat a lot to get the nutrients needed for optimal health and people just don't want to spend that much time eating or thinking about food. And that's where it's important to really supplement to fill any nutrient gaps, not just avoid deficiency diseases, but to achieve optimal health. By the way, most of the nutritional standards, the dietary reference intakes, or we call the RDAs, are based on avoiding a deficiency disease. So how much vitamin C do you need to not get scurvy? Not very much. How much vitamin D do you need to not get rickets? 30 units. How much vitamin D do you need for optimal health and immunity? Maybe 3000 or 5000, maybe 10 or 100 times that, right? We need to kind of move our thinking from addressing deficiencies to optimizing health, not just basically taking us so you don't get scurvy, right? deficiency symptoms look different for everybody and it can depend on the person, their unique genetic background, the nutrient or combinations they're missing. For some people, it can show up as joint pain or migraines like low magnesium or depression. I had a guy who was just very depleted in folate and B12 and he was severely depressed, supplement him and boom he's back. It doesn't mean that all cases of depression are caused by that, but it's one of the factors. So for other people, it can show up as rashes or skin conditions. For example, if you're low omega-3 fats, you get patchy dry scaly spits all over. if you had vitamin A deficiency, you get little bumps on the back of your arm, your metabolism will slow down, for example, if you don't have iodine or zinc or selenium, for example, you might be able to make your thyroid properly, might have brain fog from just neurotransmitters. So there's a lot of things that go wrong that we think are just normal symptoms, but they're really because of nutrient deficiencies. Now, there's some basic supplements that I talk about a lot, no matter your age, your race, your sex, your health goals. You want to add these to your routine and you will notice a difference. so what is the basic supplement plan I recommend? Well, it's a multivitamin. I'm technically a multivitamin and multimineral, like a safety net, and ensures you receive a baseline of the essential vitamins and minerals every day. It supports your overall nutrient adequacy, especially in populations with deficiencies, which is pretty much everybody, or increased needs that are based on particular issues, maybe pregnancy, or if you're older, vegetarian, or vegan, those with chronic disease, severe dietary restrictions. You know, especially as we get older, we may not absorb things as well. We may have low stomach acid, not get B12. if you're vegan, for example, we see universally B12, iodine, often zinc, vitamin A, Omega-3s, all low, and vitamin D, iron. It's kind of a disaster for most vegans if you actually check under the hood. Now, if you're taking supplements, fine, great. But if you're vegan, you make sure you take plenty of the right supplements and you check your levels. And I encourage you to do a functional health panel because you might be surprised at what you find. I've been treating you know, people for 30 years testing everybody's nutritional status. And this is not an anomaly. This is pretty much standard. And even if you're trying to be a healthy vegan, it's still hard. So research shows that basically multivitamin every day can help support brain health, slow cognitive aging, boost memory. The study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition just this year reports that a daily multivitamin supplementation over a period of two years significantly improved global cognition and episodic memory. Now, the study authors estimated that daily supplementation had delayed cognitive aging by about two years compared to those who just received a placebo. Now, this is a randomized controlled trial of a multivitamin and a placebo. This is the best kind of study. It's not a correlation study. And, you know, a lot of doctors say, oh, well, you know, supplements don't work or there's no data, there's no evidence. It depends where you look, right? I would say, it's not that there's no evidence, they just haven't looked for it. You know, they say, oh, it causes expensive urine. I'm like, well, yeah, you pee out what you don't need, but Does that mean you shouldn't drink water because you urinate? You just pee out what you don't need? I mean, that doesn't make any sense, right? Or that you shouldn't eat because you poop out stuff you don't need? Well, no, your body takes up what it needs and gets rid of the rest. Now, what about women? Well, if you're a woman, you might be iron deficient or anemic, especially if you don't eat red meat or you're vegan or you have heavy periods, and you probably need iron in your menstruating years. There might be some in your multi, but mostly if you're not and you should get your levels checked, you want to make sure you get enough through a supplement. poly iron bisglycinate is the most bioavailable form. And again, you know, you can test and one of the most important things to know is your ferritin, not just your iron level, but your ferritin, which is your iron stores. And most doctors want to check that. But it's important because if you're your level is under 45, it's going to affect your health, even though the reference range on the lab says 16 or above is normal. 45 or above should be the normal range or the optimal range because under 45, you get hair loss, you get fatigue, you get sleep disruption. and many other things. So, really important to get your ferritin levels up. This is really important. Why? Because you need to make your blood from that, your hemoglobin, energy production, cognition, immune function, all are dependent on iron. And, most multivitamin brands really don't contain enough iron, even the good ones. So, it's because you can get iron overload. So, you don't want to take too much, but you want to take enough. So, I would supplement with iron bisglycinate, which is I mentioned the most bioavailable form. great versions from Thorn and Pure Encapsulations. If you're not getting enough fruits and veggies, by the way, 90% of people aren't in America. They're missing out on powerful benefits of something called polyphenols. Now there's also other stuff we need that we're not getting from our modern industrial food supply, and that's phytochemicals. You know, if you're not eating enough fruits and veggies, and 90% of Americans are not, you're probably missing out on the most powerful healing benefits of polyphenols. And conventional produce has much fewer phytochemicals than organic produce. and obviously regenerative produce has more than organic and wild has more than regenerative. So wild strawberries are amazing. They're small, but, you know, they are full of phytochemicals because also flavor follows phytochemical richness. The more flavorful a food is, the more phytochemicals it has and the better it is for you. So now, even if you were close to the recommended five servings a day of fruits and vegetables, which is barely enough, like that's just bare minimum, it should be more like 10 to 18 servings, not five to nine. If you sort of do follow the guidelines, which is the dietary guidelines of 2020 to 2025, it's too low. Polyphenols are important because they support the gut microbiome, your immune system, inflammation, their overall health, healthy aging, all the longevity switches I talked about in my book Young Forever. All a lot of them are controlled by these phytochemicals, whether it's green tea compounds, berberine from different plants, or all the weird things that can have profound effects like bitter melon is a weird Chinese vegetable, but that's great for regulating blood sugar, for example. Make sure you get your multivitamin. Are you tired of sleeping hotter than you'd like? In our quest for well-being, we often overlook the importance of sleep temperature. 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This offer is available exclusively for Doctors Pharmacy listeners and only for a limited time. What else should you be taking? Well, Omega-3 fatty acids. 90 plus percent of Americans are low on this and this is a critical fat that makes up your cell membranes, your brain that regulates immunity, inflammation, gut microbiome health, pretty much everything. cause it's, it's, it's, you know, there's not many essential fats and we don't need them in large amounts. But, but omega-3 fats are essential, meaning we cannot get them unless we get them from our diet. Right. There, there are things we have to eat, as opposed to fats we can make ourself. 90% of Americans, as I mentioned, are not getting the recommended amounts of omega-3s, which is one or two servings of fatty fish a week. We're not eating enough fish or seafood. And our ancestral diet used to be really different in the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3s we need omega-6s too, but But we used to be having a ratio of 2 to 1 of omega-6 to omega-3s. Now we're probably 20 to 1. And that's pretty scary. Omega-6 fats are really essential for the neurodevelopment of the brain and cognitive health and cellular health, but we're eating way too much of those because of all the processed seed oils that are in our ultra-processed food and sad diet. And these are bad, right? These refined oils that are things that are relatively new to nature in terms of how we processing them. how we grow them. They're full of toxins, glyphosate, hexane, oxidized, unstable oils, soybean, canola, sunflower. Doesn't mean that you can't have some of these omega sixes or use some of these in your kitchen, but you want to use the right forms and you don't want to use too much. Psychosis, Alzheimer's, dementia, all connected to low levels of omega threes and higher omega sixes. Fish oil supplementation is actually associated with a lower risk of dementia. Omega-3 deficiency is also common in skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, just even just dry patchy skin, thinning hair, cracked nails, all kinds of stuff. Like just having healthy skin is amazing. So I take omega-3s. My nails are really hard. They're not like soft and brittle and cracky. And if you're low, it can even, you know, accelerate other inflammatory conditions like arthritis. So you want to increase and maintain your levels of omega-3s. You have to eat at least two servings of small low mercury, cold water fish a week, and that's mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and herring, which are not people's favorite. Sometimes salmon's okay, but again, that can be a little big and have heavy metals. You're not sure where you get them, if it's harm raised or not. They're plant-based Omega-3s ALA, which is a plant form of Omega-3s, and it's a great source of ALA is like walnuts and chia seeds and so forth, but they don't really work. to get to the full needs that we need for Omega-3s because they don't get converted as well as they should. Now, if you're vegan or vegetarian, you want to supplement with high quality algae oil. But algae only has DHA. So there are other forms of EPA that are plant-based that I've seen. I've tested people who've been using them. I don't see them reflected in their blood work, so I'm a little kind of dubious about it. But, you know, there are a lot of, there's a lot of options for you out there. Make sure you look for ones that are carrageenan free. Carrageenan is a toxin to the gut lining. It's made from seaweed, but it's definitely an emulsifier that makes your gut leaky and you want to stay away from that. All right, what else do you need? You got your multivitamin, your fish oil, vitamin D. Now, vitamin D is critical for hundreds and hundreds of biochemical reactions and gene expressions, lots of things, and affects almost every system in your body. It's more of a pro-hormone than a vitamin. Now, the pandemic helped shine a light on how crucial this macronutrient is for overall health and immunity. Now, severe vitamin D deficiency, you get this, that's less than 25 and often in some labs still have 20 as a reference range or most are 30. When you had a vitamin D deficiency of 25 or less, it was associated with an increased severity of COVID disease, a higher rate of ICU admission, a high rate of death, more likely to get infected and more likely to be hospitalized. And guess what, folks? An estimated 1 billion people worldwide are living with vitamin D deficiency. Again, all the references are in. If you want to check my facts, go ahead. Now, 95 of U.S. adults are deficient in vitamin D from the journal nutrients. And when we're talking about deficient, we don't necessarily mean deficient according to the reference range of a lab, but what's optimal, right? Although probably 80 are low at the level that the lab says to. if you're not taking any vitamin D and you're not in the sun. Now, it does so much, right? It functions not just like a vitamin, but more like a hormone. It affects the expression of more than a thousand genes. It's critical for bone health, for bone density, for skin health, hormonal health, muscle function, cognitive health, mental health, depression. You've heard of SAD or the seasonal affective disorder. That's because of low vitamin D in the winter, your gut health, and protecting against chronic disease. we used to eat a lot of these small fatty fish because most of us lived along coastal areas or you can get them from wild mushrooms. But we don't eat those fish or those things that much anymore. So you can get it from salmon, mackerel, sardines and herring, cod liver oil, egg yolks, beef liver, mushrooms like porcini is the highest. The body makes also vitamin D internally on its own, but not enough, right? Vitamin D, depending on you, and your genetics and your absorption, your, your dose should be between a thousand to 5,000 units a day. Some people need 10,000. You can take a lot more if you're deficient to load up the tank rather than just sort of slowly increasing. You can take, you know, 10,000 a day or 20,000 a day for a week or two or three. They did a study with young men who were healthy, gave them 10,000 a day for three months and there was no adverse effects. The form you want to take is vitamin D3. That's the the right form and a lot of doctors prescribe the wrong form, vitamin D2, which isn't as well utilized or converted. You need to take it with fat to boost absorption, so don't take it on empty stomach. You want to go for quality, right? You don't want ones that are just off the shelf from your grocery store or your average pharmacy, maybe Whole Foods and health food stores have higher quality brands, but you want to make sure you get the right products. A lot of the supplements on the market are just crap and there's no regulation. What else? Magnesium. Magnesium is so important and so many of us are low or deficient. It may be between 50 to 70%, depending on how you look. Magnesium is involved in over 600 enzymatic reactions in the body. So every chemical process requires an enzyme and this just keeps the wheels of your biochemical machinery going. And if you're low, you're just not, not, not working out. 60% of Americans are deficient, meaning that 600 enzymatic reactions can't function optimally every day in these people. Magnesium is an important electrolyte gatekeeper of our cells and lets for example, potassium and calcium in the cells to conduct electrical currents that are responsible for everything like our heartbeat, the contraction and relaxation of our muscles, our nerve firing, neuroplasticity, ATP production, the production of energy in our cells, DNA repair, and lots more. It also plays a critical role in hormone and neurotransmitter synthesis, including GABA, which is anxiety preventing neurotransmitter serotonin, which is for depression, for example, happy mood chemical, dopamine for focus. It also regulates sleep, relaxation, mood, behavior, blood sugar critically needs magnesium to be properly regulated. It also activates vitamin D. So if we don't have magnesium, we can't use vitamin D and lots more. Type two diabetics tend to be more magnesium deficient than non-diabetics. and supplementation can actually help prevent diabetes and improve blood sugar control. I mean, studies showing that supplementing with just 250 milligrams of magnesium daily can have a big impact on hemoglobin A1C, which is the average blood sugar, your insulin resistance, and your blood sugar control just after three months. Now, because magnesium is involved so much, deficiency puts us at risk for a lot of problems: anxiety, insomnia, headaches, hormone imbalances, constipation, high blood pressure, painful PMS with cramping and mood swings, vitamin D deficiency, right? My mentor, Sydney Baker, said anything that twitches or cramps is a magnesium deficiency, whether it's constipation, palpitations, anxiety, irritability, muscle twitching, I mean, you name it, it's probably magnesium deficiency. Actually, there was an article in the New England Journal reviewing magnesium deficiency just last week, which is great, and I encourage you to check it out. But it's, thank God, at least media and major medical journals are now recognizing what a big issue this is. and by the way, when we look at our culture, it's a magnesium losing society, right? It's a magnesium losing culture. When we do things like drink caffeine or alcohol or eat foods high in sugar or starch or have chronic stress, which I'm sure no one out there listening has, you lose magnesium. There was one study where they took victims of the Bosnian war in Kosovo and they went to a really, you know, stressed, they actually measured their urinary magnesium and found they were much higher levels of urinary magnesium than average people who weren't stressed. And that means when you're stressed, you pee out magnesium. And the magnesium deficiency makes you more stressed because it's the relaxation mineral. One of my hacks is taking an Epsom salt bath. You can absorb through your skin. That helps you relax. But there's a lot of foods that have magnesium. Pumpkin seeds, almonds, spinach, cashews, avocado, dark chocolate. and it's hard to get enough magnesium from food. Why? Well, as I mentioned before, our declining soil quality, it's bound to antinutrients in our diet, like phytates from beans and some grains. And there's a lot of different forms of magnesium. So, you know, depending on what your needs are and what your issues are, I'd recommend different forms. For example, magnesium glycinate by pure encapsulations is great. And you can take, you know, about, you know, 120 milligrams in a pill. You can take, you know, two to four of those a day. That's a good one. It doesn't just sort of generally applicable and also helps with sleep. What else? Okay, multivitamin, fish oil, vitamin D, magnesium, and a probiotic is the next group. Now, our gut health is so tied to your overall health. We know we've talked about a lot on the podcast, but your gut microbiome is comprised of trillions of different bacteria that work together to support or to inhibit your overall health, right? Good bugs are good for you. Bad bugs are bad for you. Bad bacteria cause something called dysbiosis, which is an imbalance in the gut flora where you grow too many bad bugs and not enough good bugs. That leads to inflammation, to a leaky gut, to systemic inflammation, to food sensitivities, to all kinds of stuff. And it increases the risk for chronic diseases across the board, from heart disease to cancer, diabetes, to obesity, as well as allergy, asthma, autoimmunity, and lots, lots more. Now, good bacteria promote a healthy immune system. and they lower inflammation and they protect against chronic disease. So you want to get a probiotic. And a probiotic can introduce good bacteria into your gut and that helps support digestion, regular pooping, immunity, lowering your inflammation state can reduce bloating. Although if you do have bacterial overgrowth, you want to be careful because probiotics can make it worse temporarily until you fix it. But it overall improves GI health. Now there are other nutrients that you might want to add in here and there. One of them that I, I certainly think is helpful as you get older and when you need to build muscle is creatine. Creatine is one of the most well researched, safest and most effective supplements on the market. So what is it? Well, creatine is a compound that our bodies naturally produce. It's also found in certain foods like animal proteins, meat and fish. It's primarily stored in muscles and in smaller amounts in the brain and heart. Creatine is well known for helping build lean muscle. and when paired with resistance training, meaning strength training, it's super beneficial in preventing muscle loss or sarcopenia, reducing falls and fracture risk as you get older. Now, creatine may help enhance insulin sensitivity. It can improve the function efficacy of glucose transporters in the muscle, meaning it's better to regulate your blood sugar and also your fat tissues, which is great for people with metabolic issues. And studies have shown that supplemental creatine could benefit sedentary people or those with metabolic dysfunction by enhancing insulin sensitivity, which is something we mostly have. I think probably 93% of Americans have a problem with their insulin regulation. Evidence shows that a high intake of creatine is linked to a 50% lower risk of depression, improved mood, particularly in populations that consume less meat. Those are my top supplements, right? Multivitamin, fish oil, vitamin D, Magnesium, Probiotics, and Creatine. Those are the ones I certainly take every day and I think everybody needs to take on a regular basis. I have links to all the supplements in the show notes. If you're interested in what supplements I take for longevity, check out my episode on diet, supplements, and lifestyle routine for myself. The link will be in the show notes and I'll catch you next time. Thanks for listening today. If you love this podcast, please share it with your friends and family. Leave a comment on your own best practices on how you upgrade your health and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow me on all social media channels at Dr. Mark Hyman and we'll see you next time on the Doctor's Pharmacy. I'm always getting questions about my favorite books, podcasts, gadgets, supplements, recipes, and lots more. And now you can have access to all of this information by signing up for my free Mark's Picks newsletter at drhyman.com/markspicks. I promise I'll only email you once a week on Fridays and I'll never share your email address or send you anything else besides my recommendations. These are the things that have helped me on my health journey and I hope they'll help you too. Again, that's drhyman.com/markspicks. Thank you again and we'll see you next time on the Doctor's Pharmacy. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the Ultra Wellness Center and my work at Cleveland Clinic and Function Health where I'm the Chief Medical Officer. This podcast represents my opinions and my guests' opinions and neither myself nor the of the podcast endorse the views or statements of my guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. Now, if you're looking for your help in your journey, seek out a qualified medical practitioner. You can come see us at the Ultra Wellness Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. Just go to ultra wellnesscenter.com if looking for a functional medicine practitioner near you, you can visit ifm.org and search find a practitioner database. It's important that you have someone in your corner who is trained, who's a life. Don't forget, there's a way to listen completely ad free with Hyman plus on Apple podcasts. You can enjoy every episode without any breaks. Just open Apple podcasts and tap try free to start your seven day free trial.