All About Supplements

Hello and welcome. Today we are gonna be doing one of my favorite kinds of lives because we're talking about supplements. Supplements for women 40 plus, what you should be taking, what are the foundational supplements, what are the must-haves, what are the nice-to-haves, what are the don't bother, it's a waste of monies, and how do we simplify this? Not complicate things, but really get the best bang for your buck. Because one of the things I've seen over the years, and I still remember back when I was seeing a lot of people one-on-one, and one of the things I'd have them bring in is the supplements they were currently on. And literally people would walk in with like grocery bags full of stuff. I'm like, what is this? And why are you taking this? No clue. So let's go through them today. You figure out what you really need. I had a bunch of questions submitted. I've got questions from Instagram, from my lifestyle community. If you're not in my Facebook group, jump on in there as well. It's JJ Virgin Lifestyle Community. And stick around till the end. I'm going to be talking about fiber. We are starting our fiber challenge on the 28th. And this is really a massively important area for us. You know, one of my things with my— what we need to do to age powerfully and have an optimal body composition is protein plus plants. So I'll be talking about why with that. Hey, I'm JJ Virgin, PhD, Drop Out, Sorry Mom, turned 4-time New York Times bestselling author. As a certified nutrition specialist, Fitness Hall of Famer, and globally recognized leader in health, I'm driven to keep asking the tough questions and use my podcast to simplify the science of health into actionable strategies that help you thrive. I'd also love to hear your thoughts on the show. And here's the fun part. When you send me your review, I'll reply to you using my on-demand virtual me. That's right. My team and I created a virtual JJ Virgin packed with my books, speeches, and wisdom so I can personally connect with you. Here's how you do it. Subscribe and leave an honest review of the podcast. Take a screenshot of your review. Text it to 813-565-2627. That's 813-565-2627. My virtual JJ will reply directly. And trust me, this will make your day. So subscribe now at subscribe2jj.com and text me your review. Let's keep thriving together. Let's jump in first to the very first question, which was from Mary Taylor. And it said, I recently purchased your Yoked supplement. I wish it was mine. This actually is from MyosMD. I started carrying it because I'm so obsessed with it. I take it everywhere. Just came back from Europe, travel everywhere with it. Took it to the Amazon, took it to Europe. It is from fertilized egg yolks. Now, Mary Taylor says she's also doing her drop 7 foods. One of them is eggs. So here's the thing. The Virgin Diet is a, is a 21-day program. Hold onto the yolked because this is a 21-day program. Quite often what people are reacting to, if they are reacting to eggs, is not the yolk at all. It's the white. Because the white is, is all protein, the yolk is very little, and that tends to be the more allergenic part of it. So my advice to you is to hold on to it. I think this is one of the most valuable supplements for women 40+, if you are looking to hold on to or build muscle. They have been studying a lot now with use for GLP-1s. To me, if you're going to do a GLP-1, Yolked by Myos and amino acids are the two key things you should be on. But Hold on, go through the Virgin Diet. It's a 21-day program. And then you go back and rechallenge one by one the foods to see how they work for you. If you find at that point that you react to eggs, the next thing to do is to just try egg yolks and see how you respond. 'Cause my guess is it's the egg whites if you're reacting to them. And remember, when you do the Virgin Diet, it's to figure out which foods work for you and which foods don't, heal your gut, and then Ideally, over time, you're able to do things like have, um, A2 cheese, which we just had in Switzerland. Oh my gosh. Or Greek-style yogurt or eggs because you've healed your gut back up. Now, sometimes if you have autoimmune diseases, some of these things will just not be great for you. Although I find with autoimmune disease, you can still do the yolked. Everyone's different though. The other way you can always check is to do a food sensitivity test. But again, this is really a marker of your gut. Integrity, and then you heal your gut. Lana Louise, do you agree with the concept that when you're 10 years post-menopause, it's less protective and more detrimental to start HRT? If so, what do you recommend for supplements? That's actually been debunked. The top menopause docs are not doing that. They are actually working with you, looking at what's going on with you, your risk factors, and then helping you make a decision that's right for you. I know Dr. Kelly Casperson does that. I know that Dr. Felice Gersh is kind of the spearheader of this. She's been in the, in the game for the longest. She's the GOAT of HRT, and that's who I would look and listen to. And I would recommend going to my Well Beyond 40 podcast and finding Felice Gersh episodes. I've done a few because she's so amazing, and I talk specifically about what's called— don't hate me for this, I did not make up this term— it's called geriatric HRT. But she regularly puts women 10 years or longer outside of that window on HRT. If you're looking at supplements, really it would be soy isoflavones, you know, exercise to raise testosterone, Wild Yam for progesterone. But honestly, I would go work with someone on whether this is the right choice for you, which is what I think we all should be doing with HRT. What has now opened up for all of us, thankfully, although I've been on HRT since the moment my hormones started to drop— testosterone came first, and then I started a little cycling progesterone and estrogen, and thyroid actually came first and testosterone— but we get to make an informed decision. So do your homework, do your research, check out Tamsen Fadal's book How to Menopause. That's a great resource manual for you. And then go talk to a doctor who understands all of this. We're actually putting together a list right now of amazing doctors throughout the country who can help you, who I personally know, love, and trust. Okay, from my Facebook community: Do you count the aminos towards your daily protein intake? And if so, how many grams of protein do you calculate for a serving of aminos? I don't count them, but I'm wondering if I should. You have no idea the can of worms you just opened. Now, I use this product every day. This is my Amino Power powder. I built it so that it really, depending on how you use it, it's a 1 to 2 month supply. It's leucine rich. I don't think it was a study, it was like a paper where they talked about the best amino acid profile for sarcopenia. That's what I based the formula on. Leucine rich, of course. Now here's the thing, as we age, we struggle to extract the amino acids from protein so that we can use them for all sorts of important things. When you eat a chicken breast, you don't get all of the amino acids from the chicken breast, boom, assimilated. It doesn't work that way. So certain things can block some of the amino acid assimilation. Fiber, fat, poor digestion, aging, all can cause this. And there's this aging process called anabolic resistance where we struggle to get those amino acids from the protein and then be able to use them for things like muscle protein synthesis. So It's a tough question because when you take straight free-form essential amino acids, they all get absorbed. Now, here's what's super interesting. If you take them before you eat or an hour or so after food, you're going to absorb them better than if you took them with a meal. And I just recently learned this and went, oh duh, that makes so much sense. So if you know you're having a skimpy meal, like, you know, when I was traveling in Europe, literally one morning for breakfast there was scrambled eggs. Well, I can't eat enough scrambled eggs to get the protein I need from the eggs, I'll be too full and overload on fat. So when you see something like that, the first thing you do is have some aminos, then you could eat your eggs, you know, 15 minutes later. But if you're eating fiber and fat with protein, you're not going to absorb as much of the amino acids. So that's the first thing. As we age, we don't absorb as much of amino acids, which gives me more reason that we should be doing essential aminos. There was some urban legend that like 5 grams of essential aminos equals 6, 30 grams of protein. I don't know where they got that because it would really depend on how well you absorb that 30 grams of protein. But literally, yes, you can count this in, but just know that it's way more bioavailable than what you're getting when you're eating actual protein. And actual protein isn't all essential amino acids. It's got, you know, other aminos in it as well. And not all is being absorbed. So You could at least say it's 2 to 3 times. Here's how I use this. If I'm missing a meal, if I wake up in the morning and I can't eat within an hour or two of waking up, I'm going to have a double scoop of my Essential Aminos, especially if I'm going to go to the gym and work out. And that happened. I just was on a trip to Cannes, Geneva, and Zurich. It was amazing. And there were those days when I got up to work out and I wasn't going to be able to eat for 2 hours. So I did a double scoop of Essential Aminos. Plus my creatine, my chiatine powder, and a little electrolyte. So that's what I took to the gym in this. I literally travel with this. Okay, so if I'm having a skimpy meal, then I'm going to try to have this ideally before the meal. Sometimes you don't know it's skimpy till you're in the middle of it. So you could have a scoop pre-skimpy meal, or if you had the skimpy meal and went, well, that was skimpy, I'd wait a little bit, but I'd probably do a double hit. That's how I would use it. You can count it in, but it's hard to say how much it really is. At the bare bones, I would say 5 grams of aminos is worth probably 10, maybe 15 grams of protein. But that's how I use it. So there you go. It's a little bit more challenging because remember, when you eat protein, stomach acid has to denature it. This is why enzymes— and then enzymes break it into these peptides, amino acids. This is why enzymes are so important. And you want to be likely taking my Protein Digestive Enzymes or a good digestive enzyme product. Because as we age, we get worse at breaking down protein, our hydrochloric acid goes low, and we also get worse breaking down fats. And you got to break them down in order for your small intestine to be able to absorb them. Right. And then once you've done that, your liver, your splanchnic tissues are going to use a little bit of it, and then the amino acids enter circulation. So it never is going directly to the muscle. You never get 100% to the muscle, and a lot of the absorption and utilization Depends on your age, your gut health, your enzymes, all this stuff. Okay, complicated question, but there you go. And the next one I'm gonna do is from my Facebook community. It's question number 2, supplements. How many servings per day and how to include throughout the day? And they ask bone broth protein, collagen, bone broth aminos, creatine, electrolytes. I'm gonna start this question. And then they also said, I'm 120 grams of protein a day, or I need that, and I'm trying to build muscle and keep bone strong. I think the bigger high-level question here is how do you put together the right supplement regimen for you? Here's the foundational supplements I want you to think about. Number 1, the things that your body needs that you should be getting in either from diet and lifestyle, right? So let's say vitamin D. We should be getting that from the sun. Some of us genetically are not good vitamin D makers, and a lot of us are not getting out in the sun like, like we should because we're trying to protect our skin. I think that we all likely need to supplement with it because I've looked at a lot of 25-hydroxy vitamin D tests and without supplementation, I've actually never seen someone in the optimal range, which is somewhere in the 50 to 80 ng/mL. Sometimes I hear people going up to as high as 100. When you take vitamin D3, which is the active form, you also want to take K2 with it because K2 makes sure that, you know, as D3 helps you absorb calcium, that is going to the right places. So that's the first thing, vitamin D based on lab tests. Next one would be omega-3s. So omega-3s, you know, if you are eating a lot of clean, wild, cold water fish, I'm talking 5 times a week, then you're fine, but likely you're not. And we also have struggled to get clean fish. I will tell you, Switzerland was so clean, I couldn't believe it, but we're struggling to get that. I mean, in Switzerland, your grass-fed beef and your, your cheese also have omega-3s, which is pretty amazing. But still, most of us would benefit from taking 1 to 2 grams of a good EPA/DHA supplement, clean, pure, I like a 1:1 ratio. How do you know? You can get an omega-3 index test. If you're a Function Health member, they actually test this number so that you can see if you're in the optimal range, right? That means that you've got a good balance between inflammation and anti-inflammation. Next one is magnesium. This is just one we tend to be deficient in. You need it for so many different things. So many different enzymes are dependent on magnesium, even creating ATP. You've gotta have magnesium. So to get your hormones, to make your hormones, you need magnesium. So magnesium, you can do an RBC for red blood cell magnesium test. I find most people need anywhere from 300 milligrams and up. I take about 1,000 milligrams of magnesium a day. The next one is creatine because our body makes about a gram of creatine a day and we need about another gram or two a day. Now, if you were eating a high meat-based diet, you would be getting it. But it's about a pound of rare or 2 pounds of cooked meat or fish or chicken. Most of us are not getting that, and boy, I hope you're not eating raw chicken. And so this is when you're going to want to supplement with. Now, when you supplement with the brand I use, I created Chiatine with taurine and magnesium and creatine HCL. You don't need to use anywhere near the dose of HC— of creatine that you do with monohydrate, because monohydrate is poorly absorbed. So creatine HCL is, is like 7 times more absorbed. You need a microdose compared to monohydrate. Here's why you want to supplement with creatine. First of all, women have less muscle tissue than men, so we have less creatine stores than men. That's number 1. Number 2, when our body makes creatine, which it does from arginine, methionine, and glycine, it's a very methylation-dependent process. It's going to use your methylating B vitamins, B12, B6, B9, that's folic— folate. If you give yourself more creatine, you don't need to worry, oh my gosh, I'm overloading on creatine. Your body will shut down its own production, not permanently, but just temporarily. What does that mean? That your body can then take the methylation and use it elsewhere. So we don't have to use up all our methylators for making creatine. We can use them to detox estrogen, for example. So this is a really great thing and one thing I don't think we talk about enough. So that's another reason to be taking creatine. So those are my foundation foundational ones, and then likely enzymes as well. I use a protein digestive enzyme that also helps with fat. So a protein fat digestive enzyme, super important. Those are my foundationals, then I build up from that. Now, what else? I think most of us 40+ would benefit from amino acids. If you're in a caloric deficit, if you're on a GLP-1, if you're working out hard, if you're not getting enough protein in, if you're anabolically resistant, If you're insulin resistant, amino acids make a ton of sense, and I explained already how I would use those. I personally take them when I go to the gym every day. They go in that big old— this big old bottle, and with my chiatine and my electrolytes, they can help you recover better from the gym. So that's super cool. The other things that I would look at is I like electrolytes, and I'll tell you why. If you're doing sauna or sweating a lot, I think it makes sense. But the other reason I think it makes sense is because of this. I think a serving or two of electrolytes a day makes sense because We have basically killed our water. Like, one of the things that was really clear being over in Switzerland— you can tell I'm a little bit fascinated by it— but it was so clean. The water, you could drink it out of the tap, and the air was clean, the food was clean. You know, we filter our water, and when we filter our water, which we need to do because, gosh, there's all sorts of pharmaceuticals in there, all sorts of heavy metals— but when you filter water, you filter out the minerals too. And so it makes a ton of sense to remineralize your water. So I think that's where electrolytes come in as well. Now the other things. So protein powder, and I have two different ones. I have a plant-based and a bone broth-based. I did both of these where I spiked them to have the amino acid profile of whey. I think whey is an amazing protein powder. However, right now there is such a run on it. It's gotten super expensive. But the reason that I don't have a whey protein powder is because there's a lot of great wheys out there. And whey, for a lot of people, if they have leaky gut, it can be problematic, you know, because of the dairy. So I like to do things that I could do every day and it wouldn't create a problem. And that's where the bone broth protein powder or the plant-based protein powder come in. And what I did was I spiked them with amino acids. I boosted them to mimic the amino acid profile of whey because it is the best profile for building muscle. And that's long been established. So that's there. So how would you use that? Well, it's great to take with you to use in your, let's say you can make a mocha coffee, another way to boost your protein. You can put it into, I make like all sorts of desserts where I use protein powder in it to make different types of cheesecakes, both dairy-free and regular and Greek or cottage cheese. You can add it into oatmeal. So you can add it into things or you can make a smoothie. And we have a great smoothie guide, which we'll put into the chat. And into the show notes that you can use. So got that. Now what about collagen? So bone broth has some collagen, but our collagen is different than that because it's got specific peptides called Verisol and Fortigel, and these have been clinically proven to support your bones and to support your skin. Your body needs it to make collagen. I like to take collagen before I go to the gym with my coffee. I like to do coffee before I go to the gym, and then I put collagen in with it because I'm getting more blood flow to my joints. And really, collagen is not going to help you build muscle. I saw someone— I saw someone online talking about that the other day, and I'm like, collagen does not help you build muscle. Collagen does not have leucine in it. It doesn't have the branched-chain amino acids. It's not going to help you build muscle. But what it is going to help you build is probably even more important. It's going to help support your connective tissue. And when you think of the limiting force to how hard you're going to be able to work out, it's your connective tissue. Right? It's two things. It's your mitochondria, it's your ATP, which shea team's built to support that. The creatine HCL plus taurine plus magnesium is all there to help your body recycle, regenerate ATP. So it's going to help your body work out harder. So you need energy to work out, but you also need good connective tissue, and that's where collagen comes in. So that's what's so important with collagen. I think I hit everything there. Yes, I did. Okay, now if depending on how much magnesium I had during the day in my chiatine, likely I might do a little hit at night before bed. I saw a question about magnesium citrate versus glycinate. I use a glycinate malate combo because malic acid can be good for reducing inflammation. Glycine is very calming, so it's a great before-bed body calming thing. Citrate, ascorbate, aspartate oxide, they're the poopy magnesiums. They are gonna, they're harder to absorb. They make, they can make you, if you're constipated, they can be great because they can help. You poop. But most of us are really trying to absorb our calcium or our magnesium and not have that happen. Other thing I use before bed is I travel with our Sleep Candy and I take it every night. I actually do a dose and a half of that. Okay, question from YouTube Live today from Eva Marie. I am asking is whether stevia changes the way our body processes food if we're concerned about pre-diabetes and whether it affects the absorption of essential vitamins or protein. Never seen anything ever to show that. In fact, what I've seen with stevia is that it can help with insulin sensitivity and diabetes. So I think there's been a lot of misinformation out there about stevia. I'm not quite sure why. Makes no sense. Angela, what's the best timing on taking the supplement chiotene? With my meal, a few workouts before strength workout, or the meal right after a workout? Okay, so I heard something interesting about this. Here's the reality. I take 2 doses of chiotene every single day, and I take 2 more when I'm time zone adjusting. Like, I just went from California, New York, Europe. And then back to Florida and really had no issues because I used double doses of creatine of my shiitake product. What the research shows is that it can be really good for jet lag or sleep deprivation. So I use a double dose all the time, which keeps my stores topped off. And then if there's anything extra going on, like I just, I have a hit, I have a double dose right in here right now. Mm-hmm. With Peak Tea, by the way. I heard something interesting because the reality is once you get your stores up, you should be fine. And it doesn't really matter when you take it. However, I heard someone talking about it and they go, listen, you know, when you're going to go to the gym and you have a little top off, you have a little something like 30 minutes to an hour before you're going just to give you a little more energy. He said, you know, why wouldn't you want a little top off? I personally take chiatina in my water bottle to the gym. Could be psychological, but it seems to make sense. So I think it makes sense to take a little before you work out. But again, I don't know that it's that big of a thing. Dosage on creatine. So remember monohydrate, you're going to need 3 to 5 grams at least. And then they're basically doubling that for cognition and sometimes going up to 20, causing a lot of GI and bloating and issues. The HCL is about 750 milligrams to a gram is kind of a foundational dose. I do about 1,500 milligrams a day. So a double dose of my chiatine. And then again, if I've got to go get on a stage later in the day— I'm a morning person, so if I have to speak at night, man, I'm like on chiatine, right? I have to do things where I need to really be on, or I'm time zone adjusting, that's where I'll use some extra. And again, it doesn't really matter when you take it. And I think probably me taking a little bump in the afternoon is more psychological. So Joy says, my creatine's monohydrate. Why did you say not to use that? Here's the thing, if it's not hurting you, if you feel fine with it, great. We just shared a study that showed that 81% of women using monohydrate complained of gas, bloating, GI issues. Again, it is not well absorbed, so you just have to use a lot more of it. They'll say, oh, but it's, it's cheap. Well, not really when you look at how much you have to use. So, you know, 10-20 grams is what they're now recommending for cognition. Holy smokes. If it's working fine for you, use it. I like the HCL. I can use a lot less. I also think it makes a ton of sense to have taurine with it because taurine is going to help your muscles contract better. More powerful contractions. Chia seeds helping you work out harder, recover better. The creatine HCL and then the taurine is helping your muscles contract better. And then magnesium attaches to ATP, right? So you need magnesium to make ATP. So all of this works together and that's why I put it together the way I did. Michelle says, I've been told I can't use creatine because I have kidney stones. Which should I take instead? Okay, gotta always do what your doctor says. But if your doctor is not up on this, quite often when they're not up on something, they're down on it. So you might wanna find someone who is. Apotek. And you might want to look at Dr. Rick Johnson. I've had him on Well Beyond 40. He is the kidney guy who's really up on things. And I'm wondering if Jason Fung would be another great resource. So what the evidence, current evidence shows is that creatine doesn't cause kidney stones in healthy people. Now, if you have a history, it's also not automatically contraindicated. So basically what the studies currently show is there's no kidney damage, no reduction in kidney function, no evidence. That creatine causes kidney stones. And you might see a little elevation in creatinine, but that's just 'cause it's a breakdown product of creatine. So the things that cause kidney stones: dehydration, low urine volume, high oxalates, too much salt, low citrate, some kind of metabolic dysfunction. So I think the bigger question is why do you have kidney stones? That's what I'd be working on right now. Why do you have kidney stones? But again, the research doesn't support that this causes them, exacerbates them, or anything else. And then I had one question here: is creatine safe for cancer survivors? Now, I got these research papers from the formulator. So my buddy is the one who created Creatine HCL, so he always stays up on all of the latest research. And this research here— and this was on HCL— one was from Vanderbilt Medical Center, and it showed that T cells fight as long as they— to keep us healthy, but they get exhausted. And that T cells are dependent on cellular— on creatine for cellular energy. And I remember him showing me this video, and it was an immune cell getting exhausted and then giving the immune cells creatine, and they come back fully charged with energy and fight against cancer cells. So that's the first one is— and for cancer survivors basically— remember, we make creatine and we get it from food. So if creatine was a problem for cancer survivors, we'd actually have to stop eating meat. So that's the big question. And also, remember, one of the issues with cancer survivors is sarcopenia, and this can come, you know, this, this can help here. So when you think about a lot of things that can happen after cancer treatment— muscle loss, sarcopenia, weakness, fatigue, mitochondrial dysfunction— creatine can come in and help with a whole lot of that, right? Muscle muscle preservation, exercise tolerance, ATP regeneration. So there are studies going on. The current studies suggest that it's safe. There's studies showing that it could have anti-inflammatory effects, immune supportive effects, and possible tumor suppressive effects. But these are animal studies. I'm not your doctor. I'm not a doctor. So you're going to have to like do some research here and find a doctor who's really up on these things. Or wants to be up on these things, who doesn't just discount something just because they don't know. And again, this is why I'm putting together a really cool list of amazing practitioners all over the place that take the time to really learn all this. Okay, what's the best B12 form and what to look for in ingredients? Methyl is the best one. And one of the things you can do with B12 is you can do a blood test to see where you're at with it. And really the best form is usually a sublingual. Or a shot. So ideally, if you're B12 deficient, if you're just trying to stay in the right levels, a great methylated B12, you know, methylcobalamin is fine. If you are deficient, then you might want to look at doing a B12 shot or a B12 sublingual. That would be the better choice there. What does taurine do? asks Michelle. So taurine is not an amino acid, it's an amino acid-like compound. And what it does, and the reason I put it into chiotene, is it supports cellular hydration. So, and muscle function. So it just makes a ton of sense there how well it can work with creatine HCL. Helps your nervous system, helps your mitochondria, it helps with bile acid formation. And they've been studying it now in longevity, and actually they're taking the doses up for longevity now to like 3 to 6 grams. So I may be cranking it. The body makes taurine, but when you're under stress, you're aging, you're illness, you're working out hard, or you're not eating enough protein, which I know is not the case here, then you sometimes don't make enough for what you need. And again, this complements creatine really well because creatine helps you create cellular energy, helps power, it helps you recycle your ATP, and taurine helps regulate the calcium flow into the muscles, and it helps improve cell hydration and electrolyte balance. So they work together really, really well. Okay, hold on. Next one. Uh, Nancy, what are and where do you get amino acids? Okay, so amino acids are protein, come from protein. So remember, we eat fat to get the essential fatty acids and we eat protein to get the essential amino acids. These are things that we can't make. So with fat, we know that we need omega-3s and omega-6s, by the way. They're getting a lot of shade, but we need them in the right amount. We just eat too many of them and eat damaged ones. And with protein, there's 9 essential amino acids that we need to get from food we can't make. And so that's what they are. They are basically things we need to get from food. Okay. Cold sores at times, and know some amino acid products can be an issue because of arginine. Have you seen any connection between creatine and outbreaks of prurit? No, because if you have cold sores, any of the herpes types of things, arginine would be a trigger. Not creatine, not taurine, not magnesium. Arginine is a totally separate thing.. And you may just be able to set that off by just pumping up your lysine a bit. So that might be a way for you to try that if you are taking aminos and having issues. So my plant protein. So Karen says, did JJ Virgin say her plant protein has the right amino acid profile so we don't have to take additional amino acids? Well, it depends how much you're taking throughout the day. So again, when you look at, let's say that you used plant protein, you did a smoothie in the morning. Cool. If you had a chicken breast with salad for lunch, great. And then let's say you had a skimpy dinner. Well, then you'd want to have some amino acids there. So it's, it's not just what you're getting at a meal. It's how much you're getting overall. And yes, you can have amino— you can have aminos any time of day. I was just listening to someone who was, you know, if, if I was doing this right now and I was sarcopenic, I would be having them before each meal, but especially thinking about morning and evening. Will you last? How much collagen? I think I was overdoing it. Well, if you're going to overdo something, collagen is one of those things you can overdo and not hurt yourself. It's just expensive to do it. The research is done on 5 to 15 grams of collagen. I have been taking about 10 grams of collagen a day before I go work out. If I'm recovering from something, like when I did my facelift, I did doubled it up. I did my aminos, I did my collagen, but I doubled up the collagen. So depending on what's going on, I do 10 grams a day. And again, the studies were 5 to 15, but if you are doing something where you need to recover, then it might make sense to double it. Cindy B says, what do I do if I can't stomach magnesium? It gives me diarrhea. Look at the type of magnesium. So I do two things here. I'd run an RBC magnesium to see where your levels are, and then I'd also check what type you're taking. Magnesium oxide, magnesium citrate, magnesium ascorbate will give you diarrhea. That's what they're there for, actually. Um, like there's a Mag-O2 product that is purely there to help you poop. But magnesium glycinate, malate, and threonate, those don't tend to do that. So there you go. As far as how much magnesium, there's different types of magnesium, they do different things. I use a malate glycinate because I'm doing it really for body calming. And how much you need really depends on your diet, how much you work out, your genetics. So I think a good starting point is about 300 milligrams. Now I'm also taking chiotine that has magnesium in So see what you need. I probably get in more like 800 to 1,000 milligrams of magnesium a day. I check my levels and I'm right in line. So it's really, there isn't the dose for everybody. It's the right dose for you. Shouldn't you take magnesium along with potassium? It affects your heartbeat. Okay. So here's, here's, let's talk through all of this. Calcium helps your heart muscle contract. It keeps your heartbeat strong and coordinated. Potassium regulates your heart rhythm. And your electrical signaling, keeps your heartbeat steady, helps control your blood pressure. Magnesium helps the heart muscle relax properly, keeps normal rhythm, helps regulate calcium and potassium balance in the cardiovascular system. We store them all. This is not like water-soluble vitamins like C, where you— it will have a half-life of like 12 hours and it's out, right? B vitamins, C, With minerals, we store them. That's why you don't want to go crazy with them, because if you overloaded with them, you store them. Although I've— the only time I've actually never seen that as a problem. So it's not about taking them together, it's just getting the right amounts of these in for you. And remember, ideally we used to get this all from our food until we just ended up with— I look at it now and I look at our food in the States, it's like we just have dead food. It's We're overfed, undernourished because our food just doesn't have the nutrients it used to have. A question from YouTube chat. Mary Chicken Breast says, Mary Chicken Breast, however, I mostly eat skinless chicken thighs. Is that just as good? I don't know what the whole question was. However, I personally like chicken thighs better than chicken breasts, and I converted my husband over to them too. Yes, totally fine. Just remember, if something's higher fat, you want to make sure, like, we get pastured chicken thighs, no small feet defined. Sproutasm. But when you have things with higher fat, you always want to make sure that they have— they are clean because toxins store in the fat. Can you use your enzymes with GLP-1s? Yes, absolutely. In fact, you're probably going to feel better doing that. So should we take HCL to help digestion? Gluten doesn't like me. Will this help my bloated belly? Well, the first thing is you got to know why your belly is bloated. And if your belly is bloated because of gluten, stop eating gluten. Stop it. Stop, stop. Okay, that's the first thing. You know, yes, there's gluten enzymes to help with gluten, but don't eat gluten. That's the first step. I'm always amazed when I go out of the country because I can eat gluten, feel great, and then I come home, can't eat gluten. But don't eat gluten if it hurts you. And I find with most people, they shouldn't be eating gluten if you're in the United States. It's either the hybridized gluten or it's the glyphosate. It's all a problem. As far as a bloated belly, we got to find out why your belly is bloated. If you pulled the gluten out and it's still bloated, Start with digestive enzymes, see how you feel. But another thing to look at is, you know, doing a stool test. I really love Tiny Health. They have a great stool test that can look at how well you're digesting your food, if you've got any parasites, like what else could be going on. But one of the other things you can just do is either do the Virgin Diet, pull out those top 7 foods, see how that helps you. If that doesn't get you all the way, the other thing to look at is a low FODMAPs diet. It. And FODMAP stands for— I'm gonna kill it, but it's basically fructose oligosaccharides. I mean, I'm gonna mess it up anyway. It's all these different types of sugars that ferment in your small intestine and make you gassy. And so you just pull them out. You don't want to live this way, but see if that helps. Now, jjvirgin.com/fiber-challenge is the link to join my free challenge to incorporate more fiber, which is one of the key ways that we really get your gut microbiome dialed in. So here's some crazy stuff. So one thing that happens as we age and estrogen goes down is our gut microbiome lacks diversity, which is wild. That happens too. In fact, my girlfriend Cynthia Thurlow just wrote Menopause Gut, all about the shifts in your microbiome that happen can cause you to start laying down that visceral adipose tissue, that belly fat. The deep scary stuff. Remember your gut microbiome, it's how well we absorb nutrients. It's our mood. It's how well we burn fat. It's our immune system. All these massively important things happen there. Our appetite. One of the things that you do to help restore your gut is fiber and also different types of plants, which is one of the things with fiber to get all the different polyphenols, which also feed your gut. So That is all part of it. And again, you can go and join for free, jjvirgin.com/fiber-challenge, and we're starting this all up tomorrow. Okay, so one other question. Where'd it go? Shannon wants to know, what can you use for electrolytes when on a low sodium diet? So what I would do if I was on a low sodium diet for electrolytes is, you know, all electrolytes are going to have a little bit of sodium in them because some of them will be higher, like Element's really high in sodium. But what you could do is just a little bit of coconut water would probably be where I'd go. And what I would do there is I would make sure you get the one with the no sugar added, one of the lower sugar ones. I think Zoco, is that the name? I met the gal who created this company. It was a lower sugar one. Anyway, look for that. That would be my recommendation there. I tend to stay away from those because of the sugar, but they do have some lower sugar ones. So hopefully that helps. Okay. Thank you for playing. Like lots of great questions here. I super support that. Big thing here is your foundation is good sleep, movement, great relationships, belief in something bigger than yourself, having a purpose and having dogs and eating well. And then of course the next level up is that Tier 1 of supplements, those foundational ones. And then you go from there based on what things you're trying to accomplish. Do I need to fix my sleep? Am I addressing stress, blood sugar balance? Muscle, et cetera. And then you use supplements there to fill those gaps. They're here to support what you're already doing. And hopefully if you've been overwhelmed, this helped you be less so. And really what I like to do is I think you get on the core foundational ones and then I'll just add one thing at a time so I can really tell what it's doing for me. I did that with, I went to Timeline when I was in Geneva, which was really fun.. But I know when I did that, like, my workouts improved. I know when I added Myo's, uh, Yoked, I added some fat-free mass on. So I do things one by one. Like, the chia team, when I started that, blew my mind. Like, the difference in my jet lag, of how I can travel now. I don't even worry about traveling and changing time zones anymore because of that. So I try to do things that way so I can really judge, is this helping me? Um, obviously something like a multi, you're not going to notice that, but the rest of this stuff you will. If you've got anything going on gut blood sugar issues, digestion, cravings, hunger, my fiber challenge is for you. So make sure you sign up for that because it starts on the 28th. Again, it's jjvirgin.com/fiber-challenge. It's free. And that's it. Thanks for hanging out and I'll see you in the challenge. Be sure to join me next time for more tools, tips, and techniques you you can use to look and feel your best and be built to last. Also, I'd love to connect with you and hear your thoughts on the podcast. Here's how. First, subscribe to the podcast and leave an honest review. Second, take a screenshot of your review. And third, text it to 813-565-2627. That's 813-565-2627. 855-265-2627. When you do, I'll reply using my brand new Virtual JJ. It's my on-demand virtual self built from my books, talks, and years of experience so I can interact with you directly. You'll make my day and I can't wait to hear from you. Thanks for tuning in and I'll catch you on the next episode. Hey, JJ here. And just a reminder that the Well Beyond 40 podcast offers health, wellness, fitness, and nutritional information that's designed for educational and entertainment purposes only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for, nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always consult with a physician or other healthcare professional. Make sure that you do not disregard, avoid, or delay obtaining medical or health-related advice from your healthcare professional because of something you may have you may have heard on the show or read in our show notes. 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