Dr. Patrick recommends five supplements with specific doses: 2g omega-3s daily, a multivitamin, 4,000 IU vitamin D, 250-350mg magnesium at night, and 5g creatine before and after workouts. Creatine needs a four-week loading period to saturate muscles and boost performance.
Dr. Patrick, you mentioned omega-3s, and I know that there are 5 supplements that, based on the research, you recommend that everyone takes. What are those 5 supplements that should be on our list, and how much should you be taking?
So omega-3s are really at the top of the list, mostly because most people don't want to eat 2 servings of fish per week either. And it seems as though to get from a low omega-3 index to a high omega-3 index, It takes about 2 grams a day. So that's a pretty good starting point for omega-3 supplementation. The second would be a multivitamin. And this, depending on what the serving size is, I take one a day 'cause that's my serving size. Some multivitamins are 3 capsules. So you wanna take one of those, and that's filling a lot of nutritional gaps. And then you wanna take a vitamin D. Vitamin D is very important because it is converted into hormone. 70% of us are not getting enough of it. Usually a good spot for vitamin D is 4,000 IUs a day. So the fourth supplement would be magnesium. Magnesium is a very, very important cofactor for 300 different processes in the body. I personally like to take 250 milligrams a day. That's 2 capsules of my 125, and that seems to help me when I take it at night with sleep as well. Plus, I'm getting to that goal of about 300. For me, it's more like 350 milligrams a day because I do sweat and you lose magnesium through sweat. So that would be the fourth supplement. And then lastly, creatine is something I think a lot of people can benefit because one, it does— if you're working out and exercising, which you should be after this episode, you know that exercise snacks are achievable, attainable, and that you should be doing them every day like you brush your teeth. That'll help you with those exercise snacks. It'll make them easier. You'll be able to do them more. You'll recover quicker.
Really?
Yes. Yes, they will.
Like if I take creatine powder in the morning, How much am I taking?
You're taking 10 grams. I would do, I do 5 and 5. So I do 5 before my workout and then I do 5 after my workout.
Okay.
The reason the creatine is gonna help you with that workout, by the way, it's gonna take about 4 weeks before your muscles saturate. So 4 weeks of getting at least 5 grams a day.
Okay.
Your muscles will be saturated. So if you're starting off fresh, give yourself about a month.
Okay, so it's not like magic juice.
It's not like magic juice.
I'm not gonna take this and all of a sudden those air squats are a breeze.
It'll take 4 weeks before it builds up in your muscle. And once you get to that buildup point, that saturation point, then the 5 days is just keeping it there, keeping it there, right?
And what's the other benefit though?
So the 5 grams after is to benefit the brain because we now know from research that it takes about 10 grams per day for it to get into the brain. 5 grams is greedily taken up by muscle. Once you get past that to 10 grams, it gets into the brain. And there's research showing that there's benefits in the brain, particularly if your brain is stressed, like sleep deprivation, you know, any sort of neurodegenerative disease, or I like to extrapolate and say just the chronic stresses of daily life.
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