Together with
There's a shelf in the bathroom cabinet for them. Vitamin D, a multivitamin, fish oil, magnesium. Something for joints a friend swore by. A tub of powder bought in January.
Most mornings we take a few. Ask us what each one does, and it goes quiet.
The thinking goes that more is safer, and a multivitamin is cheap insurance. The research is more useful than that. A few earn their place. Some only help if you're low. Some do very little.
Four supplements have good evidence for the second half of life. For most people, the daily multivitamin isn't one of them.
The Supplement Guide goes deeper, including the five tests to run before you buy anything on p.3.
What The Research Actually Says
Creatine is the one people overlook. A review of 22 trials looked at adults with an average age of 57 to 70. Creatine plus strength training added about 3lb (1.4kg) more lean muscle than training alone and a little extra strength.
In a 2-year trial of 237 postmenopausal women, bone density didn't change. The women did walk a little faster. The usual dose is 3 to 5g a day (JISSN).
Vitamin D mostly helps when you're low. The VITAL trial gave 25,871 men and women 2,000 IU a day. It didn't lower cancer or heart disease in people who weren't chosen for being low.
A BMJ analysis of 25 trials found a small effect on respiratory infections overall. The big drop, about 70% lower odds, was only in a small group who started out very low and took it daily or weekly.
Omega-3 depends on how much fish you eat. In VITAL's fish oil arm, 1g a day didn't lower major heart problems or cancer, the trial's main questions. Heart attacks, a secondary measure, were 28% lower. In a subgroup, the researchers saw a possible benefit in people who ate little fish. Those are leads, not proof.
Bigger results came from a high-dose prescription version in REDUCE-IT. Its maker funded that trial. Its dummy pill, mineral oil, may have flattered it (Circulation).
Magnesium fills a common gap. In US survey data from 2003 to 2006, about 45% of Americans got less than they need, even counting supplements (Journal of Nutrition).
Across 34 trials, supplements lowered blood pressure only slightly, by under 2% for a typical reading. For sleep the evidence is thin: in a review of just 3 small trials in older adults, 151 people in all, they fell asleep about 17 minutes faster.
What about the other popular ones?
The daily multivitamin probably isn't doing what we hoped. In 390,124 US adults followed for up to 27 years, taking one daily wasn't linked to living longer.
Testosterone boosters fill a lot of men’s social feeds, but they have little behind them. Of 109 ingredients in 50 popular products (World Journal of Men's Health), only about 1 in 4 had any data showing a rise in testosterone. And over a dozen products went over the official upper daily limits for zinc, vitamin B3 or magnesium.
The label doesn't always match the bottle. From 2007 to 2016, the FDA flagged 776 supplements with hidden drug ingredients.
FROM TODAY'S SPONSOR
A lot of supplement money goes to stress and sleep. Magnesium, ashwagandha, sleep gummies. Nuropod takes a different route.
It's a small earpiece that sends a gentle electrical pulse to a branch of the vagus nerve in your outer ear. Nuropod says this helps your body shift into rest mode at the end of the day. According to the company, most people feel a light tingle, and a session runs 15 to 60 minutes while you read or wind down.
We have a unit in for testing now, and we'll share an honest review in a few weeks. If you'd like to try it sooner, it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, and Longevity Daily readers get 10% off.
It isn't for you if you have a pacemaker or another active implant, a very slow resting heart rate, a history of trigeminal neuralgia or vagus nerve surgery, or metal implants or piercings near the ear, and it isn't advised in pregnancy. Use it while you're awake and resting, not while sleeping or exercising (Nuropod's safety guidance).
The Bottom Line
Here's the order we'd go in.
Test your vitamin D first. Ask for it at your next blood test. If it's low, take it daily and retest in 3 months.
Consider creatine if you strength train. Plain creatine monohydrate, 3 to 5g a day, at any time of day.
Eat oily fish twice a week if you can. Salmon, sardines or mackerel. If you rarely do, ask a clinician who knows you whether fish oil makes sense.
Get magnesium from food first. Nuts, seeds, beans and leafy greens. If your diet falls short, magnesium glycinate is the form we'd choose. It's gentle on the stomach, and forms like it are absorbed better than the cheap oxide found in many bottles (Magnesium Research). Thorne Magnesium Bisglycinate is NSF Certified for Sport. Keep supplements to 350mg a day or less.
Look for a seal. NSF Certified for Sport and USP Verified both test that the label matches what's inside, and both check for contaminants.
If stress or sleep is why you reach for the shelf, evening habits come first: a regular bedtime, a dimmer last hour and a slow breath out. Tools like Nuropod, today's sponsor, can sit alongside them.
Give any new supplement 8 to 12 weeks. Notice how you feel. Recheck the number it was meant to change.
One honest caveat. Most of these trials ran for a few years in fairly healthy people. They can't tell us what decades of use does, good or bad.
Worth Your Time
What's on your supplement shelf right now? Hit reply and tell us. We read every one.
Friday Preview
Friday we put the week together on one page: the order to try things in, from habit to supplement to pill, and the 3 questions to take to your next appointment.
Until Friday.
Longevity Daily / The Building Decades
