re: Do you think taking vitamins & minerals supplements does anything?

When you see people 100+ years old get asked in interviews what their secret is,

they NEVER talk about their vitamin regimine.

This guy wasn’t a GP but a oncologist

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CoQ10 definitely works.

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Yep. Most people should be taking Magnesium too. Most people have chronically low levels of that.

Yes.


I take fish oil, my last triglyceride level was 63.
Vitamin D and B12 are important
Vitamin C is important for immune health.

I’d recommend everyone visit someone that specializes in wellness/hormone/anti aging.

They can make sure your hormones are optimized as well as check to see if you are deficient in any vitamins

Please explain how it is bullshite?

I take a multivitamin and 500mg of Vitamin C daily for as long as I can remember. I never get sick. I can’t even remember the last time I got a cold.

Now when I was younger I was big into all the protein power, workout supplements, etc. I quit all that when I got older but still see the same results in the gym if I’m hitting it hard and eating half decent.

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What if we could figure out how to not die even after 100?

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Before long you might be able to upload your brain into an AI robot.

General answer is yes, they help when supplemented for someone who is deficient AND uses quality supplements which is usually the issue.

Absorption rates, eating/exercise regiment, water/electrolyte consumption, co-morbidities and prescription medication consumption are also major factors.

Don't waste time buying anything from CVS/Walgreens/Wal Mart, etc. You'll have to get with someone in the field for detailed recommendations but these are reputable companies that do their own quality control. FDA doesn't regulate supplements so anything can get on the market (although let's not look into what they have approved that's been terrible for the general public). As in Nature Made can put 5% Vitamin C and the rest fillers. They also make products in different forms that aren't effective.

Short list of reputable companies that put out consistent quality products:

BioClinic
MyoXcience
Standard Process
Douglas Labs
Transformation Enzymes

Short answer is many-- if not most-- people in the US are probably deficient in some micronutrients / vitamins & minerals.

The body uses different vitamins & minerals to facilitate different body and cellular processes. If you're short on these nutrients, the body just doesn't run as well (like a car wearing out quicker if not well maintained). It may not be apparent for some time, but you'll just age a little quicker, and maybe die a couple to a few years earlier. Unless you're tracking it in an individual, how would you know if someone who dies a little early-- say 50 or 60 years old-- might've lived another 10 or 20 years if they ate better. We sort of intuitively know it for some people (they ate like shite and had a heart attack), but sometimes we don't see the slow damage.

If you eat a perfect diet, which can vary person to person, then you might well live 80 to 100 years with few health issues. In this case, you'd have no need for vitamins & mineral supplements. You'll probably piss a lot of it out if your body has enough.

But this is harder than it used to be. Avoiding processed foods & sugar and trying to eat more vegetables is traditional advice to get more vitamins. But take this into account:

Soil Depletion - Scientific American
or
Veggies have less vitamins - Nat Geo

Modern farming practices deplete the soil and for a lot of store bought produce, you're just not getting the nutrients you thought you might be getting anymore. I haven't read about it, but imagine this holds true for meat as well. If a cow is corn fed vs grass fed, the diet is going to dictate nutrition levels in the meat itself to some degree.

So, vitamin and mineral supplements can help. A multivitamin can be better than nothing. If you want to get granular, some vitamins / minerals ideally should NOT be taken together as they sometimes compete for the same receptors in the body, others are better in the morning vs night, some forms have different effects (D2 v D3, K1 vs K2, Mg Citrate vs Mg Threonate/Glycinate, etc.).

The Health & Fitness Board here on TD often has a lot of discussions about supplements and a lot of people who know more than me about best brands and combos, what to avoid, getting bloodwork done (if you're going all out), and so on:
Fitness Board