The most useful supplements
From what I have read I literally have a "pharmacy" at my house with hundreds of commercial supplements and kg's of miscellaneous powders, sometimes directly ordered from the synthesizing labs.
so here are the ones I have found the useful, there is a lot of overlap but I will list the primary goals of use (e.g. weight loss, cognitive enhancement, longevity potentiation) including notes, forum, time taken, and brand on each supplement
Note: This exurb on vitamin D as well as the one's on iodine, selenium, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin C and krill, and my formatting :p is "stolen" from the bulletproof exec blog run by Dave Asprey so it is worth checking out his post that inspired this, the reason is not to take credit for his work but to acknowledge it so I needn't waist time to write a crappier version of what has been written before, and as a plug in return I should mention that I really love the quality of their coffee beans from a health perspective and drink it nearly every day, enjoy:
Vitamin D
Vitamin D isn’t just the most important supplement – it is possibly the most important biohack. Vitamin D acts on over 1000 different genes and serves as a substrate for sex hormones like testosterone, human growth hormone, and estrogen. It moderates immune function and inflammation. It assists in calcium metabolism and bone formation. It’s no coincidence this is one of the few vitamins humans can make on their own. Without it – we’d be dead. It’s true that you can get adequate vitamin D from sun exposure, but for non-nudist non-equatorial dwellers it’s not enough. If you’re getting adequate vitamin A, it’s almost impossible to overdose on D. (j.p. since he wrote this there has been research to show that Vitamin D levels can raise testosterone proportionally, so for athletic performance many fairly lean people (ben greenfield, andy hnilo) take 10,000 IU / day
Dose: 1000 IU / 25 pounds of body weight.*
Form: D3
Time Taken: Morning (night can disrupt sleep)
Recommended Brand: Megagenics D3 liquid or jarrow formulas D3 if your and into pills (and paying more)
Pricing: $.01 per 1,000 IU for metagenics or
Magnesium
This is almost as important as vitamin D, and almost as under appreciated. Magnesium is used in over 300 enzymatic processes, including all of those involved in ATP production. It’s also vital for proper transcription of DNA and RNA.
Magnesium deficiency is a serious problem. Symptoms include heart arrhythmias, tachycardia, headaches, muscle cramps, nausea, metabolic syndrome, migraines, and pretty much everything else you don’t want. It’s also associated with cardiovascular disease diabetes, asthma, anxiety disorders, and PMS.
Almost all Americans are deficient in magnesium. The majority of people don’t meet the RDA, which is already too low. Due to soil depletion and poor farming practices, it’s almost impossible to get enough magnesium from your diet. Without a doubt – everyone should supplement with magnesium.
Dose: 600-800mg / day
Forms: Citrate, malate, glycinate, threonate, or orotate
(j.p. but the best for most people are glycerinate for sleep and maybe threonate if you are willing to spend more
Taken: before bedtime.
Recommended Brand: Life Extension
Creatine
Astragalus Root
Ashwagandah
A few foods to keep in stock
Rather than try to simplify the mammoth of information on diet here are a few foods that are proven to work well for improving all of are criteria along with the studied minimum effective dose (M.E.D.)
Raw apple citer vinegar
the studied minimum effective dose is as little as one tablespoon
Sauerkraut
with the primary bacteria being "lactobacillus planetarium" the most studied bacteria to be beneficial (e.g. weight loss, better mood) in humans paired with the fact that cabbage is on the "clean fifteen" list of the foods with the least pesticides so you don't need to go organic
Seafood
Optimally this would be raw, as in sushi salmon but cooked is fine (but in studies you rid the benefits when deep frying) the main benefit would be huge increases in prefrontal gray madder in the brain (the only biological metric by which Albert Einstein excelled) and for shellfish you have huge positive hormonal impact, packed with the extremely good calorie to satiation (3X less calories gram to gram than chicken breast and far more satiating) and of course you have seaweeds which are nature's mineral supplements (here is a good blog post by Mark Sisson breaking down the common species) and with seafood there is not a large of a margin of difference between wild vs farmed as there is with beef or eggs with a decent argument that "farmed" oysters are actually better for you (this is certainly the case with taste)
Caprylic acid
i.e. "C8" or true mct oil or exogenous ketones
this is a tasteless oil that is very heat stable for cooking with and can amplify flavors by activating the fat receptors on your tongue
the goals that this can fulfill are:
Form: Caprylic acid
Time Taken: does not matter
Recommended Brand: Any brand will do but I buy this brand because it is the cheapest I can find right now
Where is your sourcing for this information?
The most useful resources for this genre of information has been books like "smart drugs and nutrients by Ward Dean and Steve Fowkes" as well as talks like those from Dr Walsh (his are a must watch if you care about neurological issues like child violence) and of course if you want to get obsessive at 2:00am there is always the Longecity forums where the most academically informed people geek out about the most niche genetic pathways and all health things that read like an encyclopedia
so here are the ones I have found the useful, there is a lot of overlap but I will list the primary goals of use (e.g. weight loss, cognitive enhancement, longevity potentiation) including notes, forum, time taken, and brand on each supplement
Note: This exurb on vitamin D as well as the one's on iodine, selenium, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin C and krill, and my formatting :p is "stolen" from the bulletproof exec blog run by Dave Asprey so it is worth checking out his post that inspired this, the reason is not to take credit for his work but to acknowledge it so I needn't waist time to write a crappier version of what has been written before, and as a plug in return I should mention that I really love the quality of their coffee beans from a health perspective and drink it nearly every day, enjoy:
Vitamin D
Vitamin D isn’t just the most important supplement – it is possibly the most important biohack. Vitamin D acts on over 1000 different genes and serves as a substrate for sex hormones like testosterone, human growth hormone, and estrogen. It moderates immune function and inflammation. It assists in calcium metabolism and bone formation. It’s no coincidence this is one of the few vitamins humans can make on their own. Without it – we’d be dead. It’s true that you can get adequate vitamin D from sun exposure, but for non-nudist non-equatorial dwellers it’s not enough. If you’re getting adequate vitamin A, it’s almost impossible to overdose on D. (j.p. since he wrote this there has been research to show that Vitamin D levels can raise testosterone proportionally, so for athletic performance many fairly lean people (ben greenfield, andy hnilo) take 10,000 IU / day
Dose: 1000 IU / 25 pounds of body weight.*
Form: D3
Time Taken: Morning (night can disrupt sleep)
Recommended Brand: Megagenics D3 liquid or jarrow formulas D3 if your and into pills (and paying more)
Pricing: $.01 per 1,000 IU for metagenics or
Magnesium
This is almost as important as vitamin D, and almost as under appreciated. Magnesium is used in over 300 enzymatic processes, including all of those involved in ATP production. It’s also vital for proper transcription of DNA and RNA.
Magnesium deficiency is a serious problem. Symptoms include heart arrhythmias, tachycardia, headaches, muscle cramps, nausea, metabolic syndrome, migraines, and pretty much everything else you don’t want. It’s also associated with cardiovascular disease diabetes, asthma, anxiety disorders, and PMS.
Almost all Americans are deficient in magnesium. The majority of people don’t meet the RDA, which is already too low. Due to soil depletion and poor farming practices, it’s almost impossible to get enough magnesium from your diet. Without a doubt – everyone should supplement with magnesium.
Dose: 600-800mg / day
Forms: Citrate, malate, glycinate, threonate, or orotate
(j.p. but the best for most people are glycerinate for sleep and maybe threonate if you are willing to spend more
Taken: before bedtime.
Recommended Brand: Life Extension
Creatine
Astragalus Root
Ashwagandah
A few foods to keep in stock
Rather than try to simplify the mammoth of information on diet here are a few foods that are proven to work well for improving all of are criteria along with the studied minimum effective dose (M.E.D.)
Raw apple citer vinegar
the studied minimum effective dose is as little as one tablespoon
Sauerkraut
with the primary bacteria being "lactobacillus planetarium" the most studied bacteria to be beneficial (e.g. weight loss, better mood) in humans paired with the fact that cabbage is on the "clean fifteen" list of the foods with the least pesticides so you don't need to go organic
- improved digestion
- enhanced immunity
- better mood
- better waight loss
- like all brassica vegetables anti-cancer benefits
Seafood
Optimally this would be raw, as in sushi salmon but cooked is fine (but in studies you rid the benefits when deep frying) the main benefit would be huge increases in prefrontal gray madder in the brain (the only biological metric by which Albert Einstein excelled) and for shellfish you have huge positive hormonal impact, packed with the extremely good calorie to satiation (3X less calories gram to gram than chicken breast and far more satiating) and of course you have seaweeds which are nature's mineral supplements (here is a good blog post by Mark Sisson breaking down the common species) and with seafood there is not a large of a margin of difference between wild vs farmed as there is with beef or eggs with a decent argument that "farmed" oysters are actually better for you (this is certainly the case with taste)
- better neurological development
- enhanced memory
- better muscular repair
- higher tolerance to artificial light
- you will probably live longer too
Caprylic acid
i.e. "C8" or true mct oil or exogenous ketones
this is a tasteless oil that is very heat stable for cooking with and can amplify flavors by activating the fat receptors on your tongue
the goals that this can fulfill are:
- enhanced cognition, focus and energy
- potent anti-carcinogenic benefits
- subsequently may aid longevity
- better athletic performance and aversion from hypoxia (you can hold your breath for longer)
Form: Caprylic acid
Time Taken: does not matter
Recommended Brand: Any brand will do but I buy this brand because it is the cheapest I can find right now
Where is your sourcing for this information?
The most useful resources for this genre of information has been books like "smart drugs and nutrients by Ward Dean and Steve Fowkes" as well as talks like those from Dr Walsh (his are a must watch if you care about neurological issues like child violence) and of course if you want to get obsessive at 2:00am there is always the Longecity forums where the most academically informed people geek out about the most niche genetic pathways and all health things that read like an encyclopedia
A few notes on diet
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