Do you take supplements?

[madoka]

If so, what brands do you trust?

Articles about dangerous supplements:

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/supplements-more-dangerous-other-processed-160000289.html

The words are printed inside a small square on the back of the bottle beneath bold lettering which claims to list the supplement's ingredients: "Proprietary blend."

Under the protective umbrella of these two words, a supplement maker does not have to list all of the details of what's in its product, according to Cohen, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

This "allows companies to put in ingredients without telling us the amounts," says Cohen, who spoke on a recent panel put on by The Forum, an event series organized by the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. "And those tend to be the higher-risk product."

The risks can be serious. Several supplements have been linked with an increase in certain cancers; others have been tied to an elevated risk of kidney stones. Although this research has been widely published, supplements continue to send roughly 20,000 people to the emergency room every year.

And worthless, fake supplements:

https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/sidebar-whats-in-those-supplements/?_r=2

The New York State attorney general’s office accused four national retailers on Monday of selling dietary supplements that were fraudulent and in many cases contaminated with unlisted ingredients.

The authorities said they had run tests on popular store brands of herbal supplements at the retailers — Walmart, Walgreens, Target and GNC — which showed that roughly four out of five of the products contained none of the herbs listed on their labels. In many cases, the authorities said, the supplements contained little more than cheap fillers like rice and house plants, or substances that could be hazardous to people with food allergies.

At GNC, for example, the agency found that five out of six samples from the company’s signature “Herbal Plus” brand of supplements “were either unrecognizable or a substance other than what they claimed to be.” In pills labeled ginkgo biloba, the agency found only rice, asparagus and spruce, an ornamental plant commonly used for Christmas decorations.

At Target, the agency tested six herbal products from its popular “Up and Up” store brand of supplements. Three out of six – including ginkgo biloba, St. John’s wort and valerian root, a sleep aid – tested negative for the herbs listed on their labels. But the agency did find that the pills contained powdered rice, beans, peas and wild carrots.

have gotten me concerned about taking any.

 

[TallBill]

Used to take a bunch... now not really.

 

[Kaido]

I use Soylent & protein powder from time to time. But now that I can eat food again (previously had food allergies), meh. Why drink a protein shake when I can just eat a steak?

 

[deadlyapp]

Most herbal remedies and such I would never trust. I buy supplements with proven lab results available and mix my own blends (eg pre workout) when needed.

 

[slag]

I drink protein shakes after my lunchtime workout. Ran 3 miles today, did a bunch of weight lifting also, and then drank a 20 oz protein drink.
This is what I use.
Dymatize
Looks like they changed the formula recently though, so maybe ON is the way to go now..

 

[vi edit]

Just this after my workouts in the AM:

 

[TallBill]

Gold standard whey is good stuff

 

[FeuerFrei]

Yes I do.
Trusted brands? uhh ... Bluebonnet.
Untrusted - Jarrow, Swanson, Spring Valley, Source Naturals?

Supplement with:
Balanced B vitamins + C
Liquid Magnesium/Calcium/D3
Zinc
Potassium
5-HTP
Acetyl L-Tyrosine
Phosphatidylserine
Alpha-GPC
Citicholine
Melatonin
Korean Red Ginseng
Caffeine
Black Cumin Seed Oil
Vinpocetine
Dopa Mucuna (L-Dopa)

All because I hardly sleep.

 

[Zanovar]

Gold standard whey is good stuff

Aye.It mixes well.Choc mint is my favourite so far.

 

[MrSquished]

Just a few. Thyamine aka B12. Methyl Folate which is the naturally occurring version of the man-made folic acid. One live food multivitamin. That's it. I feel fine.

 

[WelshBloke]

I work nights so I take some vitamin D in the winter when I don't see any sun for awhile.

 

[Cappuccino]

I take multi vitamin, however, I only take it when I eat x amount of fruit and veg. Probs 2-3 times a week.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Pisses me off that companies are allowed to sell stuff that's totally fake or just deceiving or unsafe. There was a news article a while back talking about yogurt too, a lot of the brands where they advertise that they have NNN number of colonies in it is often false, or it's the wrong type of bacteria etc... Basically they are selling you a product telling you there is a benefit, when there is not. that should be illegal.

As far as supplements I tend to go with Jamieson, just because it's a brand I recognize but now I should check to see how good they really are. I tend to do vitamin C, D and Omega 3. Vitamin D is probably the most important for me as it's not really something I get much of. We don't get much sun here and when we do I have to stay out of it anyway if I don't want to sun burn.

I don't take them every day though, I take them whenever I think about it, such as like right now. And it depends what I ate that day too, if I ate fish then I wont take the Omegas.

 

[norseamd]

Generally I dont use supplements unless I actually know the brand and product to be of high quality and safe.

I tend to use Optimum Nutrition, Isopure, or Rivalus.

 

[Bardock]

I have been looking at Chinese plant extract for anti oxidants and flavonoids for their immune and mental benefits. Going to buy a small amount and use it for a week and see how I feel.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

NOW tends to be a damn good brand for pill-based supplements.

That said, the only thing I take anymore is fish oil (when I'm not eating fish obviously) and multivitamins.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Oh - In light of John Oliver's recent episode I also take a bunch of supplements sold by Alex Jones @ Infowars. His stuff is Legit YO!!! It made me go from 330lbs of pure fat to 330lbs of massive muscle!!! /srs

 

[brainhulk]

Look for the seals consumerlab, USP, NSF international, or UL.

They verify for the amount of active ingredient advertised and verify there is no contamination with dangerous substances

 

[pauldun170]

I keep a jug of Dynatize ISO100 whey isolate powder that I'll use for quick banana\almond milk shakes. Only use it when my workout is at an odd time.
Other than that I stick to real food

 

[pete6032]

Oh - In light of John Oliver's recent episode I also take a bunch of supplements sold by Alex Jones @ Infowars. His stuff is Legit YO!!! It made me go from 330lbs of pure fat to 330lbs of massive muscle!!! /srs

I think someone needs to tell Alex Jones to start taking that. lol.

 

[BD231]

I eat some of them Flintstone gummies like once a year just cause I want gummies bears .... which is odd because eating them makes me hate gummy bears.

Guess I just like reminding myself why I hate gummy bears

 

[Thebobo]

Yes but only the best from someone I trust.

 

[lxskllr]

As far as supplements I tend to go with Jamieson, just because it's a brand I recognize but now I should check to see how good they really are.

I was gonna say "Right On!", but I noticed the spelling, and assume it isn't a mistake. Black Bush is a better supplement anyway. Other than that, I don't take any supplements.

 

[interchange]

Vitamin D deficiency is ubiquitous and many studies link it to a variety of health issues, although there is comparatively little evidence that supplementation treats any illness (other than the deficiency itself). For a while, fish oil supplements were all the rage, but have largely busted as an actual therapeutic treatment.

The NIH has a division with a large number of grants available for researching alternative medicine, but gets us nowhere. I've seen very few reasonably designed RCTs that might evaluate the safety or efficacy of alternative treatments. Where they exist, they are negative.

The supplement industry, though, has no inventive to adequately trial their products. They don't have trouble selling them, and the hazard is demonstrating it doesn't work or is unsafe. And of course they don't really even need to put in their pills what they say is in them.

 

[skull]

Yes I do.
Trusted brands? uhh ... Bluebonnet.
Untrusted - Jarrow, Swanson, Spring Valley, Source Naturals?

Supplement with:
Balanced B vitamins + C
Liquid Magnesium/Calcium/D3
Zinc
Potassium
5-HTP
Acetyl L-Tyrosine
Phosphatidylserine
Alpha-GPC
Citicholine
Melatonin
Korean Red Ginseng
Caffeine
Black Cumin Seed Oil
Vinpocetine
Dopa Mucuna (L-Dopa)

All because I hardly sleep.

I don't know that'd I'd be stacking ginseng with 5htp/l-dopa and possibly a few others on that list. Ginsengs a natural MAOI and I'm pretty sure 5 htp and L-dopa arn't good with maois. I was taking rhodiloa rosea(natural maoi and adaptogen like ginseng) I liked it a lot too but didn't like worrying that I'd get a banana or something else with high tyramines that would make me stroke out. Serotonin syndrome doesn't sound fun either.