[Supplement Course] Examples of supplements that can help specific health goals!

We get asked about our [Supplement Guides](), so I wanted to give you a quick taste with some examples of how supplement combinations can work together and how supplement regimens can be tailored to specific people and their specific situations. For example, a few days earlier I mentioned how taking theanine can take the edge off of caffeine. How does theanine work? It’s a relaxing agent without sedation (think of it being non-drowsy). So - in our anxiety supplement guide, we suggest theanine as a supplement to consider if you’ve consumed too much caffeine. However, the research on general anxiety isn’t very strong for theanine, so if caffeine jitters aren’t the main issue, we’ve listed a number of other supplements that are likely to help. Those supplements have been ranked, and we have suggested a logical way to build a supplement regimen. We start with looking at a key essential mineral and its relation to anxiety and work from there. If someone has low levels of an essential nutrient tied to the area of health they’re struggling with, that’s the first place to focus. Another way of saying it: if you’re deficient in something your body needs, it’s critical that you address that first and foremost. If you don’t have a deficiency, or if you do but that’s not your only issue, other supplements with the best research behind them can be added. If that’s still not enough for some people, the more speculative supplements with less research behind them can be tried. This process ensures that people are most likely to see the results they’re looking for while saving money through not taking more supplements than they need. Of course, anxiety is complex and supplements may only produce a modest effect at best, so we’ve also discussed lifestyle factors in the guide. They may be called Supplement Guides, and supplements are our wheelhouse, but we’re committed to giving people the best evidence-based information we can. Sleep We’re glad to see more and more people talking about sleep. It is absolutely critical for good health - it’s literally the downtime your body needs to repair itself! Here’s the thing - you can argue there are two facets of sleep. The first is falling asleep, and the second is getting good sleep. Of course, if you don’t sleep enough, you won’t be well-rested, but if sleep isn’t deep enough, it also won’t be restful enough. For the first, we recommend melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone involved in the circadian rhythm which dictates sleeping and waking cycles. It basically tells your brain that it’s time to go to sleep and stay asleep. It won’t knock you out; it simply helps ease your mind into sleep somewhat faster than it would otherwise when you go to lay down (known in research as sleep latency). It might lead to slightly higher quality sleep, but impaired melatonin secretion (from blue light at night) is only one thing that can lead to worse sleep. Another is stress/anxiety, and it’s unclear how much it helps for that. What does? For good sleep, lavender seems to be pretty potent for ensuring that your slumber is deep and restful due to its relaxing effects. The guides offer specialized combinations of supplements for different situations, and lavender only appears in the combo for people with anxiety and intrusive thoughts, alongside melatonin and other supplements. The different combinations ensure that all of your bases are covered and supplement regimens are tailored to your specific needs. Memory Here’s the fun part - when we can recommend a food, we do! You know what’s delicious and good for your memory? Blueberries! They’re packed full of chemicals that help to protect and repair the brain. For that reason, they’re a prominent part of our upcoming Healthy Aging guide. In the guide, we talk about how much of the beneficial substances are in blueberries on average and how much will be needed, based on research. Dose is critically important to consider, and the form of the food or supplement can be very relevant to dose. You might wonder “what about blueberry juice, frozen blueberries vs fresh, and extracts?” We have you covered. We always include recommended doses and forms based on research. Building Muscle & Exercise Performance If you’re deep enough into building muscle, you’ve likely come across supplements that are supposed to give you a pump: arginine, citrulline, agmatine, and so forth. Why? They’re all supposed to increase nitric oxide synthesis, which dilates blood vessels and helps your body to deliver oxygen to tissues and produce energy. But instead of taking supplements, you can get more than enough via vegetables. How? Many vegetables are packed with nitrates, which are converted to nitric oxide in the body. The Muscle Gain & Exercise Performance guide talks about what nitrates can do for you, how much you need, which vegetables have the most of them (in great detail, utilizing food analysis studies), and all kinds of related odds and ends. We discuss avoiding excessive intake of goitrogens when consuming large amounts of vegetables, and we even give pointers to ensure best results. Did you know that bacteria in saliva are an important part of the conversion of nitrates to nitric oxide and that mouthwash can impair this process? You do now, and you learn a ton of similar things in the guides. We don’t just give you a list of supplements; we discuss anything related and important to make sure that you see the best results possible. Testosterone Here’s a critical point about the human body - there’s a minimum it needs, and then there’s optimal. Far too much health advice focuses on minimum, and not the optimal. A great example is testosterone. If you are not getting enough zinc or magnesium, your testosterone levels could drop! Making sure you get an optimal amount of each (via a combination of food and supplements) will help ensure your testosterone levels stay robust. A common belief about essential nutrients is that if you don’t have a legitimate deficiency (levels low enough to cause a life-threatening disease), you don’t need to be concerned. But life vs death is only part of the health equation. Having optimal testosterone levels will certainly add life to your years, and isn’t something to be ignored. The desire to increase testosterone levels is very common among men, and this has led to an explosion in the number of supplements that are touted as testosterone-boosters. Many of them do no such thing, and pack all kinds of ingredients that have very little research behind them. Low testosterone levels can be caused by nutrient deficiencies, and by being unhealthy (obesity and the inflammation that comes along with it are prominent causes), and may not be solved through taking a few supplements. We won’t pretend that something works if we don’t have good evidence that it does, plain and simple. This is why we have 17 guides There’s a reason why we pride ourselves on focusing on the research - there are no ultimate health supplements that are amazing for you. Instead, you need to make sure you are taking supplements for specific health goals. Sure, you can find free information out there, but it’s almost always backed by selling supplements. Plus, the evidence is often cherry-picked, rather than comprehensively examined. Our guides, on the other hand, look at the entirety of the evidence base and ALWAYS take an unbiased perspective, so you know our recommendations are based on what works, not just us trying to sell a supplement. If you’re ready to get unbiased advice with step-by-step directions on what supplements to take (and which are a total waste of time and money) - you need to [get the Supplement Guides](). And best of all - they come with free lifetime updates. So as we stay up-to-date and on top of the latest research, so do you! Kamal Patel Co-founder, Examine.com [Unsubscribe]( | [Update your profile]( | PO Box 592, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2T1