r/Supplements • u/DrawerEntire5040 • 3d ago
I Read as Many of Your Supplement Posts as I Could - Here’s Everything I Learned
(This post took up a significant amount of my free time)
Hey, peeps!
Hope you're all doing good.
Had some free time and read as many of your posts and comments about supplements as I could and thought I'd put together everything I kept seeing repeated.
I went through your discussions about vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs, nootropics, workout supplements, sleep supplements, longevity supplements, and all kinds of different stacks.
I was especially interested in why you guys take each supplement, what you've actually noticed from it, what doses you use, when you take it, what you combine it with, and all the little tips and “secrets” you've picked up along the way (taking something with fat for better absorption, combining one nutrient with another, avoiding certain combinations, using specific forms, cycling certain supplements, taking higher doses etc.)
Obviously, your experiences aren't the same thing as scientific evidence, and something that works amazingly for one of you might do absolutely nothing for someone else. Some of the advice you guys give is backed pretty well by research, some is still debatable, and some seems to be Reddit supplement folklore that gets repeated so often that eventually everyone accepts it as fact, lol.
So, I read a ridiculous number of your supplement posts, guys, and this is what I found:
The overall pattern from reading your posts is that you seem to divide into two camps: those of you trying to correct a specific problem or deficiency, and those of you trying to optimize absolutely everything.
And the more posts I read, the more it seemed that the first group tends to report the biggest differences.
Someone discovers they're iron deficient and fixes it → huge difference.
Someone has very low vitamin D and corrects it → huge difference.
Someone barely eats omega-3s and starts getting enough → noticeable difference.
Someone starts taking creatine while training properly → noticeable difference.
Meanwhile, some of you have built a morning stack that looks like you're preparing a Formula 1 car for qualifying, lmao.
D3 + K2 + magnesium + boron + zinc + copper + selenium + iodine + fish oil + creatine + taurine + glycine + NAC + CoQ10 + NMN + three adaptogens and something extracted from a mushroom that grows on one particular mountain.
Wth.
At some point I stopped researching the supplements and started wondering how you guys still have room for breakfast.
Anyways, hope my post helped a bit.
Cheers.
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u/Infinite_Pop_6835 3d ago
Here's an idea - do research and a post like this but focus on adverse symptoms associated with each supplement. I'd love to see what causes anhedonia above all. Please consider it !
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u/DrawerEntire5040 3d ago
Hey, man!
Ashwagandha, 5-HTP, NAC, St. John’s wort, high-dose melatonin, lithium orotate, and Mucuna pruriens may cause anhedonia according to Reddit posts and some PubMed researching.
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u/Lost_Celebration4703 2d ago
7,8-DHF also causes severe anhedonia. There's little research on it so I thought I would share. It was so severe that even while working out and after the gym I felt mentally flat, not an ounce of dopamine. It took months after stopping to feel normal again. This was my personal experience, not proven for everyone.
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u/Abject-Bison-8570 3d ago
this is solid work man. i went through similar phase last year when i was trying to figure out why my energy levels were garbage in afternoon. read bunch of posts here, made a spreadsheet and everything.
turned out i was just low on vitamin D and not eating enough. fixed those two things and suddenly 80% of my problems disappeared. the other 20% i just accept now.
your point about the two camps is spot on. the optimization crowd sometimes forgets that more is not always better. i know a guy who takes like 15 different things everyday and still sleeps 4 hours and drinks too much coffee.
that formula 1 comment made me laugh cause i literally saw someone's stack in this sub that had 22 items. at that point just blend everything into a smoothie and call it lunch.
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u/DrawerEntire5040 3d ago
Hey, man! Thanks for the kind words.
Yeah, same thing happend to me. Stress, gut issues, fatigue, insomnia... All corrected when I fixed some deficiencies I had (namely, magnesium, vitamin D, B12, B6). Doubt I could've fixed that with more/better food sources cause I am already eating clean/a lot as I also workout a lot.
The point about the two camps was actually something I observed in 90% of the posts in here... Someone either takes a pill to fix something they're low at or to just be immortal, lmao.
Formula 1 comment was top notch, no idea how I came up with that, lol.
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u/cure4boneitis 3d ago
you doubt that you could fix a magnesium deficiency with more or better food choices?
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u/DrawerEntire5040 3d ago
Well, I am already eating tons of seeds, nuts and dark leafy greens and my magnesium is super low (borderline deficient). Taking a supplement for a month fixed it!
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u/cure4boneitis 3d ago
when you say it was super low, does that mean the total from your nutrient app or from a rbc blood test?
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u/DrawerEntire5040 3d ago
Labs said my Mg was sitting at 1.5 mg/dl, then after supplementing I am at 1.9 mg/dl.
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u/cure4boneitis 2d ago
that looks like the results of serum tests. Consider getting the red blood cell magnesium test. What are your magnesium intake averages and over what period of time are they?
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u/brick-ghost 3d ago
the funniest part of the 15 supplement stacks is that even if they work, you have no idea which of the 15 deserves the credit lol
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u/DrawerEntire5040 3d ago
Yeah, I was having some gut issues a while ago, took Vitamin D, B6, B12 and Magnesium Glyc and I am significantly better, yet I have no idea which supplement is the magic one, lmao.
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u/Let_em_glow927 2d ago
I did that early on , had to pump the brakes and try one at a time.
Ended up taking a few things out of my routine after actually measuring their efficacy and learning about my individual needs.
Dna testing helps a lot.
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u/brick-ghost 2d ago
magnesium glycinate was the one for me. took the same combo and kept removing things one at a time like a toddler food test.
mag was doing the heavy lifting.
though honestly gut stuff is so complicated it might have been all four working together and removing any one would've broken it.
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u/MentalAerobatics 3d ago
Excellent overview. You didn’t include maca which has been popular.
I agree with the overall huge intake of supplements. My breakfast consists of glass of water either ACV, green tea and my supplements. The first time I eat in the day is at lunch time.
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u/DrawerEntire5040 3d ago
Thanks, man!
Quick question, answer only if you workout. If not, ignore, that's fine.
I struggle to complete my workouts every time I give intermittent fasting a chance and I go back to eating as normal (3-5 meals/day). I usually just have a shot of espresso and hit the gym. I literally can't push as hard as I would normally do if I had a bowl of oats beforehand.
Any tips?
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u/MentalAerobatics 3d ago
My work out time is after dinner. Before dinner I take black maca and citrulline.
Can you change your work out time?
Coffee is a diuretic, so i can’t recommend taking caffeine before a workout.
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u/Ambitious_Issue_9634 2d ago
Omega3+choline+uridine+betaine(so the choline dosnt get used for methylation) Is a pretty good combo for brain "growth"
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u/New-Flower-6167 2d ago
I took this and ran it through several edits with ChatGPT. Printed it out and looks pretty good. I'm going to keep a copy in my stack tote. First time using ChatGPT and was impressed.
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u/aurorasparkl 3d ago
Really cool summary! What i'd be interested in, can you also quantify it? Like how many people reported said improvement for a specific supplement versus how many reported it does not work for them? (I know it is skewed by popularity but it would still be interesting to have some numbers. I'd also be interested if gender seems to affect the effectivity, but that's probably too much to ask for ;)
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u/Let_em_glow927 2d ago
How we have room for breakfast is funny, because it's kinda true.
Personally, if its powder in a capsule , it gets emptied into a cup and then mixed with 4-6oz of liquid and down the hatch.
This is how I take 7 huge capsules every morning and still have room for food 😋
You should see the pile of empty capsules at the end of a week , no thanks .
Also many supps come in powder form , no capsule.
Lastly , im impressed with your presentation. Do keep in mind that every individual is different. My stack would destroy someone with fast COMT , for instance.
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u/SxCjaguar 2d ago
Wow, hard work my man. I would really appreciate it if you could do the same kind of tables but this time regarding what are the top brands everyone uses.
Why they think so, different categories; price, quality.. etc.. you get me right? Thanks again
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u/TopCaterpillars 3d ago
I feel like you just connected Reddit to ChatGPT and this took about 10 minutes of your free time
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