đź’Š Supplements I Take: https://drstanfield.com/pages/my-supplements
đź’ŠMicroVitamin+ (Pro) Powder: https://drstanfield.com/products/microvitamin-plus
đź’ŠMicroVitamin Standard Capsules: https://drstanfield.com/products/microvitamin
Timestamps:
0:00 First Supplement
8:13 Second Supplement
14:30 Third Supplement
đź“ś Roadmap – how to look young & feel strong: https://drstanfield.com/pages/roadmap
✔️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradStanfieldMD
✔️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bradstanfieldmd
Here are the links to the research papers referenced in the video:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1811403
https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(20)30985-X/fulltext
https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/3/1/e000451
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2773120
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/12/2408
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27532692/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916523121356
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17030655/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/186835
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30958356/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2935890/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916523277655
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31841161/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532916/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2793446
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/ExerciseAndAthleticPerformance-HealthProfessional
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4169010/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31454046/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29931459/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960076017300808
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34933842/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10661223/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28426517/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3610948/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10180699/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9535527/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30239559/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27166077/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1186/1550-2783-4-6#d1e339
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11099170/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022395619309872?via%3Dihub
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33417003/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4138917
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10883420/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38817505/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1479-8425.2006.00193.x
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1479-8425.2007.00262.x
Thumbnail by James Kelly
Video edited by Troy Young
Script by John Milliken
The links above are affiliate links, so I receive a small commission every time you use them to purchase a product. The content contained in this video, and its accompanying description, is not intended to replace viewers’ relationships with their own medical practitioner. Always speak with your doctor regarding the content of this channel, and especially before using any products, services, or devices discussed on this channel.
As a practicing family medicine doctor, there are only three supplements that the data convinced me to take. The first one relates to brain health and heart health. So, the thought of not remembering my children because I’ve developed dementia in the future is terrifying to me. So, I was relieved when scientists finally understood why some omega-3 studies showed that omega-3 boosts memory and cognition, while other times omega-3 didn’t seem to help at all. Essentially, it appears that we can’t just take omega-3 and expect to see cognitive benefits. There are other factors that are critical to achieving a good result. So, I’ll cover those shortly. First though, I want to cover heart health because many people actually cause more harm than good with respect to omega-3 supplements. We can see the benefits of omega-3 from the vital trial. So, I tested the effects of omega-3 supplements in over 25,000 adults for 5 years. And the result that stood out from this trial is the risk related to heart attacks. It was 28% lower for those taking omega-3 supplements compared to a placebo. And a few years later, a meta analysis was done by the Mayo Clinic, which drew on 40 separate studies and looking at the impact of omega-3 on heart disease. And supplementation was linked to a 13% reduction in heart attacks and a 35% reduction in fatal heart attacks. So that’s the benefits of omega-3 for the heart. But like I said, many people are using omega-3 supplements incorrectly and actually cause more harm than good. So in 2024, a study looked at over 400,000 people and 31.4% 4% of them took omega3. The group that were taking omega-3 had a 13% higher risk of developing atrial fibrillation. And we see that concern from randomized control trials as well. So for example, the strength study showed a 69% increased risk of atrial fibrillation for the group that were taking omega3. That study used 4 g of omega3 and the dose is critical. So remember that one. The vital trial did not find any increased risk for atrial fibrillation though and that used a much lower dose of 840 milligrams. So less than a quarter of the dose compared to the strength study. So personally I use a dose of around 1 g of omega3 to lock in the benefits and minimize the risks. But we want to take it a step further and learn how to use omega3 to benefit our brain as well because new research has revealed what makes the difference between when supplementing seems to work and when it doesn’t. So, omega-3 is made up of two important fats called DHA and EPA. DHA is the building block for our brain. It helps to make the walls of our brain soft and flexible and this is good because our brain cells need to talk to each other easily and it promotes thinking, learning and memory. EPA on the other hand is like a firefighter in our brain and sometimes these tiny fires or inflammation can happen in our brain which of course is not good. Chronic inflammation in the brain has been linked to cognitive decline and neurodeenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. So based on how these fats work, there’s a very good reason to be excited about the potential for omega-3 to improve brain performance and reduce the risk of dementia. But there’s been a bit of a puzzle about how omega-3 supplements can help in the real world because the data has been inconsistent. On one hand, we see a strong association in the observational studies between omega-3 and brain health. Consider the Framingham Offspring study for example. Over a 7-year period, people with the highest levels of DHA in their blood had a 49% lower risk of getting dementia compared to those with the lowest levels of DHA. In other words, they could live an extra 4.7 years without dementia. That is huge. We could also see that people with lower DHA levels in their blood seem to have more buildup of a sticky protein called amaloid in their brain, whereas people with higher DHA levels tended to have healthier brain volumes. And when we look at meta analyses that combine 21 observational studies together again we see that as dietary intake of DHA increases the risks of developing dementia decrease. Now this data looks compelling but these are observational studies. All they show us is that these two things seem to be correlated together but that doesn’t mean causation. So is it that omega-3s like DHA is actually causing improved brain health or is it just correlated? So, to figure out if omega-3 really does improve brain health, we need to look at randomized control trials. This is where one group takes omega-3 supplements and the other group gets a pretend pill that doesn’t do anything, so a placebo. And then we see how each group does. The idea is to try and keep everything else exactly the same between the two groups except the supplement. Then, if there is a difference in outcomes, we know it’s the supplement that’s causing it. But here’s where things get a bit confusing. When we look at the randomized control trials, the results are mixed. So, for example, in the 6 trial, omega-3 supplements did not improve brain performance when compared to a placebo. Then in 2010, another trial didn’t show any benefit either, but a 2019 study found something different. This time, omega-3 supplements improved brain performance by 7.1% and reduced dementia symptoms by 22.3%. So, how do we make sense of all of this mixed data? Does omega-3 supplements actually improve brain health or not? Well, the first clue to solving this puzzle came from a study that wasn’t about omega-3 at all. In 2010, a big study called the Vitco trial was done. Now, in it, people were split into two groups. One group got B vitamins, and bear with me here because it does all relate back to omega-3, and the other group were given a placebo. So, over the 2-year study period, the people who were taking B vitamins had a 29.6% less brain shrinkage than the other group. But here’s the interesting point that relates to omega-3. So in 2015, researchers looked at the Vittocog data again and found something fascinating. So it turns out that the benefits of B vitamins for brain health, they were only seen in people with high levels of omega-3 in their blood. And get this, for people with high omega-3 levels, B vitamins didn’t just reduce brain shrinkage by 29.6%. They reduced it by a whopping 40%. But for people with low omega-3 levels, B vitamins didn’t help at all. And while that is really exciting, it’s just one study, one data set. We need to look at more results to understand the full picture. So remember that study from 2006 when omega-3 supplements didn’t help at all. Well, in 2019, researchers took another look and a marker for healthy B vitamin levels is low homocyine levels. And when we look at people with low homocyine, which means again that they’ve got healthy B vitamin levels, omega-3 supplements did improve brain performance by 7.1% and reduced dementia symptoms by 22.3%. But once again, for people with low vitamin B levels, omega-3 supplements didn’t help at all. So now we’ve got two different data sets showing that omega-3 supplements seem to help the brain, but only if we’ve got healthy levels of B vitamins. So why do we need B vitamins to see the benefits of omega-3 for the brain? And we’ll also talk about getting the dose right in a minute. Now, the researchers from the 2019 study think that B vitamins help make something critical called phospatide dicoline, which is needed to carry omega-3 into the brain. And once omega-3 gets into the brain, that’s when it can start to help. Now, more work is needed before we can say this with certainty, and it’s important to acknowledge these limitations. Medicine is not black and white, and there’s often a lot that we don’t know. And while there’s a good chance that B vitamins can help omega-3 work better for the brain, we can’t say it with 100% certainty just yet. We need more studies. And the final piece of the puzzle that we need to talk about before I can bring it all together and discuss the dosages of omega-3 and B vitamins is populations. So, all of the studies that I’ve mentioned so far were done in people with dementia or had some kind of cognitive decline. So, what about for healthy people? Can omega-3 improve memory for them? We’ll have a look at a meta analysis that combined 25 different randomized control trials to answer that question. And when we have a look at this graph, a shift to the right indicates a benefit from omega3. And if the studies cross the center line, then there’s no effect. So, you can see it’s a bit of a mess. But when the data is combined, the bottom diamond has fully shifted to the right, indicating a benefit from omega-3 supplements. But while this is a statistically significant benefit, how big is the effect in reality? Well, unfortunately, it is quite small, and it’s possible that the small benefit is limited to people who don’t eat fish. So, overall, while we’ve still got some unanswered questions, it’s likely that combining omega-3 with healthy B vitamin levels will yield benefits for the brain and heart. So, how can we make sure that we’re getting enough B vitamins? Well, a healthy diet always comes first. So, leafy green vegetables, beans, lentils, and fish, especially salmon, are great sources of vitamin B. But to make sure that I was reaching the recommended daily intakes for all of the B vitamins every single day, I wanted to add in a supplement. And since B vitamins aren’t the only vitamin that matters, I wanted to look at multivitamins. But I discovered a number of problems with everything that I found on the market. Most importantly, the doses were often far too high. It’s as though the logic goes like this. A little of a vitamin is good, so a ton of it must be really good, but the reality is much different. It’s definitely possible to have too much of a vitamin. So, take vitamin A and vitamin E as an example. We can risk toxicity. So, vitamin E has grown in popularity because of its antioxidant properties, and claims that it can increase lifespan, prevent cancer, and combat heart disease. But supplementing with it is a bad idea, and here’s why. So, first, vitamin E deficiency is exceptionally rare, aside from individuals with unusual health conditions. That’s because it’s found in a wide variety of foods. So, most of us were getting plenty of that vitamin already. Second, a systematic review and meta analysis conducted by the US Preventative Services Task Force in 2022 found with moderate certainty evidence that there’s no net benefit of supplementation with vitamin E for the prevention of cardiovascular disease or cancer. But not only is there no benefit, there’s a possibility of harm. So, antioxidant supplements like vitamin E can interfere with the benefits of exercise. Plus, in the select randomized control trial, vitamin E supplements appeared to increase the risk of prostate cancer. So, I personally don’t want to supplement with vitamin E, and nor do I want to supplement with vitamin A. So, that same 2022 US Preventative Services Task Force study notes that too much vitamin A can weaken our bones, damage our liver, and cause birth defects. But, I do want to take vitamin D at the correct dose. So, what is the right dose? Because we know that large doses of vitamin D have become incredibly popular recently, but that can lead to risks. So, for instance, a three-year clinical trial in Canada tested the impact of different daily doses of vitamin D. One group took 400 international units, another took 4,000, and a third took 10,000. Researchers were looking specifically at how this affected bone density, and what they found was shocking. Those with higher levels didn’t improve outcomes. In fact, they made things worse. So bone density in the wrist, it decreased by 2.4% in the 4,000 international unit group and 3.5% in the 10,000 international unit group. And emerging evidence shows that there’s additional risks with older adults that we need to be aware of. So too high a dose of vitamin D may actually weaken our muscles. So in one study of women with low vitamin D, the intervention group took 2,800 international units of vitamin D for 3 months. In the end, their hand grip strength fell by 9% and their leg strength fell by 13%. And on the back of that research, high doses can also increase the risk of falls. So, vitamin D is a complex topic and I’ll link a thorough explanation at the end of this video. But overall, I wanted to supplement with 1,000 international units. I also wanted to supplement with vitamin K2 in the form of MK7 at 90 micrograms and I also wanted to supplement with magnesium, but I wanted a specific form. So with many vitamins and minerals, they can come in many different forms. So take magnesium for instance. There are several possible forms that you’ll find in supplements, including magnesium citrate, magnesium oxide, and also magnesium torate and magnesium glycine. And personally, I wanted to supplement with magnesium torate. So you can see that I had quite a list of requirements that I wanted from a multivitamin and mineral, and I couldn’t find one that met my expectations. So I did take a bit of a drastic step. I created my own called Microvitamin. Now, of course, you can source your own vitamins and minerals yourself. You do not have to go for the supplement that I created. I just wanted to create one that I would take personally because I know exactly what is in it and it met all of my requirements. I assembled a list of everything that I wanted in a multivitamin and mineral and combined it together. I then took that formula to a US manufacturer and I asked them to create it. But just because I take a supplement does not in any way mean that you should as well. And that’s something great about designing a supplement of your own. It means that I can change the formula as new research comes in. So, we’re already on microvitamin formula version 7. So, for example, in that version, I tweaked the form of vitamin B6 from pyrooxine hydrochloride to the more bioactive form called PLP. There are a couple of other ingredients that I wanted to add to microvitamin as well. So, for instance, there’s hyaluronic acid. It provides critical support to the skin and it helps to keep it plump and hydrated. So, a number of studies have shown positive impacts on metrics like moisture and wrinkles. So for example, a 2021 study was published in the European Journal of Dermatology. It found that wrinkles decreased by 18.8% with hyaluronic acid supplements compared to a slight reduction of 2.6% in the placebo group. I also included TMG or trimethyl glycine for exercise performance. Now TMG it also helps to lower homocyine levels which we’ve talked about earlier in the video. Again that may help to augment the benefits of omega-3 and B vitamins on cognitive performance. And with microvitamin plus powder, I added four more ingredients. And again, you can go and choose these yourself. You do not have to go for microvitamin plus powder. But this allowed me to bring things that I was taking separately together into one supplement. So the first one is collagen peptides. So these are formed by breaking down the longer ropes of collagen into smaller pieces that are easier for the body to use. So collagen is a critical ingredient for our skin and it gives it firmness and elasticity. So, a meta analysis in 2023 looked at 26 randomized control trials of collagen peptides and the evidence shows that collagen supplements significantly improve skin hydration and elasticity. The second extra ingredient in microvitamin plus powder is psyllium husk. Psyllium husk is a soluble fiber and it’s a common fiber source as a supplement. So, it’s been widely studied. Research shows it’s effective in reducing constipation. It reduces cholesterol and it helps with weight management and reducing inflammation. Then, of course, there’s creatine. Hundreds of peer-reviewed studies have shown the impacts of creatine supplements on muscle strength and recovery, and a strong majority of them have found significant improvements in exercise capacity. And finally, microvitamin plus powder includes additional torine. A recent meta analysis summarized the growing evidence about torine’s impact on metabolic health. So, it found that torine decreased fasting blood sugar levels, blood pressure, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, HBA1C, and insulin levels. So far then I’m taking omega-3 and I’m taking microvitamin plus powder. Now for the final supplement which is a sleep supplement. Again I designed this for my own use and you can source these ingredients yourself. You do not have to go for the supplement that I created. So I wanted a supplement that had melatonin but it’s the dose that’s critical here because a lot of supplements have got huge doses of melatonin which is not what I wanted. So melatonin is a hormone that’s naturally produced in our brains as we sleep and one of its roles is to help regulate the sleepwake cycle. So, in a meta analysis of 14 studies, melatonin was shown to help reduce the time it took to fall asleep. And then there was a separate review showing that it improved sleep quality. Now, what is the ideal dose? Well, unfortunately, like I mentioned, many of the melatonin supplements have got huge doses. You can even buy 10 mgram doses over the counter. Yet, we have no idea the long-term consequences of taking such high doses. All of the studies that we have at the moment are short-term. Now the body produces between 10 to 80 micrograms of melatonin at night and about 15% of the melatonin in a supplement is absorbed by the body. So for the supplement that I wanted, I included 300 micrograms which is enough to match the levels naturally produced by the body. And for melatonin to work properly, it’s critical to take it 2 hours before wanting to fall asleep so that it can shift your sleepwake cycle. Now the second ingredient that I wanted to take at night is magnesium and the form I wanted is magnesium glycinate. So that’s different to magnesium torate which I take in the morning as part of microvitamin plus. A meta analysis from last year examined randomized control trials of magnesium supplements to improve sleep. And five of the eight studies included reported improvements in at least one aspect of sleep. And the final ingredient that I wanted to take at night is glycine. So in a small double blind study published in 2006, it looked at the impact on glycine supplements on sleep quality. So they recruited people who reported having trouble with sleep. So before bed, participants took either a placebo or the glycine, and they completed a questionnaire the next day that asked them about how they slept and how they felt. Glycine supplements significantly improved their ratings of liveless and clear-headedness. It also reduced their feelings of fatigue. Those findings were backed up by two additional studies. Now, this video was a quick summary about the supplements that I personally take. And please, just because I take a supplement does not in any way mean that you should as well. And just cuz I’ve created microvitamin plus and sleep does not mean that you have to use those products. You can choose whatever vitamins and minerals and supplements you want to take. I’m just mentioning what I personally do. And as I mentioned, vitamin D is a complex topic and the guidelines from the endocrine society have recently changed. So, make sure to check out the next video here so that you can lock in the benefits of vitamin D and minimize the risks.
