Supplements can be tricky to navigate because like anything with health care, it’s complicated. It can’t be boiled down to into binary terms like “will cure cancer” or “quackery”.
First, start with your need, do you actually have one? Do you have a deficiency (confirmed via testing) in B vitamins, methylation issues, high oxidative stress or a lack of essential fatty acids to name of few of hundreds. Once a deficiency has been identified you need to figure out how to fix it. Often it can be done with diet, but sometimes a quality supplement can work great. If it's bones, and joints, make sure to pack out bones. I’ll bring everything to the hoof to make bone stock.
Next you need to find a supplement company that has a quality product, this is probably one of the most difficult steps. Since there’s a lack of standardization this is where most supplements are garbage….or back to the original point “it’s complicated”. In short, supplements can have unnecessary fillers, lack of quality testing, and just sub par dosages. There are a few companies out there that pay to have their products tested and certified. Thorne is probably one of the most well known and they are used extensively in professional sports including the US Olympic team. Unfortunatley there’s not much stopping a sub-par company from putting the same named product on the shelf next to Thorne’s without the testing or QC work. Vital Nutrients, Metagenics, and Designs for Health are a few others.
https://www.thorne.com/sports-performance
Finally, your gut. If your gut is off, this could be why you have a deficiency and or why supplements aren’t “working”. A good probiotic is a great start, in our office it is probably the one thing that can almost be universally prescribed.
Hopefully this helps a bit.
