Brand recommendation?

Vitamin shopping tips in brief and memes

“What brands of niacin and niacinamide do you recommend,” Dr. on Social media?

Answer: “I don't.”

Grammatically perfect 🥰

Addition, the Thread, a long one, & well referenced:

Dr. Eashwarran Kohilathas @drkohilathas

Niacin A vitamin with anti-ageing, cardioprotective, DNA stabilising; mitochondrial-aiding; and neuroprotective activities. A THREAD 🧵

I don't typically recommend brands of vitamins either, or I hadn't for a long time and still add qualifiers.

1. Read the full ingredients, both active and inert fillers or capsule ingredients.

2. Do your own research on typical dose rather than always trusting a label is a good amount for you and your need for it.

   1. *Page Nutrients and page Cofactors on jenniferdepew.com have typical supplement ranges and cautions for a few minerals or nutrients that have narrow safety ranges - some is needed but not too much (manganese and copper are examples). The ‘recommended amount’ is the ~RDA for adult males which is similar to a prenatal or lactation goal and typically is a little higher than the standard adult female goal.

   2. Page Prenatal/Child has tips for modifying recommended doses for children, based on an adult dose (think ~ weight/height proportionally).

   3. Page Phytonutrients focuses more on food sources and benefits against CoV than supplement dose.

3. The ingredients you read labels to avoid might vary for your own health quirks compared to mine - I avoid modified food starch/wheat starch. Or you may know of other negatives to avoid.

   1. I avoid titanium dioxide, used as a whitener but it is a metal nanoparticle, hard to excrete. Pomegranate peel can help clump nanoparticles into a size that white blood cells can identify as something to remove.

   2. And I avoid gelatin capsules unless the product says organic. “Non-GMO” alone as a label statement is unclear - cows are not considered GMO animals yet they eat GMO foods, so they really are not standard cows anymore or standard bovine gelatin. Glyphosate may be in the protein of the gelatin.

4. Quality can be a big problem in supplements with substitutions of ingredients or a medication included to make the product seem really effective. Quality company history with a nice website that has research to share and isn’t using high-pressure sales tactics - can be signs to look for in a brand.

5. Even within a brand name I have still found a need to check individual labels for my avoid ingredients because it seems to vary. Gelatin capsules are very common for omega 3 supplements, and therefore I recommend using fruit flavored fish oil instead. Get a more effective dose of EPA/DHA for your money and with the bonus of NO gelatin capsules.

   1. As an indicator of importance - across many, many brands consistently, I noticed that prebiotic and prebiotic supplement products did NOT use gelatin capsules. Maybe they are leaders of the pack (of types of supplement producers), or as microbiome specialists, maybe they know that glyphosate might be a risk for microbiome success and would make their product ineffective for healing a unhealthy gut.

Any anti-drinkers present? Pomegranate peel tea strikes too close to home with the above meme. Caution to get a comfortable dose for a desired diuretic effect. Diuretic use can be a helpful part of detox - just drink extra water after the dandelion or pom peel tea. And I have my diuretic teas or functional foods in the morning and afternoon rather than in the evening prior to wanting to sleep.

And caution against liability free products in general. 🤔

Disclaimer: This information is being shared for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health guidance.