Nutrition & Health OnLine Magazine: Top Ten Health & Nutrition Supplements

What are the Best Nutritional Supplements? Davey Dunn's Top Ten List

By Davey Dunn

Are you having a hard time choosing between the thousands of herbs and sports nutrition products on the market? I may be able to help you narrow the field by giving you what I think are the top ten supplements presently available for use in promoting health and performance. When I first decided to write this article I thought it would be difficult to choose a top ten since there are literally thousands to choose from. Actually, as I started thinking about which ones to include, several immediately jumped out as absolutely essential like vitamins and minerals. Still others screamed to be included because of the quality of the results you can expect to achieve as well as the massive amount of evidence to support their purported effects. Before I knew it, I had my top ten supplements. Your own top ten list may differ slightly from this list depending on the demands of your life but the ten included in this list will undoubtedly improve just about anyone's health.

MULTI-VITAMIN Vitamins and minerals are quite frankly the building blocks of your body. If you are missing any one vitamin or mineral that your body needs then it simple will not function properly. You can forget all the garbage you have heard from Nutritionists and Doctors about getting all you need from a well balanced diet because no one in today's World can eat such a diet because nutrient rich food does not exist in the modern marketplace. The only sensible strategy is to take a supplement that contains the nutrients that are missing from your diet. The great thing about your body is that it is more than able to pick and choose what it needs and eliminate what it does not need so the only way you can lose with a multi-vitamin is by not taking one every day.
Recommended Use: 1 serving at least twice a day with meals.

MULTI-MINERAL Most multi-vitamin formulas also contain minerals but usually do not include all that you need and certainly do not contain them in the quantities that you need. Minerals are just as important as vitamins in the every day function of your body and if you are missing any one your bodily functions will suffer and could eventually lead to disease. A good multi-mineral should include at least: Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, Copper, Selenium, Zinc, Chromium, Iron, Manganese, Iodine.
Recommended Use: 1 serving at least twice a day with meals.

VITAMIN C Just about everyone understands that Vitamin C is important to the human body but few seem to understand just how beneficial Vitamin C is and how much they should really be taking. Linus Pauling, a two-time Nobel Prize winner, started advocating daily doses as high as 8000 to 10000 mg in the early 70's and was scoffed at by conventional medicine. Dr. Pauling ended up living a vital life until age 93. Most of the people that scoffed at his theories that Vitamin C boosted the immune system and helped prevent aging died 20 or 30 years before Dr. Pauling. Personally I take at least 6000 to 8000 mg each day and try to take even more on days when I exercise.
Recommended Use: 4000mg to 10,000mg each day depending upon activity level.

FLAX OIL Essential fatty acids are extremely important to the human body and Flax Oil is the one product that contains both Alpha-linolenic and Linoleic. (We covered the benefits of essential fatty acids in the Weight Loss Corner article The Right Fats) The number of human maladies that Flax Oil can help with is almost unbelievable. It can aid in everything from mental illness to joint pain. Considering how inexpensive it is to supplement with Flax Oil (less than 30 cents a day) compared with the number of potential benefits and there is just no excuse not to take Flax Oil each day.
Recommended Use: 1000mg to 3,000mg each day depending upon activity level.

WHEY PROTEIN One of the best changes you can make in your body is to increase the amount of lean muscle mass which will not only make you look better but also promote health in ways like reducing bodyfat and stabilizing joints. The only way your body can build muscle is from amino acids, which are contained in protein. I favor Whey protein because it contains all of the essential amino acids which are required to build muscle. A lot of companies are pushing products that contain soy protein because soy is a less expensive form of protein and translates into greater profits. Do not allow yourself to be hoodwinked by these companies because Whey protein has all the benefits of Soy but does not cause you to catabolize (lose) muscle like soy protein and is no more expensive to purchase
Recommended Use: 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight each day depending upon amount of weight training.

ST. JOHN'S WORT This supplement makes the list because of the overwhelming evidence that it works as good or better than most prescription anti-depressants while having virtually no side effects. At a cost of about $ 5.00 on average for a month's supply, St. John's is probably one of the greatest bargains there is considering all that it can potentially do for you. St John's works by increasing the serotonin levels in the brain, which promotes better mental health, as well as aiding in other ways like decreasing appetite. St John's Wort is also extremely safe to take having been used as a supplement for thousands of years with virtually no documented side effects.
Recommended Use: 200mg to 900 mg each day.

KOREAN GINSENG Ginseng has less documented evidence to support it's use than most of the other supplements on this list but has by far the most anecdotal evidence since the oriental culture has sworn to the positive benefits of ginseng for about four thousand years. The main problem with the research on Ginseng is that it is conflicting. The are studies that show increases in performance and health but others that show no effect. There are several likely explanations, which have to do with the type of Ginseng used in the study and the way the study was conducted. Many of the positive studies seem to indicate an increase in blood flow from Ginseng which may aid in recovery and therefore not show a direct increase in performance.
Recommended Use: 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight each day depending upon amount of weight training.

MELATONIN Most people fail to realize how important sleep is to the human body. While you sleep your body rebuilds the muscle and tissue damage done during the course of the day. Inadequate amounts of sleep or poor quality of sleep can contribute to lowered immune function, which will lead to illness and decreased performance. Melatonin is naturally secreted by the pineal gland in the body but supplementation can increase the amount available to induce sleep. Melatonin is inexpensive and has no side effects other than causing drowsiness.
Recommended Use: 1 to 3 mg each day 30 minutes prior to bedtime.

CREATINE One of the most researched performance-boosting nutrient of all time is Creatine. Thousands of studies have been performed and just about every one of them shows that Creatine will increase strength and muscle size. There have been many negative side effects attributed to Creatine, however none of the studies have ever documented a side effect other than weight gain in the form of muscle. Since muscle gain is not only the direct outcome that many desire but also an indirect outcome that can help decrease bodyfat, Creatine is a safe and effective supplement that can help just about anyone improve their physical performance and physique.
Recommended Use: 5 to 10 Grams on workout days and 5 grams on non-workout days.

MAHUANG/GUARANA/WHITE WILLOW This stack is by far the most effective combination of natural ingredients for promoting bodyfat loss and is arguable the most effective combination ever whether natural or pharmaceutical. This combination of ingredients has undergone both numerous and rigorous research studies that show that it is safe and effective for weight loss. Despite the efforts of the Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex and the Media to discredit this combination it is still extremely popular because it works. Since low bodyfat levels are both desirable and beneficial to long-term health it is sensible to use natural ingredients to aid in the effort to lose fat. The only real drawback to this stack is that the regimen for use is a little more complex than just taking 1 or 2 capsules every day. However, when the ingredients are used in the proper manner the results can be astounding.
Recommended Use: Cycle dosage to maximize effects (Detailed information on how to cycle dosage is included in Weight Loss Corner article How to Use Thermogenics)

There you have it, my top ten supplement list. I am sure that not everyone will agree with all of my choices but the good news is that you are not limited to only using ten supplements so feel free to add to this list. If you are not already using most of the supplements on this list then you should think seriously about adding the ones you are missing as they can only aid in your quest toward better health.

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