Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 323: Supplements to Take and Avoid in 2023 (berberine, turkesterone + more!)

Episode Date: September 26, 2023

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome in everybody to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue podcast. As always, I'm your host Danny Matranga. And in today's episode, we are going to be discussing the state of evidence-based supplementation in the year 2023. What this means is we are going to break down what the evidence says, what the science says is worth supplementing with on the basis of the weight of the research. So stuff that has a lot of research supporting that taking it is effective will be at the top of the list. We're going to talk about a lot of stuff that you might consider taking. We're going to talk about some of the most popular trendy supplements of 2023 that may or may not be worth taking. And I will also go over my own supplement
Starting point is 00:00:51 protocol so we can really just deep dive and break down what it is that you need to focus on to optimize your health performance and productivity for either your own wellbeing, for your clients, for your clients, for your friends, for your family, whatever you're doing when you buy supplements, I think it's really important to make good decisions because they can be expensive. And I think you want to be informed when you're trading your money for something like a supplement. So let's go ahead and get into the episode. This episode is brought to you in special part thanks to our awesome partners over at Ice Barrel.
Starting point is 00:01:28 If you're like me, you want to get the absolute most you can out of your fitness and out of what it is that you're doing in life. I like to make sure that I'm recovering well and prepped for hard workouts. I like to make sure that my cognition is sharp and I like to make sure that I'm doing what I can to maintain my long-term health. And cold water immersion is a phenomenal tool I use and have used for a while to help me do this. Cold water immersion or taking ice baths is a great way to improve your recovery and performance. Just a few short sessions a week can really make a difference in how you recover. It can increase
Starting point is 00:02:01 and improve your heart rate variability. It can enhance performance. It improves mood and brain function. It also provides an awesome boost of energy and focus because when you hop in an ice bath and you get this amazing vasoconstriction effect and your body starts releasing epinephrine and norepinephrine, it kind of lets you reenter the world awake, energized, excited, and enthused. And I would much rather take an ice bath in the mid-afternoon, especially if I had a hard training session in the morning, than consume more caffeine. Ice Barrel allows me to do this in a super sleek, aesthetically pleasing packaging. It's a beautiful barrel that comes with a matching lid for keeping the ice cold and water inside clean, a nice step
Starting point is 00:02:40 up stool, a cover. It's portable and durable, and it comes in a beautiful matte black and a gorgeous tan. I have the matte black out on my patio, and I absolutely love the way it looks with the fencing I have around the yard. But you can put this inside, outside, on the front porch, on the back porch, in the side yard. It's quite portable. It's very durable. Like I said, the design is super, super sleek, and it's very easy to drain to make sure that you are only getting in to cold, clean water designed to help you improve your performance, improve your recovery, enhance the way your brain feels and functions throughout the day. This is an amazing one-time cost tool that once you have it, you use it a couple of times a week. It is one of the best investments you can make in your health.
Starting point is 00:03:20 And again, if you want to improve your cognition and performance, and you have those midday lulls, or you want to be more present for your family or for your friends when you get off of work and you don't want to caffeinate, temperature modulation like ice baths or cold exposure or sauna heat exposure can be really valuable for increasing that subjective sense of well-being and bringing you back to a place of alertness in a really chaotic world. It's also great for just cultivating resilience. I find I'm much tougher. Again, this is a more anecdotal thing, but I find that I am much tougher,
Starting point is 00:03:50 ready to face the day's tasks when I am consistently exposing myself to the elements. Call it bromeopathy, call it anecdote, but I will tell you one thing is for sure, cold water immersion has made a huge difference for my health and wellbeing in just a few short sessions a week. An ice barrel is the sleekest, best looking, cleanest, and most affordable way to do it reliably. You can head over to icebarrel.com slash Danny to take advantage of their 100% satisfaction guaranteed with again, a 30 day money back guarantee and save 125 bucks on your Ice Barrel using the promo code Danny. So again, icebarrel.com slash DANNY and check out using the promo code DANNY to save $125. First thing is first, when we sit down and discuss supplements, we have to start by talking about
Starting point is 00:04:40 the supplement industry. The supplement industry is a very profitable, multi-billion dollar industry. And many, if not most of the products on the market do not work. Depending on who you talk to, you'll hear differentiating opinions about the regulatory oversight for the industry, but compared to pharmaceuticals, there is substantially less regulation around supplements. They tend to be fairly cheap to manufacture, and they tend to have a very high capability for replication. It is easy to produce, oftentimes easier to sell, and some of the most common marketing opportunities or common marketing gimmicks, if you will, take additional advantage of distributing these products easily
Starting point is 00:05:34 and quickly. Supplementation and supplements are very effective at reaching audiences quickly because you can produce them in high volumes. They typically last longer than certain pharmaceuticals. Uh, it becomes rather easy to take advantage of things like influencer marketing. Uh, I am affiliated with several supplement companies. I am also an influencer. So what happens is supplement companies see you guys, the listeners of this show, those of you who follow me on various socials, and they go, these people are already invested in Danny and they believe what Danny has to say because they listen to his podcast. Let's see if we can get him to pitch our product. And that's why when it comes to supplement affiliations, I make a very concerted effort to only align myself with brands whose products I have already
Starting point is 00:06:27 been paying for consistently. With Legion, with LMNT, with Seed, these are all companies that I was paying for for personal use before these affiliations came to effect. And a lot of influencers and fitness enthusiasts and people with a platform are doing the same thing. They're going to recommend to you what it is that they take. However, there's a lot of times where I don't want to throw anybody under the bus, but there's a lot of times where certain supplements have very high profit margins. A supplement that has a lower profit margin, for example, might be something like whey protein because it is fairly expensive
Starting point is 00:07:10 to produce. Then you have other supplements like BCAAs and fat burners that have very low efficacy but very high margins. You'll see people say, I know this doesn't work or I've never taken it or I'm not sure, but it's a really quick cash grab. So, you know, people look to individuals on the internet with a platform to give them advice on what supplements to take. You have supplement manufacturers who have loose regulatory practices that allow for many products to fly under the radar and contain things that are not even on the label. I was listening to another podcast the other day, and the two gentlemen were discussing how many products contain ingredients in dosages that are significant that don't appear on the label. And the percentage was insane. The number of over-the-counter testosterone boosters that contain some form of like low
Starting point is 00:08:08 grade oral anabolic steroid is nuts. Like supplements actually cause acute liver failure fairly frequently because they contain contaminants and things that are not supposed to be on the label. So before we get into any of the talk about what works, what doesn't, what does the evidence say, we need to circle back and have this talk. We do it once a year on the show about selecting products that are manufactured with good manufacturing practices from reputable companies, from reputable influencers, distributors, et cetera. What I mean, if you trust a person who says they take a product, that is not enough.
Starting point is 00:08:54 You guys should not buy anything that I recommend without following up on your own. It works better that way. I understand that I do the best I can, but I'm not the only person in the world who has the incentive to connect you with products that help you get fit. There's a lot of people who have those incentives around making money, and they don't care whether these products work, hurt you, help you or otherwise. And then you have to remember the manufacturers and a lot of the people who produce these supplements are in the business of making money. I'll give you an example. Alex Jones, who was sued for more money than I can even remember
Starting point is 00:09:37 for essentially telling people that the Sandy Hook shooting never happened, sells supplements. So this guy goes on his podcast on a fairly consistent basis and lies to people about things as egregious as school shootings, but people trust him enough to buy nutritional supplements. That to me is a red flag, but that should paint a picture for you of just how wild west this space can be. form of third party verification through testing and or through some form of, like I said, secondary or tertiary verification. Some companies submit their products to things like Labdoor or some people do USP. You want to make sure somebody other than the manufacturer said, hey, this batch number has what it says it has in it. And then lastly, you should never,
Starting point is 00:10:47 number has what it says it has in it. And then lastly, you should never, ever give your money to a company that uses proprietary blends. If they don't tell you how much of the product and how much of each ingredient is in the product, I should say, meaning they don't tell you how much caffeine, they don't tell you how much citrulline. They tell you, we don't want people to steal our formula. Run. Unless it is very clear what amount of each component is in the product, it's never worth your money. No proprietary blends ever. That is bullshit. That is how companies get away with putting less of the stuff that matters in the product. And I know what you guys are thinking. Some of like a lot of the more popular supplements in the fitness space, I'll use a popular greens product without naming the
Starting point is 00:11:37 product. Some of the more popular products in the fitness space use proprietary blends. They are completely and entirely shameless in the use of these blends to quite literally just hide the fact that they don't put as much of the expensive, hard to acquire ingredients into the product. And that doesn't really sit well with me. I would stay to put it as succinctly as I possibly can. If a supplement company uses a proprietary blend, this is the number one rule when it comes to picking a supplement. What supplements do I want to buy? Who do I want to buy them from? Who do I not want to buy them from? If the company uses proprietary blends, there is a substantially higher chance that they do that to steal your fucking money than they do to hide their revolutionary formula. They would rather lie to you about how much of each ingredient is in the product than be transparent so they can get you to buy the product while they pixie dust the shit that works and you get a bunch of filler.
Starting point is 00:12:43 If a company uses proprietary blends, take your fucking money and spend it elsewhere. Those companies are not hiding a damn thing that's revolutionary. I guarantee it. They're just getting you to pay more for what's on the front of the label while they bamboozle you with the back of the label and fill it with crap and barely put enough of the ingredients that actually work. the back of the label and fill it with crap and barely put enough of the ingredients that actually work. You need clinically effective dosages of product, period, end of story. Do not purchase supplements from anybody who uses proprietary blends on the back of their label.
Starting point is 00:13:19 So let's talk a little bit about what does work and what the evidence basis says works effectively. I am very inclined to believe that protein powder, while I think of it as more of a food, this is a supplement that we have a ton of literature on. We know that it supports muscle growth. We know that it supports recovery, and we know that it increases dietary flexibility for people who are looking to lose weight. If you can get almost only protein from a quick, portable supplement, many protein shakes are for sale in pre-mixed form. You don't have to use powder, but any protein shake or protein powder that is sourced from
Starting point is 00:14:04 a quality manufacturer, I think is worth having on hand. This is a supplement that we know works. We know it aids in performance, muscle recovery. Like I said, it gives you more dietary flexibility, gives you some wiggle room, as I like to say. Okay. And I think that's really important. I don't look at protein powder as a supplement. I look at it more as a meal or as a form of getting protein into my diet. But what you want to look for in a protein powder is the absence of fillers and flavor enhancers. I don't like to see maltodextrin. I don't like to see tons of cornstarch solids. I don't like to see tons of gums and thickeners.
Starting point is 00:14:47 starch solids. I don't like to see tons of gums and thickeners. I want my first ingredient to be the protein source or sources, and I prefer whey protein isolate and a pea brown rice blend. If you're going to be selecting a plant protein, then I do things like collagen. There are high quality egg proteins, and many people even like beef protein isolate. I do not have a lot of experience with those, so I can't recommend them, but I do believe protein powder is very much still a supplement worth taking. I'm huge on creatine supplementation, specifically creatine monohydrate. I'd recommend two to five grams a day for anybody wanting to optimize their athletic performance. for anybody wanting to optimize their athletic performance. But one of the things that people seem to miss when it comes to creatine, and this is fairly understandable because it gets to the problem that we discussed earlier. Creatine has been around for a long time. And in that time,
Starting point is 00:15:47 for a long time. And in that time, dozens of designer forms of creatine have been brought to market. Also in that time, not one of those designer forms has outperformed the original form creatine monohydrate once, not one time. All of the evidence, all of the data that says creatine is an effective ergogenic aid, sports supplement, It's going to make you stronger and help you recover. Says that creatine monohydrate is the creme de la creme. It's the best. All of those designer forms that you pay more for because they promise things that they probably won't deliver are again, just the supplement industry bending you over one more time to get you to pay more for less. Creatine monohydrate, three to five grams a day,
Starting point is 00:16:25 forever. Fuck the rest of it. I swear to you. It's such garbage that these companies insist on doing this. Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that we might not see a better form of creatine in the future. We're getting a ton of creatine hype right now. I love it. But the basic stuff still works the best. And the safety profile on monohydrate is wonderful. Another supplement I'm a big fan of for people who sweat a lot, live in humid climates, compete in endurance sports, or use the sauna, or who have a hard time hydrating are electrolyte supplements, specifically sodium, potassium, and magnesium, are electrolyte supplements, specifically sodium, potassium, and magnesium, biasing potassium and magnesium. Sodium can be problematic if you have high blood pressure and a highly processed food
Starting point is 00:17:11 diet. So these supplements are not for everybody, but the literature leads me to believe that they can be very effective for hydration, especially for people who lose fluid in sport. I like LMNT compared to like over-the-counter electrolyte drinks like Gatorade and Powerade, but you can also just try cracking pink Himalayan salt into water so you have electrolyte availability when you train. I really like to have electrolytes on hand when I train fasted in the morning, because when I'm going into the gym at four 35, five 30 in the morning, I just got out of bed. Like if I wake up at 4.00 AM and I'm in the gym at four 30, like I wake up, brush my teeth, uh, you know, fill up a shaker bottle, put a scoop of stimulant free pre-workout in there, uh, put a scoop of regular pre-workout
Starting point is 00:18:04 in there, put some electrolytes in pre-workout in there, put some electrolytes in there and I drink that, I'm going to get hydrated more quickly than if I just drink plain water because you get a little bit of a faster uptake when you have these electrolytes present. If you're training in the morning fasted, you'll get much better pumps and I think probably better performance. But this one is a little lower on the list. This is one that I take and I like, but I think the evidence base here is strong and I would recommend it, especially for anybody competing in endurance sports. If you're drinking sports drinks like Gatorade or Powerade that do contain a good amount of sugar, I might lean towards just a plain electrolyte powder. Another supplement that depending on how you look
Starting point is 00:18:46 at the literature, it can skew both ways. Some literature will say like over the course of a lifetime taking these doesn't matter. But I think in the short term, in the aggregate, it can really fill a lot of nutritional deficiencies. And that's multivitamins. I think it's really important to get a good multivitamin and it can fill a lot of gaps. I think these are great for seniors. They're great for young people. They're great for individuals who don't have a ton of dietary control, but who still want to make sure that they're getting everything that they need. They can be very cost effective. One of the best multivitamins on the market is the Kirkland Costco multivitamin, high quality USP tested, good multivitamin for people
Starting point is 00:19:27 who eat a mostly processed food diet for people who don't have control over what it is that they eat for people who are constantly on the go or who don't get a lot of vegetables and fruits and things where we source these micronutrients. It's not a bad idea to supplement with a high quality multivitamin. I take Legion's Triumph. I only take a half dose. It's listed at eight capsules a day. I take four because I do eat a pretty nutrient dense diet, but I do like to make sure that I get additional vitamin exposure beyond the RDI in vitamins that don't have toxicity profiles that I'm concerned about. The fifth supplement on this
Starting point is 00:20:05 list, this is, you'll notice guys, this is the five supplements that I think work really well on the basis of the evidence. We're going to move into some more individual like sub ingredients with, with multivitamins. We're including like five of the things we're going to talk about or three to five of the things. So we'll break down into sub components, but this kind of big one is omega-3. Now omega-3 fatty acids have a ton, a ton of benefits. Okay. Taking a break from this episode to tell you a little bit about my coaching company, Core Coaching Method, more specifically, our app-based training. We partnered with Train Heroic to bring app-based training to you using the best technology and
Starting point is 00:20:50 best user interface possible. You can join either my Home Heroes team, or you can train from home with bands and dumbbells, or Elite Physique, which is a female bodybuilding-focused program where you can train at the gym with equipments designed specifically to help you develop strength, as well as the glutes, hamstrings, quads, and back. I have more teams coming planned for a variety of different fitness levels. But what's cool about this is when you join these programs, you get programming that's updated every single week, the sets to do, the reps to do, exercise tutorials filmed by me with me and my team. So you'll get my exact coaching expertise as to how to perform the movement, whether you're training at home or you're training in the gym. And again, these teams are
Starting point is 00:21:30 somewhat specific. So you'll find other members of those communities looking to pursue similar goals at similar fitness levels. You can chat, ask questions, upload form for form review, ask for substitutions. It's a really cool training community and you can try it completely free for seven days. Just click the link in the podcast description below. Can't wait to see you in the core coaching collective, my app-based training community. Back to the show. Specifically, these amino acids are linked to cardiovascular health, brain function. They have unique anti-inflammatory effects, but if you're getting them from fish, there are algae-based omega-3 supplements. These are popular with vegans. If you are getting them from fish, the quality and
Starting point is 00:22:16 the purity and the potency and the third-party testing is so important. A lot of this shit is just shipped out rancid. It's already spoiled. And they put like orange and lemon oil in it to mask the rancidity. You need to be very careful with omega-3. A way around supplementing with omega-3s is by eating cold water fatty fish two to three times a week. A way around multivitamins is by eating a broad diet that includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, animal proteins. If you're not going to eat animal proteins, you can still supplement with certain B vitamins and get there. Vegans are good at this. Electrolytes could theoretically be replaced through, again,
Starting point is 00:22:55 a rich diet and salt. Creatine, very hard to get exclusively from food and the dosages you need. Protein you can get from food. So the five supplements I recommend the most, you don't technically need them. And I think that says a lot. The fact that you could just fine tune your diet and not need these, that's awesome, but they really help to have around. And these are the five that I've been using because I pay as close attention as I can to the evidence. Let's talk about some individual ones that I actually do think have some fairly strong use cases. The first is vitamin D, vitamin D3 specifically. Vitamin D3 is a supplemental form of vitamin D and vitamin D deficiency is pretty
Starting point is 00:23:42 common, especially for people who don't get adequate sunlight. Maybe they live where sunlight is at a premium. Maybe they work mostly indoors. We synthesize vitamin D through the melanocyte when the element of the skin that absorbs light helps us produce vitamin D in the body. And a lot of people are concerned about sun exposure. So it does make sense to supplement with vitamin D, especially if you are deficient. This is one that is linked to pretty much every system in the body. If you look at the ways in which vitamin D is integrated into the body, it acts on so many different systems that a lot of people actually refer to vitamin D as a hormone. They will say that vitamin D is a hormone because it works in so many unique systems. It acts almost like a chemical messenger. So that's a big one.
Starting point is 00:24:29 Another one I really like is zinc. Now, if you overdo it on zinc, you will feel sick and it can achieve toxic levels. It will really mess with your stomach. But I have found there's a substantial amount of literature supporting zinc's relationship to the immune system and the quality of your skin, your dermatological health. I like zinc picolinate, and I think the research supports supplementing with just zinc if you are not getting enough zinc in your diet, and maybe you don't want to take a multivitamin that contains zinc. Probiotics, I've warmed on in recent years. I think Seed and Legion both make a
Starting point is 00:25:07 fantastic probiotic. But again, if you are not eating enough fiber-rich fruits and vegetables, those prebiotics to actually feed the gut what it needs, these bacteria in the gut what they need, you're going to miss out on a lot of the benefits that come from supplementing with probiotics because quite frankly, taking a pill with something in it does not help these colonies form the way that prebiotic fiber does. So you need to do both and you will probably get the best bang for your buck out of fermented foods that contain fiber like kimchi or sauerkraut. Now, what I do like about probiotics is that they tend to be fairly accessible. They are sold in most grocery stores, and I love the increased accessibility, but I do think you have to remember a product that's available on a store shelf
Starting point is 00:26:02 might not have enough AFUs or active fluorescent units, living bacteria to even be worth your time. So it's for this reason I typically don't recommend these to most people. And so those are four more. Zinc, magnesium, vitamin, oh, sorry, zinc, vitamin D, and probiotic. The last of which, a very common deficiency is magnesium. I like magnesium bisglycinate. Some people like magnesium L-threonate. These are forms of magnesium. It's just magnesium bound to threonate or glycine. The bioavailability of supplemental magnesium is
Starting point is 00:26:39 pretty good. We absorb it well, and we don't always get enough from our diet. It's a pretty common deficiency. And with all of the things we use in the body, all of these biological processes, all these things that we do, a magnesium deficiency could limit our ability to do these things because it's used in so many different biological reactions. And the safety profile is really, really good. So that is zinc, magnesium, vitamin D, and potentially probiotics. So the list, the S, the highest tier, the best tier, protein powder, creatine, electrolytes, multivitamin, fish oil. The next tier for more, the high tier for individual supplementation, zinc, magnesium, vitamin D3, a high quality probiotic. The maybe it could work. I'm not sure how you
Starting point is 00:27:26 might actually use this is going to be the biggest indicator of how well it works. That tier. We're going to start with some of the more popular and more trendy stuff. One of which is ashwagandha. So ashwagandha is an Ayurvedic herb. The best form of ashwagandha is KSM-66 ashwagandha. It's been used for thousands of years in Ayurvedic medicine. It can help work in an adaptogenic way by bringing things that are too high back to baseline and things that are too low up to baseline. It's been shown to help with stress and anxiety. There are some unique properties for the regulation of cortisol and hormones like testosterone, but the side effects do vary and they're highly individualized. And we do not have enough real data to lean into to make definitive claims about ashwagandha's ability to regulate
Starting point is 00:28:18 some of the things you will see on the internet that people say they work for. I've used it with good results. I have clients who've used it and felt a little apathetic. I think it really depends on the person. I think it really depends on the situation. I do believe it can work. But again, that is something with a little less evidence, but it's not terrible. Another very popular one with even less evidence for its efficacy for at least what it's in the way it's marketed is collagen. So you'll constantly see claims for skin and hair and joint health. And there's different types of collagen. There's type one, type two, type three. But there is a little bit of, there's more data for like soft tissues, like ligaments than there is for things like arthritis,
Starting point is 00:29:11 skin, and hair. It makes sense at a fundamental level that if we have collagen in our skin and our hair, that supplementing with collagen will help our skin and hair. There just isn't as much evidence behind collagen with regards to, this is what the marketers want us to think it does. This is what the evidence tells us the product does. And whenever there's a disconnect there, it causes me to take pause. I don't think collagen has a harmful profile, which is why I brought um, I brought it up, but I, I just think it's worth noting the claims and the evidence aren't quite there. So you can take it, but I just, I wouldn't expect too much from it. Uh, another one, very popular. This is a, uh, you know, this is like the definition of a tick talk supplement. Um, so you'll, you'll hear this a lot, right? Um,
Starting point is 00:30:08 berberine is nature's ozempic. Yeah, no, it's fucking not. Uh, berberine is generally decent at disposing of glucose, but it does not work as well as Ozempic. And quite frankly, if you want Ozempic-like effects without taking Ozempic, you might want to exercise with resistance, eat a high-fiber diet, eat protein, and maintain a calorie deficit. Taking berberine won't do shit for weight management if your calories aren't where they need to be the way a GLP-1 like Ozempic will, because Ozempic will obliterate your appetite. You won't want to eat shit, especially when you get up to those most efficacious dosages, not the ramp-up dose, but the effective dose. Berberine can't do that. Berberine gets decently close, but anybody out there who's making... The fact that people go
Starting point is 00:31:12 online and they make the claim, it's one of the most insane claims about supplements I've seen in a while, calling berberine nature's ozempic. Are you kidding me? If berberine was nature's ozempic, ozempic wouldn't exist. Ozempic and GLP-1 drugs are substantially better for weight loss than berberine. Period. End of story. That's all there is to it. Don't let some chick on TikTok who started taking berberine a week ago tell you that this works better than a drug that's been clinically proven to work for the outcome. That's just pure hogwash and it's not true. It is more similar to the drug metformin, which is a glucose disposal agent. But remember, metformin being a glucose disposal agent is not classified as a glucagon like peptide which is what ozempic is so when i see this hilarious tiktok trend and tons of people
Starting point is 00:32:13 asking me about berberine i always want them to pump the brakes berberine might be an effective gda glucose disposal agent sure but it's definitely not nature's ozempic. Uh, let's get into the most trendy stuff. I'm seeing it everywhere that I do not think works at all. Uh, number one is colostrum. I am seeing ads everywhere for colostrum. And here's the thing with colostrum. Um, it's the first batch of milk produced by a mammal after giving birth. It contains a ton of probiotics and a ton of vitamins. Um, you know, babies love, we love to make sure that human babies get the first bit of milk because of the nutrient density of colostrum. What's supplemented or what's sold in the supplement market is bovine colostrum.
Starting point is 00:33:00 And what we can tell from the literature is it might have some positive immune modulatory properties. Um, but that's about it. And I see people on the internet telling, saying, Oh, it helps me with performance. Oh, it helps me regrow hair. And I'm just like, literally none of this has ever been shown in the literature. And if you look at the dosages of colostrum that have been shown to be efficacious for immune system modulation, none of the products yield nearly that much colostrum. So anybody selling that right now, to me, immediate cash grab, turn the other way. I think that those people are full of it. Chlorophyll, this is a very popular one. Uh, the green component of plants, the cellular
Starting point is 00:33:46 organelle that gives plants it's green hue and that processes carbon dioxide to produce oxygen. Uh, apparently if you take a chlorophyll, it will improve your health in ways that you can't even imagine. But the evidence says that's completely bullshit. Um, and I'm just, I'm not sold on it at all. And perhaps the most popular product of the last like two years in terms of speculative performance enhancement is terkesterone. And I took terkesterone for about four weeks and noticed absolutely nothing. This was after a friend of mine was like, why don't you try it? It was like the biggest waste of money, in my opinion. There's also insufficient evidence to say that it works. It is a beta-ectosteroid, a plant sterol. And this is not the first plant sterol brought to market, but it just doesn't seem to have the steroid-like effect people hope. In fact, it doesn't have any effect at all in my experience,
Starting point is 00:34:46 nothing remarkable anyway, but it doesn't mean it won't work for you. I think a lot of how it works is driven by placebo. And anytime I see people who are already on steroids or who are clearly using anabolic steroids saying, Hey, take this knockoff steroid that has no side effects. I'm kind of sketched out because I'm like, first of all, I know there's no reason for me to believe that that works based on the evidence. Second of all, if it does work, how do I know that's what you put in there and not some sketchy pro-hormone or SARM or you name it, oral steroid derivative, you got to be careful. Okay, folks. So there you have it.
Starting point is 00:35:26 That's kind of what works and mostly what doesn't. Your money's best off being spent on protein powder, creatine, electrolytes, high quality vitamins, omega-3s, and individual supplements that you might be deficient in, common ones being vitamin D and magnesium and zinc. You can make the argument for supplementing with a probiotic, maybe ashwagandha, maybe collagen, and maybe berberine if the use case is like perfect and really, really good. But things like chlorophyll, trichestrone, and chlorophyll, sorry, I lost my voice there. Chlorophyll, colostrum, and trichestrone, not really worth your time. Thanks so much for tuning into the episode and learning about
Starting point is 00:36:10 supplements with me. I hope that you do take the time to leave me a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Makes a huge difference, helps other people find the show. And if you have a second, share this to your Instagram story and tag me so I can say thanks. I'll catch you guys on the next episode.

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