Everyday Basics for Optimal Health: 5 Key Supplements

All of this information is the result of 16 years of nutrition research and experimentation, but if you want the full gory details then grab yourself a copy of my book, Dance Your Way Through Life: A No Bullshit Guide to Hacking Your Body, Mind & Soul for Success where I share over 1500+ scientific references, action plans and everything there is to know about health. It also comes with 30 minutes with yours truly to clarify your goals and set an action plan to kick ass.

There are many places to start in the wide world of nutrition and supplementation, and health can be pretty complicated. Having a safe, effective and generalized starting point is invaluable, and this is what "The Basics" mean to me. I describe these in detail in my book, but they are 5 simple pillars that you must include for optimal health:

1. Vitamins
2. Minerals
3. Enzymes
4. Probiotics
5. Antioxidants

This is the first principle - stick to The Basics. These are the most fundamental ingredients that your body needs to be able to do its thing, and while not the sexiest or quickest route to health - it is the safest and most sustainable longterm. Taking 5HTP (a serotonin supplement) may help your mood right now, but it is not a longterm solution and comes with potential issues because you're messing around with higher level processes (like neurotransmitters), instead of supporting your body with the vitamins and minerals (and a good diet) that will help it produce serotonin in the first place.

The second important principle is that you always want to have a heavily inverted benefits-to-risk profile. What this means is that everything you do, for the most part, should have a high amount of benefit with very little risk. It's just like investing. This skewed profile is stable longterm, and will help you avoid crashing and burning, derailing, having to restart, having to deal with other consequences, etc. In this regard, there are a few other things that I recommend to people (and use on a regular basis) that are well worth the benefits and have little to no risk. I consider these "special nutrients," and I'll share them with you in this article.

In the following sections I'm going to just blitz you with information on what to take and where to get it. I realize it's detail intensive, but once you get into a rhythm it really isn't hard.

Vitamins are important chemicals that you need every day and come from both animal and plant sources. Most every vitamin has different forms, and some are more absorbable than others. In general, you want "whole food" vitamins (sourced from food, more expensive) compared to synthetic ones. Below are my vitamin guidelines, with product names and where to buy listed below.

• Take 2 of the Essential DAK1K2 per day.
• Take 1-2 Optimal Whole C chewables per day.
• Take 1 Opti-Methyl B per day.
• Consider adding 1 Essential P5P for extra vitamin B6.

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• Take 1 of AC Grace’s mixed tocopherol product for vitamin E
• Consider adding 1 of their tocotrienols product, but take it 2 hours apart

Total Pills per Day: 5-7
Total Cost per Day: ~$1.84 to $2.67

GENES TO CONSIDER: VDR (vitamin D), VKORC1, GGCX, CYP2C9 (vitamin K), CYP4F2 (vitamin K + E), TTPA (vitamin E), BCO1 (vitamin A), SLC23A1, SLC23A2 (vitamin C), MTHFR (vitamin B9 + B12), MTR, MTRR, FUT2 (vitamin B12), ALPL, NBPF3, ALDH7A1 (vitamin B6), SLC52A3 (vitamin B2), SLC19A1/2/3 (vitamin B1), PANK1/2/3/4 (vitamin B5), SLC6A19, HCAR2/3 (vitamin B3)

• Also consider a personalized Vitamins Report on Self Decode
• Vitamin B6 is also a cofactor in many reactions and genetic pathways. The following genes increase demand, so consider adding additional B6 in P5P form: GAD1, GAD2, MAOA, MAOB, COMT, CYP1A1, CYP1B1, CYP2D6, CYP3A4, CYP3A5

Minerals are compounds, like metals, that catalyze important reactions in your body, build tissues and have a number of roles. You need a variety of minerals, and in this article I do not talk about: zinc, copper, manganese, iron or iodine. All of these are necessary, but remember that the point of this article is to create an initial beginning, with testing, planning, learning the story of your genes, coaching and experimentation leading to a more developed routine. Copper is important, and so is iron, but taking these every day is not something you want to do unless you are testing. Magnesium, on the other hand, is something everyone should be taking every day for optimal health and has no issues.

Order the following, high quality mineral chelates at Swanson Vitamins or on Amazon.

You can also use a highly bioavailable calcium supplement at Optimal Health Systems called BonePlus.

• Take 400mg (3-4 pills) of Albion chelated magnesium per day.
• Take 1 Albion chelated chromium per day.
• Take 360-540mg of Albion calcium (2-3 pills) per day.

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• Take 1 BoroTab (boron) per day

This simple protocol stabilizes your electrolytes, blood sugar and several other important pathways while you learn more about demands in other areas. Remember that this plan does not account for zinc, iron, manganese, iodine and copper – utilize the proper health testing to determine your needs in these areas as they have the potential for toxicity if mishandled or used longterm without awareness.

Total Pills per Day: 7-9
Total Cost per Day: ~$0.65 to $1.40

GENES TO CONSIDER: SLC31A1, ATP7B (copper), SLC5A5, DIO1/2/3 (iodine) and SLC30A10, SLC39A14, SLC39A8 (manganese).

• Also consider a personalized Minerals Report on Self Decode

Once you setup good nutrition practices and investigate these genes, as well as use regular health testing, you will have a more accurate idea of how to start intervening since you may need more or less based on these genes.

Enzymes are a broad category of chemicals that facilitate reactions by "speeding them up" many-fold so that life can happen. In a sense, we age because our enzyme potential reduces to some degree. Minerals and vitamins play a role in maintaining your enzyme potential, hence why they are essential, and there are many kinds of enzymes for many kinds of reactions. Here, I just focus on digestive enzymes, and I have just one recommendation:

• Take 3 Optimal Digestion per day, 1 with each meal.

This is a critical ingredient in supporting optimal digestion and mitigating any issues you may have with processing food like SIBO, brainfog, inflammation and so on. Alongside other interventions for digestive health that I discuss in my book, this is just a no-brainer that everyone should include per day.

Total Pills per Day: 3
Total Cost per Day: ~$1

This is also a wide area of supplementation, and depending on your issue you may require a very specific plan. Not all probiotics work, and you may not need certain strains versus others. The gold standard is to take a highly sensitive test, like the Gut Zoomer from Vibrant Wellness (I can help you with this) and see what's inside. Not fun, but do it in the name of science and learning :)

The product I use (one of them) was originally based off of Dr. Shahani's work (a pioneer in probiotics) and is a resistant strain of bacteria that can make it into the colon. It is an affordable and high quality place to start.

• Take 3 Optimal Flora per day, 1 with each meal.
• If you've had a lot of gut issues, a history of antibiotic (or recent) usage, you can also try the Flora Blitz program and reboot your gut in 21 days (pictured above)

Total Pills per Day: 3
Total Cost per Day: ~$1

Antioxidants are also a broad category of nutrients that serve to fight aging, eliminate toxins and repair collateral damage from chemical reactions happening in your body. Almost anything can be an "antioxidant," and remember that your body has the most powerful one, glutathione (among a few others like SOD, catalase, etc.), so rather than dropping coin on expensive supplements, your efforts should be on supporting your body's natural production.

There are a few exceptions, like resveratrol, that may be useful depending on your genes, but in general my recommendations stick to simple things you can do every day with no issues, i.e. The Basics. Below are the products I use/recommend:

• Take either 1 Essential Resveratrol per day OR
• 1 Opti Mito Force per day OR
• 1 scoop of the Fruit & Veggie Plus per day

For selenium, the main building block of glutathione, find it at Swanson Vitamins or Amazon (as Blue Bonnet):

• Take 1 Albion chelated selenium per day (200mcg)

This plan gives your body the raw ingredient for glutathione (selenium) and also provides powerful support for your genes and aging pathways through resveratrol and Opti Mito Force, which has a lot of traditionally researched antioxidants in it as well as PQQ (also a powerful compound that has come up in the research).

Total Pills per Day: 2-3
Total Cost per Day: ~$0.65 to $1.95

GENES TO CONSIDER: NOS1, NOS2, NOS3, CAT, SOD1, SOD2, SOD3, DAO, SIRT1, APOE, CBS (selenium), CYP1B1, CYP2B4, CYP3A4, GPX1/3/4 (selenium)

• Also consider a personalized Longevity Report on Self Decode

This is the final group of nutrients that I mentioned at the beginning of this article that are high benefit/low risk. These nutrients have an incredible safety profile and a vast amount of anti-inflammatory and supportive benefits. They are also super cheap.

All of the following can be ordered on Amazon.

• Take 2000mg of Taurine per day. I use this one.
• Take 500-1000mg of boswellia per day. I use this one.
• Take at least 200mg of butyric acid per day. I use this one.

Total Pills per Day: 6-8
Total Cost per Day: ~$0.75

Also consider a personalized Inflammation Report on Self Decode

This article is designed as a resource that gets straight to the point. Keep in mind the value of ongoing health testing and developing a practice of understanding your genes and body. While everything here is safe, everyone's story is different and you may require less or more of a given nutrient based on several factors, and also things change over time and must be monitored.

To learn more, please check out my online courses here.