Supplements

Below are the vitamins, minerals and other food supplements I take, and briefly why.  I've tried to list them more-or-less in order of importance.  Most of the product links go to the manufacturer's description, which is very informative, though some go to articles about why you would want to take the product.

Yes, I realize that half of what I take is probably unnecessary.  But which half?

Multivitamin - Life Extension Two Per Day.

CoQ10 - Life Extension Super BioActive CoQ10 Ubiquinol, 50mg.  This is a general anti-aging nutrient.  As we get older, we can't make enough CoQ10 from our diet.  Heart patients generally are very deficient.  CoQ10 drastically reduces the inflammation which causes aches and pains, and well as bleeding gums - really helps your mouth health.  Lots of other anti-inflammation effects, benefitting the whole body.

SODzyme - Life Extension - an extremely potent inflammation fighter.  If you have an old injury which bothers you, this is what to take to make it quit bothering you.  My  87 year old mother-in-law was more than bothered - say, debilitated, by a broken ankle three winters ago.  It kept plaguing her for a couple of years, and stopped when she started taking SODzyme regularly, along with CoQ10.

Melatonin - Life Extension 3mg time-release.  I've had trouble falling asleep for decades (helped, no doubt, by my science fiction addition).  I now take five 3mg time-release melatonin capsules along with 200mg of 5HTP, and I fall asleep around 30 minutes after going to bed, staying asleep most nights.  I wake up refreshed.

Vitamin D - I don't actually take Vitamin D, but if I didn't have a home tanning booth, I would.  We do the tanning because it does three things instead of one.  (1) it lets us make Vitamin D to keep us healthy through the winter.  (2) A tan looks good,  and (3) a tan will protect us from sunburn in the spring and summer - we like playing and working outdoors.

 Super Booster Softgels - Life Extension - Vitamin E, Lutein, Lycopene and other fat-soluble nutrients.  General health, eye health, antioxidants.

DHEA - Puritan's Pride - 25mg (I take 1.5 tablets per day)  This is a general anti-aging hormone.  Old, sick people tend to have too little, and old, healthy people tend to have more.  Young adults have even more.

Fish Oil - Life Extension Super Omega 3, three per day

Magnesium Citrate - NOW foods, about 1/2 teaspoon per day, divided between my morning and evening protein shakes.

Whey protein - I use Cytosport Complete Protein, but there are lots of good ones.  To 2.5 scoops of powder, I add a drop of Iosol, 1/4 teaspoon of magnesium citrate, about a teaspoon of Diamond V granules, a teaspoon of lecithin and about 3 oz of fresh homemade yogurt for flavor and immune support.

Soluble Iodine - Iosol, one or two drops per day.  Without sufficient iodine, hypothyroidism always (yes, always) results.  Extreme hypothyroidism leads to goiter, but marginal hypothyroidism simply leads to a lower body temperature and sluggish metabolism.  When I'm counting calories, my body figures it doesn't have extra calories to burn, and my metabolism slows.  To combat this, I exercise and try to keep my thyroid functioning properly.

Vitamin C - Puritan's Pride C-1000, one in the morning, one in the evening.  Vitamin C leaves the body quickly, so divided doses are important.

Vitamin B Complex - Puritan's Pride B-100

Cruciferous Vegetable Extract - Nature's Way DIM-plus, two per day.  This helps with estrogen metabolism, guiding its breakdown pathway into the least harmful branch, and helping to prevent hormone-dependent cancer.  I also eat broccoli, kale and cabbage fairly regularly.

MSM - Life Extension MSM 100mg, two per day.  One of the supplements to fight joint pain, along with glucosamine, chondroitin and SAMe.  Although I'm still knock-kneed, my knees seldom hurt any more.  Five years ago my knees were so bad that I hated to climb the stairs to my bedroom at night.

Carnosine - Life Extension Super Carnosine, one per day.  Fights the glycosylation caused by high blood sugar.  (glycosylation results in AGEs - Advanced Glycosylation End-products - clumps of inactive protein/sugar molecules which are implicated in the fundamentals of aging.  They cause cataracts, skin wrinkling - lots of age-related destruction.)  I don't have high blood sugar, but glycosylation happens slowly even at normal levels, so I take my carnosine.

Carnitine - Life Extension Optimized Carnitine.  I do eat meat, so I don't know if this is necessary for me.

Alpha Lipoic Acid - Life Extension Super Alpha Lipoic Acid, two per day.  A fat-soluble antioxidant.

Calcium, Life Extension Calcium Citrate with vitamin D, three or four per day.

Strontium - Nutraceutical Sciences Institute 680mg.  Strontium cures osteoporosis, when accompanied by the other minerals and hormones necessary.  Over time, most people lose bone mass after young adulthood.  Adding strontium (not strontium-90) to the diet lets even older people add bone mass.

Multiple polyphenol extract - Life Extension Super Polyphenol Extracts.  Includes Green Tea extract and other antioxidants.  For general health.

5-HTP - Nutaceutical Sciences Institute 100mg 5-hydrozytryptophan.  This is a precursor to serotonin, which is a calming brain neurotransmitter, and also helps insulin to move sugars into the muscles for energy.

Chromium - Puritan's Pride Ultra Chromium Picolinate, 500mcg.  Chromium deficiency mimics adult-onset diabetes.

SAMe - Jarrow Formulas - 400mg of mixed SAMe (200+mg of active isomer).  Helps to build cartilage to keep my knees from aching, helps liver function, and lots of other good effects.

Pregnenolone - Life Extension 100mg.  A feel-good hormone, which is converted by the body into hundreds of others, as needed.

Psyllium powder - a heaping teaspoonful a day, mixed into kool-aid made with Xylitol and Stevia instead of sugar.  For bowel regularity.  This powder dissolves poorly in kool-aid.  Stir it in, wait a minute, stir again, repeat until smooth.  Don't wait too long between stirs or it clumps. 

Lecithin - Now Foods.  A half teaspoonful in kool-aid to help the astragalus powder dissolve.