The #1 Mistake that You Are Making with Supplements

Are your supplements actually working? Discover the most common supplement mistakes, plus how to maximize supplement absorption, the importance of supplement timing, why RDAs may not be enough, and more. Stop wasting money on supplements that aren’t delivering the benefits you’re looking for!

The number one mistake you are making with your supplements. So many people waste so much money on supplements, not because they don’t work, but simply because they’re making mistakes about taking them. And sometimes, yes, they’re taking the wrong thing, but there are really simple things related to supplements that you should know, especially with absorption, taking the right amounts, taking the right form. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. The first thing I want to cover is when you buy a supplement and you look at the back of the label.

Everything on that label is designed off of what’s called an RDA. So, what is an RDA? Is it the amount that you really need to satisfy a deficiency? Not necessarily. It’s the bare minimum you need as a survival dosage to prevent a major problem.

It is not designed to fortify an optimum amount, and these amounts are definitely not designed to create a therapeutic effect. So, if you have a major deficiency and you just take the RDA, the bare minimum, you will never correct the deficiency because it’s too small. And this is number one. The dosage that you’re taking is way too small. It’s too tiny.

Let’s just go through some common nutrients that a lot of people will take, and then let’s look at what you really need to be taking to create a therapeutic effect. The first one is vitamin D3. The RDA is between 600 IU and 800 IU. That number is ridiculous. It’s completely outdated, and it’s only designed to prevent rickets, which is a calcium problem in children because their bones are just too soft.

It is not the amount that you need for the immune system, for your brain, for your muscles, because there are two systems of vitamin D. I have videos on this. I’m not going to get into it, but the average person to get enough vitamin D needs at least 10,000 IU of vitamin D3 every single day just to maintain good levels in your blood. And this might not even be a therapeutic amount. If you have an autoimmune disease or chronic inflammation, you might need 50,000 or even 100,000 IU.

The other thing I want to mention is when you go in the sun in the summer for maybe a half an hour, you’re going to get at least 10,000 IU. So, anyone that tells you that this is too much, just mention the part about what about the sun and that argument will quickly diffuse. Vitamin C, the RDA is 90 mg. Again, this is just the amount to prevent scurvy, which is a severe vitamin C deficiency. There are doctors out there that use much higher amounts of vitamin C, like 1,000 mg to 10,000 mg every single day to create different therapeutic effects.

What about vitamin B1? The RDA for B1 is 1. 2 mg. That is a joke. That’s such a tiny amount.

An average person needs a lot more, between 50 to sometimes up to 600 mg per day to create a therapeutic effect. Vitamin B1 is really, really important, especially in your mitochondria to actually generate energy. The more sugar, refined carbs, or the more starch that you consume, the more B1 you will need and this is why so many people are deficient because they’re not even getting close to the amount that they need. And then when you eat these refined carbohydrates, you’ll see that they’ll enrich some of these products with synthetic vitamins. They’ll spray a couple synthetic vitamins so you think you’re getting something, but it’s actually just a joke.

I recommend if you’re going to take B1, get a natural version, not the synthetic version. B1 is very therapeutic for anything related to the nervous system and also anxiety and nervous tension that builds up. It works wonders on that. Let’s talk about iodine, okay? 150 micrograms, very tiny amounts.

When in other countries like Japan, the amounts that they take are much, much higher because they’re consuming a lot of seaweed. So, in the therapeutic ranges, you’re talking 500 to even 3,000 micrograms to create certain effects. Iodine helps regulate estrogen. It’s also really good on fibrocystic breast, which is a situation where you have too much estrogen. It makes those disappear within weeks.

Now, let’s talk about magnesium, which nearly everyone is deficient in because it’s really hard to get magnesium from the foods, not to mention all the other barriers to absorbing it. But, the RDA is between 310 and 420 mg. Again, this is the amount just as a bare-bones minimum, not what people actually need to correct anything. And these amounts were based on women that weighed 130 lb and men that weighed 160 lb. So, if we recalculate and take my weight, 195 lb, I should be taking as the RDA 600 mg, okay?

But, to create a therapeutic effect, you need between 800 to 1,600 mg. One of the challenges with people taking this, and I’m going to get into this as we get into this video more, but taking the wrong form of magnesium. I will cover that, but just so you know, a lot of people need a lot more magnesium. Magnesium is so super important in many different biochemical reactions. I will cover that.

Zinc. The RDA between 8 and 11 mg is a joke. Most people need between 25 and 50 mg. Zinc is involved in many different things related to building testosterone, being able to smell and taste certain foods, as well as supporting a healthy immune system. Let’s talk about vitamin K2.

Vitamin K2 doesn’t have an RDA. It’s a relatively newly discovered vitamin, but it’s the thing that keeps calcium from building up in the arteries. The version that I would recommend is the MK-7 version, and on a daily basis, you need between 200 to 400 micrograms. But, if you’re trying to create a therapeutic effect, let’s say you have osteoporosis, because vitamin K2 takes the soft tissue calcium out of the arteries and the joints and drives it into the bones and the teeth, then you would need like 45 mg. There’s an interesting study on Japanese women with osteoporosis doing that, showing some good effects.

Okay, B12, 2. 4 micrograms. Now, we need a lot more. We need between a thousand to two thousand micrograms. I will be talking also about the correct form of B12, because you don’t want to take the synthetic version.

But again, this small amount is not going to do anything to your body other than prevent a very severe deficiency. Okay, omega-3 fatty acids, fish oils, cod liver oil, between 1. 1 to 1. 6 g to counteract all the high omega-6 fatty acids, which are inflammatory, aka seed oils in the diet, you’re going to need to really take these to the next level, between three to five grams per day. Rarely does anyone do that, but if you’re trying to create a therapeutic effect, especially for inflammation like arthritis, autoimmune, these are the ranges that you would need.

This isn’t going to do anything. And what happens is people will take a smaller amounts of a vitamin and say, “Oh yeah, that didn’t work. ” and then stop taking it, when it could have worked if you took enough of it. Let’s talk about selenium, another super important trace mineral that we need in certain amounts. But, 55 micrograms is the RDA when a lot of people need more 200 to 400 micrograms to create an effect on the immune system, to create an effect on the liver to build up glutathione, which is a powerful antioxidant, and also to help with your thyroid.

The conversion of T4 to T3 requires selenium, and selenium is one of the most important things with hypothyroidism. So, I just wanted to cover some of the nutrients in the tiny amounts that are recommended. Don’t actually just focus on the RDA. I would recommend looking at the therapeutic dosages because that’s really why people take supplements usually to handle something unless you’re taking a multi vitamin m