Supplement Stack Update: What Changed (and Why)

Ben and Dave are back with a deep dive into their latest supplement stacks, why they’ve changed, what bloodwork revealed, and what’s actually working right now.

🚨 Not just another “here’s what we take” episode.
 This one is driven by data: inflammatory markers, liver enzymes, HDL/LDL ratios, vitamin/mineral deficiencies, and more.

Inside:

• What Ben’s latest blood panel flagged (and how he fixed it)
• Why inflammation was visible in his progress photos
• The real reason creatine jumped to 20g/day
• A breakdown of different magnesium types—and what to take when
• The supplement/lifestyle combo that actually fixed sleep and gut health
• Dave’s longevity-focused stack (and why his test needs to be at 1000)
• Taurine: miracle compound or cancer risk? What the data actually says
• Why most supplement trends are trash (SARMs, keto drinks, etc.)

Plus:

• How to build your stack based on you
• Why blood pressure is the most underrated health metric
• The supplements we’d keep even if everything else got cut

👨‍⚕️ Reminder: this is not medical advice. Test, assess, and make smart decisions for your body.

Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Intro and Updates
• 3:38 Supplement Basics and Core Recommendations
• 8:56 Blood Work as Foundation for Supplements
• 16:44 Ben's Supplement Protocol Evolution
• 23:15 Dave's Custom Supplement Stack
• 31:20 Taurine Benefits and Cancer Considerations
• 36:22 Navigating New Supplement Trends

Transcript

Ben: 0:00

Yo, hey, what's up everybody? Welcome to Hacking Health Podcast. I'm your host, ben Connolly, with Dave Kennedy. Yo, welcome back. What are we going to do for an update? We've just updated people like we, just we just stopped recording.

Dave: 0:27

recording another one well, I do want to say I skipped legs day yesterday.

Ben: 0:31

I skipped it why, because my hamstrings hurt okay, what about the rest of your legs?

Dave: 0:38

I know. So I here here's my thought rationale behind it because you're still going to be using your hammies and it's been sore for like three and a half weeks and I haven't given it any time to relax, and so I was like I'm just not going to do legs and I'm going to chill, and I'm not going to do it and, uh, I'm just going to give myself some time to recover. So I, uh, I skip legs okay, well, I'm just gonna.

Ben: 0:58

I'm just gonna let you know that I'm disappointed. I will say, as somebody under your um tweet earlier on commented about, they wished that they had it on push yesterday instead of legs, and I was going to reply. But I think the secret to never having to do leg day is do full body push and full body pull and then you will. Every day will be leg day, but no day will also be leg day. So mentally, you're not doing because I think for you that and may help me as well the mental like fucking I've gone through leg day, whereas today I did push and I have leg extension and I have um leg press. So I'm like I'm fine, because after that I get to do chest and shoulders and triceps. My fuck, yeah. So that's the secret. The leg day is you can skip it every day, but you also have leg day every day.

Dave: 1:41

Yeah yeah, I hear you on that. Well, I, I, I. It's funny because I went to to orange theory, uh, on wednesday and I could barely like move my legs. Like my my hamstring was just not not doing good and I let the trainer know I'm like, hey, I did something in my hamstring. She's like no problem, I'm probably just gonna take a chill. But it was one of those days where it's like, you know, like 12 all outs and I'm not gonna back down from all outs, like those are my favorites. So you know, it's like full sprint mode and so I definitely did full sprint modes. But I will say, after doing those 12 sprints, my hamstrings felt better. So I think I just need to push harder and and and then it just like loosens up and it's good.

Ben: 2:16

So I think you just you know, I have for anybody listening please do not do that. If you've got an issue, hamstring, please do not do that. If you've got an issue, I'm saying please do not do what they just said. Right, so we're back Our favorite topic. I will say I will caveat this by saying we are not doctors. Like do your research whenever it comes to supplements. If you need to ask your doctor, ask your fucking doctor.

Ben: 2:37

But I have evolved my supplement plan protocol recently for a number of reasons. Andave just loves talking about supplements, so today we're going to talk about supplements like a bit of a backstory as a why I evolved my supplement protocol and I think you know you're the same as me in this. Like we will continue to add things based on conversations you and I have for research that we do. Or somebody tweeted something or our lord and savior, andrew huberman, said something right, okay, yes, we'll get that. And then it gets to the stage where you're like putting all your supplements together and you've got all these pills and bottles and you're like fucking, I was like so much. And then we just basically go back to the basics on it, like just start again. And then we gradually start to to build it up that is the, that is the process.

Dave: 3:19

I like I know what I'm getting out of hand. When I have like 40 pills that I have to take a day, I'm like, all right, I need to like You're putting it in a cup.

Ben: 3:26

You're like why is this cup so fucking full of pills?

Dave: 3:28

Yeah, it's ridiculous and I start from scratch and it's like five pills yeah. Six months later it's back to 40 pills and then I go back down again. It's just this horrible cycle of supplements for sure, no question.

Ben: 3:40

Yes, I will also say, like, remember that the supplements is like the top of the pyramid. Like, do not start here. Like you need to focus on nutrition, your habits, training, routine, stress management, all the other stuff. You need to focus on that first and then we can look at supplementation. Because I think that people's immediate, like I'm going to go on this fat loss journey, what supplements do I need to take? And like, bro, just like you, that you recover first, do that first, um.

Ben: 4:12

So, yeah, the reason that I re-looked at myself once was I got my blood panel back, um, probably about three months ago maybe, um, and there were a couple of things that had been recurring from the, the previous ones, that I hadn't addressed. I basically was getting my blood and go, okay, right, well, everything's all right. So I did a bit of research. I had a conversation with james um, and I was like, right, these are the things that I, these are the things that are off in terms of my bloods and these are the things that I want to improve. Um, and that's how we have ended up going down this journey and and and what we're doing. So, essentially, I'm basing it literally on, like, the data that I have from my bloods. It's not a case of you know. I saw some tweet about. Well, some of it is, but it's not all about just some tweet or something that I heard on a podcast.

Dave: 4:46

Yeah, and to emphasize the supplement things, that's the first thing I get asked like. I get asked by people like hey, I'm just going to get into weightlifting, what supplements are you start taking? I'm like nothing, like don't, don't take any supplements whatsoever. Like get to a pattern where you're being consistent, you know with your weightlifting and then you know then if you're getting things like blood work and other things like that you can supplement. There are a few things that I would recommend just as a normal daily life thing that are super healthy for you.

Dave: 5:14

So vitamin D is the godsent for our body. It's actually a hormone. It's not a vitamin, it's a hormone. It hits 90% of our DNA structure and it's been shown in multiple data studies on just so many different health benefits around longevity, living longer, anti-cancer effects, cardiovascular health, bone density. You know like overall, like brain, cognitive functionality, like the benefits are like endless on what vitamin D provides, and we're usually deficient in vitamin D because we don't get out in the sun as much. So I recommend supplementation of vitamin D. Usually like around 5,000 IU per day is a good one. You want to couple that with K2 so that it absorbs better into your body. I actually do intramuscular vitamin D from absorption perspective. So I do 20,000 IU a week, just one shot a week, and that is plenty and I'd got my blood work done and my vitamin D levels are right within the normal baselines. I get that from my, you know, prescribed for my doctor. I'm not saying anybody has to do that, it's just you know what works best for me. Instead of having to take the pills distributed throughout the week, I just do one shot and it's good to go from there.

Dave: 6:14

But vitamin D is one of those, fish oils another one. So do your research on fish oils. There was a recent study that showed in a very small percentage of people which is still statistically significant it can in the early stages increase chances of stroke. It's again a very minor piece of it. It's, you know, for those most of them already have cardiovascular issues. But the biggest thing with fish oil is it's like another thing for, like vitamin D, it's like a miracle thing for our body, cardiovascular health, cognitive function, function, overall longevity like improves longevity substantially. I mean they're saying fish oil can add, you know, five to ten years on your life, uh, alone, which is a pretty amazing statistic there. There's some good data behind it. I mean, you know, if you look at uh, japan, for example, one of the largest populations that live the longest um, a lot of that has to do with the amount of fish they eat per day, ie getting the amount of fish oils and omega-3 fatty acids in their body.

Dave: 7:08

And then the other one is creatine. If you're looking to get into some of that, creatine is not just for muscle mass, it's also for brain cognitive function. But with the latest data studies, it's shown that you really need to be taking 10 to 20 grams a day of creatine to get really the benefits both for your muscle and your brain components. 10 grams seems to be the one for the muscle development, 20 grams seems to be that for the cognitive functionality within your brain. And a lot of people will say, well, you know, creatine adds water weight. Yes, it does, but it's water inside of your muscles, so it makes your muscles look more fuller, makes your muscles look bigger, and it also helps you from a recovery and muscle building perspective. So it's really a phenomenal supplement.

Dave: 7:53

And the other thing I'll say is it has zero impact on kidney. You know that's always a concern is. You know, they've heard? You know, hey, kidney functionality within. Creatine is not there or can impact it. It's not not the case. Even the National Kidney Disease Association has come out and said creatine has no impact on kidney functionality. No-transcript, you know. If there's other blood tests that show you know how well your kidney is functioning, it has nothing to do with how well you're filtering things within your kidney. So, again, it's not bad in your kidney at all. So those are the three like staple supplements that I recommend and then you can start to build kind of a laundry list of things to add onto that if you want to and we'll talk about some of those and why we do it. You know a lot of my.

Dave: 8:50

The two things that I look for when I'm looking at supplementation is one, what my blood work says, cardiovascular health, to my testosterone, estrogen levels, to micronutrient testing to see like, hey, am I deficient in certain multivitamins or specific you know micronutrients that my body needs to do certain things? And then I also look at the data studies you know, especially like the long-term data studies that show, you know, specific benefits for certain types of supplementation that can improve overall health, not just longevity but also brain power, keeping your brain healthy One of my biggest concerns and should be concerned for everybody is Alzheimer's and any type of cognitive decline. And there was a stat that I heard yesterday one in nine people over the age of 65 will be diagnosed with Alzheimer's. You know, early stages of Alzheimer's one in nine, like that's, that's a pretty large statistic. Uh, right there. And that's one of the things that, like, my brain goes like just pull the cord, like I'm not there anymore, you know, like I'm good, you know. So, you know that's one of my biggest fears. So, like, what can I do to reduce my risk of cognitive decline?

Dave: 10:09

You know, as I get older, uh, what are the things that I can do to keep myself healthy and what are the things I can do to balance my blood work so that I'm within the normal ranges, um, at all times. And a combination of that too is, uh, blood pressure. Um, blood pressure is a, a, a very, very important um, uh metric for you and your health. If you have elevated high you know, pre-hypertension or hypertension level of blood pressure, statistically you're not going to live as long as somebody that does not. You're going to have cardiovascular issues, insulin insensitivity, you know a lot of issues that can, you know, create diabetes and other things. You know, blood Blood pressure is our really good baseline of hey, is our heart working the way it needs to? Are we producing things the way it needs to? Is our cardiovascular system working the way it needs to?

Dave: 10:52

And so I just got the new Whoop 5-0 MD I think it's called MD, but what's nice about it that I really liked? I used to take once a month. I would take the normal pad and I'd strap it on and I'd take my blood pressure just to make sure everything I'm doing is good. What's really cool with the Whoop is the very first time you use it. You use one of those wraps the medical wraps you can get done at a store or if you have one at your house and you take your blood pressure and you input in I think it's like three or four different baselines and then from there, whoop actually has sensors now that can take daily blood pressure statistics every single day, so you don't have to wear the strap. It does it based on its sensors that it has inside of the Whoop device itself. It's very innovative, and so now we get daily blood pressure monitoring and mine's all been within check.

Dave: 11:41

I mean, if I look at my, my root program today. Um, I get into it real quick here. So today I was at one 17 over 76, which is perfect, right, um, and you know I can go back every single day and say, okay, what was it yesterday, what was it the week, and what's my monthly trend. You know other times where it's it's elevated or not, um, it's really good for at least giving some of those.

Dave: 12:00

So it's not just the supplementation aspect of things, it's also looking at my whole body and saying what can I do to make it better? Or what can I do to make sure that I live longer? What can I do to give myself the best chance possible to not die of things like cancer or die of things like cardiovascular disease or to have mental decline? We have a lot of great data on that now to help prevent that, and there's new data studies coming out'll talk about one more, more than more recent ones around taurine and cancer. Um, you know there's a lot of things that we can learn from these data studies that really, you know, continues to just get better over time of how we can live longer yeah, agreed, and I think you know, first of all, if anybody doesn't have a blood pressure monitor, go and fucking buy one like they're like 30 bucks on amazon.

Ben: 12:39

Like that is something you should be checking on a regular basis because it's something that you can improve um. So, yes, I would definitely, I would definitely recommend having one of those and checking it regularly, like not just when you go for your annual checkup and they check it and they go well, it's fucked now because of whatever um. The second thing is you know what you said there about looking at your bloods that's essentially what I'm going to talk about here is like what was flagged and what we have done to improve it. And then you know, probably in a month's time I'll get my bloods done again and then we can see if it's it's actually been beneficial Um. So all of this stuff has been added in, adjusted it's not always just so imitation. Some of it's lifestyle change, um, and we can talk through that um based on information from my blood work and it's Aside from creatine. We had a conversation about that.

Ben: 13:22

I've seen a lot of people doing 20 grams. I just thought what actually happened was there was one night I didn't sleep at all, like zero, zero sleep, and I remember reading whenever, before we did the last podcast on creatine, I remember reading about you know, one single dose of 25 to 30 grams of creatine in the morning after not sleeping, will really help throughout the day, and I cannot tell you how much it helped me throughout that day. So since then I've just been having the upper end dose of 20 grams and you go through. I ran out because I was. You know, obviously you buy fucking creatine once every fucking hundred years because you know you use it. You know, at the five grams. So I've been having the 20 grams. I mean, you talk about it at a different time, but aside from that, everything has been done based on bloods and everything that we've seen. So something that was flagged was inflammation, essentially like gut and systematic stress or elevated inflammatory markers, and then disrupted digestion.

Ben: 14:14

What we added psyllium husk from a fiber aspect. Fiber is something I talk about quite a lot with clients and the biggest problem is number one understanding what your target should be in terms of fiber. Number two a lot of clients struggle to hit that target based on how they're tracking it. So you'll maybe notice this yourself that a lot of the products that you track on MyFitnessPal or InsertWhatever app. They don't always have fiber number in it. They'll obviously focus on not everything, but the majority of stuff. They'll focus on the protein, carbs and fats. So a lot of the time the fiber piece is missing. So I just started supplement with Selenium Husk in the morning, essentially just for overall digestive health and reducing the gut load on the whole.

Ben: 14:59

Support Max Neuro PM. This is for systemic inflammation and better sleeping. I have it up here and I'm going to read the ingredients of it. It's everything that we've talked about before, but in one product and I don't know if it's available over there, but it is fucking like so well stacked Magnesium, bi-glycinate, vitamin B6, zinc, vitamin B12, l-taurine, ashwagandha, lansmian, l-theanine and then black pepper 45 to 60 minutes before I go to bed. So the majority of the stuff that we would supplement individually in that one. I do add other bits and pieces of the same thing into to just increase the dose, but in terms of adding that like it's definitely helped with sleep overall.

Ben: 15:42

And then something that isn't necessarily a supplement, more of a lifestyle change is actually like being more cognizant of how and when I eat. So when I mean how, instead of just fucking shoving food down, actually be intentional of. I can remember Calum saying this many, many years ago. He says you should be chewing every bite of food between 20 and 30 times because that is essentially the start of the digestive process. I think everybody listening there's absolutely no way that you chew your food that amount of times it's maybe like three times and you swallow it because you're in the middle of doing something. So, being a lot more intentional with my, my chewing and my digestion. Also, like my surroundings, so not like being in a high stress state we're trying to shovel food in, um, and just being in a better position overall in terms of that, and then timing around you know when I'm eating and around stress markers and evening times and stuff like that. So that's how we've handled inflammation.

Ben: 16:32

And actually it's funny, I was going through my check-in with james on monday, um, and I have obviously my photos from week one of when we started again and you you can tell by looking at me I'm inflamed, which is a, which is a fucking hard thing to comprehend if you don't know what I'm talking about. But, like you can see from the photos, there's inflammation in my body. I don't have it anymore because we've addressed those things. I'm obviously a little bit leaner, a lot leaner, so addressing that from an inflammation perspective. Other things that were off were cortisol ratios, so LDL was too high and HDL was too low. This is one thing that I've ignored for too long. I think, oh no, that's fine.

Ben: 17:08

What we did was increase cardio, which I mean everybody knows at this point how I feel about cardio, but I've had to do it and I feel much better for it. We increased the omega-3s in the fish oils. Now I want to talk about the one that I take and I'm not saying that you need to take this one, but again it's the one that I have reintroduced Antarctic krill oil, so it's not just a fish oil. And the serving, the per serving so two capsules is a serving which is 1,200 milligrams. I'm taking six capsules, so 3,600 milligrams Again, because there's a lot of studies around a much higher dose on that to then rebalance your LDL and HDL and overall your cortisol levels and then just reduce saturated fat and then small dietary shifts within that just to balance those out.

Ben: 17:55

Um, from a liver enzymes perspective, they were slightly elevated, slightly elevated ast and ltl, so we added in liver support system like mac, milk, thistle and tutka, as well as the um support, max um, and then kept hydration up and made sure sodium intake was good. So obviously you know, making sure that I'm staying on top of the electrolytes in the morning and salting food appropriately, because it's not just about being hydrated, it's about having an understanding that your body can actually absorb the water and actually hydrate itself. Back to the LDL and HDL, but from a cardiovascular support Again, cardio up, fiber stacks and omega-3s have helped with that. And then obviously re uh, not re, I guess increasing my like low intensity output, ie steps essentially um, so I'll help with overall lipid health in the movement. And then just consistency around fiber.

Ben: 18:45

There were a couple of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, um, so vitamin b was low, vitamin d was low um, so we addressed that.

Ben: 18:50

I just basically doubled the dose of b complex, that that I just basically doubled the dose of b complex that I was taking and doubled the dose like a super, probably, I think probably a 1500. I use of vitamin d um daily in the morning and then introduced magnesium glycate in the evening for sleep relic, sleep relaxation and balancing instant sensitivity. So there are things that I added and then the creatine brought that up to 220 grams and I think, aside from pre-workout and protein powder, I think that's pretty much everything that I supplement with. Sometimes from a nootropic perspective, I will add alpha-GPC if I'm going into a heavy work block or something like that and I do sometimes have like land me in supplement as well, just from a focused perspective that isn't necessarily related to my blood so one thing to notice about when I talk about my supplement stack is mine is almost completely different from ben's, based on, uh, what I need for my body right um, and and I just got my blood work done uh, recently.

Ben: 19:50

I got it back about a week, all of your blood all my it was got my blood work done recently.

Dave: 19:55

I got it back about a week ago All of your blood. It was all my blood. It was so good. I did some DNA testing too. There's a specific type of test you can get done that it has to do with how your body breaks down testosterone in your body and it has to do with like a short and long structure within your DNA and basically, if you have a short head or a long head, your body absorbs testosterone differently, which is why we see people that have, let's just say, 500 levels of testosterone that feel like total shit, and then you have five people with testosterone that feel absolutely amazing their ability to leverage that testosterone, aromatize that testosterone, leverage it for their entire body, for all the benefits of testosterone are different based on our DNA, and so I got this test done and it showed that I have essentially the one that the long, which means that I don't absorb testosterone as well, which would explain why I need higher levels of testosterone, which I run my levels of testosterone around 1000, which works fine for me, but if I dip down into like the 600 or 500 range, I don't feel great. If I bump it up to like 13, 1400, I don't feel great. So that thousand mark for me was perfect to get that done. But the amount of blood that I had to give it was all my blood Like it was like 30 things. And I will say I'm very impressed because I was like I know it's gonna be a lot of blood, so I'm gonna hydrate like a mother effer. And so I went into this lady you know it's this old lady, mom, grandma. She's amazing, like she knows me in and out. I'm in there all the time and she's like hey, dave, how's the kids, how's your wife, are you guys going on vacation? Like no-transcript. But I can say that this level of blood work that I had done and the results that I got back were astronomically better in almost every category because I've been supplementing appropriately. Plus I also equate it to, you know, being on the deficit side. So you know, when I was at 250 pounds, I was obviously pushing more weight harder on my body, eating more foods, you know, through the blood panels, right. So you know, like when I got down to my normal you know weight around, you know 220 to 216, my blood panels also came back very well. So I think it was a combination of the two Um, but I'm gonna talk a little about my, my supplement stack and why I do them.

Dave: 22:18

Um so, um, one of the things that I'm almost always deficient in is B12. So I switched to intramuscular shots of B12. So I do intramuscular shots of B12 and vitamin D and glutathione Um, it's kind of like my Monday ritual that I use along with the testosterone and then that's kind of like my go-to. I also use NAD in the morning and I use the nasal spray for that. So I just have a nasal spray, nad, I just do two shots in my left nostril, two shots in my right nostril, and that has helped a lot with energy production. So with NAD, studies have shown longevity impacts. Essentially, nad is a precursor to your ATP functions within your mitochondria cells that give us the energy that we need. And as we get older, nad levels drop off and what they've shown through the data studies is by elevating your NAD levels, it lets you live longer. It also has a lot more energy throughout the day, which is great. So I do NAD as well that's on the prescription side of the house throughout the day, which is great. So I do NAD as well that's on the prescription side of the house.

Dave: 23:16

Getting into more of the supplementation side, in the morning I take homeocysteine supreme, and homeocysteine supreme is a combination of homeocysteine supplements that really helps in a lot of different areas in your body. It's essentially an amino acid that helps with cardiovascular support, so it basically allows your cardiovascular system to work more healthier, reducing any type of risk of cardiovascular disease. It helps brain function, cognitive function, through the methylation processes, and methylation has a number of different Homeocysteine pathways have a number of different pathways, but the methylation process is really important for our brains Um detoxification. So basically you know getting rid of um any, any type of um toxins in your body, your bloodstreams, things like that. Uh, joint cartilage health, uh, immune functionality, like the list just goes on. Um of things that it does. But one of the big areas that I take homeocysteine supreme for is its neuroprotective functionality, specifically around Alzheimer's and any other type of cognitive function. So they've been showing the data studies. It's a neuroprotective and helps with brain functionality for people that may be more inclined to those types of diseases.

Dave: 24:29

So I take two of those pills in the morning. It's called homeocysteine supreme diseases um. So I take two of those pills in the morning. Uh, it's called homeocysteine supreme um. And then I also take uh, p5p, uh, which is pyroxidol, phosphate, 5-phosphate, um. It's an active form of b6. Um that is related to energy metabolism, brain health, mood regulation um, it really helps with the neurotransmitters like serotonin and gaba which influence your mood, emotional responses, things like that. Um, so it's really good for the neurotransmitters like serotonin and GABA which influence your mood, emotional responses, things like that. So it's really good for the brain, really good for mood regulation, really good for overall homeocysteine health in your cardiovascular health, immune system support, red blood cell production. And it's a tiny tiny pill. You only need a little tiny bit of this, but I use pure encapsulations version of that P5P just one pill a day for that one and just like Ben, magnesium is so important.

Dave: 25:18

I always go on the fence of would that be my top four that I recommend for people, but I just don't want to overload people with like hey, you should take fish oil, vitamin D, creatine and magnesium. But magnesium is definitely up there, like in all aspects is definitely up there, like in all aspects. There's been so many data studies and you should take a look at Dr Rhonda Patrick's podcast. She has a great podcast and she went down to a lot of the data studies on magnesium and it's something crazy Like if you have a surplus of magnesium ie you're supplementing with magnesium your all-cause mortality reduces over 60%, your chances of cancer are reduced over 60% and your overall brain functionality improves cognitively over 50%. So it's like magnesium is like one of the most miracle-type things, along with vitamin D, along with omega-3s and along with creatine that I'd recommend, and the one that I end up taking is from Transparent Labs.

Dave: 26:14

They have an AM and PM stack for magnesium, so there's different types of magnesium that are digested differently and used in your body, and so the AM stack is magnesium L3 and 8 and magnesium oxide, which are 3 and 8, and oxide are used very heavily for energy production and cognitive function. So think of, in the morning, as a boost of, like, a lot of caffeine, you know, for your body, for your brain, for your body to be able to leverage energy production, everything else that goes along with that. And then at night, I take the PM stack, which is magnesium, biglycinate magnesium, which is essentially magnesium nactorinate, and then magnesium N-acetyltorinate as well, and then magnesium biglycinate. So three different types of magnesiums that are really good for sleep, recovery, things like that. So I take magnesium in the morning and in the evening because they're so important. And then I also take NAC, which is basically it's an amino acid acid, cysteine, and NAC is to me like the reason why I typically just don't get sick anymore. It helps with your overall immune functionality. It helps with brain health Again, it's a very big neuroprotective thing for things like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. So it really helps with anti-inflammation and oxidative stress for that. And it also helps with cardiovascular, respiratory, liver, helps with detoxification of your liver and kidneys. So, again, like NAC to me is like a really big staple supplement.

Dave: 27:58

And then the omega-3 fatty acids, which I switched over to Animal Packs, advanced Omegas, so they have essentially omega-3 fatty acids, but they also include omega-6 fatty acids as well. So they have a combination. So I think the total stack between EPA and DHA is 2,100 milligrams of EPA and 1,000 milligrams of DHA, and it's nice because it's in a pack. And then you also get the omega-6s, which, uh, milligrams of of omega-6 fatty acids, uh, through sunflower seeds and boris, boris oil, um, so you know, for me, uh, you know a little bit more potent, um, you know, for the omega-3s, I kind of upped the dosage a little bit and I like the animal packs is literally just comes in like a plastic pack. You open it up and you're taking those and it's, I think it's like four pills of fatty acids that you're putting in and that's pretty much the stack that I stay consistent with. It's not that many pills, I will say.

Dave: 28:57

I did forget to mention at night I also take glycine. So leveraging glycine and magnesium together again much better way of enhancing sleep and recovery in your body. So I've noticed that my sleep scores are significantly improved when coupling magnesium and glycine, uh together, uh, which is good. So you know two. Those are basically my supplements the ex-home assistant, supreme p5p, magnesium, knack, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin d, vitamin b12, um and uh, glycine, uh, glycine.

Ben: 29:28

So yeah, and, like you said, completely, completely different, based on what your needs are and I think, number. That's been an evolution over time, like as you have changed, your needs in terms of supplementation have changed. There's things that you don't need now that you potentially needed before, because you weren't in the same position as how you managed literally everything else. So it's something that you check on a regular basis and make sure that you are you're supplementing correctly. Within it did a bit of a. I'll give a magnesium cheat sheet here, because I think just giving it in in one sentence will help. So different types of magnesium and when to use for sleep and recovery glycinate for brain boost, for brain boost. Threonate for energy and performance. Malate for gut regularity. Citrate for heart and nervous system. Taurate and for a detox bath. Sulfate, so like Epsom salts. So like that's one to six different types of magnesium with six different benefits. So if there's anything that you suffer with or want help with or could be better in, there's a fucking magnesium for it.

Dave: 30:26

Yeah, now I do want to talk about taurine. Taurine is a non-essential amino acid, but it is an amino acid and if you look at the data studies, there's so many data studies showing the benefits of taurine. Taurine has so many different aspects around cardiovascular support, overall health, brain health, functionality, and taurine has been linked to multiple longevity. Studies that show supplementation with taurine increases lifespan. Okay, so taurine is is a phenomenal amino acid. However, just recently there was a data study that showed a substantial increase in the um around leukemia. Um, so blood cancer, um that that originates within your bones, um that if you're taking taurine supplementation and you have leukemia, it's much harder, it becomes much more aggressive of a cancer and it has to do not specifically with taurine, but the taurine transport as part of taurine. So what ends up happening is, if you have an elevated level of taurine, the cancerous cells attached to the taurine transports of that and allows it to spread to your body much more effectively and much more aggressively than if you weren't leveraging something like taurine. So what doctors are recommending is that if you have leukemia, you should cut out all taurine as part of that. Now, taurine is very popular in energy drinks. It boosts cognitive function, boosts energy levels. So taurine is very popular in energy drinks. It boosts cognitive function, boosts energy levels. So taurine is a very again well-studied supplement, very healthy, but there is a byproduct of it. It does not cause cancer. It does not cause leukemia, but if you do have leukemia and you have elevated levels of taurine, it can be something that you definitely want to remove from your supplementation stack. Now I've watched so many different doctors, people that specialize in these specific things, talk about it and they're saying listen, we're not saying cut out taurine in any way, but if you're really risk adverse and you don't want that type of thing, then cut out taurine.

Dave: 32:26

You know the general consensus is taurine is still a phenomenal. You know amino acid for your body. It's used for a number of different things. It helps with longevity and staying living longer. But if you get diagnosed with something like leukemia, it's definitely something you want to take a look at and it's like anything. It's like.

Dave: 32:43

You know, when you get diagnosed with cancer, the first thing they do to tell you to cut out is sugar, because you know cancer leverages, you know it allows it to spread much faster and produce faster. With sugar molecules that are in your body to spread faster, they say also, you're doing things like intermittent fasting and fasting is really good for cancer because, you know, cancer cells typically are very hungry cells so your body goes after those first to kind of deconstruct those. So you know, it's not like I would say you know, stop using taurine. I'm still going to leverage taurine as part of you know. You know for my energy drinks and things that I put in there, but it's one of those things that you need to be, you know, cognizant of that.

Ben: 33:17

There are studies out there showing that you know, if you do have leukemia, it can be a much more aggressive form of leuke drinks, it's not always supplementing with it and buying the product and taking the pill or the powder or whatever it is, there are potentials in other things that you're consuming.

Dave: 33:48

Yeah so.

Ben: 33:48

I mean, again, it does not cause cancer and it requires very, very high dosages of it, but it's definitely something to keep an eye on, for sure, for sure, for sure.

Ben: 33:52

And I think overall again, dave and I are not doctors, we're just talking about our personal experience and I would say, you know, if we did this same podcast in six months, potentially our supplement list would be would be different. It is a you know, I always think that you know, this whole thing is a continued experiment and we will continue to add things, take things away and, you know, make changes and adjustments in terms of the data. So I'd recommend number one if you're serious about supplementation, first of all, fix all of the other problems that come in underneath it your training, your recovery, your sleep, your stress, your nutrition, um. And then secondly, get a blood panel done and actually base it on the information, because it's easy just to start buying supplements, uh, because we have said so or because you have read it on the internet, or listen to a different podcast or whatever and I just want to read one data study here really quick, because you know this is why it's so complex to like understand a lot of these things.

Dave: 34:38

Um, so you know like if you look at taurine you see a study. It's like, oh, it causes cancer. Well, well, no, it doesn't cause cancer. It amplifies if you have a certain type of cancer. But then also, taurine is anti-cancerogenic, so it does help prevent cancer. So there was a study back in 2022.

Dave: 34:55

Taurine is a natural amino acid that is found widely in a mammalian tissue. Several studies have demonstrated that taurine has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and hypoglycemic effects, ie reducing your insulin insensitivity, helping you out with your overall body blood pressure, things like that. Recently, taurine not only mitigates the side effects of chemotherapy in cancer, but also possesses anti-tumor properties, including inhibiting cancer cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis in certain cancers by differentiating, regulating pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic proteins. So again, there's studies out there to show it has anti-cancer effects in most cancers. But again, if you have a certain type of cancer, you got to be really careful. So what I read into this data study specifically is if I get diagnosed with leukemia, I'm cutting out taurine. If I don't get diagnosed with leukemia, I'm leveraging taurine because of its health benefits. So just an FYI they're more complex than what the headline says. There's a lot of other data studies and there's so many data studies out there showing the benefits of Taurine that I wouldn't cut out or be concerned about it within your supplementation stack if you're leveraging within energy drinks.

Ben: 36:04

For sure I agree, and I think it comes down to reading beyond what the headline says, because it will be clickbait and just trying to get you fucking afraid of something. Um, but yes, that's our supplement stack. Um, any further questions on supplements, just let us know. But get your blood work done, do your research and make sure you're you're adapting and analyzing as you go through. That's it for much one thing I will.

Dave: 36:26

Last thing I'll end with, that's not it from us one thing I'll end with you know is you know, I get asked all the time, like you know, what do you think of this new supplement that came out that promotes this or talks about this? And most recently, there's these drinks that are coming out that are keto drinks. They have ketones inside of the drinks, right? Keto IQ what's that?

Ben: 36:49

Keto IQ.

Dave: 36:52

Keto IQ is of the drinks right, keto, what's that? Keto iq? That is it. That's one of them. There's a lot of them. They're coming out like crazy now, um, and and so you know, I went down a rabbit hole, of course, studying the research papers and the and the, the data studies, and to me it's it's so inconclusive. There might be benefits if you're already in a ketosis state that it may help with giving you some energy, uh, during athletic performances, but again, again, the studies are so small and they lack randomized control studies and no long-term studies on it that to me it doesn't equate to me switching to something like that or leveraging something like that. It doesn't appear to have much of any effect on people that aren't in a ketosis state. So a lot of the brands out there promoting hey, you know a lot of the, the, the brands out there promoting hey, it gives you a ton of energy, brain energy, you know, allows you to to, to burn fat more regularly. I don't see that being being it. I think a lot of the ketones get absorbed and digested in your body and not actually into your bloodstream, and so it looks like you know the, the transport for that isn't very effective. And to me again, I'd just be really apprehensive of like hey, there's this one fringe study that came out with 10 people that studied it for two weeks that says if you do this it's going to promote muscle growth by 10%. Well, that's not enough data to really show that there actually is a benefit there. And so I'm really apprehensive of adding any new supplements or anything new that comes out unless it has a ton of research back behind it in long-term studies, because a lot of times you don't know the long-term benefits.

Dave: 38:19

Like I always get asked all the time about SARMs. Sarms are often considered kind of the lesser of steroids, more natural type of way of looking at it and uses your estrogen receptors and things like that. So you know, and there's different SARMs for doing different things. To me there's not enough data studies in SARMs to say, hey, is it healthy for you or is it not? And you know it could be creating cardiovascular issues, could be causing cancer. We don't know any of that because there's no data studies on it. So I'm always like, stay the hell away from it. You know there's no real, real reason for it.

Dave: 38:50

I mean, if you're really looking at getting into the steroid route. You know I would probably go more with a steroid that has so many data studies that you know what the risks are from long-term studies, because bodybuilders have been using it for almost a hundred years versus something like SARMs that you know has been loosely leveraged on the fringe side of the house with no data studies that actually back it up. And again, I'm not advocating for that, I'm just saying there's a lot more ways you can mitigate what we know from the health decline aspects of steroids versus something like SARMs. You have no idea what it's actually doing, so you just got to be really careful on what the studies say and what's actually being out there and what's being promoted, because a lot of times it's a bunch of BS and it doesn't have a lot of support for it.

Dave: 39:29

So just be really careful with the buzzwords and things that come out. A lot of it was like the oxidization of water somehow is going to increase, blah, blah, blah and the data studies that are getting really fringe. It's just there's a lot of weird stuff out there. Just be really careful and just do it based on what you need for your body and what you want to do to kind of keep yourself healthy, and what the data studies show.

Ben: 39:49

I agree, but what about raspberry ketones?

Dave: 39:52

Raspberry ketones taste phenomenally. Probably don't do anything.

Ben: 39:55

So that is it. That is a final word from us. Thanks everybody for listening. If you need anything at WeHackHealth, on all the places and we'll see you next week Later. Thank you.