Key Points:
- Essential nutrients: A multivitamin ensures daily intake of vital vitamins and minerals, supporting overall health and preventing deficiencies.
- Critical supplements: Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, and magnesium are crucial for immunity, inflammation, bone health, muscle function, cognition, and other cellular processes.
- Gut and muscle health: Probiotics maintain gut health and prevent dysbiosis, while creatine, combined with strength training, helps prevent muscle loss and may reduce depression risk.
About 95% of the US population has some sort of vitamin deficiency, according to Dr. Mark Hyman, a physician at the Cleveland Clinic who has six-pack abs in his 60s. Deficiency symptoms can show up in multiple ways, such as joint pains or migraines with low magnesium, rashes or scaly skin with an omega-3 fatty acid deficiency, and depression with low vitamin B12. To counteract these complications, Dr. Mark Hyman went on record to recommend supplementing with a multivitamin, fish oil, vitamin D, magnesium, probiotics, and creatine.
Rationale Behind Using a Multivitamin
Dr. Hyman says that most of us need some sort of supplement regimen unless we have low stress, drink only pure water, and breathe clean air without contaminants. This leaves out the majority of the world’s population, so for starters, he recommends a daily multivitamin to fill any nutritional gaps.
A multivitamin, according to Dr. Hyman, ensures that we get the baseline of what are considered adequate levels of vitamins and minerals. He adds that people should especially take a multivitamin if they eat a vegan diet as this is associated with deficiencies for some vitamins and minerals like vitamin B12, iodine, zinc, vitamin A, and iron. Due to the associated deficiencies, Dr. Hyman also urges those who eat vegan to get full-panel vitamin and mineral testing provided by a physician.
As for the human trials testing multivitamins, Dr. Mark Hyman shares that, in one study, taking a multivitamin every day for two years was associated with improved cognition and memory. Not only that, but the same study suggested that daily intake of a multivitamin delayed cognitive aging by an estimated two years.
Also, women, especially if they do not eat red meat, may be iron deficient from blood loss during menstruation. For this reason, Dr. Hyman says it is very important that women take a multivitamin with iron. Iron is important for blood production, cognition, immune function, and other physiological processes, and Dr. Hyman recommends taking a multivitamin with iron bisglycinate. This form has a high bioavailability — the proportion of consumed iron that enters circulation.
Reasons for Taking Fish Oil
Dr. Mark Hyman says that over 90% of people in the US have low omega-3 fatty acids, essential fats that we must get from our diets. Omega-3s are critical components of cell membranes and fatty tissue in the brain, and they regulate immunity, inflammation, and gut microbe health.
Dr. Hyman also notes that in contrast to our ancestral diet, we do not get enough seafood, which contains omega-3s. At least two servings of fatty fish a week will help ensure you get enough omega-3s, yet most people do not eat this much.
One scary thing, according to Dr. Hyman, is that our dietary ratio of omega-6 fats to omega-3s used to be about 2 to 1, whereas now, it is around 20 to 1. Omega-6s are important for neurodevelopment and cognitive health, yet we are getting excessive amounts of them in our diet, which may have unknown detrimental health effects. We get excessive omega-6 fats contained in all of the processed seed oils in our ultra-processed foods, such as soybean, canola, and sunflower oils.
As far as the effects of low omega-3 levels, Dr. Hyman says psychosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and dementia have all been tied to lower omega-3 levels and higher omega-6 levels. Interestingly, fish oil supplementation has been associated with a lower risk of age-related dementia. If you decide to eat fish rather than supplementing with fish oil, Dr. Hyman recommends at least two servings a week of low-mercury, cold-water fish like mackerel, anchovies, sardine, and herring.
Vitamin D Supplementation for Bones, Muscle Function, and Cognition
Dr. Hyman says vitamin D is critical for hundreds of biochemical reactions and the expression of over 1,000 genes. Moreover, an estimated 1 billion people worldwide and about 35% of people in the US are deficient in vitamin D. This is critical, because vitamin D helps with bone, skin, hormonal, and gut health and protects against chronic disease.
According to Dr. Hyman, we can get vitamin D from dietary sources like porcini mushrooms, salmon, mackerel, herring, cod liver oil, and egg yolk, and the body makes vitamin D but not enough. He adds that we do not get enough of the foods necessary for sufficient dietary vitamin D.
If you decide to take vitamin D supplements, Dr. Hyman recommends the vitamin D3 form instead of vitamin D2, which the body does not absorb and utilize as well. He also says not to take it on an empty stomach since it needs to be taken with fat for absorption.
Magnesium Is Involved in Over 600 Reactions in the Body
Magnesium is involved in over 600 enzymatic reactions in the body. Dr. Hyman says about 60% of people in the US are deficient in magnesium. For these people, some 600 enzymatic reactions do not get carried out optimally.
Magnesium is essential for physiological processes like electrical current conduction in heartbeats, contraction and relaxation of muscles, nerve firing, DNA repair, hormone synthesis, and cell energy generation. Furthermore, magnesium helps regulate sleep, relaxation, mood, behavior, and blood sugar levels.
Moreover, patients with type II diabetes tend to be more magnesium deficient than those without diabetes. Supplementation with magnesium, he says, can help prevent diabetes and improve blood sugar control.
What’s more, magnesium deficiencies put us at risk for a variety of complications like anxiety, insomnia, headaches, hormone imbalances, constipation, and high blood pressure. According to Dr. Hyman, anything that twitches or cramps could be due to a magnesium deficiency, whether it be muscle twitching, palpitations, or irritability. As such, Dr. Hyman recommends supplementing with a form of magnesium called magnesium glycinate that may help alleviate these symptoms in those who are deficient.
Probiotics to Optimize Gut Microbes
Gut microbes include trillions of bacteria, either good or harmful for us. Harmful bacterial overgrowth, a decrease in beneficial bacteria, or a general loss of microbial diversity can lead to something called dysbiosis — an imbalance in gut bacteria. Hyman says dysbiosis leads to inflammation, a leaky gut, and increases the risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and many more. The good news is that probiotics introduce beneficial bacteria into the gut and promote a healthy immune system, lower inflammation, and protect against chronic disease, according to Dr. Hyman.
Creatine for Metabolic Function
Dr. Hyman also recommends taking creatine, which he says is one of the most well-researched, safest, and most effective supplements on the market. Creatine is a natural substance that helps your muscles produce energy and is found in meats and primarily stored in human muscle and in smaller amounts in the brain and heart. Dr. Hyman says that, when paired with strength training, creatine can prevent muscle loss, which is important to prevent falls as we get older.
More evidence suggests that intake of creatine may lower the risk of depression and improve mood. For these reasons, taking supplemental creatine could help preserve strength and enhance our mood as we get older.
Consulting a Physician for Supplement Doses
In his podcast, Dr. Hyman does not share recommended doses for these supplements, other than suggesting 1,000 to 5,000 international units daily for vitamin D and about 250 milligrams of daily magnesium. This may be due to the possibility that people with deficiencies need to consult with a physician for dosage recommendations in their quest to restore vitamin and mineral levels.
Moreover, Dr. Hyman says in the podcast that he wants people to revert from treating deficiencies to optimizing levels of vitamins and minerals for the most favorable health outcomes. The supplementation recommendations presented in his podcast may help address some of the most common vitamin deficiencies, and only full-panel testing and consultation with a physician can reveal whether supplementation actually works for restoration. Following the supplementation recommendations, along with testing, may propel aging individuals toward optimal vitamin and mineral levels to enhance longevity.
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