Reference

Ingredient reference

Reference guides for common supplements. Each page covers daily reference values, the most bioavailable forms, timing guidance, and how the ingredient pairs with others in your routine.

Vitamins

Raw egg whites block it from absorbing. Cooked eggs don't have the same effect.

Critical before you know you're pregnant. Most people get it from food without trying.

Sometimes called vitamin B8. Isn't one, but does a job or two of one.

Niacin (Vitamin B3)

The flush is the tell. It means you took nicotinic acid, and it says nothing about whether the dose was doing anything.

Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5)

Two forms on the shelf, no study comparing how well either is absorbed. Assume the label is guessing.

One of the few vitamins where more is genuinely riskier, especially in pregnancy.

Vitamin B1 (Thiamine)

The energy vitamin. Without it, carbohydrates can't be turned into fuel.

The vitamin vegans are told to watch. The body stores years of it, but only if it gets in.

Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)

The vitamin that turns your wee bright yellow. Harmless, and proof it's working.

Vitamin B3 (Niacin)

One vitamin, two forms, two very different ceilings. Only one of them makes you flush.

Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid)

Almost nobody is short of it. The interesting form is pantethine, and it is a different argument.

Runs the reactions behind mood and metabolism. Also the B vitamin most likely to cause harm at high doses.

The body cannot make it. Has to come from food or a supplement, every single day.

Sunshine in a capsule. The vitamin most people in northern latitudes need more of.

Fat-soluble, and the natural form does more per milligram than the synthetic one.

The one from leaves. Absorbed far better from a tablet than from the spinach it came from.

The traffic director for calcium. Helps make sure it ends up in bone, not arteries.

Minerals

A trace mineral with no official UK target, but a real upper limit once you go looking.

The most abundant mineral in the body. Bone is where 99% of it lives.

The mineral marketed for blood sugar. The form on the label changes how much reaches your cells.

The mineral that zinc can crowd out. Small amount, big role.

Needed for thyroid hormone. Seaweed sources it, but the dose is unpredictable.

Oxygen delivery. The mineral that keeps energy from dropping off a cliff.

Involved in over 300 processes in the body. Most people quietly don't get enough.

A trace mineral for bone and antioxidant enzymes that rarely gets its own headline.

Most people get plenty of sodium and not enough of this. The balance matters more than either alone.

A trace mineral where the gap between not enough and too much is genuinely narrow.

Immune support, wound healing, and a dozen other things the body quietly relies on.

Fatty Acids

Omega-3 (EPA + DHA)

EPA and DHA. The two fatty acids fish oil is actually valued for.

Amino Acids

A step from tryptophan to serotonin. Deserves more caution than its shelf placement suggests.

Buffers muscle acid buildup during hard efforts. The tingling on your skin is harmless.

The most-studied sports supplement there is. The body already makes about a gram of it a day.

The simplest amino acid. Used most often for sleep and skin.

Shuttles fat into your cells' power plants. Your body already makes its own supply.

A nitric oxide precursor. More reliable at raising blood arginine than arginine itself.

The body's most abundant free amino acid. Where the evidence sits depends on context.

Found in green tea. Produces a calm kind of alert rather than drowsiness.

NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine)

The precursor your body needs to make its own master antioxidant, glutathione.

Supplementary protein is well-studied. The source on the tub changes what you're actually paying for.

Every cell has a lot of it. The body makes its own, until it doesn't.

Adaptogens

A traditional adaptogen where the branded extract, not the raw herb, carries the evidence.

Kava (kavalactones)

The evidence went one way and the largest trial went the other. Not legal to sell in food in England.

An arctic root traditionally used against fatigue. Modern research focuses on stress resilience.

Nootropics

Absorbed quickly, sold at nootropic doses, approved for food at a fraction of them.

The world's most-used stimulant. Most people already know their own limit.

Phosphatidylserine

A structural fat your brain cells are built from. One of the few supplements with an FDA-recognised cognitive claim.

Phytochemicals

A plant alkaloid studied for blood sugar and cholesterol. Absorption is the limiting factor.

Turmeric's active compound. On its own, almost none of it reaches your bloodstream.

Green Tea Extract (EGCG)

Green tea's headline compound. High doses on an empty stomach have caused rare liver injury.

A plant antioxidant found in onions and apples. Standard capsules barely absorb.

The grape-skin compound behind the "red wine is good for you" headlines. Human trials are mixed.

Hormones

Your body's own bedtime signal. Supplementing it is about timing, not just dose.

Herbs

A hemp-derived compound, and a different one from what gets you high.

A traditional cold-and-flu remedy that modern trials have found real support for.

The evidence on garlic is real. The form on the label decides how much of it reaches you.

The traditional liver herb. The extract number on the label does most of the work.

Collagen

Collagen Peptides

Not one supplement but two, doing different jobs under the same name.

NAD+ Precursors

Blood NAD goes up. What that buys you is still the open question.

NR (Nicotinamide Riboside)

The NAD precursor with an actual regulatory file. Raising NAD is settled. What follows from it is not.

Other

Alpha-Lipoic Acid

An antioxidant that recharges your other antioxidants once they're spent.

The nutrient behind acetylcholine and cell membranes. Most people don't hit the target.

Powers your cells' energy production. Levels fall with age, and statins lower them further.

A building block for cartilage and joint fluid. The sulfate form carries the strongest evidence.

The mitochondrial claim comes from cell work. The human trials are two, and small.

Sold as the better-absorbed CoQ10. Two crossover trials looked and came to opposite conclusions.

Mushroom

The nerve-growth story is real and it is mostly in cell cultures. The human trials are small.

Probiotic

Not one supplement but a category. The strain on the label matters more than the CFU count.