Rate my stack
A strong focus on safety/well researched supplements, so will be hesitant to include anything with limited research & no human studies done. Though I have made a few exceptions for this where I felt the benefits exceeded risks (Dihydromyricetin).
By goals:
General healthspan:
Lutein - 10mg - (delaying macular degeneration, I also get zeaxanthin from daily goji berry consumption)
beta-carotene (lots of it from diet, mango, apricots, goji berries, spinach) - (mostly for skin colouration)
Lycopene - 20mg - (mostly for skin colouration, but also prostate)
Astaxanthin - 12mg every day - (mostly for skin colouration).
Taurine - 6g - (longevity & a mild anxiolytic)
Creatine - 5g
Dried ginger powder - 1-2 tsp a day - (cardiovascular/anti-oxidant benefits)
Vitamin d3 - 4000 IU a day
l-Theanine - 200-400mg - (mild anxiolytic at higher doses, and for removing caffeine jitters)
Melatonin 0.3mg - for sleep - (low dose seems more efficacous and safer than high dose)
xylitol gum constantly throughout the day - dental health, potentially advantageous gut microbiome benefits.
vitamin k2 mk4 - 2mg daily - for healthy bone aging
vitamin k2 mk7 - 360mcg daily - arterial health, perhaps also bone health.
potassium iodide - enough for 150mcg iodine daily. I don't wish to rely on iodised salt as its not every day that I use salt, and its also not enough to meet all of the RDA. I stopped relying on seaweed as iodine levels are very variable and there's no telling if I'm getting enough or too much. Can be very detrimental to be deficient in this, due to cognitive defects, so I supplement to cover my bases.
Mitigating alcohol damage as best as possible (taken around drinking):
I'm young, I drink alcohol on social occasions. Always in moderation, not too often. Always red wine (Im aware it's still harmful, my intent is risk reduction).
- Dihydromyricetin (DHM) - to speed up clearance of alcohol and its byproducts. I take 500mg of this after I've finished whatever social event I was drinking for. At some point I will test its efficacy via a breathalyzer, out of curiosity.
- Green coffee extract - there's some preliminary evidence for the chlorogenic acid in coffee being hepatoprotective, including around alcohol exposure. Even if the evidence is weak, because of coffees safety profile I dont see any downsides to including this - for liver support.
- Silychristin reduced milk thistle (98% silymarin) - silychristin seems problematic for the thyroid, studies seem to be 40-60% silybin and with those 420-600mg is what examine recommends, so for something that's almost purely silybin it'd translate to roughly 168-252mg up to 240mg-360mg. Theres not really much data on just silybin dosing, as silychristin might contribute to some of the benefits too. Anyways I do 100mg three times daily (even on non drinking days) - for liver support & possibly some weaker evidence for blood sugar.
Blood sugar:
- glycine - 5g per meal 3 or 4x a day
- allulose - 5-10g per meal
- inositol - 4g a day
Berberine is not something that I will consider because of the potential downsides that may occur due to MTOR inhibition. A lot of people like to dismiss this as not being significant but it concerns me, we don't have any data comparing muscle gain with and without berberine so we don't know how significant it is, just anecdotes. So in my case, the drawbacks exceed the benefits.
Occasionally as a preworkout (vasodilators):
- Citrulline malate providing 6g citrulline. Alongside 3g arginine. The arginine is not useless if combined with citrulline specifically.
Gut microbiome:
I am supplementing what I do not get enough of due to my intentional omission of wheat & grains from my diet as fruit is my main carb source (because it spikes me less, according to many many tests I've done on my CGM.. regardless of fibre content of the fruit (even grapes)).
- Inulin - 10g a day - (may also have fructose protection related benefits which is interesting..)
- green banana's or green banana powder - resistant starch
- wheat bran - for arabinoxylans which I miss from not consuming wheat. About 10-20g a day.
- PHGG - this one is only found it gums it seems, so not really possible to get it via diet - for galactomannan/mannan
My diet itself is very rich in fibre, averaging at the least 50g a day (not including supplements). My intent here is to increase fibre/gut microbiome diversity as much as possible. I tolerate fibre well, I don't get gassy nor deal with GI problems.
I don't get much FOS (fructooligiosacsharides) in my diet, but I haven't bothered supplementing it as there seems to be a lot of overlap with inulin? It seems it feeds the same microbes that inulin does, so it seems redundant. It seems the most distinctive fibres to inulin and pectin were the three others I listed above.
Mood
Out of all the adaptogens/supplements I've tried to date, rhodiola rosea has been the most effective. It makes me more sociable, less anxious, and less stressed. I've also noticed it works surprisingly well on the two occasions I was completely sleep deprived, but otherwise it is not physically stimulating.
- rhodiola rosea 3% rosavins 1% salidroside - 500mg once daily.
Rarely, as a preworkout if I am feeling tired I'll take 200mg 10% ginsenosides panax ginseng.
I'll probably take the rhodiola forever until it stops working to be honest. If it does stop working I'll have to start cycling it, but so far I'm 6 weeks in and the effects are still present.
Rest of my protocol:
- red light therapy and near infrared light therapy - 5x a week. 10 minutes front, 10 minutes back, 5 minutes each side.
- cold exposure (cold showers) a few times a week (on rest days as to not negatively affect muscle hypertrophy)
- full body weight training - every other day.
- sports a few times a week for cardio. As well as lots of walking. My activity is very high, my maintenance calories is somewhere around 3300/3400.
- for skincare: tretinoin every night, snail mucin, moisturer with ceramides/squalene/urea, azelaic acid, niacinamide, cleanser.
Background:
Age 21, male, family history of diabetes, pre-diabetic myself (or at least I was in the past.. my A1C is now considered healthy), extremely active (in both cardio + weight lifting).
Also!!!!!!!!, I'm aware that I don't NEED to be biohacking or taking so many supplements at my age. But most of these are honestly pretty cheap, especially because I most of them in powder form too. I can afford it easily, and I don't believe in there being some magical age where I suddenly need to start biohacking. I believe that if I start early, I can hopefully delay or prevent some later health conditions in life. I want to preserve my current health, not start biohacking once my health trembles. So please no troll comments of the sort.