Vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids, and enzymes, increase the total dietary intake of a particular ingredient. Don’t use supplements to treat, diagnose, prevent, or cure diseases. Supplements come as tablets, capsules, soft gels, gelcaps, and liquids. Many supplements, such as Oasis Kratom, come in powder form.
The effectiveness of the supplements you consume depends on when you take them. So, you must understand how to take each type of supplement correctly. To get the most benefit, read every label carefully.
Morning
Without food for many hours, your body remains in fasting mode when you first awake in the morning. Not eating causes your body to turn to your muscles for fuel. It takes too long for your body to breakdown whole foods. Supplements that stop muscle breakdown include:
- Caffeine or Kratom
- Whey Protein
- Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs)
Have a protein shake with some fruit. Taking caffeine pills instead of coffee helps keep cortisol levels low. Additionally, the heat from coffee, tea, and hot cereals kills probiotics. Caffeine also increases your body’s excretion of vitamins and minerals.
Breakfast
Breakfast is best consumed about an hour after waking up. Along with your eggs and oatmeal, take a multivitamin that contains:
- B vitamin complex
- Vitamins C, D, and E
- Calcium
Add a fish oil supplement to:
- Enhance the heart, brain, and joint health
- Improve muscle recovery
- Promote fat loss
Mid-morning
When you start to get peckish halfway between breakfast and lunch, have a small snack and take some green tea extract. Green tea increases fat burning and helps your joints and muscles recover from strenuous activity.
Lunch
Dietary fats, including fish and lean meats, help your body fully absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, E, D, and K. Lunch is also an excellent time to take another fish oil supplement.
Pre-Workout
To fuel your body before and during your workout, take:
- Caffeine or Kratom
- Green tea extract
- Amino acids including whey protein and BCAA
- Creatine
- Beta-alanine
These supplements increase your endurance and strength while maximizing your body’s fat-burning ability.
Post-Workout
After your workout, refuel your muscles with a protein shake that includes:
- Whey and Casein Protein
- BCAAs
- Creatine
- Beta-Alanine
Consuming pure starches like white bread and potatoes after you exercise helps get carbs to your muscles quickly.
Dinner
To replenish micronutrients lost throughout the day, consume supplements with Vitamins C and D and Calcium with dinner.
Bedtime
To prevent muscle breakdown while you sleep, take a Casein supplement before you go to bed. A final dose of fish oil helps slow your digestion rate while the omega-3s provide other health benefits.
Healthcare Providers
While scientific evidence shows the benefits, to ensure you receive the optimum pay off and remain in good health, talk to your doctor before taking any supplements. To avoid interactions and side effects, it’s also essential to keep all healthcare providers apprised of which supplements you take daily.
Drug interactions
Some of the more common supplement interactions include:
- Vitamin K reduces the ability of your blood to clot and interferes with the blood thinners
- St. John’s wort quickens the breakdown of and reduces the effectiveness of antidepressants and birth control pills
- Vitamins C and E reduce the effectiveness of some types of chemotherapy
- Other drugs affected by supplements include:
- Carbamazepine and Phenytoin – prevent seizures
- Cyclosporine – blocks organ transplant rejection
- Digoxin – treats heart problems
- Levothyroxine – treats thyroid problems
Side Effects
In an effort to make food more nutritious, many manufacturers add supplements. Taking too much of certain supplements wastes money and increases your risk of developing side effects. For example, too much Vitamin A causes:
- Headaches
- Liver damage
- Reduced Bone Strength
Taking excess iron results in:
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Organ damage
Pregnancy
Few supplements have been tested in pregnant women or nursing mothers. To avoid complications, don’t take supplements while pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or nursing.
Surgery
Some supplements affect your response to anesthesia. Be sure to let your health care providers know about the supplements you take as far in advance as possible of any procedure.
Smoking
If you smoke, taking Carotene to improve your eyesight increases your chances of developing lung cancer. To get the optimum benefits from your supplements, be sure to talk to your doctor and take them correctly.
Throughout the year, our writers feature fresh, in-depth, and relevant information for our audience of 40,000+ healthcare leaders and professionals. As a healthcare business publication, we cover and cherish our relationship with the entire health care industry including administrators, nurses, physicians, physical therapists, pharmacists, and more. We cover a broad spectrum from hospitals to medical offices to outpatient services to eye surgery centers to university settings. We focus on rehabilitation, nursing homes, home care, hospice as well as men’s health, women’s heath, and pediatrics.
