Table of Contents
Medical disclaimer
This guide is a general-health document for adults 18 or over. Its aim is strictly educational. It does not constitute medical advice. Please consult a medical or health professional before you begin any exercise-, nutrition-, or supplementation-related program, or if you have questions about your health.
This guide is based on scientific studies, but individual results do vary. If you engage in any activity or take any product mentioned herein, you do so of your own free will, and you knowingly and voluntarily accept the risks. While we mention major known interactions, it is possible for any supplement to interact with other supplements, with foods and pharmaceuticals, and with particular health conditions.
Examine.com does not assume liability for any actions undertaken after visiting these pages, and does not assume liability if one misuses supplements. Examine.com and its Editors do not ensure that unforeseen side effects will not occur even at the proper dosages, and thereby does not assume liability for any side effects from supplements or practices hosted under the domain of Examine.com.
Examine.com does not make any representations, recommend or endorse any specific tests, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on the website. Reliance on any information provided by Examine.com, Examine.com employees, guest writers, editors, and invitees of Examine.com, or other visitors to Examine.com is solely at your own risk.
How to use
The Examine team has been publishing research on nutrition and supplementation since March 2011. Drawing from all we’ve learned, we’ve designed this Supplement Guide with two aims in mind: helping you decide which supplements are right for you, based on the scientific evidence, and helping you integrate these supplements into synergistic combos.
Primary supplements have the best safety-efficacy profile. When used responsibly, they are the supplements most likely to help and not cause side effects.
Secondary supplements may provide substantial benefits, but only in the right context. A secondary option is not for everyone and not a first pick, but if you read the entry and find that you meet the criteria, consider adding the supplement to your combo.
Promising supplements have less evidence for their effects. They could work or be a waste of money. Keep them in mind, but think twice before adding them to your combo.
Unproven supplements are backed by tradition or by mechanistic, animal, epidemiological, or anecdotal evidence, but not yet by convincing human trials. At this point, they are not good candidates for your combo.
Inadvisable supplements are either potentially dangerous or simply ineffective, marketing claims notwithstanding. Do not add them to your combo. At best, they’ll be a waste of money; at worst, they can cause you harm.
Now that you’ve learned of various supplements worthy of your consideration, you’ll learn to integrate them into synergistic combos. You’ll discover a core combo (composed of the most important and least controversial supplements) and several specialized combos. Each specialized combo is optimized for a specific population. The simplest way to formulate your own combo is to combine the core combo with the specialized combo that best fits your situation, needs, and primary health goal.
Then comes the FAQ, in which we cover common questions that may arise when selecting and combining supplements. With all this, you should be able to identify and assemble the supplement combo best suited to your objective.
Introduction
In times of good health, we’re barely aware that our immune system even exists. Yet at any given time, we’re battling an invading horde that is invisible to the naked eye and can evolve much faster than we can.
Fortunately, we have a dedicated defense system against these germs, and it’s on call 24/7, fighting several threats at a time while readying for the next. But even so, we can still get sick, and when this happens, we become aware of the war taking place inside us.
From the latest pandemic down to those bothersome colds and allergies that somehow surprise us every year, we must face occasional reminders of the thin line we constantly walk between health and illness. Unsurprisingly, that’s when we start wondering how we can help our immune system keep us healthy — or how we can reduce the duration and severity of an illness, should one strike.
Supplementation is a controversial topic, especially when its purpose is to avoid or mitigate illness. The field is full of scammers eager to exploit people’s fears for the purpose of making a quick buck. And even when we have the best intentions, we seldom have a good understanding of the science and are too eager to latch onto any potential cure. As we’ll see, though, the immune system is complex and multifaceted, making it tough to predict the effects that a promising supplement will have in real life.
As it stands, ravaging viral pandemics aren’t just a threat to overall health; they can also cause economies to come to a screeching halt. Our health is our greatest asset, but still, when money becomes scarce, we need to make especially sure it isn’t wasted on useless or even dangerous supplements.
Ironically (maybe), the main goal of this guide is to help you make good decisions about what not to take. As we’re about to learn, attempts to “boost” or “enhance” the immune system through supplementation with herbs or excessively large doses of a vitamin or mineral can end up doing more harm than good.