My Top Supplements

Supplements will not replace sleep, food, and training. That is not a polite disclaimer but an order of priority: until the foundation is in place, any supplement returns less than it could. Once it is, a short and deliberate list gives you the few percent that decide things over a long horizon.

This is not a list of everything I have tried. This is what survived the cut.

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1. Erinacine A extract

A natural active compound from the mycelium of the lion's mane mushroom that stimulates nerve cell growth. In practice that means neuroplasticity: new material lands better, skills form more easily. I take it paired with bacopa.

• My choice: Erinamax by ND.
• Cycle length: three months minimum.
• Protocol: 1000 mg before sleep (if your sleep gets worse, move it to a time that suits you).

2. Bacopa

Bacopa works slowly, through synaptic plasticity. It mostly acts on memory consolidation — on how firmly what you've already learned sticks.

I take erinacine and bacopa together: erinacine works on neuron growth and plasticity, bacopa on locking the result in.

• My choice: brand to be confirmed
• Cycle length: three months minimum.
• Protocol: dose to be confirmed

3. Creatine

The most researched supplement in the world, and mistakenly treated as purely a sports supplement. For me creatine is primarily about the head: it raises brain phosphocreatine stores, which means less mental fatigue on long tasks and better working memory. Muscle and strength come as a bonus.

Creatine monohydrate is much the same everywhere — it's hard to get the choice wrong.

• Protocol: 5 g (one scoop) in the morning, every day, no cycling.

4. Curcumin with piperine

The strongest natural anti-inflammatory I have tried. I run it in cycles to bring systemic inflammation down — across the body generally and in the joints specifically.

Piperine here is not a nice extra but a condition of the thing working. Curcumin on its own barely absorbs: it dissolves poorly and the liver clears it fast. Piperine (black pepper extract) blocks that clearance and raises curcumin bioavailability roughly twentyfold. Curcumin without piperine is money thrown away.

• My choice: NOW Foods, Turmeric Curcumin with BioPerine.
• Protocol: 1 capsule in the morning and 1 at lunch, in cycles.

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5. Vitamins and minerals for deficiencies

Everything below I top up not "for general health", but because bloodwork showed a shortfall.

D3 + K2

I don't take D3 without K2. Vitamin D increases calcium absorption, and K2 decides where that calcium goes: into bone or into arterial walls. Given that my stack also includes standalone calcium, this pairing is non-negotiable.

• Protocol: D3 — 2000 IU in the morning. K2 — dose to be confirmed

B vitamins

Insurance on methylation and energy metabolism. I buy complexes in bioavailable forms — methylfolate rather than folic acid, methylcobalamin rather than cyanocobalamin.

• My choice: Life Extension, BioActive Complete B-Complex.
• Protocol: 1 capsule in the morning and 1 at lunch.

Iron

The most temperamental item on the list. Iron is not taken blind: excess is as harmful as deficiency, so here I go by ferritin, not by how I feel.

• Protocol: form and dose to be confirmed
• Important: on an empty stomach, with vitamin C. Never alongside calcium, zinc, coffee, or tea — they cut absorption.

Iodine

Raw material for thyroid hormones, which set your baseline metabolism and energy. Iodine-poor soil is near-universal, and subclinical hypothyroidism with brain fog grows out of exactly that.

• My choice: NOW Foods, Kelp.
• Protocol: 150 mcg in the morning.

Selenium + vitamin E

I take these as a pair. The thyroid needs selenium to convert T4 into T3 — meaning without it, iodine only works at half strength. Selenium and vitamin E also back each other up as antioxidants, so pairing them is the logical move.

• Protocol: doses to be confirmed

Magnesium (glycinate)

Glycinate for tolerability, and for the glycine itself: the form doesn't upset the gut and sits well with sleep.

• My choice: Doctor's Best, Magnesium Glycinate.
• Protocol: 200 mg an hour before sleep.

Calcium

I only top this up because my diet falls short of it. Supplemental calcium makes sense only alongside D3 and K2 — otherwise there's a fair chance of routing it to the wrong place.

• Protocol: form and dose to be confirmed

Zinc

Immunity, testosterone, skin, taste and smell. Zinc competes with iron and copper, so taking high doses long-term without monitoring is a bad idea.

• Protocol: form and dose to be confirmed

Potassium

Almost always deficient in anyone eating few vegetables and a lot of prepared food, and almost always ignored. Works in concert with sodium and magnesium: blood pressure, cramps, exercise tolerance.

• Protocol: form and dose to be confirmed

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How I space the minerals out

Half the minerals on this list interfere with each other if you throw them down in one handful. My rules:

• Iron — on its own. Empty stomach, with vitamin C, at least two hours away from calcium, zinc, coffee, and tea.
• Calcium — never with iron or zinc. It suppresses absorption of both.
• Magnesium — at night. That also takes it out of competition with calcium and puts it to work on sleep.
• Zinc — not on an empty stomach, or it turns your stomach. And not in the same dose as iron.
• Curcumin — never with iron. Curcumin binds iron and cuts its absorption — a separate reason to keep iron away from everything else.
• D3, K2, E and curcumin — with a meal containing fat. All four absorb markedly worse without it.

This protocol is part of the EverBiohacking system. The other parts: Sleep, Nutrition, Tracking.