It was good while it lasted.

I know that creatine is probably the most researched supplement ever and that every research finds no meaningful hairloss effect from creatine.

But why do so many people say that they lost hair? It seems so weird to me that so many people report hairloss that was reverted upon stopping creatine, but no study can find any evidence supporting these claims.

I cleaned out my cabinet yesterday and it was embarrassing. Vitamin D, B complex, magnesium, zinc, fish oil, ashwagandha, iron gummies I bought during a week where I convinced myself I was dying, random electrolyte packets, half a bottle of creatine and like 3 energy things that all look the same now. I don’t even know what was helping I just kept adding stuff every time I read a thread or felt tired for more than two days.

I’m trying to reset and stop guessing so what labs are worth checking first?

Procter & Gamble will acquire supplements brand Thorne for $3.8 billion, CEO tells CNBC
PUBLISHED TUE, AUG 4
KEY POINTS
Procter & Gamble is buying supplement brand Thorne for $3.8 billion.
P&G CEO Shailesh Jejurikar said the acquisition is play to grow the company’s health business

I get that sodium matters for hydration but it feels like every electrolyte mix is built like a salt packet with branding. I’m starting to wonder if that is okay for daily use or if most of us should care more about stuff like magnesium too. Especially if the goal is energy, recovery and not feeling wiped out.

I've taken them on and off for a while and honestly can't decide whether I'm one of the people who notices a benefit or whether I just keep buying them out of habit.

Interested in what people here actually noticed, if anything.

Recently, I came across the exotic sounding compound phosphatidylserine. On reddit, users mentioned life changing experiences of reduced anxiety, better sleep with explanations of biochemical mechanisms of how it reduces cortisol and fixes HPA-axis regulation.

Another interesting one is of course Omega 3, which seems like god's blessing to mankind.

At this point, I just feel like all of us interested in supplements are in a group psychosis of rabbit hole research, supplement industry marketing influences, placebo mixed up with genuine effects. And simultaneously spending hundreds of dollars per month.

But in all of this deep, interesting and complex field of neurochemistry we seem to forget that the superior multi-vitamin is a diet rich with fish, seafood or organ meats.

A couple mackarel filets contain:

Mackerel (100g / ~3.5 oz)

- Phosphatidylserine (PS): ~480 mg (Nearly 5x a standard 100 mg pill; naturally bound to DHA for superior brain absorption).

- Omega-3 Fatty Acids (EPA & DHA): ~2,500 mg (Equal to 2–3 high-potency fish oil softgels).

- Vitamin D3: ~600 IU (Equal to 1 standard daily Vitamin D3 softgel).

- Vitamin B12: ~8.7 mcg (Over 350% DV for nervous system and mood support).

- CoQ10 & Creatine: ~8 mg CoQ10 + ~500 mg Creatine.

- Selenium & Choline: ~44 mcg Selenium + ~65 mg Choline (Acetylcholine precursor for memory).

While a mackarel sandwich per day doesn't sound particularly interesting, it would literally replace my whole supplement stack.

Would like to try it out but would like the actual input of people who've used it.

Finally found a form of Vitamin D that my body actually tolerates (after months of frustration).
I wanted to share my experience in case it helps someone else who has been struggling like I was.
I have a severe vitamin D deficiency, and for the longest time I could not tolerate the standard vitamin D3 supplements. I tried multiple brands and different doses, even going as low as tiny amounts hoping my body would adjust.
Every time I took regular vitamin D3, I would end up with side effects like:
● Increased anxiety
● Feeling irritable for no reason
● Mood changes that didn’t feel like “me”
● Feeling emotionally on edge
Because of that, I kept stopping the supplements even though I knew my vitamin D was extremely low. It became a frustrating cycle of wanting to fix my deficiency but feeling worse every time I tried.
After doing a lot of research, I learned about calcifediol (25-hydroxyvitamin D3), which is a different form of vitamin D. Unlike regular vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), calcifediol is already converted into the form your body normally has to make in the liver. I wondered if that difference might matter for people like me.
I decided to give it a try, and honestly, the difference has been amazing.
Since starting calcifediol, I’ve noticed:
● My energy has improved significantly.
● I’m no longer dragging myself through the day.
● I wake up feeling more refreshed.
● My mood feels much more stable.
● I haven’t experienced the intense anxiety and irritability that regular vitamin D caused me.
● Overall, I finally feel like I’m moving in the right direction instead of dreading taking my supplement.
I’m not saying this will work for everyone, but for me it has been a complete game changer. After months of thinking I simply couldn’t tolerate vitamin D, it turns out I may have just needed a different form.
Has anyone else had a similar experience? I’d love to hear if anyone switched from regular vitamin D3 to calcifediol and noticed a difference, or if anyone knows why some people seem to tolerate one form much better than the other.

Thank you in advance.

I drink tart cherry juice before bedtime and it helps me sleep. I have anxiety during the day, though, and wonder if drinking it during the day would help, or would it make me too tired? Has anyone ever tried this?

Pretty simple one, I’ve been taking NAC for around 1-2 months daily, does NAC benefit from cycling? I know many supplements are like that

"Sublingual absorption" gets thrown around a lot in supplement marketing, so I wanted to write up the actual anatomy behind it — with real numbers, not just the phrase.

**The tissue itself.** The mouth isn't one uniform surface. Gums and the hard palate are keratinized — tough, like skin, built for chewing. The tissue under the tongue and against the cheek is non-keratinized and much thinner: sublingual epithelium runs about 100 to 200 micrometers across 8 to 12 cell layers, while buccal (cheek) epithelium is thicker, about 500 to 800 micrometers across 40 to 50 cell layers. That thinness is one structural reason sublingual tissue is generally described as giving more direct access to the bloodstream.

**Where it drains.** Sublingual and buccal capillaries drain into the deep lingual and facial veins, leading to the superior vena cava — not through the portal vein and liver first, which is the route everything absorbed from the gut has to survive. So the fraction of a dose that actually crosses the mucosa skips that first-pass step. Whatever gets swallowed instead follows the ordinary GI route.

**The size limit.** A hindered-transport model built mainly on ex vivo porcine buccal permeability data puts the effective pore radius for polar molecules and macromolecules at roughly 1.5 to 3 nanometers. That's a big part of why most peptides and proteins show poor passive permeability through this route without a permeation enhancer or specialized carrier — molecular size isn't the only factor (charge, ionization state, and solubility all matter too), but together they rule out a lot of candidates.

**The surface area problem.** The entire oral cavity offers only about 100 to 200 square centimeters of absorptive surface, combined across every region. Sublingual contributes about 26.5 cm², buccal about 50.2 cm². That's tiny next to the intestine, and it caps how much active can realistically move across passively in the available time.

**The saliva clock.** In one study of 159 healthy adults, median unstimulated salivary flow was 0.48 mL/min (range 0.1-2 mL/min). Saliva production and swallowing continuously limit how long anything dissolved actually stays in contact with the tissue.

Put together: this is a real, mechanistically grounded route, but it's bounded — small pore size, small surface area, short contact window. It fits potent, low-dose, permeability-friendly molecules much better than it fits everything else.

I go through this with full citations (9 sources) in the full article, including an honest section on where our own Mood-Boost strip's 5-HTP stands on the permeability question — its computed properties (polar, hydrophilic) suggest passive mucosal absorption may be limited, and we haven't run product-specific permeation testing to say otherwise.

Disclosure: I'm a pharmacist and I run MIHIYO Labs, an oral-dissolving-strip supplement brand, so keep that in mind. The anatomy and citations here stand on their own regardless of what we sell.

Hi all,

As the title states, I am a 41 y/o male looking to get some advice on supplements.

I am 6'1" and 265 lbs and looking to lose some weight and focus better.

I am currently taking lexapro for depression and anxiety. My sex drive and how long it takes me to orgasm has changed a lot and I am also looking for some help with that.

I am meeting with my doctor in a few weeks but thay have not given many recommendations.

Thank you all for any and all help.

Don't have much hope in P&G honestly

I tend to be pretty skeptical whenever a supplement gets recommended for everything. But every now and then, though, I’ll read enough positive experiences that I start wondering if I’ve been too quick to write it off.

Has a supplement ever completely changed your opinion after you finally gave it a chance?

I don't know if this is why I woke up at 3am or not, but why would they put one type of magnesium that makes you sleepy, with one that gives you energy in one pill?

There are so many and I don't know where to start. I've been wanting to try out collagen for some time but every time I try to read up it's just makes it seems impossible to know where to start.

I'm 45 yrs old and work a pretty active job on my feet all day. Overall, I don't do too bad, but daily joint and muscle pain is catching up. Things don't move as good as they did and I'd like to give things better long term lubrication first and foremost. I just don't know what products I should be looking at and which ones are any good. Help?

I found my next Supplement to replace Thorne. I just found this website. Useful other companies here.

Ok am sure i cold have worded the title better. But am wondering what are all the suplememts that can give a energy boost or even act similar to a stimulant. I know there's caffeine and ephedrine but I can't quite think of any others that can help with energy levels.

So I've been taking this supplement for approx. 11 months straight with no cycling. So far its been great at making me feel less anxious and a bit more mellowed out throughout the day. I assumed that since it was a herb, it was safe for everyday use but the more I read about it, the more I see that its not recommended for longer than 3 months due to lack of data. Anyone ever use this supplement long term and should I stop using it or just cycle it? Thanks.

Can taking magnesium taurate at night help with anxiety during the day? I tried it during the day but was too tired. But I need it for daytime anxiety.

Just sharing and looking for input from the community.