#8 - MindBites - Top 10 Supplements for your mental well-being in 2024

Welcome back to one of our high value short form episodes, where Joe and I will pack as much information as possible for you guys to take back into your day to day lives. The topic we're going to discuss today is the top 10 supplements for people's mental well-being from our point of view. As I said, joe and I talk from a subjective point of view, from our beliefs and also the research we continue to do to provide you guys with as much value as possible. So I'm going to start this off, joe what's your view on using supplements to improve your mental health and mental well-being as well?

All for it. Yeah, in a word, I never used to be. I only started really doing it a couple of years ago. I think. I've really sort of branched out and listened to sort of some of my more spiritual friends I might have labelled them as previous to that To one of my very good friends, jake. He has always been about supplements and always been big on them. I never really took notice and really looked into the science behind it until maybe in the last two or three years, like I said. So I can't recommend them enough, purely from a personal point of view. I can't speak on your behalf when we speak about it a fair amount, but I'll go into what I take in due course. But I think, certainly from my point of view, from a personal perspective, supplementation has definitely helped my mental and physical well-being as a whole. So yeah, I'll go into what I take in a minute.

But yeah, what about you? I couldn't agree more. I think supplementation is really good. If you have everything else working around it, I think you can't rely on it. It's not like medication, but I think if you can get it right and you get your other aspects right, you'll sleep your routine, whatever that is whatever works for you. Having the supplements on the side, especially for like mental clarity and some of the ones we go to talk about, definitely helps. But I think if you're just relying on the supplements, you're not going to find as much value in it. That's kind of like a full package and then that extra boost you need to make you carry on.

It should be in addition to not replacement, in my opinion. I just want you to say this is absolutely spot on it shouldn't replace something, it should be to sort of add to what you're already doing, which is what me and you, I think of sort of not nailed down, but I think it definitely helps us for sure.

What do you take? What's your usual?

So I take quite a few. So I take sort of between four and six tablets every day just in the morning. Sort of it is on my routine wake up. So big glass of water with all these tablets and water is a key one because I'm so dehydrated I don't drink a lot, so if I start the day with like as much water as I can, it sort of helps me get set up. So with that I'll take an Amiga three. I'll take a magnesium. This time of the year I take a vitamin D which is Yx and it can fluctuate through the year. So vitamin D this time of the year I'll take one I started taking recently as Ashwagandha. So I've taken that for the last maybe three to six months intermittently and that for me that plus creating have been the biggest changes All around. Magnesium has definitely helped me the last couple of years, but definitely more recently Ashwagandha and creating have been the most noticeable additions to all I've had.

So we'll touch fully on Ashwagandha at the end, because I think that's super interesting.

I think I really notice a difference if I don't take my supplements. Now. I've got a good routine in place, but that's the one that's pretty much been consistent for the last three years for me every single day. Really Interesting. I really like it. I think these things are so minor, but when you have such good routine in place, it's really obvious. When you don't have them, Well, in my case it is. Unless that's a plus-neighbor? Maybe not. I didn't have them today. Maybe I feel worse, but even if that's subconsciously, it helps me a lot just knowing that I've been taking 100%.

I also think that placebo-wise, even if it is slightly placebo it's 5%, 10%, 20%, whatever it might be if that helps you get through your work and be more productive, then that's only a good thing, right, if it's PPC or placebo or not, and it's not really been meddled with that much, that makes sense, whereas a lot of people could argue what actually goes into that, whereas I guess, for sure and sort of the MIGA 3 sort of things, it is as is, and maybe there's an element of the ADHD sort of things that really helps you as well, if you've noticed it more. So maybe the ADHD sort of things. Maybe that's why.

Agreed. Secondly, we have Vitamin D. Vitamin D has been studied for its influence on mood disorders. A 2017 study in the Journal of Effective Disorders found a correlation between vitamin D levels and the occurrence and severity of mood disorders. This is what you said you were taking at the moment, right, yeah, yeah. What else do you kind of feel from having Vitamin D, or is it? You know what's the reasoning behind you having that?

So for me this time of year, especially when I'm not getting as much sunlight or being outdoors as much as because of how bad the weather is and how little sunlight we get in daylight hours, I feel like by replacing the lack of sunlight in Vitamin D, I'm getting from spewing out in the sunshine as much. If I can replace that with Vitamin D tablets and increase the dosages if it's a high dosage, I do feel better for that. So I know that we speak often on this channel and in pods previous about SAD. So seasonal affected disorders I don't know. For those that often do really suffer with seasonal affected disorder, taking Vitamin D can really really help you and it doesn't mean anyway.

Thirdly I think this is one you said you take magnesium.

Magnesium, yeah, big time.

Magnesium is known for its role in stress reduction and improving sleep quality. 2017 study in the PLOS-1 indicated that magnesium supplementation can have a positive effect on these aspects, most in particular, sleep. Did you take out for sleep, or is that for any other reason? Because I've done a few studies now as everyone knows, I love my studies. Magnesium seems to be at the forefront of everything at the moment. I took a supplement before which was like a mix of magnesium and 5-HTP. Definitely helped after a few weeks. I didn't feel anything straight away, but that was really good for my sleep and that was kind of the reason I took that and something I'm going to try and get back onto, as I've been a bit slacking in terms of my sleep as a whole. Supplementation wise.

I think, yeah, no, it's back up what you just said, I think magnesium. Initially I saw a lot of it online. I was seeing more and it was becoming more and more prevalent that the sort of male gym goers that I was watching and following were really, really pushing magnesium and saying get on this and you feel huge differences. I've been like what you said it does take a few weeks to get into your system properly. So if you do try and you feel nothing straight away, don't be surprised. So for me, the more I started taking it, the more sort of productivity and concentration that went through the roof. Sleep wise, other things have helped me more. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't, I'm not quite sure, but it definitely helps others and the studies that I've looked into it had definitely felt that sleep is definitely impacted, but it was more around productivity and sort of referencing back to the gym. I felt like I was more sort of alert. Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Number four is B vitamins, in particular, b12, b6. These vitamins are crucial for mood regulation and energy levels. A 2010 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggested that deficiencies in B vitamins can impact mood and cognitive function. B vitamins are super interesting. This is something a lot of my friends take, especially my brother and people like that. They take B vitamins. I've taken them before. Tons of people are huge on it. We had a nutritionist, uncle, sammy Cooper. She was talking about B vitamins. I can't say personally. I felt massive difference from it. A lot of you listening to this you won't be watching this one could feel a huge difference from it and I hope that's the case. I hope it helps. I think everyone's body is slightly different, but B vitamins for me, I don't know if I'm just have higher levels of B vitamins in my body anyway or whatever it is. I just Didn't see that much of a change. But the research and studies behind this show that this is one of the biggest. The biggest things to do is be vitamins as a whole.

Interesting say that because it was only a couple days ago that I ended up picking some up. I was in Holland, barrett had some that's about just left over from Christmas and I went in there and asked I said what would you recommend? Sort of I had most things ticked off and said what would you recommend? Other vouchers I had left over and said try be, be be vitamins, and it must have been about two years ago. I took some over a short, relatively short period of time a number of weeks. I genuinely felt like it was doing nothing for me at the time, so I scrapped it, came off and then now I'm gonna start again to see if I make any difference in the short term, or maybe try a bit longer. So much, like you, I've looked into it, heard about it and Now recently, in the last couple of days, I'm gonna start sort of cycling back onto it to see if I make any difference.

Otherwise, for me It'll be a the effects people have of it Enormous. But yeah, I again, this is completely subjective from us. We do a ton of research on stuff and also trial it on ourselves, but that wasn't. That wasn't huge to me, but I know for people up my brother and stuff that it's enormous.

It's one of the most talked about things now I think, since the sort of the gut movement has come come to fruition I think the last maybe year or two gut health is now being talked about as your second brain. So you sort of your, your gut is your second brain. If you can fix that it goes a long, long way to fix a lot of problems you might have had for years and years and years that have been unresolved. So very friend of mine, race Lewis, short story he probably won't be talking the whole thing, but he was at university, had a few problems. He was then prescribed some medication which caused more problems.

A lot of stuff he yet prescribed can cause headaches, diarrhea or whatever else. And then he went down the more gut health route we just wanted more cleaner eating and went to a more natural medicinal. And he said that since he's been buying into his guts he now hasn't been that unwell. The same problems he had were a real current before had happened. So he is massive on the other sort of gut movement and those firewalls that I do. So I'll be leaning on him for the whole pri probiotic things. I know it's absolutely massive right now.

Yeah, my mum loves doing the gut health stuff. Yeah, zoe, is how to improve your gut health. Yeah, I was right. The best foods for your gut health? Ah, things like kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, yogurt, kombucha, fermented soy foods so my mum has kefir every morning, kimchi as well, that's interesting. And sauerkraut like fermented cabbage, fermented veggies amazing for your gut health. So, if you're not taking something, maybe looking down that route and trying that Six.

This is one I'm huge on. I know you haven't taken so it's probably a bit different for you, but this helps me so much. This is power up by motion nutrition. I've taken this for three years. I take it every single day. I swear by it. It's meant for mood support, so it has tons of different things in for the main being. This is like my small dose.

We talked on vitamin Bs before. I think this helps me when it's in the power up, because it has a bunch of different things like lions, man, etc. But this is mainly for mood, mood sport of vitamin B6. So also known as pH for P5P, and this plays a crucial role in regulating hormone activity in the body through various mechanisms. Through aiding the balance of hormones, the B6 in power up assists stabilizing mood and supporting emotional well being, and I absolutely love this brand. Again, it's called power up by motion nutrition.

Feel free to go try it. Let me know your thoughts on it. I think they're quite an under the radar brand as a whole, found it by mistake more when I was trying to do natural supplementation to help my ADHD and probably tried about seven or eight things, and this was the one which stuck with me and has helped me massively, so I couldn't recommend that more. Obviously, you would have much to say on actually never taken it, but anyone out there who wants to try something like that a whole mix of things, please, please, do. Couldn't recommend it more. Has vitamin Ds, bs, iron, manganese, l, torene, lion's mane, go to Carla a bunch of different things. So please, please, give it a go. Let me know what you think about as well. Seven this is one I think we both take, and we had Sammy Cooper come on again. The nutritionists talk about this and the benefits for it, not just for your physical health but for your mental health, and that's creating. So have you taken creatine or is that part of your sort of?

something.

Yes, I've been taking it.

I've been taking it now for about two years on and off and it's probably I think I said it a bit earlier I think it's been the biggest thing that I've noticed in me physically because it just helped me so much more physically and I know that you know a bit more about the sort of psychological side of it and how good it is for your brain, which I've read about more recently on studies videos.

I've seen a lot of people that I follow best preaching about the stuff and, weirdly, when I first started taking it, it was people warning about the side effects and how bad it can be for you and everything else. And the more the studies have been done on it, the more it's they found the study. The studies show that the side effects are so unbelievably minimal and it affects so little people and the side effects might be so small and it's it's that cheap as well, it's so inexpensive and it's probably, like I said a minute ago, it's probably been the biggest thing I've noticed. Physical changes anyway from the gym is definitely been the biggest thing I've noticed, for sure.

Creatine's also really beneficial it's what we talked about with Sammy so traditionally used in sports nutrition, as we know, for physical health. But creatine she said it also shows promise for brain health. So she was one who said this. In a study she was reading in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, it found that creatine supplementation could improve depressive symptoms in women with major depressive disorders, which I thought was super interesting. If you're a woman out there you're struggling, give creatine a try. If it's rubbish for you and you don't like it, just like all these things, scrap it, get it out there, fully learn about it, read about it, make sure it's the right thing. But if you want to go and watch that Sammy episode I think Sammy was episode two when I started inside of mind she had a ton of information on creatine, especially for people's mental health and a bunch of other useful things as well. So please go take a look at that if you're interested more in the creatine route.

That was a really good, interesting interview the two of you then. I'll run watching that one and it's really interesting to hear about because the misconception is it's just for Jim Gower's and it's just just for men. I think if you sort of take that element away and you realise that anyone can take it, and if it really helps and she's preaching about women's mental health is knowing that it's not just for dudes that go to the gym and sort of chest beating stuff If anyone can take it, it does help you then, amazing and, like I said, the side effects are so minimal and it's really cheap. It's so expensive. It's a lot of supplementation has this sort of stigma attached to it. That's a really expensive thing to do. It doesn't always have to be some are, some are, and this is one of the ones in that category that are really really low in that price range. So yeah, get on it, love that.

Next one, number eight, is five HTP. So five HTP is known for its role in mood and anxiety regulation I touched on before. It was also in my sleep supplement I had, which I thought helped me a lot. Just to back this up, a study in 2002. Wow, when I was born this has been around a while, mr Quentin. It's showed that it could influence serotonin levels which are important for mood and anxiety management. So try five HTP, give it a go. It helped. There's a lot of it is in sleep supplements now, but that's funny because I did think it helped me massively with my anxiety.

I think it's really hard to actually have a proper think about are these helping? Because some days you could be in a good mood or a bad mood. You have to try these things for a while and that's the hard thing If people are listening. These aren't quick fixes. As we said, you need to fix everything else. These are the boosters which will give you that extra 10% once the other parts are sorted, which is so important to get done first. These aren't cures. These could help in some aspect, but these are definitely more beneficial of everything around you is good to go first.

Yeah, I can't emphasize that enough, but I think it's really important that people realize that it should be adding into what you're, the changes you're looking to make it sort of betterment your mental, physical journey. It should be adding to what you're already doing and it should be a step of three or four things you're doing, not just relying on supplementation to fix all the problems and advert commas that you might have. I think it should be supplementing pun intended everything else that you're doing to help yourself and benefit it. And also, like you said in the start, I think it's very important that people don't look at it as a short fix and go.

I took this tub, as yesterday, and I thought I thought the same. I thought worse. It should be one adding to what you're doing in those journeys that you're adding to it, like the physical, mental, wellbeing and going for those walks rather than sitting indoors and doing nothing. It should be being patient with it and going. If I'm looking at it as a six-month journey, do I feel better at the beginning? If the answer is yes, it's helping rather than going, I feel crap today. They're doing nothing for me. Love that.

Number nine, El Theanine. Do you have anything on El Theanine?

Yes and no. Jake Again, the guy I was talking about earlier. He's big on El Theanine more recently, so the last couple of weeks he's been harping on about that one. So it's one I'm going to be looking into and I might be adding that to my long-term emotion, nutrition and everything else. What was on the forehand? It was the five-HTP, so I might be adding that to my list of things I could be adding to my shopping list.

So El Theanine promotes relaxation and stress relief and in a study I think I talked about this with Georgie on PCOS, that episode there we were saying on the El Theanine side it found that it could help reduce stress symptoms and improve relaxation, which the main thing was it didn't cause drowsiness. And I think that's a lot of problems with, for example, if you're having a coffee or you're having caffeinated things to try and get that energy and you drop off so quickly, don't you? You crash hard, especially for myself, I crash so hard on things like coffee. So if you can find a supplement that doesn't have the drowsiness side and can make you feel better, make you relax a bit more, give it a try Again. Let us know, I've tried El Theanine before, found it really helpful, but that was when I was about 18, 19.

So it seems to be coming back up. It's more just, I keep saying finding what works for you. These are all amazing for your mental well-being. All of these supplements so far, and we're going to go on to the last one which we touched on before, which Joe is huge on, and that's Ashwagandha. And just quickly, before I let Joe take the floor, ashwagandha is used for stress and anxiety reduction and it's a medicine showed its potential and reducing stress and anxiety a lot of the time in adults. I tried it. It's good at reducing your cortisol levels, found a big help from it, but ended up going off it because I was taking medication at the time and then never got back on it. But what's your view on Ashwagandha and how has it helped you?

It's a genuine 10-hour turn to uppermint.

It's one of the few I long saw. Maybe creating that, I'd say, is one that I probably will take for the rest of my life I can't say that but it's one that, if I was to choose really one out the 10 we've spoken about, that and magnesium and creating will be the ones for me that I would just recommend to anyone taking. If you are someone who struggles with sleep you are sort of anxiety prone, levels of depression that might be sort of low to high this is the one that I'd recommend taking anyone taking, or trying at least. If it doesn't work for you, then absolutely fine, but cycle it, try it, give it a go. And it's naturally producing as well, so that if people that are lab made and what else has been added to it is Ashwagandha's products and plant herb type of things have been around for hundreds of thousands of years and it's not rechanged the way it's helped people along the way, so that for me would be the one that I'd probably say that stands out the most to me. Yeah, for sure.

I love that. So for you, the number one will be Ashwagandha and for me, my number one is power up by motion nutrition, which I just love. I even DM them, like two years ago. Being like me, I actually love this. You won't even read this message by, just want to put it down for you.