Fasting, twice a week, used to be very strict but then dropped back to just having some tea.. fasting is very powerful, gave me my mojo back in mid 30s after burnout from top tier consulting firm and grad school, got testosterone boost, clarity of mind, physical fitness and confidence, amazing tool.. but body has to be of the right disposition.
The light airy folks tend not to do well with fasting. The heartier meatier guys that tend to hold weight and can weather a few days of fasting are better suited.
Rx only. I've taken it for weight gain from mirtazapine along with statins for familial hypercholesterolemia. IF is better but it leads to reduced energy levels, increased aggression, reduced concentration, and is inconvenient.
> Instead of taking a multivitamin you can just eat food. Food has vitamins and minerals.
No, it's not enough [1]. Long story short: to provide the needed amount vitamins and minerals you'd have to eat lot more calories than your body needs. So to achieve correct balance between calories and vitamins and minerals, you need to enrich food with supplements.
How do you explain people like myself, who don't take any supplements, don't have any vitamin deficiencies, and are in good health?
The study you linked finds varying decline in vitamin and mineral content of common crops over time, not a study showing that people who don't take multivitamins have vitamin deficiencies. And it has methodological problems highlighted by a followup study [1]: "Comparisons of food composition data published decades apart are not reliable. Over time changes in data sources, crop varieties, geographic origin, ripeness, sample size, sampling methods, laboratory analysis and statistical treatment affect reported nutrient levels."
I can't explain people like yourself. I can't even explain myself why I lack vitamins and minerals. All I can do is congratulate your excellent health and keep taking supplements to maintain my desired levels.
Stop eating so much. Learn how to fast properly and over time you will have tons of energy. No supplements needed. It's shocking how we have been persuaded over time to rely on drugs and supplements to feel normal...tsk tsk.
Nicotine. I've never smoked but I started experimenting with nicotine lozenges and they are great. It helps my concentrations and focus a lot. So far I've found minimal addictiveness and no negative effects but obviously that varies by person and you should be careful. I've never smoked and smoking seems to be kind to many of the negative effects of nicotine.
Just adding that I really don't find nicotine all that addictive either. I find other common drugs extremely addicting and hard to stop in comparison (namely: caffiene). my naive opinion is that smoking ends up more addictive due to the habitual nature versus the nicotine content of cigarettes.
I quit smoking by reading a book[1] about how to quit smoking, which basically said the same thing. Nicotine is not addictive, a true addiction will cause withdrawal symptoms like alcoholics can die if they quit drinking too fast.
While reading that book, I just stopped smoking cold turkey. I still get cravings every once in awhile especially when I see other people smoking but easy to control now.
My personal trainer strongly recommended daily dose of creatine (~5m), but it has also had noticeable effects in daily energy (especially during the pandemic when mostly chair-bound).
Otherwise I suppliment fish oil (or algae), vitamin D (5000 IU/125mg), standard multivitamin, choline (650 mg) since i cant stomach eggs every day.
I've also had good experience with B12 and Vinpocene but not regularly taken.
Have you gained a noticeable amount of water weight since you started taking creatine? I used it to take it many years but go so bloated it felt unpleasant. Maybe I was taking too much or a bad product.
Not too much, but I've also changed my diet, and been affected by some of the "normal" pandemic body weight changes. I'm winding up to do a water weight shed soon so I'll know better then.
There's a double blind study from Japan that suggests lions mane mushroom extract is an effective nootropic. Not sure how much follow up has been done on it.
Not sure if this is asking people what they take versus asking or recommendations.
Anyway, I've taken adrafanil which is legal in the US at least because I have a erratic and often brutal sleep schedule. It does for me what I always thought caffeine was supposed to do, but never did for me: provide a subtle, but noticeable wakefulness effect even under multiple days of not having slept.
Yes, maybe you're right. I guess the ideal solution would be to check 25 OH D level every 6 weeks and adjust supplementing to maintain the desired level.