[tomalaci]

Caffeine combined with L-Theanine does seem provide slight boost for focus to me.

That said, I think biggest mood/focus/energy difference (besides a nice workout which is also important) for me was getting vitamins and other micronutrients in order. I highly suggest you to do a blood test or two per year for all the common vitamins/micronutrients to see which you need to fix.

For men, I think it is especially important to get magnesium, vitamin D and zinc in order; lack of any will likely affect your testosterone levels negatively which will then screw you up in many more ways.

For example, way back I had critically low vitamin D resulting me in frequently getting sick and having periods of complete lack of energy; fixed that and I did not even get common cold for a long time, also no longer random days with no energy.

You shouldn't overly rely on nootropics, caffeine+l-theanine or other supplements to cover up base deficiencies with your micros.

[DavideNL]

> fixed that and I did not even get common cold for a long time, also no longer random days with no energy.

To state the obvious; Since there are so many things changing in our lives, it's impossible to know whether the "improvements" you mention were specifically caused (/only) by taking more vitamin D.

[tomalaci]

Sure thing. You should always be aware of anecdotal evidence.

In my particular case when I did initial blood test, vitamin D was the only thing critically low. There were few other micronutrients that were just slightly low. I was prescribed high-dosage D-vitamin supplements and was told to touch some grass while out in the sun (computer screen time did not count). In just a month after doing that my overall noticeably improved.

After the wake-up call with vitamin D efficiency I paid more attention to my diet and also having some regular exercise. Improving combination of those gave me my next jump in health improvement. Afterwards, I started using few supplements such as L-theanine with my usual cup of coffee in the morning, I'd like to believe it has given me just a slight boost in focus but it could still just be plain old caffeine. However, I know that some people respond to it a lot stronger so there is certainly variation and is quite anecdotal.

[kick_in_the_dor]

Sure, while you can't prove a direct cause-effect, the anecdotal evidence seems rather strong.

I also experienced this same effect after moving to London (from California) in the winter (very cloudy). I felt so low energy for a solid month, and was constantly feeling unwell. Moreover, I had the strangest "cravings" to bask in the sun (such a weird thing to explain, I've never had such an urge before).

The week that I started to figure out my Vitamin D deficiency, I made sure to get a lot of sun every day (it just started getting sunny in London). I noticed immediate improvements.

[amelius]

You can also see a doctor and get vitamin D injections.

[umangsh]

Besides Magnesium, Vit D and Zinc, Potassium and Calcium are other micro-nutrients that affected general well-being for me. Both have relatively high daily RDIs (Potassium - 4700mg/day, and Calcium - 1300mg/day for adults) which can be difficult to hit without supplements, unless your diet includes servings of vegetables and dairy.

Potassium: https://www.famnom.com/nutrient/1092/

Calcium: https://www.famnom.com/nutrient/1087/

[awesomegoat_com]

Vitamins, minerals yes.

But what I found super useful is gut health probiotics. No need to eat them all the time, just when you feel challenged.

I don't want to promote specific supplement products here, but let's just say there is one that helped me enormously.

[idontwantthis]

Was your diet deficient in those vitamins for some reason?

[tomalaci]

I am a person who does not like seafood and I usually sit inside most of the day (software engineer). I guess there are egg yolks or dairy products like cheese that also contains some but it seemingly wasn't enough for me.

Resulted visiting a doctor who did a blood test, saw I had critically low vitamin D level (~5 ng/ml). Gave high-dose supplements of 20 000 IU to take every day for up to a month and to touch some grass under the sun :D

After fixing vitamin D I did improve my diet more as well (added more vegetables that fixed few other micronutrients that were just slightly low). Combining that with more exercise gave my next big jump in health improvement. I think my diet is pretty close to typical paleo-type diet excluding fish.

[Xamayon]

I know mine was chronically low in Magnesium. The first indicator which got my attention and pointed to a potential problem was that taking a multi vitamin would make me feel _much_ better than normal the next day.

[300bps]

taking a multi vitamin would make me feel _much_ better than normal the next day

My first comment is that I think this is why we have placebo-controlled double-blind studies.

My second is that I took a multi-vitamin for many years and I recommend caution in their use. For much of that time, when I went to the doctor for my yearly physical I would have elevated AST and ALT liver enzymes which is a marker of liver damage. All tests for typical causes of this (hepatitis, others) came up negative.

Finally my doctor asked if I took a multivitamin. I said yes and she told me to stop taking it. That was about 15 years ago and I have never had elevated liver enzymes since then.

[hombre_fatal]

Everyone should use a nutrition tracker like Cronometer for at least one day while they go about their normal diet.

It will show you nutritional holes in your diet like insufficient magnesium, vitamin C, zinc, etc that you can then fill with dietary solutions.

You also get to see what foods have what, it’s interesting. Like how one little prickly pear has 200% of your vitamin E needs.

[umangsh]

> You also get to see what foods have what, it’s interesting. Like how one little prickly pear has 200% of your vitamin E needs.

Do you have a source for this (USDA FDC data and google-fu don't concur)? I'd love to have alternate options for Vit E besides almonds :). It's a fat soluble vitamin, available from nuts and nut oils - vegetable sources are harder to find.

https://www.famnom.com/my_food/294b1d1d-6ca3-47ac-9cd4-bfbd6...

https://www.google.com/search?q=prickly+pear+nutrition

[kick_in_the_dor]

What do you use for micronutrients? I recently started using a Green Powder, and I think I'm getting great results, but they are quite expensive...

[tomalaci]

For the past few months I am trying out Performance Lab's NutriGenesis Multi and Prebiotic products (https://performancelab.com/) for a mix of all micros but I will probably switch it down to some local multi-vitamin solution with a separate 4000 IU / 100 mcg vitamin D supplements that you can get locally (I live in Stockholm, Sweden).

I would, however, recommend improving your diet before loading yourself up with too many supplements. Just add various vegetables and you likely won't need to care about things like zinc, magnesium, iron and few more. I think vitamin D was one of the few micros you usually want to supplement as it's hard to get it high naturally. I am sure HN has some dieticians that know more.

[hammock]

On the cheap you can take a random ZMA and Vit D supps.

For full multivitamin, I recommend Thorne, which uses the most bioavailable chelated versions of vitamins and minerals. Once you learn how in-bioavailable the vast majority of ingredients in a standard MV are, you will feel sad

[reducesuffering]

You can't just take a random ZMA. With combinations, you're more likely to get a poorly bioavailable form, like L-threonate, oxide, or hydroxide.

You should be looking for citrate or glycinate.

PSA: 48% of people have magnesium deficiencies, the highest of any vitamin/mineral, I'm pretty sure.

https://examine.com/supplements/magnesium/#dosage-informatio...

[hammock]

ZMA would be aspartate. (And oxide)

[kick_in_the_dor]

Yeah I was worried about bioavailability. I already use ZMA and Vit D, I will check out Thorne. Thanks!