What's the BEST SUPPLEMENT for my Health Goals?

Today i wanted to chat about the overwhelming amount of health information available about what supplements to take when you're on a health journey. I hope this helps you simplify your supplement intake. As always,  whole foods have so many essential vitamins and minerals, and can support women's health, particularly in your late 30s and early 40s. I talk through specific nutrients like Vitamin D, selenium, and glutathione, and explore the benefits of creatine and adaptogens for overall well-being. This conversation encourages YOU to focus on your individual health needs and to consult with a healthcare professionals when you're feeling like your energy or health is suffering.

My top points:

• There's an overwhelming amount of health information available.
• Whole foods should be prioritized over supplements.
• Trial and error is key in finding what works for you.
• Vitamin D can be obtained through sunlight exposure.
• Selenium is crucial for thyroid health, especially for Hashimoto's.
• Vitamin C should be consumed through whole foods for effectiveness.
• Glutathione is a powerful antioxidant beneficial for skin health.
• Creatine supports energy production at a cellular level.
• Adaptogens like ashwagandha can help manage stress and anxiety.
• Magnesium is essential for muscle recovery and sleep.

Transcript

Elise: If you want that glow, it comes from having energy, having that deep health and wellness that comes out in your skin. I'm such a believer of the fact that our skin really does show what's going on on the inside.

I've experienced it firsthand myself, having hormonal acne and perioral dermatitis. I really do think it's like our body's way of communicating to us that something is more deeply wrong. So I think at a supplement level, we can definitely start to focus on where can we support our through supplementation.

Hello, I'm Elise and this is the inspiring her podcast. It's all about you here. Your wellness, your nourishment, your lifestyle, and finding that unstoppable glow. I'm bringing you conversations with my guests and friends to spark change in your health, embrace your power, and live your best life.

Get ready to be inspired, uplifted, and empowered as we chat about the tips and tools that will light up your journey to a vibrant, glowing you.

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the pod. Today I wanted to share with you something that's been coming up a lot, I feel in questions from you guys and just in social media a lot there's like such a over, like just an abundance of information and sometimes it can really feel like fatigue, especially when you're in the health and wellness space and you're always being fed with like, take this supplement, take this supplement, add this in, add this in.

And I don't know about you, but I really do feel like sometimes I'm like having to go and take like a whole plate and whole bowl full of supplements. So not long ago, I really paired back all of my supplements and I switched my perspective from trying to get vitamins and minerals through supplementation to really trying to get vitamins and minerals through my whole foods and through my lifestyle that I'm living.

And then I try and just supplement a few things that I know are going to be personally helpful for my autoimmune disease, for Hashimoto's thyroiditis. So I guess the first thing that I wanted to chat about is to really just like tune in with what are your goals or what are your health concerns.

So if you're like me and you have a condition that you really want to support, then go and research it or find someone on social media or in your daily life who has a similar condition and maybe talk to them about what works for them.

But also use yourself as a little guinea pig, like trial and error, trial something for a while and just focus on Trialing that one thing so that you really can tell whether it is that thing that is making a difference for you or whether you don't notice it.

You can also go a step further and go to your doctor. And I know they don't like doing lots of blood tests, but depending on whether you're feeling, for example, iron, iron is a huge one.

If you're like me, I have an iron deficiency continually. I'm actually working with my naturopath to try and feel, figure out why this happens. There's so many levels of, like, iron absorption, and it goes down to even, like, the proteins that carry the iron particles to the place where ferritin is stored in your body.

So I'm working with my naturopath to try and, like, microscopically find out where the problem is. But for me, I need to have iron infusions like, once or twice every year.

And especially when I'm pregnant, it has been more so. But you can definitely get blood tests to see if you are deficient in any vitamins and minerals. And sometimes that's the place where you then need to supplement.

You can also go to your doctor and ask for tests if you're feeling, like, specifically low or tired. But you do have to kind of push for them. And I would say, you know, if there's something that you specifically want to test for, then make sure you're talking to your doctor about those specific symptoms that align with needing to have that test done.

Because from their perspective, like, fair enough, they don't want to just go and do every test under the sun. It comes down to medic care and what's available. You know what I mean?

But anyways, I'm going off on a tangent. Why do I always do this? I wanted to share with you what has worked for me and where I find supplementation really beneficial as a woman in her late 30s, because I know that it is oversaturated.

It feels like a lot. So let's chat about it. You know, first and foremost that I'm all about whole foods. I am studying functional nutrition, and I've learned so much about the vitamins and minerals, minerals that we can get from the foods that we consume daily.

Some vitamins and minerals your body naturally produces, some you need to absorb externally. So let's talk about some of the ones that are really beneficial for women specifically, and the ones that I think probably make an impact for this, like, late 30s, early 40s.

We are going through a point in our life where our hormones are changing, our lifestyles are Changing.

And we really need to support that hormonal health, that fatigue, that building muscle to support our bones and our daily lifestyle, our energy levels, our sleep, all of those like deep health and wellness things that are going to help you show up with more energy, more concentration and just feel more vibrant and have a glow about you.

I would also say that a lot of these vitamins and minerals also help with having that glow. Because if you think about where does the glow come from, it comes from within.

So if you want that glow, it comes from having energy, having that deep health and wellness that comes out in your skin. I'm such a believer of the fact that our skin really does show what's going on on the inside.

I've experienced it firsthand myself, having hormonal acne and perioral dermatitis. I really do think it's like our body's way of communicating to us that something is more deeply wrong. So I think at a supplement level we can definitely start to focus on where can we support our health through supplementation.

As I said, where can we find things in our whole foods and lifestyle? Firstly, before taking an added supplement, vitamin D is a huge one. You can get vitamin D by going outside.

So basically 15 to 20 minutes a day. What happens is when the sun hits your skin, your body starts to produce vitamin D. So all you need is that 15 to 20 minutes and your body will hopefully start to produce enough vitamin D that you won't need to take a supplement.

Here in Australia, it's really important to do it in the early morning or the late afternoon so that you're protecting yourself from uv.

I personally love getting sun first thing in the morning when the sun is rising, going for a morning walk. This is also really good because this sun's energy and the light is actually telling your body naturally that this is the time for you to wake up.

It helps later in the day with melatonin production which is then helping you to sleep, sleep better. So it's helping your circadian rhythm and just telling you this is the daytime now I'm going to wake up gently and it's helping you wake up naturally without that coffee fix.

I get it. I'm someone who loves coffee first thing in the morning. But yeah, the sunlight first thing in the morning is hugely beneficial. As I said, It's 15 to 20 minutes.

If you can potentially fit in a 15 to 20 minute walk as soon as you wake up, then that is hugely beneficial. The other way I like to do it is eating my lunch outside this you do have to be careful of, especially on those super hot days.

But even if it's just the 15 minutes, that is actually really helpful. A doctor said to me once when my babies were little that you don't always need to cover them in sunscreen because it's really beneficial for them to get vitamin D for their immunity as well.

So if you're hanging or washing on the line, let the babies sit out there in the washing basket. Sit on the grass while you're hanging out, you're washing without sunscreen because it's actually really beneficial to them.

Obviously, if you're going to be out in the sun for an extended period of time, then you need to look at sunscreen and sun protection. The other thing that is great about vitamin D is that it helps hormone balances.

It definitely helps your mood and your mental health because it also helps release serotonin, that feel good hormone. And as I said, it regulates your circadian rhythm. So vitamin D is one that you don't need to supplement unless your doctor's saying that you are really, really low and you need a boost.

Getting outside, especially in Australia when it's a beautiful sunny day is all you need. The next one that is something that you consume through whole foods is selenium. If you have a thyroid condition or Hashimoto's selenium is really important.

Selenium helps the conversion of TS, your thyroid stimulating hormone to T3 and T4. So if you're taking a thyroxine or you know, a synthetic version of any of these hormones, then selenium is also going to support that.

Did you know that you can actually get your recommended selenium dosage by eating one to two Brazil nuts a day? So I like to have two Brazil nuts a day.

I actually have them with a date and it feels like a dessert.

And, and you don't have to go crazy. You can literally buy a bag of Brazil nuts from Aldi and it's not crazy expensive. Brazil nuts will also support your thyroid function as a whole.

With that conversion, they're going to help reduce inflammation and it also can help with your energy levels and mood. So I would say that is a super easy supplement mineral that you can get from a whole food.

Two Brazil nuts a day. Why not just add that into your diet? Vitamin C is a huge one that I think a lot of people supplement because it's like vitamin C.

The more vitamin C I take, the less sick I'm going to get. That is very true. Vitamin C is actually water soluble so that means that your body doesn't store it.

It means you have to eat it or ingest it externally. So you do need to take it regularly through your diet. But by making sure doing this daily, you should have enough to support your body with the processes to help your immunity.

But what happens if you just take a supplement of vitamin C is it's actually probably not even reaching you if you take one of those, like, chewable vitamin C tablets, by the time it actually gets to your bloodstream, it's probably been all digestible.

So you are much, much better to get it from the whole food source. So the recommended daily intake of vitamin C for women is 75mg. So you can get 75mg from one medium kiwi.

So you could have that kiwi on its own as a snack, mix it into yogurt, add it to a smoothie or juice. So easy put it on top of, I don't know, your breakfast cereal, whatever you like.

You can also get 90 milligrams of vitamin C from cooked broccoli.

So if you're adding only 100 grams. So if you add 100 grams of cooked broccoli to a meal, then you're reaching your daily intake of vitamin C. Anna from Nourish asks who I had on the podcast a few weeks ago, and she's just such a great source of information when it comes to nourishment.

She said also that if you put a tiny bit of olive oil over the top of your broccoli, it helps your body absorb the nutrients. I think this also goes in line with that.

I'm going to talk about it later. But that like liposomal delivery of nutrients, when a nutrient is surrounded by like a fat membrane, it actually protects it as it goes through your stomach and your digestive system from being broken down by the like, acids, stomach acids.

And then it means that it can reach your bloodstream and deliver the nutrients straight to your bloodstream. So those are the things that I would say you can get from your whole foods and lifestyle without having to supplement.

And then the things that I like to take at the moment that I have found really good results are I'm going to talk about now. So L. Glutathione is maybe one that you haven't heard of, but I specifically find this helpful for Hashimoto's autoimmune disease.

It is delivered. I take the Symbiotica one, and it's like a little pouch and you just suck it. I actually have it. I should get these to show you if you're watching on YouTube.

I'm actually going to go grab them and bring them up so I can show you. Hold on two seconds. Okay. I got distracted and I actually ate two Brazil nuts while I was down there because talking about it reminded me.

So I take the symbiotica glutathione liposomal delivery. So as I was saying before, it is surrounded by a fat cell membrane, so it gets absorbed better. It goes straight to your bloodstream because it doesn't get broken down by stomach acid.

So glutathione is actually like a master antioxidant. So think about the best antioxidant. It is one of those. So for Hashimoto's, it's an immune condition, you are at risk of being inflamed, high inflammation.

So it helps with that. So it's helping your cell recovery. It's helped reducing any inflammation. Glutathione is also really beneficial for skin health. So if you have acne or inflamed skin or a skin condition, same thing, the antioxidant level of this is going to help bring down that inflammation.

And I would say by taking this regularly, I definitely notice that my skin has more of a glow to it. This one is also really good for detoxification and is actually how I found this vitamin in the first place because I really wanted to focus on detoxing my liver of excess estrogen, excess hormones, which is really important at this stage stage of life as well, with where your hormones are trying to balance out.

So it actually binds and removes toxins in your liver. It removes heavy metals and harmful chemicals from the body, so it helps to detox everything. So I love this one.

Antioxidant and detoxification. And also it helps with getting that, like, skin glow. Okay, let's talk about creatine. This is a new one that I've only just found and I'm really interested in this.

I've been researching, listening to heaps of other podcasts about this, and I just find it amazing. When you hear creatine, you probably think like big muscly men in the gym would take creatine, but actually it's not about getting bigger muscles.

Creatine helps ATP, which is energy at a cellular level, so it helps ATP production.

This is the one that I've been taking. It is booty and buff. The only reason I'm taking it is because it's the one my husband had. It is pure creatine monohydrate.

So you don't want to have one that has additives or flavors. You can put it in water and it doesn't taste like anything. I like to add it in with, like electrolytes, lemon juice, something like that, so that it does have a little flavor.

But the benefits of creatine are actually really amazing for women. I'm hoping to have somebody on to talk this specifically because I find it really interesting. It can also help with strengthening our bones with calcium because basically what it's doing is it's giving you more energy to strength train or to show up in the gym.

Creatine supports ATP production in your brain, which is vital for cognitive function, for paying attention. It can help reduce that brain fog that we all feel like we have as moms and busy women.

And some research actually shows that creatine supports mental health and reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety too. So it's an all round, really good supplement to add in. Some people think that it makes you put on weight.

It actually doesn't make you put on weight. What it does is it can help. It can make your muscles retain water. But I was talking to a friend about this who knows like a biomedical scientist, and she was saying that it really depends on the one that you get.

So do your research. Once we finish this one, I will be researching which one to take.

It's not weight. When you step on the scales, you might be heavier.

It's not weight. It's actually just that water retention in your muscles, so it can make your muscles appear bigger. But actually that's just the water retention. But over a long period of time, it's been giving you more energy to show up, to put in more in your day life.

I am really paying the price for eating those Brazil nuts right now because I got some stuck in my throat and I just keep coughing, so. Okay, note to self, don't eat anything in the middle of a podcast.

All right. Adaptogens is one thing that I love. I don't have the bottle to show you because I ran out. So I've just ordered a new batch. I'm hoping it's come the one that I love.

It's Ashwagandha and it's by the brand Adaptual and it's like a tonic and you just take a shot of it before bed. I have noticed take taking this. It has really calmed my anxiety.

It helps me sleep at night and it is so supportive of my mental health. It really helps your body to adapt to stress. You can also. Maca powder is also good for this if You've seen on my Instagram, I made my like nourishing ice chalky.

I add ma powder into that. So they're really good at supporting hormones as well. Helps support your adrenals. So if you feel like you're in in a constant state of like adrenal, you know, like you go, go, go, go.

It helps to support that in your body and it really helps to balance cortisol levels and improves like your all around energy and mood. So ashwagandha. Love it. I love taking this like tincture.

It's like a little tonic. It's not nice to shot. Like I literally have to hold my nose to shot it. But I prefer to take that because I feel like it's getting to my body straight away rather than taking a tablet that I have to then digest.

And as I said before, a lot of gets eliminated before it actually reaches your bloodstream. The next thing I take is magnesium. This one is called Aura and it's called Mag Mood.

It supports healthy muscles, mood, balance and reduces symptoms of stress. That is because there is also ashwagandha in this. This is a powder. Again, I prefer not to take a tablet where I can because it's harder to digest, it puts more stress on the body.

So I take this powder. It's like one teaspoon. You put it in a jar. Drink at night before bed. Magnesium. If you were choosing one supplement to take, I would say magnesium.

Magnesium helps with muscle recovery, it helps with sleep, it helps with digestion. Magnesium is like a superstar. So do your research. There's heaps of different kinds and each one can support a different health concern.

So for example, magnesium glycinate is really good for relaxation. Magnesium citrate is good for digestion. So you can get one that is a combination of all of them.

This one that I have, if you're interested, it has citrate and I can't even read bis glycinate. So it's got a few different ones in here. So. And this actually also has cordyceps in it too.

So there's all these like nootropics or I don't know, what do they call it, like medicinal mushrooms that are so supportive of your health too. But guys, that is what I take at the moment in terms of my supplementation and I'm really loving it.

It's not crazy extreme. You sometimes can see these people on social media taking like a whole chemist's worth of supplements. And I think, man, your liver must be struggling to just digest and detoxify.

All of that. So keep it simple.

Go see a doctor if you're really worried so you can get the actual blood stun. Think about where you can get the extra vitamins and minerals from adding into your diet and then and yeah, some things you might want to supplement.

Let me know what you thought of this episode. I personally love these topics. I can't wait to share more with you on these topics. Again, I have some really cool guests coming up next year.

I am focusing on YouTube podcast video content that you can watch. I can't wait to start filming in person with my guests so you guys can see that will all be coming next year.

If you loved this episode or if you have any suggestions, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and let me know and I will see you in next week's episode.

Bye for now.

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