Demystifying Supplements: What Works, What Doesn’t, and When You Really Need Them

Welcome to another episode of Lower the Dose! Today, host Dr. Rangi to unravel one of the most confusing health topics out there: supplements. Are they a crucial part of keeping us healthy, or just expensive hype? As Leila points out, we're constantly bombarded by social media claims and overflowing supplement aisles, it's no wonder so many of us feel overwhelmed about what to take, what to avoid, and whether supplements are even necessary.

In this conversation, Dr. Rangi shares the real truth behind supplements, drawing on decades of clinical experience and even her own supplement line. Together, they dig into why modern diets often leave us nutritionally deprived, the dangers of random supplementation, and how stress, aging, and medications can all impact our nutrient needs. Most importantly, they explore why testing, not guessing is key, and how you can use supplements to strategically fill real nutritional gaps instead of just piling pills on top of a shaky foundation.

If you’ve ever wondered whether supplements are the secret to better health or if you’re just throwing your money away, this episode will give you the clarity and evidence-backed advice you’ve been looking for. Tune in to learn when supplements make sense, when they don’t, and how to use them safely and effectively to support your metabolic health.

00:00 "Smart Supplement Use Guide"

03:59 "Modern Diet's Nutritional Gaps"

09:14 "Alcohol, Biomarkers, and Metabolic Health"

12:57 "Supplement Transparency with Doctors"

16:40 Vitamin D: Personalized Benefits Key

19:52 Metabolic Health: Targeted Interventions

20:42 Supplement Safety and Source Concerns

24:42 Vitamin D: Types and Benefits

27:19 "Vitamin D3-K2 Benefits Explained"

31:46 "Metabolic Essentials Supplement Packs"

33:45 Health Supplements and Hormone Insights

39:47 Customized Health Supplement Bundles

41:30 Essential and Harmful Supplements

43:43 "Rangi Returns Again"

Show Website - https://lowerthedosepodcast.com/

Dr. Rangi's Website - https://rangimd.com/

Podcast Partner - TopHealth - https://tophealth.care/

Dr. Rangi's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaiwant-rangi-md-face-32226b97/

“Disclaimer: Informational only. Not medical advice. Consult your doctor for guidance.”

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Let me be clear from the start. Supplements cannot fix the broken foundation. If someone is eating ultra-processed food, not sleeping, chronically stressed, or sedentary, you cannot supplement that. The supplements will not save that. The lifestyle intervention reduces the diabetes risk by 58%. If you just modify your lifestyle, you can decrease the risk of diabetes. You don't need supplements for that. No supplement comes close to that. But here's the nuance. When the foundation is solid, and strategic supplementation can fill the real gaps that modern life creates. So after 20 years of practice, I kept seeing the same pattern. Patients doing everything right, deficiencies in magnesium, vitamin D, omega-3. And those deficiencies were affecting their metabolic health. Let's talk about when the supplements make sense, when they don't, and how to avoid the mistakes that turn into a potentially expensive placebo. Maybe it's a helpful.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

So are they necessary? Are they hype? Are they shortcuts? Or are they actually just strategic tools when used correctly? And in a world where supplement aisles are overwhelming and social media is full of quick fixes, I think this is a very important topic to dive into today. So let's start there. Hi, Dr. Rangi. How are you today?

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Hey, Lana. I'm doing good. How are you?

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Good, good. I know I'm super interested in this. I feel like every day I'm seeing another video online about what supplements someone should take, what supplements people should stay away from. And it can be overwhelming. So I'm sure if I'm overwhelmed, tons of people are too. And I know that you've actually created your own supplement line, but you're also very clear that supplements are never really the foundation. So I'm curious to dive into the why behind that. Yes, Layla.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

I mean, that's one of the reasons why I created because I needed to learn more about it. You know, so much is out there, and you're so confused and overwhelmed. And sometimes when I talk to patients, they, you know, I ask them to just bring everything that they're taking. And one time I had this patient who said, You don't want to see everything that I'm taking. I said, Now I really want to see what you're really taking. So you won't believe it. She got me two bags full of Nordstrom's shopping bags. And she was taking them both. Bags full of supplements every day. So I asked my staff to lay them out on the exam table, and you can't believe it, you won't believe it. The exam table was full of the supplements that she takes every day. And I can never forget that. And she came to me for low sodium and she had adrenaline sufficiency. And the last thing she should be taking is all these supplements that she does not even know what's in there. So that sort of was my first um affair, so to say, with uh supplements that I need to take this seriously. You know, um, I'm constantly trying to understand her adrenal gland function, her sodium, potassium, and she's putting all kinds of things in her system that are altering what I'm trying to understand. Um so yeah, you're right. There's so much out there, right? So um let me be clear from the start. Supplements cannot fix the broken foundation, right? If someone is eating ultra-processed food, not sleeping, chronically stressed or sedentary, you cannot out-supplement that. The supplements will not save them. The lifestyle intervention reduces the diabetes risk by 58%. Don't forget that. We've talked about that earlier too. If you just modify your lifestyle, you can decrease the risk of diabetes. You don't need supplements for that. No supplement comes close to that. But here's the nuance when the foundation is solid and strategic supplementation can fill the real gaps that modern life creates. So after 20 years of practice, I kept seeing the same pattern. Patients doing everything right, eating well, exercising, sleeping, but still showing deficiencies in magnesium, vitamin D, omega-3s. And those deficiencies were affecting their metabolic health. So today let's talk about when the supplements make sense, when they don't, and how to avoid the mistakes that turn into a potentially, you know, expensive placebo, you know, um, or even worse, maybe it's it's a health risk.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Absolutely. And why do you think that nowadays modern diets tend to really leave these micronutrient gaps that are resulting in people needing or wanting or feeling like they need to take all these extra supplements?

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Yeah, there are various reasons, but you know, the two big reasons, let's talk about that. Um, the first is ultra-processed foods, you know, they dominate modern diets, you know, they're nutritionally hollow. Um the studies show that the ultra-processed food consumption goes up, the intake of nearly every vitamin and mineral goes down, you know, as we go up on the processed food. So the vitamin A, E, C, vitamin B's, um, zinc, magnesium, potassium, they all are seen to be much less in our system. Second is when people who think they eat well and often don't, you know, when I ask patients about their diet and they think they're pretty healthy, but the pretty healthy in the modern America often still leave significant nutritional gaps. So the problem isn't what uh ultra-processed foods contain, it's what they displace. You know, what do they do to our body where we don't do not absorb the micronutrients? And when you eat a packaged snack instead of vegetables, you are not just adding empty calories, you're also replacing nutrient-dense foods with my uh nutrient poor ones. So food creates a big um challenge with our nutrition uh micronutrient gap.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Absolutely. And how does stress and insulin resistance increase nutrient demand?

SPEAKER_01 6:29

You know, it gets very interesting here, um uh where we just say just eat well. You know, that feels short because that might not be adequate, you know, eat well. Insulin resistance creates a vicious cycle of nutrient depletion. Let me explain to you. Um let's talk about magnesium. Research shows that low magnesium is strongly associated with type 2 diabetes and faster disease progression. But here's the vicious cycle. The insulin resistance causes the magnesium loss through the kidneys, and magnesium deficiency worsens the insulin resistance. So someone with insulin resistance isn't just at risk for nutrient deficiency, they may even actually need more of certain nutrients than someone with normal metabolism. So they're often getting less. Now, this is why I say the sicker you are metabolically, the more strategic you need to be about your nutrition, including your supplementation.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

And how does nutrient absorption actually decline over time as you age?

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Yeah, yeah. I'm glad you asked that. This is critical. It's something most people don't realize. You know, as we age, our gut becomes less efficient at absorbing nutrients. Um, there was a recent Lancet review that described how aging causes villus atrophy. You know, those are the hair-like structures inside our gut lining, the finger-like projections in the intestine that absorb the nutrients, you know, they actually shrink. So the microvessel network that delivers the nutrients to your bloodstream degenerates. So aging gastrointestinal tract becomes specifically less efficient at absorbing vitamin B12, vitamin D, calcium. And this isn't just subtle, it's very well documented, and it's a physiological change that happens. And let's add something more to that. Um, you end up having decreased stomach acid for either you're taking certain medications or like proton pump inhibitors or with age or Tums or whatever you're taking, that affects your B12 absorption. Okay. Um, also the proton pump inhibitors and those kinds of medications that people take for their stomach acid, they also decrease magnesium absorption. Um, reduce sunlight exposure, less efficient skin synthesis of vitamin D. Um, there are some other medications that can affect your um gut side effects, like metformin causes less B12 absorption. Uh, polypharmacy, the more medications you take, the greater the risk of drug-related nutrient deficiency. So the elderly or the older adults eating the exact same diet they ate at 40 may now be absorbing significantly less key nutrients. And this is why I often see deficiencies in my older patients, even when their diet looks reasonable.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Absolutely. And how do you actually clinically decide when someone needs supplementation?

SPEAKER_01 9:41

You know, Leila, my approach is simple. We test. Don't guess. You know, I don't recommend supplements based on symptoms alone. I measure. And here's my framework. What do I do? First, I assess the dietary patterns. You know, look at the person is vegetarian. Um, they have risk for B12 deficiency. Are they low in dairy? Uh, risk for vitamin D and calcium. Are they drinking too much alcohol that might affect your B12, uh, vitamin B and folate? Um, and sometimes these people end up getting more neuropathy and symptoms like that. So you definitely want the risk, uh, the dietary pattern assessment. Um, second, I measure the key biomarkers. For metabolic patients, I routinely check their vitamin D, vitamin B12, uh, magnesium, their fasting insulin, their inflammatory markers, you know, things that help me understand uh what can um I expect and what to replace. And the third thing is I consider age and metabolic status. So someone over 60 with prediabetes has different needs than a healthy 30-year-old, right? Um, and the last thing I would say is the fourth thing I look at is medications. If somebody's taking statins for cholesterol, that we have to look into coQ10 because that decreases with age as it is, and people tend to get more muscle aches and pains. So replacing coQ10 and somebody taking statins helps. Metformin affects B12 deficiency, and as I mentioned, PPIs or proton pump inhibitors, they affect magnesium and B12 both. So the bottom line is I supplement when testing reveals deficiency, uh, when dietary assessment reveals a gap, or when age and metabolic status create increased demand.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Absolutely. And I think that a lot of people take supplements because they might read a certain thing and think that it pertains to them. And it sounds like from what I'm learning right now is that random supplements can actually be more hurtful than beneficial. So what are some of the risks that go along with random supplementation?

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Yeah, um, I'm glad you asked that. Let me be direct. You know, random supplementation isn't just wasteful, it can be dangerous. Let's look at a data. You know, it's very sobering data. 23,000 emergency department visits per year in the United States are attributed to adverse events from dietary supplements. That's about 2,154 hospitalizations annually. The most dangerous category are the weight loss and the energy products. These caused over 70% of supplements-related cardiac emergencies, arrhythmias, palpitations, chest pain, rapid heart rate. But even safe supplements carry some risk. For example, you can have toxicity of vitamins, especially vitamin D. You know, nowadays we talk so much about vitamin D deficiency, and people are just taking randomly 5,000, 10,000 international units of vitamin D. You can have excessive vitamin D. You know, I have seen vitamin D toxicity in my life many times, not just once. And that could be because they uh have been having a lot more dairy as well, and over supplementation at the same time. Um, and in some cases, we don't understand. They just don't need so much supplementation. They absorb really well from their diet. So just don't randomly take that because if you have too much vitamin D, that's going to absorb more calcium from your gut, and high calcium can cause kidney stones, high calcium can cause arrhythmias, confusion, anxiety, everything that you can expect. So taking too much of vitamin D can cause vitamin D toxicity. Um, we also see the drug supplement take uh drugs and supplement interactions are common as well. Um over 70% of Americans take supplements. 70%, let me say that again. But many don't tell their doctors. Did you know that? This is exactly what I told my patient when I just could not figure out why I cannot understand her sodium and potassium. I said, I want to look at every supplement that you're taking. And this was elderly in her 80s, and she's like, No, doc, you don't want to see what I'm taking. I said, now I really want to see what you're taking. So I asked her to bring her bags, and like I mentioned, she got two bags full of Nordstrom shopping bags and so much supplement that she should not be taking. And so this people are taking it like water. So I would rather them work with their doctors, tell them everything they're taking, and take it from reliable resource sources where they're getting it from. You know, the ones you get it from Costco, the ones you get from the uh drugstores, a lot of them are placebo and a lot of them are don't have what they declare because these are not regulated by FDA. Um, so you really want to make sure if you're spending that money, you get the quality supplements and don't just randomly take from Amazon or any place where they may not be quality control. They may not have been tested for impurities, they may not have been tested for um toxins or uh, you know, uh, like I said, their quality control is very inconsistent because pharmaceuticals, unlike real pharmaceuticals, the supplements don't require FTA approval before marketing. Um, the supplement industry's hundred plus billion business. Marketing often outpaces science. So no matter what we tell patients, the marketing takes them like a storm. So patients need to be more careful and talk to their doctor and understand what they should take, why they should take, how long they should take, what should they not take, and get periodically checked.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Absolutely. I mean, I know I'm guilty of, you know, walking into a house store and thinking I'm doing the right thing by getting supplements or ordering things online, and you really don't know. And I think that that's also probably why personalization matters so much when it comes to supplements. But I want to hear from you why you think personalization personalization matters so much when it comes to starting supplements or taking the right supplements.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Um absolutely, you know, because one person's healthful supplement, something that can be very powerful for one person, can be another person's waste of money. Or even worse, it may hurt them, right? Um, like we just talked about vitamin D. So let me give you an example. Endocrine society now recommends that vitamin D for adults, uh, they recommend that we should have uh adults with prediabetes should take vitamin D. Studies show that reduced diabetes uh uh 15% reduction in diabetes risk in this population when you replace vitamin D. And among those who achieved blood levels above 50, the risk reduction was about 70 to 6%. Okay. So I often tell people that when I'm giving you vitamin D, there are various reasons, you know. Um it's got what I call as pleotropic effect. It works on different receptors, different parts of the body. Um, above 30, it's barely helping you with your bones. You know, when it's going from 40 to 60 level in your blood, then we're looking at cardiac protection, we're looking at diabetes prevention, we're looking at cancer prevention and a lot of other things. But then you go a little higher, it can cause high calcium and cause hypercalcemia and toxicity. So certainly we need to be very careful. And here's a nuance the benefit was most pronounced in this study that I'm talking about in people who were actually deficient under the BMI 30. Okay. So it really needs to be personalized because for someone else, that replacement may not do that magic or the job that we are looking for. Someone with adequate vitamin D levels to begin with cannot expect that if they take more vitamin D, they're going to prevent their prediabetes. Okay. Um, so adequate vitamin D and severe obesity may not see the same benefit as deficient vitamin D and underbody mass index of 30. So personalized definitely matters. Testing to identify actual deficiencies, you know, looking at considering metabolic status and the disease risk, uh, accounting for medications, what they're taking, you know, choosing the right form and the dose, and monitoring their response and making sure it's safe. And if there's a time when they need to stop it, you know, you cannot just randomly continue. Random supplementation ignores all of this. And that's not medicine, that's marketing.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Absolutely. And which nutrients are most commonly supporting insulin sensitivity?

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Um, that's a great question. So, based on the research, um, there's some supplements that have the strongest um effect. Number one, magnesium. We call that as a metabolic mineral. Each 100 milligram increases daily magnesium, uh, increase in your daily magnesium level uh intake is associated with 6% low risk of developing type 2 diabetes. That's a published data. For people who already have diabetes, magnesium supplementation significantly improves their fasting glucose and their insulin sensitivity. Next is vitamin D. We call that prediabetes protector. We just talked about that. Endocrine Society now recommends it for prediabetes. Vitamin D reduced diabetes progression in 15% of the cases, and by 76% in those who achieved optimal blood levels. Now, these were deficient to begin with. Number three, chromium. You know, uh, we offered that a supplement in our practice for my patients with diabetes. Chromium is considered to be the glucose regulator. You know, the network meta-analysis ranked chromium as a most effective mineral supplement for reducing fasting blood glucose and insulin resistance. Then comes omega-3 fatty acids. They are the inflammation fighters. Um, they significantly reduce triglycerides, they uh fight the inflammation markers, they modestly improve your A1C in people with type 2 diabetes. And the last one I would mention is curcumin. Curcumin is anti-inflammatory. Uh, this has high certainty evidence uh that shows that the fasting blood sugar, CRP or CD active protein, and high density lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol all have favorable effects. Now, these aren't magic pills, you know, they're targeted interventions for specific metabolic dysfunction. You know, we we also know of some other things that help, like um bittermelon, uh, we have uh gymema, um uh some other um plant-based uh supplements as well help. So these were just five things that I talked about. There are some other things as well that help with your insulin sensitivity. So always, always check with your doctor. I have a lot of um, you know, my uh patients from either India or Philippines or Mexico or you know who bring their supplements from third world countries where they don't even know what's in that supplement. So one, we are talking about um the supplement industry here in the US, and two is you're bringing it from a place where you really have no regulation. So I often worry about them getting so much of either toxin substances in there or some kind of uh um, you know, it could be the inactive ingredients that have been used to bind together, but that could be toxic on your body. So be very careful. What is the source? Where are you getting it from? You know, for our supplements, they're all um you know manufactured in in the US and the all the ingredients that are uh from US. Well, so and where we get it from, it is third-party tested. Um, so all impurities are tested for, they always have to go through extensive um, you know, uh certification to make sure they are safe and not toxic. So I really feel the supplements can help, but you got to make sure that you get it from the right source and and use it under guidance.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

Absolutely. And it's like these are the supplements that we hear so frequently, but it turns out we actually really don't know much about them as you know, not a provider, someone who's not knowledgeable. Like, for example, magnesium, omega-3s, vitamin Zs, we hear about them so often, but they actually do impact blood sugar. So, how how do they do that?

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Let's break it down. Let's talk about magnesium first. It's essential for um uh insulin signaling. Okay, magnesium regulates the channels in your pancreas that control the insulin secretion. The insulin receptor function is directly dependent on the magnesium levels. A meta-analysis found that 500 milligrams a day reduced A1C by 0.73 in diabetics. That is clinically meaningful. There are some drug trials that have gone through millions of dollars and they get the approval to be used for diabetes if they can drop the A1C by 0.7. So this is very meaningful. Vitamin D, it affects your beta cell function. Beta cells are the cells that make insulin. Endocrine society, like I mentioned, reviewed and found the vitamin D lowered the fasting glucose by 5 mg per deciliter and two-hour glucose by about 7.6 milligram per deciliter in prediabetics. The mechanism involves vitamin D receptors in the pancreatic beta cells. Omega-3, they work primarily through anti-inflammatory pathway. Chronic inflammation drives your insulin resistance, and omega-3 significantly reduces the inflammatory markers like TNF alpha or IL6 or introleukin 6 and reduce triglycerides, which are the highlight or the hallmark of metabolic syndrome. So the bottom line is these nutrients work through different uh mechanisms but complementary mechanisms. So together they address multiple aspects of metabolic dysfunction. But again, I would say you cannot out-supplement the foundational problem. If you need to work on lifestyle, we gotta work on lifestyle first before you add the supplements. Or you can add it simultaneously, but don't forget lifestyle has to be addressed.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Absolutely. And you touched on this earlier a little bit about vitamin D, but a lot of people, myself included, don't really realize that there's different types of vitamin D. So can you kind of walk us through the differences and more about vitamin D overall? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Um I'm glad you're asking that because uh uh, like I mentioned earlier, vitamin D is a very interesting um vitamin, and in fact, we call that a hormone because it has uh effects that we all need to understand. Um, there are various types of vitamin D supplements, and choosing the right one um depends on your goal, you know, on your lab levels, uh, or depends on your absorption and whether you're correcting a deficiency or just maintaining the levels. So there's uh vitamin D called cold calciferol or vitamin D3. Okay. Um that is a preferred form. Um why is it preferred? Because it raises your 25 hydroxy vitamin D more efficiently or more effectively than D2. It has a longer half-life and it's better for maintenance and correction. The typical doses are 1,000 to 2,000 international units a day for maintenance. And when somebody is deficient, sometimes I give even 5,000 international units a day to optimize their level. Once they're optimized, I usually move to the maintenance dose. Sometimes we do higher doses for short-term deficiency, but they have to be under supervision. Now, next is vitamin D2, and that is ergo calciferol. That is plant-based or plant-derived, often prescribed as 50,000 units weekly. This is less potent and shorter-acting than vitamin D3. Used historically just for deficiency, but most clinicians now prefer D3. You know, we don't do D2 as much. The third one is active vitamin D or calcitriol. Nobody should be taking it unless prescribed. Active vitamin D or calcitriol is given only when you have kidney disease or hypoparathyroidism. Um, I do that to a lot of patients who accidentally end up having parathyroid removed when they got their thyroid surgery for whatever reason. Or they underwent parathyroid surgery because their parathyroid gland was working too much and now their parathyroid level is too low and their calcium is too low, so we prescribe calci triol, which is the active vitamin D. Um, it does not um require liver or kidney for conversion. It can raise your calcium quickly and requires close monitoring, like I said. It's not for general supplementation. Then comes interesting um combination. It's vitamin D3K2 combination, which is best for bone and cardiovascular support. Why it is combined? Because D3 increases the calcium absorption and vitamin K2, usually we call that as MK7, helps the direct cal to direct this calcium that D3 absorbs into bones. And this may help you reduce the arterial calcification risk. Um, this is often used in longevity and cardiometabolic protocols. And this is the kind of vitamin D3 that I prefer in my practice when I'm replacing, because we don't want them to have vitamin D3 that is getting absorbing more calcium, and that calcium is going to your arterial walls or your near heart or your blood vessels. Um the last thing is these vitamin forms that we talked about, they can come as a liquid, they can come as capsules, or they can come as gummies. Um for metabolic optimization, I usually prefer soft gels with fat. Um, sometimes we do liquid vitamin D3 for flexible dosing. You know, we have some patients who have had surgery and surgically removed stomach or whatever absorption issues, so the liquid is needed because they just cannot swallow the pills. Um, so in quick summary, um use vitamin D3, consider adding K2 or take the combination of K2, D3. Um, it's a dose-based, check 25 hydroxyvitamin D level. Um, there's different kinds of vitamin D that we check in the blood, but you've got to monitor 25 hydroxyvitamin D. And the target range typically what I like to keep at uh is between 40 and 60 nanogram per ml. I hope that helps.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Absolutely. And beyond those supplements, we hear a lot about calcium too, right? But I've heard that there's actually some controversy around calcium supplementation. So, can you explain a little bit about that? Like, what is that controversy with calcium about?

SPEAKER_01 29:43

So, Layla, the calcium controversy, you know, let's try to understand that. Several studies have raised concerns about calcium supplementation and cardiovascular risk. A meta-analysis showed that increased risk of heart attack among people taking calcium supplements and about 27% higher risk. And unfortunately, when that came out, a lot of my patients with osteoporosis stopped taking their calcium supplements. So the theory is that the calcium supplements cause transient spike in the blood calcium that may promote arrhythmias or vascular calcification. Now, interestingly, this risk hasn't been seen with calcium from food sources. It's only seen with supplements. So this is why I don't recommend high-dose calcium supplements. Instead, I tell people get calcium from food when possible. If supplementing, use moderate doses, you know, not mega doses. Um when I started practicing 20 years ago, I remember people taking 2,000 milligrams or some crazy sort of amount of calcium to protect their bones. It does not protect your bones at that time, it's hurting you. Always combine vitamin D and vitamin K2 to direct the calcium to the bones, not to the arteries. Consider magnesium, which also supports proper calcium metabolism. So the combination of vitamin D3, K2 is not optimal. It's how these nutrients work together safely and effectively, and primarily taking the calcium from the food source is what I encourage.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

Absolutely. And speaking about these combinations, right, how do you actually decide the dosing and the combinations when it comes to certain nutrients and supplements?

SPEAKER_01 31:38

Um, so I uh we offer um uh three uh supplement packs in our uh practice, and and those are easy to open and people can um take the packets with them whenever they're traveling. And I have individually customized them where they complement them uh each other uh when somebody's taking their supplements. And um people have to work with their doctors to understand what they're taking, is that safe or not? But if they want to look at our program, we have a bundle called the metabolic essentials. And metabolic essentials is somebody for anybody who has metabolic health problems. It could be metabolic syndrome, it could be somebody with pre-diabetes or diabetes, you know. It helps with your insulin sensitivity, it helps with your insulin um action. Um, and and in that case, uh uh we have a combination of uh vitamin D3 with K2, omega-3, um, we have uh magnesium, and then we also have um uh uh chromium, like I mentioned earlier. So um you can work with your doctor to see how do you get individual supplements, but if you want to work with us, we have created this bundle that you can uh get for a month and you can tear a packet every day and take that. Um and I'll repeat that again: the metabolic health um packet has magnesium to support the insulin function, blood pressure, muscle health, and sleep. Then I have omega-3 in there to help with uh triglycerides and support heart and brain health, K2D3, like I mentioned for insulin sensitivity and healthy blood vessels, then curcuplex or curcumin um to reduce inflammation, and then cocu max um to support cellular energy for heart function and and and again chromium and botanicals, like we had talked about. So that is our very powerful uh supplement that can help um reduce the A1C close to 0.7 or 0.6 uh percent. Uh so if somebody's struggling with their um uh A1C, which is hovering in upper sevens or mid-sevens, then maybe adding that can help them to some extent. Um, then we also have uh menopause essentials, and those we have created because there are many women who don't want to take uh menopause uh hormone replacement therapy, uh, even though we are learning a lot about it, and I highly encourage them to have discussion with their doctors because there's so much more benefits of hormone replacement therapy than harm, and you need to understand your individual risk and if you should take it or not. Uh, because we also have the estrogen effect on the brain, and more women get dementia. So I do want women to have this open discussion with their doctors why should they not take hormone replacement therapy more than why should they take it? You know, in the past we used to see women being dismissed and told that you don't have any hot flashes, you don't need hormone replacement therapy. But the new studies have shown that uh the not the new studies, the new interpretation of the data has taught us that the study, women's health initiative, was misinterpreted. So for menopause, for women who don't take hormone replacement therapy, or they are taking it but they still have a lot of symptoms, then we have a nutrient pack, and that has um vitamin D3, K2 that again helps them with their bones because um uh bone loss is more common with menopause, uh, omega-3 for cardiovascular health, um, vitamin uh B complex that helps with brain function, supports the energy. And then there's some special formula that we have in there. It's called medcaps menopause, and that has a botanical blend of black koharsh, you have isoflavons, ginseng, and some of the plant compounds that help support um, you know, the symptoms of menopause like um hot flashes, your mood balance, and overall, you know, comfort during menopause because some of those symptoms are very nonspecific. Um and you know, sometimes I even add curcumin to that. Uh, when I went through menopause or I'm I'm perimenopausal and I've been going through that last few years. Initially, when I started, I had a lot of joint pains and I couldn't explain why. Shoulder pain, you know, hip pain, just random aches and pains that were never there before. So if I felt it, I can see so many more women who are living through that and trying to toughen it out, and they don't have to. We can use curcumin that can help calm down that inflammation. And if it's happening because of lack of estrogen, then talk to your doctor, figure out if you're a good candidate for estrogen. Um and of course, you have to understand who should take estrogen alone and if you need progesterone as well, and things like that. The last supplement bundle I want to talk about is longevity essentials. And those are uh anybody with 60 plus um can take it, even 50 plus can take it. And those have again the most essential things that I like to put in there. Um again, omega-3, vitamin D3, K2, magnesium, coQ10, and um vitamin B complex that can help you with memory, nerve function, energy, brain health, and everything. So, yeah, you asked me about how do I decide my combinations. It varies a lot, but um that's how we decide in our practice. But we do customize as well. If somebody wants to um they don't know where to start, they can take a quiz on our website and that can guide them what supplements they should take.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

Oh, that's awesome to know that there's a quiz. I think I need to take that too because I'm going through my head of what supplements I've been taking and kind of second guessing if they're the right things to actually be taking. And we've spoken a little bit about your formula, but what do you think was actually missing in the market? And how does your formulation differ from some of those generic brands?

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Yeah, I'm glad you asked that. And we've covered part of it in the past, but I'll say that again. You know, after working for 20 plus years and recommending, you know, either recommending supplements and people randomly going to Amazon and taking anything or bringing it from somewhere else or taking some other sources, I kept running into the same problem, you know, quality and consistency. You know, some products don't contain what they claim. And I needed to know exactly what my patients were taking. Then there were some that had wrong forms and doses. Many products use cheap, poorly absorbed forms. You know, for example, magnesium oxide has much lower bioavailability than magnesium glycinate. And standard curcumin that you buy is poorly absorbed without enhancement. So it's not just taking curcumin and I pick the most expensive or the cheapest from Amazon or wherever I got it from. You gotta know what is in there and it's gonna absorb well, whether it's gonna help you or not. There are a lot of kitchen sink formulas, you know, products that have 30 ingredients at sub-therapeutic doses. You know, they have such a little amount in there. It looks pretty impressive, but they don't work. You know, um, they don't, they may not have metabolic focus. You know, some supplement lines are designed for general wellness. You know, uh, I needed the products that were specifically designed for metabolic health, you know, for the 93% of uh US population that's metabolically unhealthy. Um, then I could not find consistent vitamin D products. You know, people were getting vitamin D toxicity, and I wanted to use D3 and a K2 problem and use that as a combination because most vitamin D don't have that. So, as I explained, this is critical oversight. So I created these, you know, three bundles. Like I said, they are called metabolic essentials, longevity essentials, and menopause essentials. Uh, the metabolic essentials help with blood sugar support, insulin sensitivity, and cardiovascular protection. The longevity helps you with cellular energy, brain health, and healthy aging, and menopause, of course, uh for specific needs in women during transition. Each packet contains five to six supplements that work synergistically. They complement each other in forms and doses that match clinical evidence, you know, uh, including the K2 with every vitamin D formulation. So this was a reason why I created my own and this these things were missing. But at the same time, not everybody needs to have those bundles or packets. They can have individual uh supplements as well. They can buy just the vitamin D3, K2, or they can buy just curcuplex or curcumin from us, depending on the needs.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

Absolutely. And who do you think should not take supplements without any testing first?

SPEAKER_01 40:40

This is an important question, and this is very crucial. People on blood thinners, you know, omega-3, vitamin E, and subbotanical, they affect clotting. So be very careful. Talk to your doctor. People with kidney disease, you know, magnesium can accumulate dangerously. Vitamin D metabolism is altered. Now, people with multiple medications, if you take certain supplements, they can have drug and a supplement interaction that is real and unrecognized. Um, pregnant or breastfeeding women, um, some supplements are essential, others may be harmful. Make sure you look at the source where you're getting it from. Now, people with specific conditions like hemochromatosis, people have too much iron in their system. So any supplement that might have iron can be dangerous. If somebody has high calcium, you know, for whatever reason, hyperparathyroidism or any reason they have a high calcium, vitamin D can be very serious. Um, and calcium. So I often have people with high calcium in my practice because of endocrinology, and I tell them, you no matter how low your vitamin D is, you're not going to take it. And I see them again three months later, and they say, Oh, well, um, you know, and the calcium is worse. And I'm like, what happened? And I say, Well, my primary care said my vitamin D is too low. I must take it. Now you could have low vitamin D, but in your specific condition, I don't want you to take it. Let it be low. Okay. So that can be in certain cases. Now, if somebody has history of kidney stones, vitamin C and calcium, they require careful dosing. So my rule is if you have any chronic condition or you take any prescription medications, or you plan to take high doses, you talk to your doctor first, test and work with your provider to understand what is safe and what's needed and what's what could be dangerous.

SPEAKER_00 42:33

Absolutely. That is so important because I know I probably have done the same thing as so many other people and went and got some vitamin D and probably didn't get the right one without being tested, or grab some magnesium, or grab these things that are obviously not always beneficial without the right testing. So thank you so much for explaining all of that and really diving into it. And if today's episode helped clarify how supplements can really support, not replace metabolic repair, you can learn even more about this with uh at Dr. Rangi's um supplement line on her website, and all the information will be linked below. But remember that supplements are tools and the foundation is lifestyle and clarity comes first. So thank you so much, uh Dr. Rangi, again, for this episode, and I cannot wait to see you next time.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

Thank you. Take care, Leila.