Which supplements are right for you?

A recent study by The Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that "compared with placebo, the use of Ginkgo biloba, 120 mg twice daily, did not result in less cognitive decline in older adults with normal cognition or with mild cognitive impairment." All those folks that read this who bought the Price Club (aka Costco) containers of 10000 pills are sure to be upset or maybe they don't care that much due to "cognitive decline."

This got me thinking about which supplements I take and why. I thought I'd share this with you and perhaps get you thinking about what you take and why.

• A Performance MultiVitamin. I take the CVS Spectravite Performance rather than pay the uplift for brand name Spectrum Performance. I take one in the morning and one at night instead of the one a day label dose. I view this as a basic insurance policy against missing something in my diet (and plenty is usually missing). Note that Gingko is included in this multivitamin so I would have been covered if that mattered.
• Low dose aspirin. My doctor said it probably was a good idea to start this due to family history of heart disease. I take one 81mg pill daily.
• Fish Oil. I take one pill in the morning and one in the evening (1000mg each). I know I don't get enough omega-3 fats in my diet and I primarily took them for heart benefits. Doctor said they couldn't hurt.
• Flaxseed Oil. My wife went to the cardiologist and he recommended this supplement to help reduce her cholesterol (it was borderline high last time). My cholesterol was slightly lower than hers but I figured it couldn't hurt me either.
• Red Rice Yeast. Same rationale as flaxseed oil but I never even heard of this supplement.

That's it on the supplement front. I been trying to improve my diet as I continue my weight loss journey and that will put me in a better place. I don't know if these supplements will help but doubt they can hurt too much. The science, as evident by the gingko balboa, is constantly being challenged and validated (or not).

I'm still waiting for the science to validate the benefits of single malt scotch. Or a great use case for more than a taste of red wine. Perhaps a microbrew can have a supplement role too. Until that happens, I'll stay with this until the doctor dreams up something else to try.