What Are the Best Daily Supplements to Take, According to Science?

Food supplements are intended to, literally, supplement your diet by providing a concentrated dose of micro- and phyto-nutrients - usually in the form of tablets or capsules.

The explicit aim of food supplements is to help you correct nutritional deficiencies and maintain the recommended intake of certain nutrients. It's a multi-billion-pound industry - the market for omega-3 extraction alone is worth £27bn - and food supplements fall into many different categories.

Beauty supplements, for example, target hair, skin and nails. Energy supplements might set their crosshairs for mental sharpness, physical vigour or both.

Multivitamins provide the vitamins necessary for health, but nothing more. Health supplements go a little further and may include minerals, and perhaps amino acids and fatty acids.

Sounds good - but despite the glossy marketing and purported benefits, the food supplement industry is rife with untruths and false claims. We will expand on that shortly, so stay with us.

Any brand can pay for a private clinical study, doctor the results and state outcomes that are gravely misleading. Yet peer-reviewed clinical studies have been reviewed and approved by independent experts, published in medical journals and can be trusted.

So, follow these 3 steps to identify which food supplements will work (this is what LYMA has done):

1. Check for patented ingredients. If you see a TM or R next to an ingredient, it's likely to have been patented. If not, the ingredient is probably generic and unproven.
2. Check for evidence. If you do see a patented ingredient, pop it in the search bar at www.pubmed.gov to see if the exact brand of ingredient has been studied, tested and published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
3. Check for levels. Now confirm that the dosage level in your supplement matches the dosage level in the clinical study. If it's not dosed correctly, it may not provide the same benefits. If both the ingredient and the dosage level have been featured in a clinical study on Pubmed, you can trust the ingredient will work.

If both the ingredient and the dosage level have been featured in a clinical study on Pubmed, you can trust the ingredient will work.

Analysis of the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey in 2018 found depletion in several key micronutrients was common across mid-life age ranges in the UK. Those micronutrients include magnesium, potassium, iodine, calcium, folic acid and riboflavin. Food supplements can help to compensate for a diet that's lacking in quality and variety. And it's a natural conclusion to think that if you are low in magnesium, for example, you should reach for a magnesium supplement. But it's never that straightforward. Over-supplementation can cause problems of its own. And as we have learnt, most food supplements are little more than placebos.

That's where the science on food supplements is really coming in to its own - driving an emerging wave of products that are built on efficacy and bioavailability: giving your body the right nutrients, at the right time, in the right dosage.

Then there are relationships between different nutrients. For example, eating foods that are high in vitamin C increases the absorption of iron^[3], a nutrient that 25% of the global population is deficient in according to the World Health Organization. On the other hand, absorption of nutrients such as calcium and zinc can be hindered by phytic acid, a compound found in many foods including grains, legumes and tubers^[4]. Understanding the interactions between different nutrients is one of the keys to creating food supplements with high bioavailability. Food supplements that the body absorbs readily. Food supplements that work. Here's a quick run through of some of the best supplements to take daily.

Women meanwhile typically need slightly higher levels of calcium due to having lower bone density. Lycopene provides enhanced protection from oxidative stress^[11], while beta glucans have been shown to reduce stress and mitigate the impact of upper respiratory tract infections^[12]. Ashwagandha and affron® (saffron) support healthy sexual functions and balance^{[13] [14]}.

Yet the differences between men and women are almost trivial in comparison to the similarities. Thanks to modern lifestyle and dietary habits, both men and women typically experience very similar issues such as stress, weight gain, ageing skin, poor exercise recovery and hormonal imbalance. That is to say, the best supplements are going to be well received by all bodies.

Ashwagandha deserves a mention here. In one controlled study, male participants given ashwagandha vs a placebo showed significantly greater increases in muscle strength, greater increase in muscle size and greater increase in testosterone - as well as a greater decrease in body fat percentage^[15]. Magnesium can help here by assisting with protein synthesis^[16].

There are indirect ways to improve your strength training and exercise responses too. Lycopene, for example, has been shown to improve lung function, which could obviously help with cardio workouts. As for exercise recovery, studies have shown that Hydrocurc™ - a highly bioavailable turmeric supplement - reduces blood lactate immediately after exercise and results in less pain 48 hours after exercise^[17]. Ashwagandha meanwhile, has been shown to reduce muscle damage - on top of the strength-building benefits mentioned above^[18]. Beta glucan supplementation can reduce the cold and flu symptoms that often develop in the days following intense endurance exercise^[19] by priming the innate immune system^[20].

One of those brain supplements is citicoline. Classed as one of the nootropics or 'smart drugs', citicoline has been shown to enhance focus, attention and cognitive function, while protecting against free radical damage^[21]. It's also believed to be among the best memory supplements due to its activity in the frontal lobe - and may help to mitigate cognitive decline associated with ageing^[22]. Citicoline is so well respected that it's used to support neurological recovery in patients with traumatic brain injuries, stroke and cognitive disorders^[23].

Another revered natural supplement for brain health is ashwagandha - which as you can see has an extensive range of actions. One fascinating study revealed that patients administered ashwagandha for eight weeks developed significant improvements in immediate and general memory as well as improvements to attention and information processing speed - versus patients administered a placebo. affron® - a standardised extract of saffron - has been shown to enhance mood.

What we know for sure is that the food you eat directly affects the structure and function of your brain - and thus your mood. So diet is a good place to start in terms of easing some of the symptoms you may be experiencing. Are there any supplements that might be helpful here?

Both ashwagandha and curcumin have been shown to relieve symptoms of low mood^[24], [25] affron® - a patented saffron extract - has improved mood in many peer-reviewed clinical studies^[26]. And beta glucans too have been shown to elevate mood in a study of women^[27].

Ashwagandha root (again!), is a widely reported natural remedy^[31]. (If you want the science, ashwagandha root is thought to help due to its moderating effect on the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis^[32].) Beta glucan has also been shown to improve psychological wellbeing^[33]. A separate study revealed that saffron extract reduced symptoms of low mood in teenagers^[34].

Certain supplements have been shown to alleviate some of the deficits caused by tiredness. These have been linked to improvement in memory and cognitive functions such as processing speed - with benefits both shortly after ingestion and over time with daily supplementation^[28].

One of the main causes of chronic tiredness is an inability to get a good night's sleep in the first place. As a wellbeing-promoting herb, ashwagandha can help here too^{[29]. So too can saffron extract, which has been shown to improve rest quality while reducing the daytime dysfunction caused by lack of rest[30].}

Let's start with your skin, the largest organ in the human body. Cynatine® HNS is made from keratin and has been referred to as the holy grail of beauty, improving skin condition within 90 days^[35]. Lycopene meanwhile helps to protect the skin from the harmful, ageing effects of UV light from the sun^[36]. As for hair and nails, Cynatine® HNS comes up trumps again - improving hair growth, hair strength, hair lustre and nail strength within 90 days^[37].

Earlier in this article we covered the fact that deficiency in vitamins D and K is relatively common in adults. That's particularly relevant here, because those vitamins play a crucial role in bone health^[38]. Therefore supplementing with vitamins D and K is worth considering if you are concerned about joint health. Research has also shown Levagen®+ may be helpful for leading an active life^[39].

The nutrients to consider supplementing include iron, vitamin B12, creatine, vitamin D3, a fatty acid called DHA, calcium and zinc. These play many roles in your body - from immune system strength to brain development - and they are typically lacking in vegetarian diets.

So what are the best supplements for sleep? Research has shown that some remedies have sleep-promoting properties - both in healthy volunteers and those suffering with insomnia^[40]. The same is true for saffron extract, which has been shown to improve quality of rest^[41].

A rich and varied diet full of fresh and natural food should be your starting point. But there's some exciting research in the field of supplementation for the menopause. So what are the best menopause supplements?

For starters, lycopene has been shown to reduce the oxidative stress associated with loss of bone density in postmenopausal women^[42]. Beta glucan meanwhile has been shown to elevate mood in women experiencing stress.[43] Ashwagandha can potentially have a large impact on women going through the menopause - as research has shown that it can reduce low mood,[44] improve sexual enjoyment^[45], improve body stability^[46] and aid rest^[47].

As for tackling the typical cosmetic impacts of the menopause, Cynatine® HNS has been shown to improve skin appearance [48] as well as hair strength, thickness and lustre within 90 days^[49]. The message is clear: a healthy diet and food supplementation can give you a rich arsenal with which to combat symptoms of the menopause.

Collectively these bacteria - up to 1,000 different species among them - make up your microbiome. This microbiome is crucial to your health and impacts everything from your heart and brain to the strength of your immune system, not to mention your ability to absorb nutrients from food. In fact, this bacterial landscape is so crucial to health that researchers are now beginning to refer to the microbiome as an organ in its own right.

Your microbiome is a battlefield, where good bacteria are locked in an eternal war with bad bacteria. It's thought that the balance between good and bad bacteria in your gut is crucial to your health. Healthy foods feed the good bacteria. Junk foods harm the good bacteria. Particularly gut-healthy foods include pulses and legumes, artichokes and oats and fermented foods such as yoghurt, kimchi and sauerkraut. In terms of supplementation you may wish to look into probiotic and - in particular - prebiotic supplements.

Supplementation can help here too. Lycopene for example has been studied in peer-reviewed papers^[53][54]. Lycopene has also been shown to protect skin^[55].

Of course two of the biggest cosmetic worries when it comes to ageing are skin and hair. One formulation that could help is Cynatine® HNS, which has been shown to improve skin appearance^[56] as well as hair strength, thickness and lustre within 90 days^[57].

Ageing is something to celebrate. But with the right nutrition and supplementation, there's no reason you can't retain a little more of your youth.

And it shows in the way LYMA makes you feel.

“Miracle pills. The days of taking a cocktail of hit and miss vitamins are over.” That's what they said about LYMA in Vogue. While in the Daily Mail, beauty expert Rachel Carlyle stated: “I'm impressed LYMA has had such a positive effect on my skin in a month.”

“Experts are queuing up to praise LYMA,” they said in the Financial Times, “an ultra-sophisticated regimen boasting patented, peer-reviewed ingredients that address everything.” LYMA has also featured in Cosmopolitan, Tatler, The Evening Standard, The Telegraph and more.

Is LYMA the number one supplement in the world today? Try it and see for yourself or read more reviews.