The supplement aisle can feel like total overload but which ones actually work?

Dr. Kudzai Dombo joins Jackie to share what’s worth your time (and money). Plus, how to tell if a supplement brand is actually clean and effective.

Grab your free Grown-Ass Woman’s Health Cheat Sheet and start taking charge of your health like the grown-ass woman you are.

The supplement aisle can feel like information overload. Shelves just full of promises, a drawer at home full of half used bottles. And we're still left wondering, what really works?

What am I supposed to take? And is it even helpful? Well, today we find out which supplements are actually worth it and if we need them at all.

Welcome back to the Grown Ass Woman's guide. I'm Jackie McDougall. Dr. Kudzai Dombo is a board certified OB GYN and menopause expert with over 20 years of experience dedicated to women's health.

And she's back with us today in this episode. We're talking supplements. Those that can support sleep, combat stress, strengthen bones, and even help with inflammation.

But here's the thing, they are not created equal. So before you slap down that card at your favorite health food store, here's what you need to know. Do we need supplements? And if so, what do we need?

It's a really great question, and it depends. So there are some women who have really difficulty sleeping.

And magnesium glycinate is one of my favorite supplements because even if it's not the only supplement you take to help you fall asleep, it's a great one because it has a track record of being successful. Right.

And I think the issue with supplements that we have is that we just are looking for more rigorous data, you know, And a lot of times from one supplement company to another, you may not know, okay, how pure are their active ingredient and how much has fillers.

And so when I tell my patients, because I am very happy to share different supplements with patients, but, but I think there are some very specific ones that I choose and it has to be aligned with their profile.

So magnesium glycinate has been one that's shown, I think, across the board to have benefits when it comes to sleep at night and restful sleep and also helping calm your system. So I've had many patients benefit from that when it comes to sleep.

If you caught the first episode in this series on screenings in labs, you know we talked about the importance of bone health. And while calcium gets all the attention, Dr. Dambo says there's another supplement that's the actual real hero for your bones.

Vitamin D. As I had mentioned previously, D +K2. That's also a supplement that has been shown to really help with bone strength, bone density.

So that is something that I recommend to my patients and I follow their levels to determine. Okay, where are we? Are we really good? Have you overshot, you know, and you have too much vitamin D?

Maybe we need to Scale back and which one you're taking. So it's one of those things where you want to be able to work together with your patient to determine, okay, at this point in time, where are we?

What are your numbers? Because for the most part, most women tend to be very either deficient, like under 30, or extremely deficient, and they're not aware of it.

So it's, it's one of those supplements that's important to really consider. I, I say it's a must, a must have, you know, in your, in your, in your arm material.

And then there are other supplements that I look at when I think about just knowing that when we look at nutrition, what does your diet look like? Are you getting enough protein?

Sometimes eating enough omega, like the, the fatty fish, like the salmon, you may need an additional omega 3, you know, that may be helpful. And then some women who are dealing with a lot of stress and they're just like, I know that I have a lot of stress.

There are some that I may recommend, but I also tell them this is not something that I would recommend taking every day, but it's something, an adjunct. And you can see how it works for your body is ashwagandha. Right. That may be something that may help.

But I also say just monitor, because we don't have enough regulated data to tell us how much this may help you. Right.

So I really leave it at that, you know, for myself, I think when I was also looking at what are some things that may help me, and it, it was trial and error with a lot of different things.

I wanted to reduce a lot of inflammation in my body because before I started to go on hormones, I chose to do the non hormonal option and I wanted to do the supplements and I wanted to see if supplements would really help me.

But I know one of the things that I choose to either cook more with is turmeric, because I know that it has these properties as well that are very good for our system.

And again, it's the same thing I tell patients, you know what, if you know that you're either experiencing a lot of symptoms of inflammation, like turmeric is something that may be helpful, but I think it's also to gauge and see how your body responds to it. And if you're not getting any response, then, you know, we can put that to the side.

So we've talked about what supplements we might need, but how do you know which brand to trust? For a generation who grew up on Flintstones vitamins, it turns out a lot of what's out there is just junk.

Total side note, but I was so jealous of my friends in elementary school who got to have their daily Fred or Barney vitamin. But I digress. How do you choose a brand that's actually clean and effective?

I look for one that does third party testing. So basically this is the supplement company. They hire another company.

So they're putting out their dollars to hire another company to test the quality of their supplements.

And so knowing that they're willing to invest and use money dollars to hire another company to test all of their supplements to ensure that, you know, the purity, it's not just fillers, it's not just all this other stuff that they're adding. That is where I go. So that is how I know I always am looking at the third party tested brands.

And so there are a few brands that I look at and I'm like, okay, yeah, I know that I can go there and have a little more sense of peace and ease about their products.

After we recorded, Dr. Dambo shared some of her go to supplement brands and I will link them here. This episode is a great starting point for what you might need over 40 and beyond.

But remember, nothing replaces a good old fashioned conversation with your doctor. Big thanks to Dr. Dambo for bringing her expertise and helping us make sense of the overwhelming world of supplements.

But I don't expect you to remember all this, so I've created something to help a grown ass woman's health cheat sheet.

It includes all the screenings and labs we talked about in the first episode, what we learned about hormones in the second, and what we need to know about supplements and even vaccines. You can find the link wherever you're watching or listening. And speaking of vaccines, that's what's coming up in the next episode.

You've heard about flu shots and Covid boosters, but what about shingles, pneumonia, or even HPV over 40? We'll dive into what you definitely want to know about your body before you roll up your sleeve.

The best way to not miss a thing is to hit subscribe and turn on notifications by clicking that little bell. I'm Jackie McDougall and this is the Grown Ass Woman's Guide.

If this episode was helpful, please share it with a friend because every grown ass woman deserves to feel informed, empowered and supported. Until next time, you are a grown ass woman. Act accordingly.