#135 - Are Your Supplements Working?

Tired of swallowing pills and guessing whether anything is changing? We peel back the hype and walk through a clear, practical way to measure supplement results so you can spend smarter, feel better, and stop second-guessing your routine. From setting a single goal per product to choosing the right timeline, we share how to build a simple tracking plan that surfaces real progress without turning your life into a lab.

We start with expectations and why most benefits show up on a 30 to 90 day horizon, not in 48 hours. Then we translate research habits into everyday moves: define your outcome, take a true baseline, and log a handful of signals that fit the goal—sleep onset, awakenings, energy dips, digestion, recovery, and sick days. We compare journals, wearables, and labs, showing how Garmin, Apple Watch, or Whoop can reveal trends in sleep and HRV while your notes capture stress, late meals, alcohol, and travel that devices can’t see. You’ll learn why foundational nutrients may be “silent wins” you only notice when you stop, and how to separate multiple goals so you can tell which product is actually pulling its weight.

We also tackle common myths: if you don’t feel it, it isn’t working; more is better; what works for one works for all. With real-world examples—like different tolerances to zinc—we explain bioindividuality and why dose, timing, and context matter. We outline when labs add value, how to avoid data anxiety, and why consistent habits like sleep hygiene should come before sleep supplements. The playbook is simple: change one variable at a time, track for 60 days, review every two weeks, and decide to continue, tweak, or stop based on clear evidence.

If you’re ready to take ownership of your health with a method that’s calm, measurable, and realistic, this conversation is your roadmap. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves testing new products, and leave a review telling us the one metric you’ll track first.

Thanks for listening to this edition of Frontline Health by Centurion. Remember, you are your best health advocate.

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Transcript

Setting Expectations For Supplements

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Today on the Frontline Health Podcast. In the first few days, you may get some early signals, especially if you're super nutrient deficient in whatever that is. But the first 30 days is when you're going to see maybe some early signals, but you won't necessarily see the full effects of some of the supplements that you take for a full 60 to 90 days where you can truly assess what's going on and step back and go, hey, did this did this really bring about the goal that I was looking for?

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Frontline Health Podcast, where we help you take ownership of your health with news, tips, and insights. My name is Evan, and with me is Troy Duell.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Yeah, uh good to be here. Excited about it. Uh and what I'm what I'm excited about talking about today is the the question that I think all of us have asked at some point. How do I actually know if these supplements that I'm taking are working? So gonna be a great subject for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Yeah, I mean, let's be honest, supplements are not cheap, and nobody wants to swallow a bunch of pills every day just for fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Uh, that is absolutely right. I think uh with everybody's budget becoming a little taxed these days, we want to take things that uh certainly are helping us and bringing us the best benefit possible. So that's what we want to do.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Yeah, and today we really want to help you uh learn to evaluate supplement efficacy in a realistic, grounded uh kind of way, without hype, without fear, and without needing a medical degree in order to do so. Um to kind of start with the we want to lay the foundation by talking about you know how one of the issues is our expectations when it comes to what a supplement can and cannot do for us.

Define Goals And Start Tracking

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Yeah, I think the biggest thing is we've got to uh come to realizations and have um more realistic ex expectations for what a supplement's gonna do, but that is across the board with whatever we take. So whether it's a medication, whether it's a supplement, we've got to understand that things don't always go just as planned. And you take it one day and in five hours you're feeling good. We're we're used to that. If you have a headache, you can take some advil, you can take some ibuprofen, a leave, whatever it is, and you feel those immediate effects. But it's rare that most medications work that way. And what if you actually look at it, about 30 to 50 percent of people who are taking uh actual prescription medications don't respond to that drug as a whole, and they end up having to change. So it's not something that is just with supplements, but it's the mindset that we have across the board. And I think we've got to really step back and go, what are we trying to trying to do and how do we do that and keep track of that and understand it may not change your life overnight? And honestly, that supplement may not change your life at all, just like a medication wouldn't.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yeah, and I think it's really important to understand what to look for. Um, we come across people all the time, they assume that something quote unquote isn't working, uh, and they give up too early before they have really given their body a chance to to respond to what they're to what they're doing. Um, so we really want to take a step back and in and and unpack that. Where should people start when they're trying to assess whether a supplement is actually helping them or not?

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Yeah, I think it starts with your goal. Why are you taking that supplement to begin with? Because if you know why you're taking it, then you can start to measure that progress. If you're trying to take magnesium for sleep, keep a small journal and journal what is going on to make sure that you're actually getting sleep. It's improving, you're able to fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer. Um, and I would recommend this with medications or supplements. Either one, it's always a good idea when you get on a new prescription or a new supplement to take a log or a diary or journal, whatever you want to call it, and just keep up with what's going on. Because the same can be true for your digestion, if you're taking a probiotic, it can be true for your prenatal health and uh understanding what's going on with that. If you're actually getting a little bit more energy, if you're um going in and getting your test and all the nutrients that you need are actually there from those tests, then that's a big marker that you need to uh keep up with. And understand that they those don't always look the same because everybody has a little different goal and a different desire for what they're taking those products for.

Timeframes: 30, 60, 90 Days

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yeah, you bring up a really great point. You know, you mentioned like if you start taking magnesium, for example, to help with sleep, and we can think of so many different reasons why somebody would be having poor sleep or why they, you know, why why they're not getting the sleep that they want. Did they, you know, are they stressed about something that's going on in their family life or at work? Did they eat, do they eat dinner too late? Did they exercise that day? I mean, all kinds of things um that we know contribute to to poor sleep. And if some of those things happen to coincide with when you start taking magnesium, you would never know that it was impacting your your ability to sleep or helping you because you have other things going on um that are that are impacting that um as well in other ways. So I think that's really key. Yeah, and something we really want to emphasize is that some supplements are body system supportive or foundational. So what I mean by that is you might not necessarily feel them working, but when you stop taking them, you're gonna notice.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Absolutely. And I I think what we get into uh most often or we trick ourselves with is we go, hey, we've taken this thing for two weeks, and it hasn't been given enough time to really get into our system to tell whether it was going to be an effect on our bodies or not. Because oftentimes if you take a supplement for six, six weeks to eight weeks, it gets in your system, you build it up within your system, and then you stop taking it. That's when you really recognize that there are some things that are going on. So in the first few days, you may get some early signals, especially if you're super nutrient deficient in whatever that is. But the first 30 days is when you're gonna see maybe some early signals, but you won't necessarily see the full effects of some of the supplements that you take for a full 60 to 90 days where you can truly assess what's going on and step back and go, hey, did this did this really bring about the goal that I was looking for?

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah, and not to mention we we had a social media post that kind of explains this um recently, but most of the clinical testing that is done on supplements, it's not at two weeks, it's at 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, even 120 days. And those are those are the lengths of time that the researchers are looking at to understand the impact that something has on people's health and seeing the benefit for the people that they're that that are involved in those studies. So, you know, that is a fantastic point for people to remember. You need to to use these things consistently over an extended period of time to really understand the impact. Um, you know, if your body's been deficient or you've been stressed or dealing with things for years, that's not going to be fixed in 10 days.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

It's not. And I think you bring up a great point. So any study across the board when you're talking about health, they're not just uh coming in and asking one thing, like, do you feel better? Some of them may ask that, but they'll ask specific things along the lines of uh, you know, are you sleeping better? Have you noticed that you're recovering faster? Are you getting sick less often? You know, is your digestion um like your uh I just went totally blank, your GERD, what do you call that? Acid. Your reflux, yeah, your acid reflux, has it died down a little bit because you're supporting your gut health a little bit more? And do you feel more energized? So I think if we can start to look at things like a study, like you mentioned earlier, then we'll have much better outcomes with things because we'll we'll know exactly how our body's being affected. And we begin to treat our own uh intake of supplements as a study in and of itself, and you do it for six to eight weeks, just like most studies are with anything within health, and really see what's going on within our bodies and try to assess the effects that are going on.

Wearables, Journals, And Trends

SPEAKER_01 8:59

So when it comes to us as individuals, I guess we really want to make sure that we are tracking those subtle changes and not necessarily looking for, you know, feeling complete like a completely different person.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Yeah, for sure. And I I think any tracking that you can do is gonna be super beneficial. You know, a lot of people have Garmin watches or the Whoops or uh Apple watches, and it can keep up with some of the stats that you've got with your health. And that may be a good way just to assess it over six to eight weeks and see if you can keep up with it and um run through it uh as well as maybe even downloading some apps that can help ask questions and you can keep up with that throughout the day.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Yeah, it's amazing. You mentioned the the Garmin watch. I use that to track my sleep and activity, which is really helpful. But what's also interesting is the variables that it cannot track and how as good as I feel like it is, it it falls short. And so there are even inputs that they have, like where you can you can put in lifestyle things like are you feeling stressed today? Um, did you eat well? Did you did you miss a meal? You know, did you eat a high sugar diet today? Like it has, did you drink alcohol, like all kinds of things that can impact uh our health in different ways? So even something as as advanced in that has a hard time kind of tracking. But what it does do is help you understand trends over a longer period of time. And and I really have been able to kind of learn some things about my own health um from following that.

Sleep Hygiene Before Sleep Aids

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Yeah, I think that's a great, great tool for sure, and just one of many tools you can have, but really it's all about just getting a baseline of whatever you're doing and then making sure that you're following up. You know, one of the ones that uh you mentioned earlier about sleep, there's so many variables that go into sleep. I think it's important to have a sleep routine and make sure that you're following it. You know, we've talked about it several times on this podcast of you know, anything electronic, you need to be sure you're not looking at or getting that blue light exposure or any bright light at least an hour before bedtime. And then keep track of that. And when you start a supplement, you want to make sure if you're starting a supplement for sleep in particular, you're at least having good sleep habits before you try to put all the weight of our bad habits on that supplement and then go, ah, it didn't work. Well, it didn't work because you were still doing all the things that you shouldn't be doing to get good sleep anyway.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Yeah. So people when they're changing too many things at once, it's kind of hard to understand that something or understand what exactly is making an impact in the routine.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

For sure, especially when you're talking about a supplement. If you're taking multiple supplements, you may not know which one's working. So I always recommend take one or take uh one for one particular uh goal that you have in mind, and you can take another for a different goal that you have in mind and see how it works. But if you're taking two that have the endpoint of the same goal, it's probably not going to be as beneficial for you. It's gonna be harder to discern which one actually was beneficial in the long run.

Change One Variable At A Time

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Yeah, it's that's really great to consider. And uh, you know, something we we have mentioned before on this show, but we don't talk about enough, is that not every supplement is right for every person. We know that um, you know, some things are gonna are gonna work well with you, but everyone's body is different. And so what works well for one person might not work out for another.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

That is so true because that and we've talked about it before, that happens with every single thing we put in our body. There are some foods that are better for me than they are for you. There's some medications that are better for me than they are for you, and our body responds differently to different things because our genetics are definitely different, and uh we're just designed in different ways. So not a bad thing, but to write off something because it didn't work for you doesn't necessarily uh make it true for everybody else.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Yep. And to the haters who want to leave a bad review on something uh because they personally had a bad experience, just remember, just because something isn't the one for you, that doesn't mean that it's not helpful to other people. You know, but perfect example of this that I that I think of, you know, my wife and I both take Purillure CI. I'm able to tolerate it really well on an empty stomach. Um, you know, I take it usually while I'm making my breakfast and it does not bother me, then I'll eat my breakfast shortly after that. My wife, if she takes it on an empty stomach, she experiences some some GI distress just because of the zinc that is in it, um, which we know is common with zinc. People have different tolerances to that and it affects them in in different ways. Um, and so while she might feel a little bit of irritation because of that, I really don't. So our bodies are different. And um, just because something you know makes you feel a certain way doesn't mean that everyone will feel that way.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Very true. Well said.

Individual Response And Tolerance

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Yeah, so we've talked a lot about things that we can track as individuals. Um, but some people might out be out there, you know, wondering, they they want to get a little bit more into the weeds of it, and they're wondering, should I get lab work done? What are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Uh, that's a great question. I think it all comes down to cost. So labs can be super helpful for you, um, but it's not the whole picture, and we know that it is going to increase the cost with it. So you've got to make sure that if you're getting labs done, that A, you can afford it, B, that you've done everything else that you can do before you go to those labs. So making sure that you're eating right, that you're sleeping well, um, that your stress is under control because all those things compound and create a uh unhealthy situation just as much as your blood work does sometimes. So having that is certainly a portion of the equation, but it's not the whole equation.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Yeah. No, that's great. There's so many different ways that we can kind of like assess and test our health nowadays. And there are a lot of things that I would like to try. Like, you know, I I have not had labs done in a while. I'm not at the age really where I need to be concerned as much about that. Um, but things like getting DEXA scans, I mean, all kind of things like that, that would be really cool just to learn more about my health. But I do have to wonder if there are people out there who have not necessarily like a body dysmorphia about the way that they look in the in the mirror, but they obsess so much over what all of their levels are at any given time that they they really you know have a lot of anxiety about that um unnecessarily.

Labs, Costs, And Anxiety

SPEAKER_00 15:44

I totally agree. I think sometimes we can have so much knowledge that it can create anxiety or angst, and instead of understanding that these are all just tools to try to help us get to that point of the best health possible. And that's ultimately our goal is how do we get to uh be the best steward of our bodies and what we've been given as we possibly can. And I um I think labs can certainly be a part of that. I think tracking things can certainly be a part of that, but we can also go overboard, like you said, and we've just got to be very mindful of that, that um we we are not going to be perfect in any stretch of the imagination, because unfortunately we have genes that uh oftentimes have certain things that are out of our control. Um we can do the best we can with it, but not to stress too much about something if if a supplement's not working or if everything isn't perfect with our health, because um unfortunately um on this side of the earth uh it won't ever be perfect because uh we live in a fallen world and a fallen time.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Hey, shout out to Brian Johnson and the don't die community.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

So what are some common myths that you would like to dispel people of as we get ready to close, Troy?

Myths: Feel It, More Is Better

SPEAKER_00 17:12

I think uh some of the number one things, if if I don't feel it, it must not be working. So that's true of whatever it is. So you have to measure sometimes if uh you see what's going on. I think blood pressure is probably one of the biggest ones, um, not necessarily for supplements, but it's the best example I could think of, which is, you know, I don't feel any different if I'm on blood pressure medication or off blood pressure medication, but the blood pressure cuff certainly measures a difference with people who have high blood pressure and they're on blood pressure medication. So that's one that you go, okay, I don't feel any different for a lot of people who take it, but you know that they need it because um they have high blood pressure and they that needs to be taken care of. And then people need to start taking the uh exact changes and really evaluate their health and see how they can get their blood pressure down. So that's a big one across the board. If you don't feel it, it must not be working. That's certainly a huge myth. Uh, the second one is that more is better. We know that that's definitely not true. We could sit here and eat 10,000 uh capsules a day or vitamins a day, and it won't necessarily do us any good, especially if we're eating right and we're exercising. It'll just be wasted nutrients in our body. So hopefully we're uh putting together the right things and not having to eat this many things or uh intake so many supplements. But there are also some supplements, if you take too much of, it can actually have a detrimental effect and uh have a reverse effect of what you're trying to bring in. So make sure that you're not overdoing it. And then that all supplements work for everybody is the third myth. We've already talked about that. We know that not all supplements work for everybody, just like uh a sauna doesn't make everybody feel the same way, or a hot tub or cold plunge, or anything when you're talking about health. Our bodies are all different and we all respond different to whatever we put into our bodies.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

That's really good. Thank you for sharing uh those common myths and for dispelling them for some people. It sounds like the big takeaway is assessing supplement efficacy requires a lot of patience. It requires a lot of awareness and education, and also us really taking ownership and being active in how we approach our health.

Ownership, Patience, And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 19:45

Yeah, I think that is so true and understanding that we can't rely on an influencer, we can't rely on a brand, we can't rely on our parents or our wife or husband or whoever it is to really take ownership of that health. Because ultimately we're the ones who are either feeling better or feeling worse or meeting that goal when we're uh dealing with these supplements. But if we can just kind of take ownership of it, start tracking it, whether you're using your Apple Watch or some type of technology, or just doing the old school journaling of how you're feeling and if you're meeting your goals from your health, that's a great way to start getting over some of the hype that's out there and really start assessing whether these products are working for you.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Well, thank you for listening to this episode of the Frontline Health Podcast by Centurion Health. Uh, if this episode was helpful for you, we would really appreciate it if you shared it with a friend. Uh and remember, go out and take ownership of your health because you are your best health advocate. We'll see you next time. If you enjoyed what you heard today on the podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving us a review. We would love to hear your comments or questions about anything we've talked about on the show. For more health news, tips, and insights, follow us at Centurion Health on Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube. And for safe, effective, and affordable healthcare products made in the USA to help you elevate your health in life, visit centurion. We look forward to you joining us next time on the Frontline Health Podcast by Centurion.