Do supplements work?
The supplement industry is worth over $150 billion globally. That’s more than the entire film industry. Every year, we swallow, sprinkle, chew and drink our way to what we’re told is “optimized” health.
Open any wellness influencer’s feed and you’ll find the same shot: a marble countertop, a glass of green juice, and a small army of colorful bottles. Vitamin D. Magnesium. Omega-3. Ashwagandha. Zinc. Vitamin C. A multivitamin. B complex. Whatever this week’s TikTok discovered.
But at the same time, more and more people are getting sick. Isn’t that contradictory? In our biohacking article we mentioned Bryan Johnson, a famous biohacker that is trying to defeat death but despite his strict diet and numerous supplements, he got an incurable autoimune disease. So what’s the catch? Are we just paying a lot of money to feel like we’re doing something?
The problem isn’t supplements. It’s what they replace.
I am not saying that “supplements are evil” or “big pharma is scamming you.” I take supplements too. Magnesium. Vitamin C. Vitamin D in winter. Electrolytes in summer. What I am asking is, are we building an entire wellness culture around replacing what we should just be doing? We take pills, powders and packets that promise the same result faster, easier, and delivered to your door with same-day shipping instead of just living a healthy life.
Not moving enough? Take a metabolism-boosting stack. Not drinking water? Try flavored electrolyte packets. Not sleeping? Melatonin, magnesium, and a €30 sleepy-time tea. Not going outside? Vitamin D drops, vitamin C serum, and a red light panel. Not eating well? Greens powder, protein powder, collagen powder — pick your powder.
Every single one of these has research behind it. Every single one can be useful in specific contexts. But when they replace the behavior we’re actually meant to be doing, we’re not optimizing anything. We’re outsourcing our health to a pill and calling it wellness.
Do supplements work?
Here is some information backed-up by science. I think majority of people is aware of the basic advantages that some additional intake of vitamins bring.
Vitamin D is one of the few supplements with genuinely strong evidence. Vitamin D deficiency is quite common for people in northern climates, particularly in winter. The days are shorter, the weather is cloudier and people are even less exposed tu sunlight. In these cases, supplementing does measurably help. Harvard Health considers it one of the few supplements worth taking for most adults.
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Magnesium has decent evidence for supporting sleep, muscle function, and stress response. It is particularly beneficial for people whose diets are low in leafy greens and whole grains (which is a lot of us).
Omega-3 is well-studied for heart health and inflammation. Though as the NIH points out, eating fish is generally more effective than swallowing capsules.
Electrolytes genuinely help when you sweat a lot, train hard, or drink less water than you should. In summer? Absolutely useful.
Now the other side.
Multivitamins. Multiple large studies — including one from Johns Hopkins covering hundreds of thousands of people — have found little to no benefit for otherwise healthy adults. That daily multivitamin you’ve been taking for a decade? Probably doing nothing.
Collagen powder. Popular, expensive, and largely unsupported. Your body breaks collagen down into amino acids like anything else. Eating protein does the same job.
Adaptogens (ashwagandha, rhodiola, reishi). Some studies suggest mild effects on stress. Most are small, industry-funded, or short-term.
“Detox” supplements. Your liver and kidneys already do this. Skip.
Trending TikTok discoveries. Sea moss, chlorophyll drops, quercetin megadoses, “cellular hydration” formulas. Almost always over-marketed, under-evidenced, and expensive.
The gap between what supplements can do and what they’re sold as doing is enormous. And the wellness industry drives a truck through that gap every single day. No wonder that the “do supplements work” thought is constantly hanging over our heads. I want to know what you think. Vote below.
Can supplements make you feel worse?
I still keep asking myself that question. Why?
A couple of years ago, I wasn’t feeling well, my energy was devastating low, no concentration and I felt pain in my joints. I decided to get “serious” about my health so I bought a proper stack of supplements. I was going to optimize myself into a better version of me.
Within weeks, I got sick.
Not once. Repeatedly. Every time I started a new supplement, my body seemed to protest. MSM? Sick. B complex? Sick. I eventually gave up on most of them, and my body relaxed back to normal.
Now, I’m not a doctor, and I’m not diagnosing anything. What I can say is this: my body was clearly telling me something. Whether that’s a specific sensitivity, a hidden interaction, or something else entirely, I don’t know. But it made me deeply suspicious of the “more is better” wellness gospel.
These days, my supplement routine is boring on purpose:
- Vitamin D in winter, when I’m not seeing the sun
- Magnesium when I feel like I need it
- Electrolytes in summer, when I sweat more than I drink
- Vitamin C when I feel a cold coming on
That’s it. No stack or 12-bottle morning routine. No “biohacking protocol.” And I feel perfectly fine.
You’re not deficient in vitamins. You’re deficient in living.
Here’s what I think we’re really avoiding when we talk about supplements.
- We’re not tired because we’re low on ashwagandha. We’re tired because we don’t sleep enough.
- We’re not weak because we need protein powder. We’re weak because we don’t move our bodies.
- We’re not stressed because we’re missing magnesium. We’re stressed because we live in a system that never lets us rest.
- We’re not deficient in Vitamin D because our biology is broken. We’re deficient because we spend twelve hours a day inside, staring at screens, and think a walk to the car counts as “being outside.”
The supplement industry has convinced us that our lifestyle is fine — it’s just missing a few key inputs, which they will happily sell us at premium prices.
Sometimes that’s true. A specific deficiency, corrected with the right supplement, is genuinely life-changing.
But most of the time? We’re not deficient in vitamins. We’re deficient in living.
And no capsule fixes that.
So… what is the answer: sea or D?
Let’s go back to the initial question. What is the right amount for supplements, when to take them and how much? That depends on you.
Me, i’ll take the sea in the summer. Being outside. Being in salt water. Sun on my skin. Physical movement. Sleep with the windows open. And actual food from my own vegetable garden.
In winter, I’ll take the D. Even though I live in a climate where there is quite some sun even in the colder months, it is still not enough, and my body needs help my environment can’t give.
Both are valid. Both have their place.
But if you’re taking twelve supplements a day and still feel exhausted, anxious and unwell, the answer probably isn’t a thirteenth supplement. The answer might just be the thing the wellness industry can’t sell you: the boring, unsexy, uncapsuled work of actually living better.
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For most healthy adults with a reasonably varied diet? Probably not. Studies consistently show little benefit. If you’re deficient in something specific, targeted supplementation makes more sense than a shotgun approach.
Technically, vitamins are a type of supplement — a specific class of nutrients your body needs but doesn’t produce enough of. Supplements is the broader category that includes vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids, and pretty much anything sold to “support” your health. In marketing, the terms are used interchangeably, which is convenient for selling anything as a “vitamin.”
Absolutely. Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) can accumulate to toxic levels. Some supplements interact with medications. Others burden your liver or kidneys if overused. This is why many nutritionists warn against the “12-bottle morning routine” approach. More is not better — sometimes more is actively harmful.
Vitamin D (especially in winter), magnesium for many people, omega-3 if you don’t eat fish, and electrolytes if you sweat a lot or train hard. Almost everything else is either optional or overrated.
I’m not a doctor or a scientist. I’m a marketing professional who spent years working with health and lifestyle brands. I read a lot, ask a lot, and write about the topics that are worth debating about. My goal isn’t to tell you what to think. It’s to give you well-researched perspectives, honest opinions, and space to voice your thoughts.
