The 10 Supplements Actually Worth Taking — And the Ones to Skip

The supplement industry generates over $50 billion annually in the United States. That number tells you less about the effectiveness of supplements and more about how good the marketing has become.

Walk into any supplement store, scroll through social media for five minutes, or talk to a personal trainer, and you will encounter an overwhelming number of products making compelling promises. Most of them are either poorly studied, poorly formulated, or simply unnecessary for the person buying them.

A few of them, however, are genuinely useful — when the right person takes the right form at the right dose for the right reason. That last part is where most supplement conversations fall apart. The question is never just "does this supplement work?" The question is "does this supplement work for this person, based on what their labs show?"

Here is my honest breakdown — what the evidence actually supports, what it doesn't, and why testing before supplementing is the only approach that makes clinical sense.

Why Most Supplements Disappoint

Supplements occupy a regulatory gray area that is worth understanding. Unlike prescription medications, supplements do not require pre-market approval, proof of efficacy, or human clinical trials before they are sold. The FDA's role is largely reactive — it can act against a supplement after problems emerge, but it does not evaluate safety or effectiveness before a product reaches the shelf.

This means that the dose printed on a label may not reflect what is actually in the bottle. The form of a nutrient matters enormously for absorption — magnesium oxide, for example, is poorly absorbed compared to magnesium glycinate, but it is far cheaper to manufacture, so it fills most low-cost supplements. And the marketing claims, while carefully worded to stay within legal boundaries, are often built on studies that are smaller, shorter, or less rigorous than they appear.

None of this means supplements are useless. It means the default assumption should be skepticism, and the bar for recommending one should be evidence — not advertising.

What Is Actually Worth Taking

These are the supplements I find myself recommending consistently in clinical practice, and the reason each one earns that recommendation.

Vitamin D. Deficiency is extraordinarily common — and particularly so in Utah, which surprises most people given our sunshine. The problem is that meaningful Vitamin D synthesis from sunlight requires direct UV-B exposure on bare skin during peak hours, without sunscreen. That window is narrow, seasonal, and most people are not hitting it consistently. Vitamin D deficiency is directly linked to fatigue, weakened immunity, mood disruption, slower metabolism, reduced testosterone production in men, and worsening perimenopausal symptoms in women. Supplementation corrects deficiency reliably when the right dose is used — but the right dose is individual, not standard, which is why testing first matters. Target blood level is 50 to 80 ng/mL. Most people I test are well below 30.

Magnesium glycinate. Magnesium is involved in over 300 enzymatic processes in the body, including energy production, muscle contraction, nerve signaling, blood sugar regulation, and the synthesis of hormones. Most Americans are deficient. The glycinate form is well-absorbed and calming to the nervous system — meaningfully different from oxide or citrate forms in how it behaves. Three hundred milligrams before bed consistently improves sleep quality, reduces muscle tension, and supports the stress response in ways that are both measurable and noticeable. This is one of the highest-confidence recommendations I make.

Omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA). Omega-3s integrate into cell membranes throughout the body and shift the balance of inflammatory signaling toward a less inflammatory state. The evidence for cardiovascular benefit, brain health, and reduction of systemic inflammation is consistent across decades of research. The dose matters — most commercial fish oil capsules contain far less EPA and DHA than the label suggests when you account for the triglyceride-to-ethyl ester conversion. Look for a product that delivers at least one gram of combined EPA and DHA per serving, and confirm it has third-party testing for purity.

Creatine monohydrate. Creatine is one of the most studied compounds in sports science and one of the most consistently underutilized supplements in older adults. It supports the regeneration of ATP — the cellular energy currency used in high-intensity muscle work — and has a well-established safety profile across decades of research. Beyond muscle strength and performance, emerging evidence supports benefits for cognitive function and bone health, particularly in postmenopausal women who have significantly lower endogenous creatine stores than men. Five grams per day of creatine monohydrate is the standard evidence-based dose. It is inexpensive, well-tolerated, and works. The only caveat is that it is most effective in people who are doing resistance training — it amplifies an existing stimulus, it does not create one.

Vitamin K2 (MK-7 form). Often overlooked, K2 works in partnership with Vitamin D to direct calcium toward bones and away from arterial walls. If you are supplementing Vitamin D without K2, you may be missing an important piece of the cardiovascular and bone health picture. The MK-7 form has a longer half-life in the body than MK-4 and is the form I recommend.

Coenzyme Q10 (ubiquinol form). CoQ10 is essential to mitochondrial energy production — the process by which every cell in your body generates fuel. Production declines with age and is suppressed by statin medications. For anyone over 50, anyone on a statin, or anyone dealing with persistent fatigue that does not respond to other interventions, CoQ10 supplementation in the ubiquinol form is worth a serious look. The ubiquinol form is the reduced, active version and is better absorbed than the ubiquinone form found in most inexpensive supplements.

The Ones That Disappoint More Than They Deliver

I want to be equally direct about the supplements that the evidence does not support well — because people spend real money on these, and the marketing is often persuasive enough that it feels strange to question them.

Most multivitamins. Large, well-designed studies have consistently failed to show meaningful health benefits from daily multivitamin use in otherwise healthy, reasonably well-nourished adults. The doses are often too low to correct a deficiency, the forms are often poorly absorbed, and the combination of nutrients is not calibrated to what any individual person actually needs. Targeted supplementation based on what your labs show is almost always more useful than a multivitamin based on what the manufacturer decided to include.

Collagen supplements. Collagen is a protein, and like all proteins it is broken down into amino acids during digestion. Your body then uses those amino acids as it sees fit — not necessarily to rebuild collagen in your skin or joints. The direct clinical evidence for oral collagen supplementation producing meaningful improvements in skin elasticity or joint health is limited and inconsistent. Adequate dietary protein, Vitamin C, and addressing underlying inflammation will do more for collagen synthesis than most collagen powders.

Generic probiotics for general wellness. The gut microbiome research is genuinely fascinating, and there are specific probiotic strains with good evidence for specific conditions. But the generic "daily probiotic for gut health" category is built more on marketing than on clinical outcomes. Strain specificity matters enormously — the benefit shown for one strain does not transfer to another, and most broad-spectrum probiotic products contain strains chosen for stability and cost, not therapeutic evidence.

Biotin for hair and nail growth. Biotin deficiency is actually rare in people who eat a reasonably varied diet. Biotin supplementation in people without a documented deficiency has very limited evidence for improving hair or nail outcomes. It also interferes with certain lab tests — including thyroid panels and cardiac biomarkers — in ways that can produce false results. If you are taking high-dose biotin, that needs to be disclosed to your provider before any blood draw.

The Approach That Actually Works

The supplement question I am asked most often is some version of "what should I be taking?" My honest answer is that I cannot tell you without knowing what your labs show. A patient with a Vitamin D level of 18 and another with a level of 62 need completely different approaches — and yet both might walk into a supplement store and buy the same product based on the same marketing.

At NOVA Wellness, we test before we recommend. We check Vitamin D, magnesium status, omega-3 index, inflammatory markers, and other relevant levels as part of a comprehensive evaluation. We recommend specific forms, specific doses, and specific timing based on what your individual biology shows — not based on a general protocol that works for an average that does not describe you.

We also re-evaluate. Supplementation is not a set-it-and-forget-it decision. Levels change. Needs change. What you needed at 45 may not be what you need at 52. Re-testing every three to six months ensures that what you are taking is still warranted and that the dose is appropriate.

Supplements should support your plan — not replace the things that actually build health, which are sleep, nutrition, resistance training, stress management, and the right clinical foundation. When they are used in that supporting role, based on real data, a small number of them make a genuine difference.

Everything else is mostly expensive urine.

If you want to know which supplements are actually right for you, that conversation starts with your labs. Book a free 30-minute consultation at novawellnessut.com or call and text us at (801) 449-1402.

Matt Nelson, NP
NOVA Wellness — Orem, Utah
(801) 449-1402 · novawellnessut.com