Meds & Supplements
The season of soups and tissues is upon us! It’s so important we start gearing up now to have a delightful fall and winter. Here’s a list of which supplements to have stocked to make sure you and your family are as healthy as possible for the upcoming holidays!
My Daily Regimen
I have seen countless doctors who have ALL had different recommendations for which vitamins I should take daily...
My daily supplements may not look like your daily supplements. I prefer to take individual supplements instead of a multivitamin. I've always worked with a practitioner to find the right balance until I became a nutritionist myself. So these are things that I need and work for me!
1. Vitamin D
2. Fish Oil
3. Turmeric
4. Probiotic
5. Biotin
**In the past I've also rotated in niacin, vitamin B12, and digestive enzymes.**
Sick Season Needs
NOW, let’s talk what to do to get ready for sick season.
My medicine cabinet always has the three supplements listed below. I like to purchase high quality supplements for when I’m fighting illness and go with either Thorne or Pure Encapsulations.
1. I always have 1,000mg tabs of Vitamin C Ascorbic Acid. I stick to JUST the ascorbic acid. Many times, the other supplements that are advertised are pumped full of fillers or extra things that aren’t giving you as much bang for your buck despite the price looking lower.
In addition to this, I increase my foods that are full of vitamin C (it might surprise you), especially those that are seasonally abundant.
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2. Second, I have zinc on hand as well. I stick with a simple 15mg dosage, but you can go up to 20mg if you’d like. Once you have a full blown infection is when you can increase the dose to 30-150 mg/day. I’ve never gone above 65mg myself.
Here are my favorite zinc-a-ful foods: beef, shellfish, and fish. Eggs and dairy contain zinc as well. Beans and legumes do, but the body’s ability to absorb it from these sources is much less efficient because of the barriers those plant have built in, making zinc absorption difficult (information found on the NIH).
3. Lastly, I include elderberry supplements and sure do struggle to get my kiddos to take it. I won’t lie, the grassy after taste that the capsule can have Is roooouuugh. I might try an elderberry syrup for them this year…we’ll see! Elderberry is helpful in antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory ways. It helps to start moving your white blood cells to fight those infections!
Something Covid Taught Us...
Covid was a difficult time and it is so important to pay attention to the research that came out following all of the efforts to fight it.
Post-Covid, it finally became common knowledge that quercetin greatly increases the body’s ability to absorb and utilize vitamin C. Quercetin is a flavonoid that, when administered with vitamin C, sparks a synergistic antiviral action, making it a stronger response.
The supplement below now sits in my cabinet for when we are sick and everyone gets it! I add in 1,000mg more of vitamin C, but as you can see, it contains enough zinc and vitamin D to suffice for an infection.
I sure hope these tips help you and your family prep for the sick season that is upon us! Comment below if you’d like to see anything more specific, whether that be what I use to help treat my 6-month old baby, how I keep my house as clean and allergen-free as possible (even living on a farm!), or other things!
Stay well my friends!
Colunga Biancatelli, R., Berril, M., Catravas, J.D., & Marik, P.E. (2020). Quercetin and Vitamin C: An Experimental, Synergistic Therapy for the Prevention and Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 Related Disease (COVID-19). Frontiers in immunology, 11, 1451.
Powers, D. (2022). 5 Benefits of Elderberry: Dosage & Safety. The botanical institute.
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