Dr Rhonda Patrick’s Supplements List – 2018 Update

Lets begin with a high level overview of Dr Rhonda Patrick’s supplement list. This list is up to date as of April 2018, and uses the latest information from Rhonda’s podcasts, videos and exclusive Patreon subscriber content.

Dr Rhonda Patrick’s Daily Supplements

• Multivitamin – Pure Encapsulations O.N.E – 1 capsule/daily
• Vitamin D3 – Thorne Research – D3 (1,000iu) – 2 capsules/daily
• Vitamin K2 – NOW K-2 Menaquinone-7 – 1 capsule/Every 2-3 days
• Fish Oil – Norwegian PURE-3 DHA – 4 capsules/daily
• Krill Oil / Omega-3 Phospholipids – Nordic Naturals Phospholipids – 2 capsules/daily
• Magnesium – Thorne Research – Magnesium Citramate – 1 capsule/daily

Additional Supplements Rhonda Uses:

• Nicotinamide Riboside – Thorne Research – NiaCel – For improved cellular mitochondrial function
• PQQ (Pyrroloquinoline Quinone) – Life Extension – PQQ 20mg – For temporary boost in cognitive function
• Curcumin Phytosome – Thorne Research – Meriva SF – As a natural anti-inflammatory, alternative to ibuprofen
• Probiotics – Visbiome Probiotic sachets – Taken intermittently to top up healthy gut bacteria
• Hyrolyzed Collagen – Great Lakes Gelatin – For improved joint & skin health

Rhonda’s Preferred Nootropics:

• Choline – Alpha GPC – NOW – Alpha GPC 300mg – Taken for public speaking events or podcasts to increase mental acuity
• Lion’s Mane Mushroom – Four Sigmatic Mushroom Elixir – Taken specifically for intense periods of work
• Sulforaphane – From self-grown broccoli sprouts

Additional Recommendations:

• Beet Powder – Activz Organic – Rhonda has recommended to her family members with high blood pressure
• Wild Salmon Roe Caviar – from Vital Choice – Natural source of EPA & DHA phospholipids
• Methylated B Vitamins – Swanson’s B Complex – Rhonda has recommended to family members with MTHFR mutation
  

Rhonda’s Pregnancy & Breastfeeding Supplement Regimen

• See this section below for more information

Rhonda’s Base Supplement List (Details)

Multivitamin

Rhonda takes Pure Encapsulations O.N.E multivitamin daily, which contains a broad spectrum of essential micronutrients. With adequate doses of the essential micronutrients, in highly bioavailable forms.

For those aware they have the MTHFR mutation which reduces folic acid absorption, O.N.E contains methyl folate instead of folic acid.

Rhonda knows the importance of consuming adequate amounts of essential micronutrients, and thus has chosen a supplement that ticks as many of those boxes as possible. The only essential micronutrients it doesn’t contain (and isn’t covered in her additional supplements) are calcium, iron & copper; which Rhonda aims to get from her diet.

Pure Encapsulations O.N.E comes in 2 sizes, 60 capsules and 120 capsules.

Dosage: 1 capsule/daily

N.B. For those outside the USA, or in places where Pure Encapsulations O.N.E is hard to obtain, see this section on comparable alternative multivitamins.

Vitamin D3

Rhonda views vitamin D intake as incredibly important to staying happy and healthy. Getting technical for a minute, vitamin D plays a big role in serotonin regulation, and serotonin in turn regulates things like executive function, sensory gating, and social behaviour (see this paper for more details on vitamin D’s function).

To add to complexity, its not only negative to get too little vitamin D, its also negative to get too much. This is ignored by many supplement companies who liberally promote 5,000IU+ supplements. Its very hard to say exactly how much each person should supplement, because it depends on factors like diet, sun exposure and body composition.

Rhonda calibrates her vitamin D dosage by aiming to maintain 40 – 60ng/ml blood concentration. To achieve this, she suggests 4,000IU of daily supplementation, which she says should be enough to bring people who are deficient up to 30ng/ml safely (source: Rhonda’s vitamin D infographic).

Rhonda’s preferred vitamin D3 source is Thorne Research D-1000. This comes in 1,000IU capsules, which allows for fine tuning total dosage.

Rhonda takes 4,000iu of vitamin D3 daily (on average). She takes 2,000IU of D3 via her multivitamin supplement (above), and then adds 2,000IU of Thorne D-1000, to make a total of 4,000IU.

Dosage: 2 capsules/daily

Vitamin K2

Rhonda explains that she cycles vitamin K2, despite already getting significant amounts of K1 through her consumption of leafy green vegetables.

Vitamin K is required by the body to create proteins that are pre-requisites to blood coagulation (useful!). It is also involved in efficient calcium transport in bones and other tissues.

Often people think of K1 as being siphoned off by the body into the liver, but once the liver is full, K1 circulates the bloodstream.

Therefore when Rhonda supplements K2, its her insurance policy in case the K1 she consumes isn’t doing enough. The main worry with insuficient vitamin K consumption, is that it causes inadequate calcium transport, and thus deposits of calcium end up in the arteries. Later on this could result in higher blood pressure and risk of stroke.

In terms of supplementing K2, there are two key forms; MK4 & MK7. Both are useful, but MK-7 is shown to have greater bioavailability (source).

Rhonda uses NOW Vitamin’s K2-MK7 supplement which contains 100mcg per capsule.

Dosage: 1 capsule/Every 2-3 days

Omega-3 Fish Oil

Omega-3 oils, EPA & DHA, are essential fatty acids. Specifically, they are incorporated into cell membranes all over the body, but are particularly concentrated in the brain and eyes (retina). They are also vital to processes that mediate lipids, which can be beneficial in the prevention of several diseases. And are essential for proper fetal development and heathy ageing. Read more on their role here.

Rhonda currently takes an omega-3 supplement called Norwegian PURE-3, which is touted as being both extremely high quality, and having very low levels of oxidation. Specifically Rhonda supplements the high DHA version they sell, which has pink packaging.

Norwegian PURE-3 is currently only available direct from the manufacturer, who offer international shipping from their base in Norway. However, Rhonda suggests they will be on Amazon.com soon.

Prior to this product, Rhonda was taking fish oil from Nordic Naturals, who also make high quality omega-3s, and are somewhat easier to get ahold of on retail channels like Amazon.com. Nordic Naturals sell a product similar to Norwegian PURE-3 called Nordic Naturals DHA.

Dosage: 4 capsules/daily

Krill Oil / Omega-3 Phospholipids

Until recently Rhonda was supplementing Krill Oil in addition to her regular Omega-3 supplementation. Krill oil provides omega-3s in a highly bioavailable phospholipid form.

Rhonda currently gets her omega-3 phospholipids via wild salmon roe caviar. She bulk buys her caviar from Vital Choice, who offer it in 2.2lbs packages that can be frozen, and then defrosted one quarter at a time. She consumes this in addition to her regular omega-3 supplementation.

Side note – I take the Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Phospholipids as part of my supplement stack, and its worth noting, they’re really “strong” tasting – stronger than regular fish oil. You definitely want to throw them down ahead of a substantial meal, don’t try them on an empty stomach!

Prior to this, Rhonda was taking NOW Neptune Krill Oil 1000:

Dosage: 2 capsules/daily

Magnesium

Magnesium can be found concentrated in leafy green vegetables (it actually composes part of the chlorophyll molecule). So if you see dark green vegetables, you know you’ll be getting some of the bound up magnesium from it. Despite this, approximately 1/2 the US population are thought to be deficient in it.

Rhonda supplements with Thorne’s Magnesium Citramate supplement; this contains a blend of magnesium citrate and magnesium malt. The combination helps increase absorption.

Dosage: 1 capsule/daily

Additional supplements Rhonda uses

Nicotinamide Riboside

Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) is a recently discovered form of vitamin B3 that can increase levels of Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NAD+). NAD+ is a key co-enzyme used by the mitochondria in every cell of our bodies. With natural ageing or disease or chronic inflammation NAD+ levels drop. The hope is that by supplementing NR we can in turn increase NAD+, and make muscles, organs and tissues perform closer to younger versions of themselves.

Rhonda talked about this supplement in the Tim Ferriss podcast titled “Exploring Smart Drugs, Fasting, and Fat Loss”. Where she said (transcript source):

“ I mix in some other supplements like the meriva formulation of curcumin, which I already talked about earlier, and I am just starting to mix in a little nicotinamide riboside into the mix.

…

I’m afraid that the supplement I’m taking right now, which is by Thorne and only has 125 mg per capsule, won’t quite cut it to meet some of the robust results being seen in animal studies. I think there is potential here but more studies in humans definitely need to be done at this point. Still interested though. ”

Rhonda takes Thorne’s NiaCel, which contains 125mg of nicotinamide riboside chloride as the only ingredient. Actually, she took it before her pregnancy, then stopped during pregnancy (to be safe), and plans to resume once she finishes breastfeeding her son.

Dosage: 1 capsule/daily

PQQ (Pyrroloquinoline Quinone)

On a recent Q&A webinar for her Patreon subscribers, Rhonda mentioned that she had started taking PQQ.

In a paper published in 2016 (link), Japanese researchers found that PQQ improves cognitive function (measured using the stroop test), by increasing blood flow and oxygen metabolism to the right prefrontal cortex. Which in theory is exciting, especially as PQQ is naturally produced by the body, thus you’re not introducing a foreign substance to it. However when I dug into the research on PQQ, the evidence for its effectiveness seemed borderline inaccurate, and it definitely needs more study. I’ve summarised my analysis of PQQ in this post.

Rhonda takes 1 capsule daily(20mg per serving) of Life Extension- PQQ Caps with BioPQQ. BioPQQ is the PQQ disodium salt that was used in the above study.

Dosage: 1 capsule/daily

Meriva (Curcumin Phytosome)

Rhonda uses Meriva as an anti-inflammatory, in the same way that someone might use Ibuprofen or other NSAIDs (non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs). Whilst ibuprofen is very effective, the goal with using Meriva is to be able to use it on a long term basis without risk of side effects.

Meriva is derived from the turmeric root, which contains a natural anti-inflammatory in its pigment called curcumin. Tangentially, its actually curcumin that gives curries their yellow colouring. To produce Meriva the curcumin gets extracted and concentrated, then combined with phosphatidylcholine complex from sunflower seeds. By packaging the curcumin in a phospholipid its possible to increase its absorbtion within the body.

The way in which curcumin extract (Meriva) reduces inflammation is really clever. Inflammation itself is not a bad thing, in fact its an incredibly important survival mechanism that helps our bodies fight illness and heal injuries. However if there’s too much inflammation, or inflammation in the wrong places we have a problem.

Proteins within our body called cytokines control cell signalling to stimulate or reduce inflammation. When this system has issues regulating itself correctly, this results in unnecessary inflammation of the body. Curcumin has been shown to reduce release of pro-inflammatory cytokines (source).

Thorne’s Meriva-SF formulation is 250mg per pill (serving of 2 capsules, so 500mg total). However, they also so a higher strength version called Meriva-500-SF (500mg per pill, 1g per serving).

 

Probiotics

Rhonda is keenly aware of the importance of a healthy gut microbiome. Currently she takes Visbiome probiotics once per week or once every fortnight to top up on healthy gut bacteria, and the rest of the time relies on her diet to meet those needs.

She used to take VSL #3 probiotic, which has been the subject of over 25 publishes studies, showing efficacy in IBS, IBD, colitis and c. diff.

More recently, Rhonda takes Visbiome probiotic. It’s actually the same formulation VSL #3 were using prior to Jan 2016, and is marginally cheaper. The reason for two products with the same formulation is that the creator of VSL #3 moved companies in 2016, after his agreement to licence the original formula to VSL Pharmaceuticals expired, spawning the creation of Visbiome. See this comparison table between VSL #3 and Visbiome for more details.

Last year Rhonda had a baby boy, and began breastfeeding. During this process she was taking Visbiome sachets once daily. This move was based on research from a study that showed mothers who supplement with the probiotic Visbiome during late pregnancy and, while nursing, lowered inflammatory biomarkers in the breastmilk and improved symptoms of colic in their newborns.

Visbiome comes in sachet and pill form. Rhonda opts for the sachets which contain 4x as many live bacteria.

Dosage: 1 sachet/Every 1-2 weeks

Hydrolyzed Collagen

Rhonda has been using hydrolyzed collagen powder for a couple of years to help her joints. She consumes it by adding to smoothies and hot beverages.

Her original interest was inspired by a study that showed peptides in hydrolysed collagen actually make it intact to cartilage, which suggests its beneficial for joint health (source).

And more recently, Rhonda’s interest was piqued by another study showing that in 26 healthy females who displayed visible signs of natural and photoaging in the face, daily supplementation with 1 gram of hydrolyzed collagen powder for 12 weeks led to a 76% reduction of skin dryness/scaling and a 13% decrease in global lines and wrinkles. Additionally, an 18% increase in the content of hemoglobin was found in the skin dermis suggesting improved microcirculation (study source).

See Rhonda’s Instagram post on hydrolzyed collagen for more info, where she discusses using Great Lakes Hydrolzyed Collagen.

Rhonda’s Preferred Nootropics

In a May 2017 podcast episode with Tim Ferriss, Rhonda discussed the 3 different nootropics that she consumes. Nootropics being a category of drugs to enhance cognitive performance; aspects such as concentration, memory, mental alertness, etc.

Rhonda actually chooses to stay away from compounds that inhibit enzymes in the brain, which rules out some more common nootropics. She also chooses to avoid compounds that humans didn’t evolve alongside, because they haven’t been around long enough to fully understand their side effects. Therefore this list is interesting, as its very “safe” and passes her scientific due diligence.

Choline – Alpha GPC

Rhonda takes a Choline supplement on rare occasions when she is doing a lot of writing, or there’s an event she is speaking at. She finds it to improve her focus and attention.

Rhonda also makes a point of including natural sources of choline in her diet, such as eggs, almonds, spinach, broccoli and chicken.

There are different forms of choline that can be supplemented, and Rhonda chooses Alpha GPC because it is quick to cross the blood-brain barrier. She takes 600mg, noting that 300mg didn’t appear to be enough to make a difference.

Dosage: 2 capsules of NOW – Alpha GPC 300mg

Lion’s Mane Mushroom

Lion’s Mane is a mushroom that grows naturally on hardwoods across most of the world. For many people, the concept of consuming mushrooms for health sounds bizarre. However, going back to 200BC, there are writings of Chinese Emperors revering the use of medicinal mushrooms. Then in Europe 3100BC, a human nicknamed Ötzi the iceman was found mummified by ice in the alps. Amongst his belongings were two types polypore mushrooms with a leather string through them for carrying, both known to have medicinal effects. So humans have had the benefits of medicinal mushrooms figured out for a long time.

Lion’s Mane mushroom is generally consumed for its cognitive benefits. A study (source) showed that it can increase nerve growth factor, which is involved primarily in the growth, maintenance, proliferation, and survival of nerve cells (neurons).

Another study (source) showed that it improved cognitive impairment in a placebo controlled group of 30 adults aged 50-80. They consumed 3g per day of lion’s mane powder for 16 weeks. At weeks 8, 12 & 16 they showed significantly increased scores on the cognitive function scale compared with the placebo group. 4 weeks after stopping the lion’s mane supplementation their scores decreased significantly.

Rhonda has said she uses Lion’s Mane for intense periods of writing and creative work.

Dosage: 2x 1.5g packs of Four Sigmatic’s Mushroom Elixir

For more

Sulforaphane – From Self Grown Broccoli Sprouts

There’s two things to talk about here, the first is regarding sulforaphane; what it is & why Rhonda ensures she gets a lot of it. The second thing to discuss is how to get sulforaphane, whether you’re self growing broccoli sprouts, or you’re taking a supplement.

The What & Why of Sulforaphane

Plants contain chemicals which are used for their self defence (phytochemicals). Generally the plants evolved these chemicals to be toxic to organisms smaller than humans (for example pathogens). Thus what may be toxic to a pathogen, has a lesser effect on a human. Ingested in small amounts, some of these phyonutrients exhibit positive effects in humans. But if you consume them at high amounts; they become toxic. This is referred to as hormesis, or, the hormetic effect – and is illustrated by the image below:

Bringing this back to sulforaphane, which is a product of a chemical reaction betweeen glucoraphanin and myrocinase, the glucoraphanin itself is a plant based phytonutrient that triggers a positive hormetic affect in humans.

Specifically, ingested sulforaphane activates what’s called the NRF2 pathway, which increases expression of a battery of cell protective genes, that regulate things like:

Products of NRF2 Target Genes	Role in Cytoprotection
Glutathione (non-enzyme) (GSH)	Essential in function of Glutathione peroxidase and GST for redox balance and detoxification.
Haemoxygenase-1 (HO-1)	Redox-regulating, broad protection against oxidative stress. Anti-inflammatory and immune-modulating properties.
Quinone reductase (NQO1)	A multifunctional redox-regulating and detoxifying enzyme, including protection against oestrogen quinone metabolites. Stabilises the p53 tumor suppressor protein.
Metallothionein	Removal of heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium.
Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor	Regulator of adipogenesis and central integrator of glucose metabolism, energy homeostasis and skeletal metabolism.

And the above is just a snapshot, NRF2 affects even more. Info in the table comes via an incredible paper by Christine Houghton et al. (source) – which is highly worth reading.

As a result, sulforaphane is under continued study for its potential role in life extension, cancer prevention and more. To learn more about Sulforaphane, see Rhonda’s highly detailed video on the subject.

Getting Sulforaphane via Self Grown Broccoli Sprouts

Rhonda opts to get her sulforaphane primarily through self-grown broccoli sprouts. These are really easy to grow with a bit of initiative. To emulate Rhonda’s exact broccoli sprout growing setup you’ll want:

• Ball Mason jars – specifically quart size, wide mouth
• Sprouter lids – wide mouth to fit the Ball jars
• Organic broccoli sprout seeds – a good example being Sprout House Organic Non-GMO

See her IG post for the size of mason jars she uses, and see her video on heating sprouts for brand of jars. She runs 6 jars in rotation, freezing them in ziplocks as soon as they’re ready.

Dosage

Rhonda suggests that the best data we have on dosage comes from the clinical trials done. See the table below for the key studies and how much they used:

Study Result	Amount of Sulforaphane Used	Amount of Broccoli Sprouts Needed
Slow the doubling rate of a cancer biomarker (known as prostate specific antigen or PSA) by 86%	60mg sulforaphane (Tablets)	140g broccoli sprouts
Lower serum triglycerides by 18% and lower oxidized LDL  ratio by 13%. Overall, this reduced the trial participants atherogenic index by 50%.	40mg sulforaphane (Broccoli sprout powder)	100g broccoli sprouts
Reductions of inflammation in type 2 diabetics: TNF-alpha by 11%, CRP by 16%.	40mg sulforaphane (Broccoli sprout powder)	100g broccoli sprouts

The above studies suggest you want to aim for between 40mg & 60mg sulforaphane (100g to 140g fresh weight sprouts) if you want to emulate their results. This is based on the approximation that 1 gram of fresh weight sprouts is equivalent to 0.425mg of sulforaphane.

To put this into perspective, the quart size Ball mason jars Rhonda uses yield approximately 280g fresh weight per jar when full – which brings 1 jar close to 120mg sulforaphane content.

Rhonda said (on her latest Tim Ferriss podcast) she consumes up to 4 ounces (113g) of broccoli sprouts a few times per week.

In terms of consuming them, you’ll probably want to emulate Rhonda, who adds the sprouts to smoothies and blends them in her Blendtec – to mask the taste with other flavours. You want to avoid juicing, as this will discard the pre-biotic fibre that is beneficial to our gut microbiome.

Increasing Broccoli Sprouts Bioavailability

Rhonda’s video on tripling the bioavailability of sulforaphane in your sprouts is worth a look. By heating the sprouts to 70C, it disables the epithiospecifier protein, but avoids disabling the myrocinase enzyme (which converts glucoraphanin to sulforaphane).

Glucoraphanin can be converted into two forms of sulforaphane – sulforaphane we want, and, sulforaphane nitrile, which does not activate NRF2. By deactivating the epithiospecifier protein, which is needed for converting glucoraphanin to sulforaphane nitrile, we increase potential conversion to the useful sulforaphane.

Sulforaphane Supplements

Whilst the ultimate low cost alternative to high end sulforaphane supplements is sprouting your own (see above), often this can be inconvenient. It takes time, preparation, and isn’t always possible when travelling or busy with work. Below we’ll take a look at the top sulforaphane supplements on the market.

Jed Fahey of John Hopkins University, one of the leading researchers in sulforaphane/NRF2, warns us to be careful of which supplement we use. His lab, which has analyzed dozens of supplements over the years, has found that many are terrible, and don’t contain what they say they do. For more info on Jed, see Rhonda’s interview with him.

To complicate matters, there are 3 main ways to consume sulforaphane:

• Pure Sulforaphane – Average bioavailability of 70%*
• Glucoraphanin + Myrosinase – Average bioavailability of 35%*
• Glucoraphanin – Average bioavailability of 10%*

* Bioavailability numbers come from Jed Fahey’s research at John Hopkins (source).

Below are a list of the sulforaphane supplements tested and used Jed Fahey’s team at John Hopkins University in their clinical studies:

Prostaphane

A french manufaturer called Nutrinov currently make the only pure sulforaphane supplement on the market; Prostaphane. So far its only available in France. Rather than containing sulforaphane glucosinolate like most sulforaphane products, it contains a free-form stabilized version of sulforaphane.

Avmacol

For those outside of France, the best alternative is a product by Nutramax Laboratories called Avmacol. It contains the glucoraphanin (sulforaphane glucosinolate) extracted from broccoli seeds, alongside the activation enzyme myrocinase. Adding the myrocinase makes the glucoraphanin approximately 25% more bioavailable than without it.

Crucera-SGS

The last sulforaphane supplement that has been tested by Jed Fahey and his team is Thorne’s Crucera-SGS. This contains glucoraphanin (sulforaphane glucosinolate, or SGS), but doesn’t contain the additional myrocinase enzyme. Interestingly, our guts do contain bacteria that convert glucoraphanin into sulforaphane. The amounts vary from person to person, and aren’t as optimal as consuming active myrocinase.

In summary:

• The 3 supplements above have been tested and used in clinical trials by John Hopkins University – such that they contain what they say. Contrasting with many broccoli sprout supplements they have tested that are innefective.
• The most bioavailable supplement is Prostaphane, but this is only distributed in France.
• The next most bioavailable product is Avmacol, which is available in the USA.

Additional Recommendations

Beet Powder

Whilst Rhonda doesn’t supplement beet powder herself, she did use it successfully to lower her Mother and Mother-in-law’s blood pressure, and thus avoid them getting on blood pressure medication (see Rhonda’s Instagram post on this topic for more info).

Additionally she talks about the many studies that have shown positive effects of beets on blood pressure, endothelial function, heart health, improved blood flow to the brain, and endurance performance. Apparently beets are one of the highest sources of nitrate (which then gets converted into nitric oxide) and is thought to increase blood flow to the brain. Beets are also high in vitamin C, which prevents the conversion of nitrates into nitrosamines (those carcinogens that are formed from the nitrites which are used as preservatives).

The Activz Organic Beet Powder Rhonda used for her family has the equivalent of 1 cup of beet juice per 9 gram scoop. Her Mum was taking 9g per day for 2 weeks before she got her blood pressure re-tested.

Wild Salmon Roe Caviar

Rhonda is a big fan of wild salmon roe caviar, which is a potent source of omega-3 phospholipids (~438 mg of EPA and ~514 mg of DHA per ounce).

Omega-3 phospholipids are great for a few reasons, firstly, they are readily absorbed by the brain via the mfsd2a transporter. Secondly they contain astaxanthin, which protects the omega-3s from oxidation, and does the same for neurons.

See this post and this post on Instagram for Rhonda talking more about caviar.

Rhonda buys her salmon roe caviar in 2.2lbs bulk quantity from VitalChoice. It comes frozen in quarters, allowing you to use one section at a time.

Vitamin B Complex

Rhonda doesn’t take B vitamins in addition to the B vitamins in her multivitamin. In part, because Rhonda does not have 677CT or 677TT MTHFR mutations that indicate poor vitamin B absorption.

However, for those like her Mum who are T-homozygous the MTHFR gene (SNP = rs1801133), which leads to poor uptake of folate, they may benefit from up to 800 micrograms supplementation of 5 methylfolate. If you were to take O.N.E multivitamin, which contains 400mcg, you would need an additional source such as Swansons B-Complex, which has 400 micrograms per capsule. Other B vitamins that may be of benefit for this issue are B6 and B12.

Swanson’s B-Complex is the B vitamin Rhonda took previously (source), before she cut back on B vitamins, and its particularly useful because it contains methylated versions of  the B vitamins. Which is an exception, rather than the rule for vitamin B complex supplements.

To understand your own bodies ability to absorb vitamin B, you need to sequence your SNPs. The cheapest way to do that is to use 23andMe’s $99 service (you don’t need their $199 service) or Ancestry’s $79 service. Once that’s done you can export your SNP data to services like Promethease ($10) or Rhonda’s genetics tool ($10).

Multivitamin Alternatives

For those outside mainland USA, Rhonda’s multivitamin; Pure Encapsulations O.N.E can be difficult to purchase. Four comparable multivitamins that have broad coverage of essential micronutrients are:

• Thorne Research – Multi-Vitamin Elite (High end, somewhat pricey supplement)
• Thorne Research – Basic Nutrients 2 / Day (Cheaper, but still very broad micronutrient coverage)
• Now Foods Special Two
• Optimum Nutrition – Opti-Men

The two options by Thorne contain methylated B vitamins, including folate in place of folic acid. With the Elite version containing extras such as vitamin K, curcumin phytosome and choline. The Now Foods & Optimum Nutrition options don’t contain methylated B vitamins, but are still good options if Thorne products are hard to come by.

Rhonda’s Pregnancy & Breastfeeding Supplement Regimen

First & Second Trimesters

Rhonda’s regular supplement regime contains products such as Lion’s Mane mushrooms and Nicotinamide Riboside that haven’t been tested in pregnancy women. Therefore to maintain absolute safety, Rhonda removed all these supplements from her diet whilst pregnant, and only used the following:

• Multivitamin – Thorne Research Prenatal – 3 capsules/day
• Fish Oil – Norwegian Pure-3 DHA – 5 capsules/day
• Vitamin D – Thorne Research – D3 1,000iu – 2 capsules/day

Third Trimester

• Rhonda continued using the products above, and added Visbiome probiotics – 1 sachet/day
• Her third trimester blood test results came back showing iron deficiency, so she added an extra iron supplement: Thorne Research – Iron Bisglycinate. This won’t be necessary unless your blood test results indicate low levels. The prenatal multivitamin already contains 45mg of iron bisglycinate.

Breastfeeding Supplement Regimen

• Multivitamin – Thorne Research – Prenatal – 3 capsule/day
• Fish Oil – Norwegian Pure-3 DHA – 5 capsules/day
• Probiotics – Visbiome Probiotic – 1 sachet/day
• Vitamin D – Thorne Research – D3 1,000iu – 5 capsules/day
• PQQ (Pyrroloquinoline Quinone) – Life Extension – PQQ – 1 capsule/day
• Vitamin K2 – NOW K-2 MK7, 100mcg – 3 capsules/week

The source for details on Rhonda’s breastfeeding supplement regime is 1hr 38mins into her October crowdcast video for Patreon supporters.

Rhonda’s Method for Choosing Supplement Brands

The supplement industry, surprisingly, is largely unregulated. Especially when compared to the stringent regulations imposed on the pharmaceutical industry. This amplifies the importance of choosing a supplement that you can rely upon. In a Tim Ferriss interview Rhonda recommended that you check if the supplement brand you’re looking to buy is certified by the NSF (National Sanitary Foundation). Their role is to independently test and certify supplements, ensuring they do not contain undeclared ingredients or contaminants. Due to the rigorous testing and inspection, NSF certification is a useful guideline when looking for safe supplement brands. Use the NSF site to search for brands you may want to buy.

As a guideline, below is the list of brands that Rhonda uses (either currently, or in the past):

• Thorne Research – see their NSF certification
• Nordic Naturals – see their NSF certification
• Pure Encapsulations – see their NSF certification
• Life Extension – see their NSF certification
• NOW Foods – not NSF certified (was surprised to find this)

Closing Remarks

So that’s a lot of supplements and information. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding the above information.

Further reading on the blog:
– Dr Rhonda Patrick’s Diet – Her core strategies, and examples of her breakfast, lunch & dinner