What supplements should every man take?

The no-test test: what a supplement for every man would have to be, why almost nothing passes it, the one that passes outright and the one that passes with a sport

What supplements should every man take is a question whose word every is the whole question, because every man includes the man who eats a full plate and the man who eats toast, the man who lifts and the man who does not, the man with a doctor's results in his hand and the man who has never had a blood test, and a supplement for every man would have to help all of them. That is a test, and this page applies it before naming anything: a supplement for every man must help without a blood test, without a reading of the plate, and without a sport to apply it to. A supplement that needs a blood test to justify it is a supplement for the men whose test came back low; a supplement that needs the plate read is a supplement for the men whose plate falls short; a supplement that needs a sport is a supplement for the men who play it. Each of those is a real page, and none of them is this one, which is the page for every man, and the no-test test is what keeps the list honest and short.

One supplement passes outright. Vitamin D through the UK autumn and winter is recommended by the public health advice for everyone, at ten micrograms a day, on the ground that the sun is too low in the sky for the skin to make it from October to March at the latitude of the whole country, and the national diet survey finds a share of men below the blood threshold through those months without any test having been taken. That is a supplement that helps every man without a test, because the advice was written for the population and the shortfall is seasonal and general rather than individual, and it holds an authorised claim for normal muscle function and the maintenance of normal bones. It costs a few pence a day and it is the one honest answer to the question as asked. A man who has been tested and found replete through the winter may skip it; every other man takes it from autumn to spring, which is not a timeline but a season the sun sets.

One supplement passes with a sport, and the sport is not a test. Creatine monohydrate at a few grams a day has the strength and lean-mass meta-analyses behind it in every man who lifts, trained or untrained, young or old, with an authorised claim for physical performance in short bursts and the safety reviews finding no kidney concern in healthy men at the research doses; it needs no blood test and no plate reading, and the only condition is the lifting, so that it is a supplement for every man who lifts and for no man who does not, since a man who does not lift has no short bursts to improve. The two together, vitamin D and creatine, are the list for every man who lifts, and vitamin D alone is the list for every man who does not, and both lists cost less a day than the bus.

The test applied and two passes, with the plate readings, the blood test, the applicants that fail, the worked example and the verdict in the next section.

Everything else is a plate reading first: protein, magnesium, omega-3, zinc and B12; iron is a blood test and never a guess; the boosters and multivitamins fail; the worked example; the man on a medicine; and the verdict

Everything else on the shelf needs the plate read before it can be justified, and the plate is read by the man himself in a few days of honest counting. Protein needs the daily total counted, because the survey finds most men at or near the intake the lifting meta-analysis found sufficient, and a powder is for the man whose count falls short, not for every man. Magnesium needs the plate read for the foods that carry it, the nuts, seeds, pulses, whole grains and green vegetables, because the survey finds a share of young men below the reference intake and most older men at it, and a man who eats the foods has nothing to correct. Omega-3 needs the oily fish counted, because a man eating two portions a week has the intake the claims were assessed on, and a man eating none does not. Zinc needs the meat and shellfish counted, with the upper level close enough to the common doses that a man who eats them should not add a tub. B12 needs the question of whether animal foods are eaten at all, because a man eating them is almost never short, and a man eating none is short in time without a supplement. These are supplements for some men, chosen by a reading that takes a few days and costs nothing, and the reading is the step the shelf skips when it writes a list for every man.

Iron is the exception that is stated on its own, because it is the one supplement a man can harm himself with in the ordinary way. A man without blood loss stores iron rather than excreting it, the hereditary condition that loads iron is common enough in the UK that a share of men carry it unknowing, and the symptoms of too much iron and too little are the same tiredness; so iron is a blood test, a ferritin from a doctor, before a single tablet, and never a guess from fatigue. Two more applicants fail the test on their evidence rather than on a reading. Testosterone boosters fail for every man, because no trial finds them raising muscle or testosterone in a man with normal levels, and a man with symptoms of low levels has a doctor's test to read instead. Multivitamins fail as a supplement for every man, because the trials of multivitamins in general populations find no outcome benefit, and because a multivitamin gives a man who eats a full plate twenty things he did not need and a man whose plate is short the wrong dose of the one he did.

The worked example passes the plate reading and not the no-test test, and is placed on that reading: {FL}, 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV, two capsules with the evening meal, holds authorised claims for normal muscle function and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, is batch tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium, UK made under GMP and BRC, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day, and is for the share of men the survey finds short of the foods that carry the mineral, not for every man. The full label breakdown is here. A man on any prescription medicine, with a kidney or liver condition, or under eighteen takes none of this page without a pharmacist or a doctor, and a parent and a coach for the last.

The verdict: the no-test test leaves one supplement for every man, vitamin D at ten micrograms through the UK autumn and winter, and one for every man who lifts, creatine monohydrate at a few grams a day. Protein, magnesium, omega-3, zinc and B12 are a plate reading first and supplements for the men the reading finds short; iron is a blood test and never a guess; the boosters and the multivitamins fail; and the man on a medicine asks a pharmacist before the first capsule. The list for every man is short because every man is a large group, and a list that is long has stopped being for all of them.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

Is there any supplement every man should take?

One, by the no-test test, which asks what helps a man without a blood test, a plate reading or a sport: vitamin D at ten micrograms a day through the UK autumn and winter, which the public health advice recommends for everyone because the sun is too low for the skin to make it from October to March and the national survey finds a share of men below the blood threshold through those months, with an authorised claim for normal muscle function and normal bones at a few pence a day; creatine monohydrate is the second for every man who lifts, and everything else is a supplement for some men, chosen by a reading of the plate or a test.

Should a man take a multivitamin every day?

Not as a supplement for every man: the trials of multivitamins in general populations find no benefit on the outcomes that matter, and a multivitamin gives a man who eats a full plate twenty things he did not need while giving a man whose plate is short a dose of the one thing he did need that is rarely the right one, so that it fails the test twice; a man reads his plate for a few days, finds the one or two things it is short of, and takes those at the dose the shortfall needs, which costs less than the multivitamin and corrects something.

Should men take iron supplements?

Not without a blood test, which is the one firm rule in a page about men: a man without blood loss stores iron rather than excreting it, the hereditary condition that loads iron is common enough in the UK that a share of men carry it unknowing, and the symptoms of too much iron and too little are the same tiredness, so that a man who guesses iron from fatigue may be loading a store that is already full; a ferritin from a doctor comes before a single tablet, and a man whose test is normal takes none.

Do men need protein powder?

Only the men whose daily count falls short: the lifting meta-analysis found lean-mass gain rising with total daily protein up to a threshold near one point six grams per kilogram and flat beyond it, and the UK survey finds most men at or near that total from meat, fish, eggs, dairy and pulses, so that a powder is a supplement for the man who counts his plate for a few days and finds a gap on training days, and a flavour's price for everyone else; the plate reading comes first, and it costs nothing.

Is this site's magnesium a supplement every man should take?

No, and it is placed on the plate reading rather than the no-test test: the national survey finds a share of young men below the reference intake for magnesium and most older men at it, so the product is for the men whose plate is short of nuts, seeds, pulses, whole grains and green vegetables, with authorised claims for normal muscle function and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, at 300mg elemental at 80% NRV in two capsules with the evening meal, batch tested for four metals, UK made under GMP and BRC, at 22p a day, and a man on a medicine asks a pharmacist about spacing first.

Sources

1. The GB claims register, vitamin D entries: vitamin D contributes to normal bones, teeth, muscle function, immune function and calcium absorption, with UK guidance suggesting 10 micrograms daily in autumn and winter. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/great-britain-nutrition-and-health-claims-nhc-register
2. The UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey: a substantial minority of women of reproductive age have low iron stores and intakes below the reference, a large share of adults have low vitamin D status in winter, iodine intakes are low in young women, and magnesium intakes fall below the reference in many adults, with B12 deficiency concentrated in older adults, vegans and those on metformin or acid suppressants. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-diet-and-nutrition-survey
3. Kreider RB, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2017;14:18. PubMed record
4. The iron requirement and overload literature: adult men's iron reference intake is 8.7mg a day and is met from an ordinary diet, iron supplementation is not recommended without a demonstrated deficiency, and hereditary haemochromatosis, carried by a meaningful minority of people of northern European descent, makes routine supplemental iron harmful. PubMed record

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