We hear it all the time. “Be sure to take your supplements …” Then enter any superlative: “if you want to grow big and strong,” “if you want to be healthy,” if you want to lose weight.” Everyone tells you to take supplements, and then they leave you to figure it all out on your own. In fact, you may not even be sure when to take them or why! So, let’s get to the bottom of the why, what and how of taking natural supplements.

Why Take Supplements?

Now that we know why to stay away from multivitamins, let’s look at why we should take supplements instead. In our everyday life, we rely on our food to give us a majority of our nutrition. From there, our stomach acids break down the food and disperse chemical compounds that do everything from give us energy to produce hormones to help us sleep.

The best way to get a wide variety of supplements is to eat the rainbow. Pigments are nutritional mineral sources. Each color food carries different vitamins and minerals that other foods don’t. For instance, oranges have more beta-carotene than red apples, bananas and spinach.

In the typical meat-and-potatoes diet, many nutrients get lost in the shuffle. We become too full from fatty meats to get well-rounded nutrition. Depending on the nutrients you are lacking, you may suffer from a range of conditions.

Taking supplements help balance out whatever wrongs we are doing to our system. For instance, if you eat a meat-heavy diet, chances are high that you are getting a ton of omega-6 fatty acids. While that’s great, omega-6s wreak havoc on the system if they’re not balanced by omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s come from leaner proteins such as fish and oils. That’s why to balance the scales of an omega-6 heavy steak dinner, you should supplement daily with fish oil such as CogniDHA.

Which Supplements Should You Take?

Taking supplements can go a long way in alleviating certain problems we cause in our system. However, it can also act as a preventative measure. This can make people skeptical of supplements, because you might not necessarily see the results. However, studies have shown that for targeted supplements, results are there.

So unless you have specific conditions that need to be addressed, the best supplements to take as a preventative measure are ones that can aid in providing overall better health. Let’s look at some of the best daily supplements to take.

Olive Leaf Extract

There is no denying that cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death around the world. This statistic is much in thanks to lifestyle choices. Between eating fried foods and artificial ingredients, drinking, and smoking, our bodies can endure serious damage throughout our lifetime.

All of these choices slowly start to build up in the system. As we continue to ingest artificial sugars and high levels of saturated fat, undigested proteins start to line artery walls. This creates a plaque that inhibits blood flow throughout the body. In turn, the heart (a muscle), doesn’t get the workout required to function properly. The common result is cardiovascular disease.

The people with the longest lifespan are those who incorporate a Mediterranean diet. One of the staples of this lifestyle is olive oil. Studies have found that olive leaf extract acts as anti-inflammatory, getting rid of cytokines. In turn, this helps to improve overall vascular function.

Turmeric Curucumin

As you can imagine, if our heart is suffering thanks to a backup from food choices, then our gut has to be in even worse shape. After all, it was “The Father of Medicine” Hippocrates who famously said, “All disease begin in the gut.”

Disease is spawned by inflammation. Inflammations occur when our bodies can’t get rid of the waste as quick as it’s building up. These toxins kill the good bacteria in our gut, and this leads to a hoard of illnesses.

Turmeric is a root that naturally contains perhaps the most anti-inflammatory properties than any other food on the planet. This is due to its unique chemical compound, curcumin. Further analysis on the research found that curcumin curbed the growth of the following inflammatory cells:

• Phospholipase
• Lipoxygenase
• Cyclooxygenase 2
• Leukotrienes
• Thromboxane
• Prostaglandins
• Nitric oxide
• Collagenase
• Elastase
• Hyaluronidase
• Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1)
• Interferon-inducible protein
• Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)
• Interleukin-12 (IL-12)

Just because you take a supplement doesn’t mean you will get all of the health benefits. This is because a good portion of nutrients will die in our stomach acids. Therefore, some supplements are formulated with accelerators. For instance, turmeric curcumin becomes more bioavailable when digested with black pepper. Therefore, our Turmeric Curcumin supplement contains bioprene, the main active ingredient in black pepper.

Fish Oil CogniDHA

No doubt, losing our memory is one of our biggest fears as we get older. Aging is an inevitable process, so we must be proactive in maintaining our faculties. There are so many health benefits of fish oil. For one, its high levels of omega-3 fatty acids makes fish oil a brain-boosting supplement.

Omega-3 fatty acids are primarily broken into two types, EPA and DHA. Getting specialized fish oil supplements with DHA is ideal for maintaining optimal brain health. As studies have found, low levels of DHA can lead to mental disorders such as depression. Furthermore, a lack of DHA can also make learning more difficult. Lastly, low levels of DHA in bloodstreams are correlated with smaller brain sizes in adults, which can lead to memory loss.

This is why it’s better to take specialized supplements like CogniDHA than run-of-the-mill multivitamins (or other fish oils). This formula is treated to increase the bioavailability of the omega-3s. By using CO2 extraction, not only does the effectiveness of the omega-3s increase, but it removes toxic metals like mercury as well.

Ayurvedic Ashwagandha 1000

Marriage is an important part of many people’s lives. One of the keys to a happy marriage is a fulfilling sex life. As we get older, both men and women go through considerable changes throughout their body. One is their sex drive.

From blood not reaching their nether regions due to artery blockages, to eating foods treated with hormones, to just getting older, so many outlying factors hurt our desires to have sex. However, this doesn’t need to plague your relationship.

Using an old Ayurvedic root like Ashwagandha is a natural way to boost your sex drive and improve your marriage. This is further improved when the bioavailability becomes amplified thanks to KSM-66 extract.

Adding this natural extract to the formula has been shown to:

• Reduce perceived stress 44%
• Improve cardio-respiratory activity in athletes
• Increase male testosterone levels 15.3%
• Improve sexual arousal and satisfaction among women 60%+

With its ability to relax blood cells, Ayurvedic Ashwagandha helps the brain perceive less stress. In turn, the endocrine system pumps out less cortisol.

Cortisol is a stress hormone. When we are under an immense amount of stress, our body pumps out more cortisol. If we are under stress all the time, cortisol will take over the rest of the system. This leaves no room for hormones such as estrogen and testosterone. Using Ayurvedic Ashwagandha as a supplement can help halt cortisol production, causing less stress and more sexual desire.

How to Take Supplements?

Now that we know why we should take supplements, let’s figure out how. This all depends on what type of supplements you are taking and why you are taking them. Each one will differ. For instance, some supplements require to be taken with food while others suggest an empty stomach. Some are best at night, while others should be taken during the day.

Let’s take a look at the aforementioned supplements and the best time to take them.

With 750 mg of Olive Leaf Extract (with 20% oleuropein) per capsule, it is best to take this supplement once a day with a meal so that other nutrients can help with the bioavailability. Otherwise, your supplement will be the first thing to hit your stomach acid and most of the benefits will deplete. If you are fighting a cold or infection, up the dosage anywhere from 2 to 4 capsules, depending on the severity.

Turmeric Curcumin supplements work best taken with a meal twice a day. While these supplements do have bioprene formulated into the capsule, it wouldn’t be harmful to have some black pepper and healthy fats in your meal to help absorb the curcumin.

Fish oil such as CogniDHA has a broader range of optimal times to take them and how much to take. For general maintenance, you can take CogniDHA twice a day with or without a meal, anytime of the day. However, many scientific studies have heavily researched fish oil for a number of conditions. Check out this link to find out the proper dosage of fish oil for everything from fighting heart disease to cleaning arteries to prenatal care.

Unlike fish oil, Ayurvedic Ashwagandha is best taken with food. Be consistent with the time you take Ayurvedic Ashwagandha for optimal benefits. It doesn’t matter what time of day you take it if you are looking for general sexual health. However, if the purpose of taking Ayurvedic Ashwagandha is to improve your sleep by lowering stress, get in the habit of supplementing a half hour before sleep. If that’s the case, you should opt out of eating a meal with the supplement.

Figure Out Which Supplements Are Best For You

Now that you have the perfect cocktail to help maintain a healthy lifestyle, you should be ready to take on the world. Using targeted supplements is a great way to help address our many concerns. From heart and gut to brain and sexual health, there is a natural way to assist in caring for life’s biggest problems. As always, you should consult a doctor before starting any supplement regimen. Which supplements do you use? Let us know below!