Supplements & Herbs

Natural Vitamin Supplements

A tour through Dr. Weil’s sunny kitchen at his home near Tucson, Arizona, leads inevitably to the cabinet in which he keeps his vitamin supplements. It is surprisingly crowded. One might have expected that, after so many years of researching vitamins, minerals, herbs and mushroom preparations, Dr. Weil would not need so many bottles - he would have come up with his own optimum vitamin supplement combination years ago.

And in a sense, he has. Dr. Weil takes a daily, core regimen consisting of a multivitamin and antioxidants. This basic combination is based on his own answers to questions from the Vitamin Advisor. (Dr. Weil donates all of his after-tax profits from the sale of Vitamin Advisor products directly to the Weil Foundation, a not-for-profit, organization dedicated to supporting integrative medicine through training, education and research. The Vitamin Advisor generates science-based recommendations, and filling out the questionnaire does not obligate the taker to make a purchase.)

But aside from that, "I experiment," he says, waving a hand at the thicket of bottles. "It's a constant process of trial and error. My body changes, and I read up on the medical literature, and then I adjust what I take. It's not just for my own health, but also to give me some sense of what to recommend."

Example: He was taking a mix of acetyl-L-carnitine tablets and alpha-lipoic acid capsules, because the combination of these compounds had been studied by his friend, University of California, Berkeley, biochemical researcher Bruce Ames, and shown to improve cellular metabolism and thus boost energy. Dr. Weil found the combination so successful that he began taking Juvenon, Dr. Ames' commercially available mix of the two components. Ultimately, Dr. Weil decided to endorse the preparation, leading to the development of the vitamin supplement product known as Weil Juvenon. (Dr. Weil donates all of his after-tax profits from the sale of Weil Juvenon directly to the Weil Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting integrative medicine through training, education and research.)

More experimentation: "I took a high quality caffeine-free green tea extract for a while," Dr. Weil says, reasoning that it was a convenient way to get the benefits of green tea without the caffeine. But, "It was more pills to add to my routine, and the literature supported greater benefits by actually drinking green tea. So I went back and simply started decaffeinating it myself." (To find out how, see the related links below.)

On the other hand, Dr. Weil says he has taken and continues to take Cordyceps sinensis, widely known as cordyceps, a medicinal mushroom said to boost aerobic capacity - some Chinese athletes have claimed it is the key to their success. Indeed, one constant source of his experimental supplementation is mushroom preparations. "I have gone through countless formulations," he says, particularly those created by his longtime friend and mushroom expert Paul Stamets, owner of Fungi Perfecti.

What’s next? "I am usually inspired to take new natural vitamin supplements based on the research reports I read," he says. "I'm interested in resveratrol." This substance, derived from red grape skins and abundant in red wine, has been shown to promote the longevity of organisms from yeast to fish, and may be at least partially responsible for the "French paradox" - the fact that the French have lower heart disease rates than Americans despite a diet similarly rich in saturated fats. "The next step is to find the right preparation of it. I will take it for a period of time and evaluate it, and then decide if I want to stick with it and/or recommend it."

Ultimately, Dr. Weil says, responsible self-experimentation is the best route for everyone, doctor and layperson alike. "All of us are different - our lifestyles, our sleep patterns, our diets, and our genetic makeups. What works for one person may not work for another, and what works best may change over time. As long as you take care to use vitamin supplement products that have inherently low toxicity and start at modest dosages, the ultimate arbiter of whether a supplement works must be your own experience." Which is why, for many remedies, Dr. Weil's advice is, quite simply: "Try it and see how you feel."

By Brad Lemley, DrWeil.com News
Photos by Jace Mortensen