A blog to help you optimize your full-body and life performance

One of the most common new fitness trends is eating a mysterious blue-green algae called “spirulina.” Trendy fitness magazines and celebrities hail it as a top-secret “superfood” you take as a supplement or powder. However, are any of these claims actually based on real, scientific evidence? Or is spirulina as dubious as a health product shamelessly advertised by the Kardashians on Instagram? Below we sort out the fact and fiction by delving into the high-quality that shows how spirulina might impact your body and your health.

Introduction

Do you take a multivitamin? Chances are, you probably do! In fact, if you’re like me, you began taking a multivitamin almost as soon as you could chew solids. I have fond memories of chomping my Flintstones vitamin with my waffles and milk every morning throughout my childhood years. Sound familiar? According a recent study, over half of Americans take some form of a multi-vitamin/mineral on a regular basis. For some of us, we continue to take multivitamins out of habit. Others are new to this emerging health trend. Whatever the reason may be, one thing is for certain: the multivitamin/mineral is a major contender in the supplement industry. As a nation, we spend $12.4 billion on these little capsules each year. But does taking a multivitamin make us healthier? Here are some facts for you to consider. Spoiler alert: those little pills may not be as healthy as you think! 

Inflammation is part of your body’s immune response: it influences the health of your cardiovascular system, affects how quickly your injuries heal, and plays a role in determining whether or not you catch a cold. Inflammation affects everyone—whether they are young, old, athlete, or non-athlete.

If you live in a temperate climate, or you don’t get outside for at least 15 minutes each day, you may have low vitamin D. Why? Because your body actually makes most of its vitamin D from sunshine, and if you don’t get enough sun, you are likely to have low vitamin D. Known as the “sunshine vitamin,” vitamin D provides several important benefits to our bodies, but it can be difficult to get your daily requirement of the vitamin since few foods are naturally rich sources. 

And if you don’t get enough vitamin D, it can affect the way you feel and how well you perform. An InsideTracker blood test showed that an Olympic track cyclist had very low levels of vitamin D. InsideTracker gave this athlete and her coach a set of simple interventions to increase her vitamin D. That helped to make a measurable difference in her performance. And it contributed to her success in at the 2012 Olympics in London where she won two silver medals in track cycling!

Do you take a vitamin or mineral supplement? Are you getting enough nutrients and should you worry about certain deficiencies? Or are you taking too many vitamins? Deciding whether to take a supplement and which one to take is tough because there are so many different types dietary supplements out there that it can be difficult to distinguish between misinformation and scientific advice. 

Every part of your body, from your heart to your bones, needs magnesium to stay strong. In fact, magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body! Roughly 50 percent of the magnesium in your body is stored in your bones, and the other half is mostly located in your organs and tissues.