Pharmaceutical grade supplements
 

Hi there.

Have been tweaking my supplement program with the help of an anti aging doc and he spent time explaining the importance of my supplements being "pharmaceutical grade".

I have quite a long list of things that I am taking and currently live overseas and so iHerb is quite a convenient way for me to buy online, but I will consider other decent sources. With Amazon you have a great selection, but most things only ship to the USA and it's a little annoying and expensive to have to route everything via a US shipping forwarder.

Most of my supplements are "Now" and I have learnt that theses are not pharmaceutical grade. I order in bulk and have 6 months to a years supply of everything, but when it comes time for me to re-order it would be really handy if I had access to a single unbiased resource that rates and grades all supplements out there by whether or not they are pharmaceutical grade.

One supplement I take is DHEA (under medical supervision). It took me hours of internet research to determine that the brand MRM is the best choice for me as most of what you come across online if pushing one brand or another and is not objective It would be really handy if there's a single website out there that I can refer to for everything. Doc recommended the brand "Pure" but I can only find this at his clinic (at super expensive prices) or on Amazon.

Any help gratefully received!

Sorry, I just saw this.

I take a lot of supplements. The important thing with supplements is to find reputable brands and reputable websites and study/research specific supplements and their benefits and the specific forms those supplements should be in...sometimes those perfect supplements can be relatively inexpensive and sometimes they can be more expensive

Examples:
Vitamin D has to be Vitamin D3=cholecalciferol; any other form of vitamin D is much less effective.

Vitamin A has to be from fish liver oil as man-made vitamin is toxic in smaller amounts and beta carotene is relatively useless as it doesn't convert to vitamin A very well if at all in adults.

CoQ10 is an excellent supplement and is available at many price points but it is the dose that is important, less than 100 mg/day is of no benefit; some people need more and those over 45 need Ubiquinol, the active form of CoQ10, because as you age your body cannot convert CoQ10 to its active form as well or at all.

Magnesium should always be taken in a chelated and most bioavailable form otherwise can just be paying for an expensive laxative.

Calcium in the carbonate form, which is the cheapest and most commercially available form of calcium sold, is actually harmful. The body cannot use calcium carbonate for any purpose, especially not for bone formation, and thus will deposit the useless element in soft body tissues as well as hastening osteoporosis.

Many supplements are cheap; they are cheap, not because they are not good quality but because they are non-patentable. Branded or formulated supplements can be expensive because they are "proprietary blends; proprietary blends can be poor, good, or excellent depending on what supplements are in them, in what doses, and in what forms...that's the information you have to know, cost can be irrelevent.

NOW brand has a good reputation for the purity of their supplements and at excellent cost. As I said, you have to know what form and amount of the supplement you need. I can only find unadulterated vitamin A from fish oil in the dose I need in the NOW brand.