What supplements have genuine made any difference to your health and beauty?

[Flomasterina]

I have spent a small fortune on Ancient & Brave marine collage, over 6 months - no difference.

Magnesium from Modern Chemistry from Boots - really helped to keep calm in a very stressful period.

HRT - miracle worker with sleep and mood.

Kalms One a Nightmare only used one pack again when going through few months, worked well to help with going to sleep but felt groggy in the morning.

Taking Vitamin D now, but not sure if it does anything.

I feel like I need a general glow up but my diet is so good, ChatGPT talks me out of wasting my money 💁🏻‍♀️

You probably need this:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/oct/16/make-me-well-by-xand-van-tulleken-an-eye-opening-takedown-of-wellness-myths

Vitamin D - stopped me getting chest infections (boosts immunity.)
Evening Primrose Oil - stopped peri menopause rage and hot flushes.
Vitamin C - stopped me getting as many colds.

A healthy diet is massively important for wellbeing though.

I think most supplements are absolute, complete and utter bollocks.

But in an attempt to sort my horrible periods out a few years back, I started to take supermarket multivitamins.
They made no discernible difference to my periods but my nails got strong as hell.
I have to keep my nails very short for my hobby.
I used to clip them once every ten days or so but had to increase to once a week at least.
And I had to get a professional nail set to do it because they got so bloody strong that ordinary clippers wouldn't got through them.

@Tocsin I was just listening Liz Earle podcast on that article!

This is such a great post! Expensive collagen did nothing for me but Perfectil has made a big difference to my nails (and hair). My nails were very bad before.

I take the Holland and Barrett ‘beautiful’ hair and nail supplements in the pink packet. No difference to my nails (which have always been crap), but my skin is glowing and I’ve noticed less hair shedding. My eyes are also less red (they’ve always been sensitive and easily sore, with broken capillaries).

None. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Rien du tout.

I take 2 supplements both prescription. An activated form of viatmin D and a renal safe multivitamin for post dialysis. One thing I've learnt is that supplements only work if you're actually deficient. If you aren't your body either expels them or if they are fat soluble they build up and can become toxic.

Collagen has done nothing; I do take Vit D as it’s helpful for bone health, and I live in Scotland, so could possibly be deficient.
I also take Sea Kelp for a dodgy thyroid which is not bad enough for thyroxine ; and have recently added Plant Sterols for cholesterol , on the advice of my GP . Apparently they can be effective.

I was going to post a link to his book - Make me Well - but you’ve beaten me to it, it’s well worth a read - he’s looked at all the scientific research on these ‘wellness’ supplements (stripping out research that is funded by the wellness industry) and shows it’s all basically bollocks. Placebo effect can be strong in some people (which in itself is not a bad thing of course!) but really it’s a complete waste of money (collagen being the biggest load of nonsense out there).

One book is not definitive proof.

Vegan omega 3 6 and 9 has helped with joint pain and also made my nails and hair stronger

I agree with the pp who said if you’re not deficient they will do nothing, we can get everything we need from our diet. Many people have a poor diet though. I was deficient in Vit D and it has made a huge difference to bone pain by taking it. I have an elderly aunt who has taken vitamins for decades and was a strong advocate of how they made a difference to her and she knew if she had missed them. She was told to stop them when she was put on a medication and has not noticed any difference at all.

High strength Vitamin D has boosted my immune system, presumably I was deficient before.

New Life brand magnesium glycinate helps me sleep more deeply.

That's reassuring, I've just started taking fish oils for my joints and wasn't sure if it was hokum or not.
Iron tablets have been life changing, I was anemic though.

Creatine. I weight train a few times a week and it helps me feel less tired and also has helped with brain fog. I feel much sharper as a result. Not a supplement but I will start using my SAD lamp now over the winter months along with a vit D supplement.

After doing some research I started taking Nutrition Geeks magnesium glycinate for symptoms including an eye twitch and discomfort from a knee ligament injury & general joint/ old injury/ knee pain which as I’ve aged (I’m 49) are definitely worse around ovulation / menstruation. At the same time my husband bought me cod liver oil capsules and I ordered some Pura collagen powder particularly targeted at joints. I feel now I’ve run out of the mag & collagen that my symptoms had improved while taking all these as they have now come back (not the eye twitch tho, that seems to have gone). I could barely feel my ligament discomfort or sciatic type pain during ovulation etc when when taking all 3. But yesterday I had to take paracetamol to ease the discomfort. I am at the end of my period however so am going to wait a few days to see how I feel then, because I’m not going to automatically reorder every time I run out without reviewing my symptoms first.

HRT and Prozac.

Nutrition Geeks Magnesium Glycinate. I also had an eye twitch that has now stopped, restless legs and 3am waking. My sleep is so much deeper and I have such vivid dreams! I’ve really noticed an improvement and it’s only been about 6 weeks.

Which part of your immune system did you boost? How were you able to measure? What baseline data did you have to begin with and how did this compare to data after your immune system was "boosted"?

I take supplements of every essential vitamin and mineral because I don't cook and have an eating disorder. I also take fish oil supplements. It's bound to have made a difference to my health as I had a couple of deficiencies over the years. Obviously I don't know what I'd look like without but it can'tve done any harm. Oh and the oil tablets probably keep my blood pressure in normal range.
An A-Z vitamin supplement doesn't actually cover all essential minerals by the way as it doesn't include all the amount of calcium and magnesium or the pill would be too big. So if you want to get everything you need a separate magnesium and calcium supplement. I do think doing this has made the bags under my eyes slightly better.

oh and HRT of course has helped at least my cognitive health and is bound to help physically. Before I went on it I had such brain fog.

Dont think I'd classify HRT as a supplement?!
But, yes, magnesium glycinate for me has helped stop a partciular lower leg muscle pain and seems to deepen sleep.

Folic acid helped with hair growth. Very very easy to be deficient in folic acid and it’s vital for cell renewal so that and VitD ( sept- April) is all I take.

vit D is just essential for strong immunity and bone health, this is the most common deficiency i see in my work.

Iron,

made a massive difference to me. Presumably I was deficient before.