Transcript
If you're ever confused about whether you should be taking some new supplement or experimenting with some crazy new gadget that you saw on a video that might improve your health, here is a framework that will help you decide. Because no, not all supplements are junk, but they're usually not as good as the viral video may have made them seem. And what is extremely important to remember is that anything you take or use should take into account your own unique biology. Your father's blood pressure medication may be very healthy for him to take, but could be dangerous if you start popping those pills. are very healthy to supplement with if you are deficient, but often will do nothing if you're not, and sometimes can even be very harmful if you take too much. So with that in mind, let's move on to what I call the Nutra-Judge cost-benefit decision matrix. The cost is the combination of monetary cost and potential health drawbacks. If they exist. A $1 pill that cures migraines is still pretty high cost if one of the side effects is death. The benefit is the combination of the strength of the evidence and the potential effect side. Let's look at some examples. High-cost, high-benefit includes a lot of pharmaceuticals. The extreme example is something like hemgenics, which is a drug that a single injection can basically treat your hemophilia for eight years, but it costs an insane $3.5 million for that injection. Worth it, depends on your insurance. But another example is laser scarlet wool, which have pretty good research behind them and a strong effect, but can be pretty pricey. Moving on clockwise to the low benefit and high cost, you've got things like CBD. it, but is way overhyped. It's usually a pretty subtle effect for most people, if it does anything, and definitely pretty pricey. Remember, if you are someone who it does work well on, then that might move it over to the high benefit quadrant. Next we've got the low benefit, low cost. This is where a lot of the herbs and superfoods sit. It's pretty expensive to run clinical trials on plants that aren't patentable, so a lot of these things only have one or two or a small handful of actual human trials behind them, with pretty variable effects sizes. effect in your body is something that you actually really need help with, then that might move it over to the high benefit for you quadrant. I think a lot of things that I would lump into this overall category. Low risk, low price, and an okay chance of having a decent effect. Finally, we've got the Golding Quarter, the sweet spot. Low cost, low risk, high benefit, high certainty of evidence. If only more things were like that. Some examples include... Vitamin D during winter... Way protein and creatine. And my favorite... a ton of research studies behind it for high and also it's a nice health benefits. Going forward, I'm going to be taking a lot of videos where I take a single thing, whether it's an herb, a compound, a gadget, or a practice, and help you place it on this grid. So let me know if you have any requests.
Additional notes
⁉️CHALLENGE: Name one thing that you would place in each of these quadrants! I’ll video respond to my favorite combo #science #health #nutrition #biohacking #supplements #edutok
References
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