The Root Cause Medicine Podcast is created by Rupa Health, the best way to order, track & manage results from 30+ lab companies in one place for free. The Root Cause Medicine Podcast is a weekly one-on-one conversation with renowned medical experts, specialists, and pioneers who are influencing the way we look at our health and wellbeing. This week we’re joined by Dr. Jeff Gladd, Founder of GladdMD Integrative Medicine and Chief Medical Officer at Fullscript. In this episode, Dr. Jeff Gladd answers all your questions about supplements, including reading labels, fish oil break down,, curcumin, vitamin D, and more. Dr. Jeff Gladd has over twenty-one years of experience in the medical field. He is the owner of GladdMD Integrative Medicine and Chief Medical Officer at Fullscript. Dr. Gladd has become a sought-after speaker on physician entrepreneurship, social media, and technology in healthcare and regularly speaks at Holistic Primary Care’s annual Heal Thy Practice conference. In 2008, Dr. Gladd founded and launched PureHealthMD.com, a website housing professionally authored content to educate people on the lifestyle aspects of health, which he and his partners sold to the Discovery Channel. In 2011, he created and launched the web’s first nutrient depletion calculator, Mytavin.com. Key Takeaways: Are all vitamins, nutrients, minerals, and herbs created the same? Supplements differ by brand and the source from which you purchase it. For example, you might buy a bottle of magnesium with no magnesium in the capsules. Dr. Gladd highlights the importance of sourcing high-quality supplements from reliable sources to ensure their expected benefit. And the quality starts with the ingredient source. Ensure you take high-quality and standardized supplements Dr. Gladd states, "the supplement industry is a bit more wild west," so you should be more diligent and research every single supplement or herb you want to buy. Study the company's website, and if you see they're proud of what they're doing and invest that level of concern in high-quality products, it might be a good indicator the product is good. Debunking the myth of multiple supplements in one pill If you read on the label that one capsule contains about thirty supplements, bear in mind that the dose of each component is insignificant. You can't get thirty supplements into one capsule and get the expected results, but people don't realize this. It's better to choose a single ingredient at the standardized dose that the evidence supports. Good versus bad supplements High-quality supplements shouldn't contain food coloring, cornstarch, or dye. Dr. Gladd also does a multivitamin screening test with his patients to evaluate the form of vitamin E and magnesium and determine the supplement's quality level. High-quality vitamin E should contain mixed tocopherols, while magnesium should be magnesium citrate or glycinate. Most of the inexpensive, poorer-quality multivitamins use DL-alpha-tocopherol and magnesium oxide. Omega-3 and fish oil supplements Omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil are anti-inflammatory and are great for cardiovascular and brain health. However, you have to ensure you take good-quality fish oil and the right dose of omega-3 fatty acids, which is at least 1000 milligrams of total EPA plus DHA daily. Vitamin D: benefits, sources, and dosage Vitamin D isn't really a vitamin, but a pro-hormone in the body, which has multiple functions including bone, metabolic, hormone health, blood sugar regulation, and immune support. Sun exposure is the best way to get vitamin D. Other methods include drops or soft gel capsules. Dr. Gladd suggests taking vitamin D doses between 2,000 - 4,000 international units per day, depending on the individual's blood level. Also, check out Dr. Gladd’s recommended lab testing: Multivitamin screening test, homocysteine tests, and the MTHFR test. Order all these tests through Rupa Health - https://www.rupahealth.com/reference-guide