I'm a 32M, and my girlfriend and I are planning to try for a baby. I did a semen analysis a couple of weeks ago and even though my numbers are within the normal range; they're on the lower end of normal. I had a varicocele surgery when I was 20ish, so I wonder if the drop in semen quality maybe due to that?

What's the best form of zinc for potentially improving sperm quality and semen volume, ideally with minimal gastrointestinal side effects? Certain zinc supplements tend to give me bad acidity.

Brand recommendations would be appreciated too!

So some nights I can sleep pretty well and won’t remember my dreams at all. Other times I’ll feel physically resettled but mentally I’ll feel like I’ve been awake the whole nice and the dreams are usually pretty vivid and stressful. These dreams also promote my jaw clenching, I do wear a night guard so my teeth are safe, and this can lead to feelings of jaw tensions during the day. I do also wear a Fitbit monitor, which I don’t take its readings as 100% accuracy and more as a guide for my general trends, and this shows that my REM sleep is high pretty much every night. I’ve had the occasional night where my REM is within the boundaries it sets and those nights have usually been good nights sleep. Anything anyone could recommend me trying? I’ve tried melatonin and 5HPT and honestly those seem to increase my energy and make my dreams even worse 😅 maybe useful to note that I’m also someone who has a tendency to be more highly stressed. I can and will stress about anything not matter how ridiculous it may be.

Edit: also to add that I’ve tried cbd and magnesium. Magnesium also seems to increase my energy so before bed is a recipe for poor sleep for me, I can only take it in the mornings. Cbd makes me extremely groggy to the point where I find it a bit difficult to function the next day

Gets the stack moving. Does not give me gas like others.

My heart meds give me severe constipation that resulted in a bleeding anal fissure from the edge of hell. This is what helped me return to normal bowel movements and heal.

u/Suspicious-Mention91 this is what works for me for constipation.

I have to take this TWICE per day. Not with a meal but with a snack is ok.

Ive taken it three times now. And all three times I got severe cramping, vomitting and the runs to the point where I debated calling an ambulance it was THAT bad. I couldnt figure out what was causing it at first, because Ive taken magnesium glycinate from other brands before. Assumed i was sick. But i forgot it one day and took it again the next and it happened again.

I cant figure out why im reacting to this one. Ive taken spring valley magnesium glycinate before and been fine. So its not that I react badly to magnesium glycinate specifically. Ive taken the nature's bounty magnesium citrate before, so its not the brand in general.

And before anyone reccomends something expensive, I cant afford it, and I also cannot not take magnesium. Ill probably just go back to spring valley. I unfortunately have to be on acid reducers to protect my stomach from a lifesaving medication im on, and that means im magnesium deficient without supplementation even with intake of high magnesium foods.

Did I get a bad batch somehow or is there something in the ingredients that wouldve caused this??? Whatever caused this id like to avoid again.

Hey everyone,
I've been taking a high-dose B-complex recently,and I keep getting these nasty burps with a strong chemical aftertaste afterwards.
I tried changing how I take it - taking it right at the beginning of a meal, right in the middle, or right at the end - but it doesn't seem to make any difference. A while after taking it, I still get that distinct chemical "vitamin" burp.
Does anyone else experience this with high-dose B vitamins? Is there any trick to prevent it, or is this just something you have to deal with when taking B-complexes?

Hi there,

What do you guys have noticed the most with it? How long used?

Started for liver health. Hoping it will help me after quitting alcohol to fix elevated liver enzymes. 🙂🤞

Please share what did yous noticed when using it and uprate others. 🙂

Have a wonderful day everyone. 🙂🌞

I’m usually regular but have been having issues lately so I got some magnesium citrate. I took the two soft gels for 250mg total and it worked but since I’m usually okay, would a half dose daily be okay to keep me regular (for cost saving)?

Llevo 2 años tomando grandes cantidades de l teanina en cápsulas, me di cuenta que contienen dióxido de silicio, el cual está vinculado a problemas de salud, ya que estas partículas de silicio usadas en suplementos son mucho más pequeñas que las podrias encontrar en la naturaleza o alimentos, lo cual puede inflamar y atravesar el intestino, atravesar la barrera hematoencefalica, causar daño neuronal, reducir neurogenesis entre otros problemas raros como enfermedades autoimmunes...

Esto me tiene muy preocupado ya que he consumido cantidades muy grandes de suplementos con este ingrediente...

Por eso preferí suspender todos los suplementos qué contengan este ingrediente.

¿Qué opinan, estoy exagerando?

For two full years, I suffered from a clinically confirmed magnesium deficiency with relentless body-wide muscle twitching and constant eyelid spasms.
Like everyone else, I trusted the social media "health gurus" and internet doctors who demonize Magnesium Oxide as "useless chalk with 4% absorption." So I spent two years—and a small fortune—taking 600 mg of pure elemental magnesium daily (split into three 200 mg doses), rotating between the hyped forms: Bisglycinate, Malate, and Citrate.
The result after 2 years? Almost zero relief. My muscles kept twitching non-stop.
Out of sheer frustration, I switched to cheap Magnesium Oxide with a Depot (extended-release) effect (500 mg elemental Mg, twice a day). Within just 30 days, my eyelid spasms and muscle twitching vanished. Zero laxative effect, zero GI issues. What two years of "premium" supplements failed to do, Magnesium Oxide achieved in one month.
This experience completely changed how I view the supplement industry, and here is my theory on what’s really happening:
The "Glycine Illusion" in Bisglycinate: Why do so many people rave about Magnesium Bisglycinate helping them relax and sleep immediately? My theory is that they are feeling the amino acid Glycine, NOT the magnesium! Because Bisglycinate is only ~14% magnesium by weight, taking a 400 mg dose of elemental Mg means you are swallowing nearly 2,500–3,000 mg of pure Glycine. Glycine is an inhibitory neurotransmitter known to lower core body temperature and induce sleep. People think they are fixing their magnesium deficiency, when in reality, they're just taking an overpriced glycine sleep aid while their actual magnesium stores remain starved.
Fast Absorption = Fast Kidney Flushing: Organic forms absorb rapidly and cause a sudden spike of magnesium in the blood. The kidneys detect this sudden spike, assume there's an excess, and flush most of it into the urine before your slow-moving cellular channels can actually pull it inside the muscles.
Why Oxide + Depot Wins: Magnesium Oxide is a massive 60% elemental magnesium by weight. Because it dissolves slowly inside a Depot tablet, it acts like a 24-hour micro-infusion pump—trickling pure magnesium ions steadily into the bloodstream without triggering the kidneys to dump it.
I honestly regret wasting two years of my health and money listening to influencers who push 10x overpriced chelates for affiliate commissions while demonizing dirt-cheap Magnesium Oxide.
Has anyone else ditched the hyped forms for Magnesium Oxide and finally seen real results?

Omega 3, multi vitamin, L-Theanine in the morning

Vitamin D3+K2 and Magnesium at night

I (23F) had very low B12 a few months ago and my gastroscopy showed signs of atrophic gastritis without H. pylori.

These are the ones I take now:
1 mg cyanocobalamin (B12) every day - which is by doctor’s recommendations

20 mcg vitamin D every day

25 mg iron bisglycinate every second day

B-complex supplement every day:
Thiamine (B1) 50 mg (4545%)
Riboflavin (B2) 50 mg (3572%)
Niacin (B3) 50 mg (313%)
Pantothenic acid (B5) 50 mg (833%)
Vitamin B6 12 mg (857%)
Biotin (B7) 75 µg (150%)
Folate (B9) 400 µg (200%)
Vitamin B12 100 µg (4000%)
Inositol 100 mg (*)
Choline 50 mg (*)

These above help me a lot, but I still feel fatigued. Yes, I am aware I need B12-injections, but my doctor won’t prescribe it to me, so that’s an ongoing fight. Except for these supplements, what would you recommend I take?

I bought a mineral complex supplement containing this that I haven’t tried yet:
Magnesium 100 mg (27%)
Potassium 200 mg (10%)
Calcium 100 mg (13%)
Zinc 20 mg (200%)
Manganese 4 mg (200%)
Selenium 100 μg (182%)
Boron 2 mg
Copper 2 mg (200%)
Chromium 200 μg (500%)
Iodine 100 μg (67%)
Molybdenum 50 μg (100%)

Does it look good, or is it potentially unnecessary or even harmful?

Anything else you think I would need for my condition? Maybe creatine?

I would be very grateful for any advice!

Did a deep dive on three popular buys and the gap between the label and the research was wild.

1. Testosterone boosters. Tribulus is the flagship ingredient in half these bottles. Ten clinical trials, eight showed zero change in testosterone. D-aspartic acid had a three-month trial in trained lifters: no change in testosterone, no change in strength.

2. Ashwagandha that doesn't name the plant part. India banned the manufacture of ashwagandha leaf products in April (the leaf concentrates withaferin A, tied to liver injury case reports). Most US labels just say "ashwagandha extract" with no plant part. If it doesn't say root, you don't know which half of the plant you got.

3. Plain creatine monohydrate. The boring one wins. Five grams a day does the job. Fun detail: the famous carb-plus-ALA creatine study used 1,000mg of ALA a day; the commercial tub built on it gives about 400mg in the loading phase. The research was real, the dose wasn't…

Verdicts: 1 and 2 are a waste of a training year, 3 is worth it. What would you add to the waste list?

What would it be called ?

It could be sponsored by supplment companies like Micro Encapsulations , health food markets like sprouts , wholefoods. thrive , erwhon etc , promoted by dr Rhonda patrick , hubberman , stanfield , etc

Hinge and bumble should have this as a filter option.

Idk whatta u think ?

I have been taking 200mg of l-theanine for quite some time and it has worked well for me. I’ve had a few things going on in my life and I also started having a drink that contains another 132mg of l-theanine to relax at night, which brings my total amount up to 332mg. I have felt quite flat and emotionally numb over the last four days and I’m trying to figure out if it could be the extra l-theanine. Is that a possibility?

I was at Vitamin Shoppe today as I ran out of protein powder and the brand I usually get is Bucked Up. The price is now $75.99 for their 2.5lb container instead of the usual $54.99 and it wasn't even on sale. I ended going with Ghost Coco Puffs, their 2.5lb container which was $54.99. Their 5lb container was $99.99 for their Cinnabon flavor. I get they're not Optimum Nutrition which is usually the cheap brand of fitness supplements but still.

I’ve been struggling with constipation for quite some time, managing it with kiwis, dried prunes, and occasional mild laxatives, particularly when travelling.
However, I had abdominal surgery last month, and since then, my bowel movements have changed. My usual routine is no longer working, and I’ve already had one episode of fecal impaction that landed me in the ER. It was a horrible experience!
Folks, please suggest something that helps keep me regular without causing dependency. I’ve also lost my ability to strain (which I was apparently very good at before surgery! ). Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Note: Milk of Magnesia is not available where I am.

Has anyone ever had severe gastric problems from a protein shake? I had one protein shake and had severe gastric problems pains and diarrhea for 2 days! Help

Did one or the other work better for you?

Can they be taken together or not?

I’m on several prescriptions for anxiety and depression but still suffering debilitating anxiety while my depression mostly contained.

I am a relatively in shape 45 year old male that has decent blood pressure at home and when relaxed but noticed if i stop at blood pressure machines at stores or have had a day in the office my blood pressure takes a while to come down.

any recommendations to prevent this? i take magnesium coq10

Hi I've been down a loophole of what supplements can help with Anxiety & racing thoughts?

I've been looking at Reddit posts that talk about:

• Ashwaghanda
• NAC
• Inositol
• Sulforaphane

I've tried Ashwaghanda and it has genuinely helped me with anxiety and energy and I genuinely felt a lot happier in the short time that I took it. It also gave me an itchy scalp, very vivid dreams, and if it I took it too many days in a row a numbness in my hands and legs.

I've tried NAC but it does make me a bit nauseous, spikes my tinnitus, and I'm finding hasn't really helped with anxiety at all.

Can anyone comment on these supplements, what I should take and if anything has made a real difference for them?

I’m pretty sure I have pmdd, have been tracking my cycle for almost two years now.

However clinical medicine prescribed by my psychiatrist haven’t helped much so I decided to switch to a more holistic approach.

I’m already anemic so I started with the basic supplements like blood builders (b9 + b12 included) glutamine, vitamin c, magnesium glycinate.

I have seen changes recently however I’m curious as to what has helped you feel better during your pmdd phase or luteal phase. Certain supplements? Habits? Anything else? I wanna know!