In order to understand what supplements you really need to be taking, you should be focusing first on health (immune system) and second on performance, PERIOD, end of story. I’m not saying that you should spend the majority of your budget on “healthy supplements.” I’m saying that you should not bother with expensive performance supplements unless you have you health in good order FIRST. Luckily Biotest does a pretty good job of generalized health supplements, but they may not address all of an individualâ??s health concerns.
Consider this: Health issues will set you back to some degree at some point in your training career, but it’s attention you pay to your health before hand and during the set back that allows you to bounce back. I don’t want to make any health claims, but if you have a properly functioning immune system in the first place, you will undoubtedly be able to train harder and longer, injury and illness free.
That means that you have to address both genetic factors (think about what ailments your parents/siblings/aunts/uncles/grandparents to give you a good idea of your immune system), current environmental factors like holes in your diet (vitamin/mineral deficiency, lack of certain fatty acids, etc), stress, the toll that your exposure to environmental toxins plays, stress level, and past environmental factors like having holes in your diet for a lengthy period of time, or being on a certain medication/drugs/alcohol/environmental toxins for a long period of time, or having a medical condition (treated or otherwise) that has persisted for a long time.
Determining what this all means and how to apply it for you is quite challenging and I’ll leave that up to you. Figuring out which performance supplements to take is a hard enough process, as there are so many out there, with 2/3 being bogus, but finding the right mix of health supplements to take is even more challenging because that is less than a one size fits all process. It can be extremely challenging, and may take some people a lifetime to accomplish, and sadly many people never do figure it out. I’m not going to get into the debate about increasing disease rates or anything like that, but let me just say that most people experience a good amount of treatable problems in their life and they choose to simply life with those issues. With the right knowledge, the immune system can be strengthened and MAY help you with being able to avoid certain recurring symptoms and or diseases. This statement is not intended to treat or cure any disease (haha - how could it), but I also do not intend for any of my advice here to suggest that any of my supplement recommendations could possibly treat or cure any disease. If you did happen to use this info to help yourself to live a better healthier life, maybe you could avoid (not treat) certain issues/symptoms. Things like addressing inflammation (fish oil) for example are one well known means to supporting a well functioning body.
While finding the magical performance enhancing products that are reliable and well priced is hard to find, but certain products usually work well across the board (for all people). This would include products like creatine and caffeine. 95% or so of people that take those products will get great results, but this is IF AND ONLY IF (IFF from geometry :D) they have their health in order. This is not a performance enhancing supplements article so I’ll leave it at that.
Which supplements do you really need? Which ones do I need? Are they the same? Really? In the following paragraphs I’ll discuss what I’ve found to work well for me. This does not mean that I have found the best supplements to take so don’t simply rely on my list as a cookie cutter approach because it’s not entirely a cookie cutter process. You might not be benefitted from taking some of the things I take, and vice versa, but there are also things like fish oil and vitamin D that will help just about everyone under the sun (or not under the sun as it may be).
My personal list (of healthy supplements at least) would focus on things that keep my immune system healthy and mobilizing it against disease because I have a TH2 dominant/TH2 overactive immune system (google it. This could just be due to TH1 cells being depleted of glutathione, but I’m qualified to guess at the reason, I’m just going to address it.). If you want more info on this google it or find it discussed here: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FDN/is_3_8/ai_107835434/pg_11/?tag=content;col1
Although I didn’t know much about them until recently, immunomodulators such as mushroom extracts are now of significant importance to me and my issues 
Also important in my supplement repertoire (and I’m paraphrasing this from an article) are "fish oils, vitamin C (mostly from foods and my multi as I don’t mega dose), glutathione and glutathione boosters (NAC, ALA, selenium, etc), and other antioxidants, minerals and other things like probiotics, as well as numerous plant extracts can further enhance immune cell functionality…
In managing immune hypofunction or other dysfunction, it is crucial to manage all forms of stress. Rooks reported diverse stressors, including sleep deprivation, calorie restriction, excessive exercise, examination stress, and cardiopulmonary bypass surgery, down-regulate Th1 and up-regulate Th2 activity. (95) These effects are mediated mainly by glucocorticoids, but also by the catecholamine hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine. (92) As heroic efforts to tailor technological immune therapies go forward, the best immune intervention tools continue to be lifestyle modification, vitamins, minerals, orthomolecules, and selected nontoxic phytotherapies." http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FDN/is_3_8/ai_107835434/
The data I gleaned from this article (keep in mind that I added and deleted some text from the above quote) supports the supplements that I have grown dependent on to manage my immune issues.
My supplement list has to first focus on health before performance because of the issues I have (read this article if you want to know more about immune regulation: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FDN/is_3_8/ai_107835434/ )
The following due to their effect on TH2 dominance as they increase TH1 and thereby improve antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal resistance (if you are TH2 dominant, they will not make you a super-immune person if you are already are not TH2 dominant):
(there’s no order to these as they are all important)
medicinal mushrooms (hands down - I will take)
selenium (I will now start taking after reading this article)
zinc (already take but will make sure I get it in every day)
beta-sitosterol (will start to take after reading this article because it’s pretty cheap)
probiotics (which I will start taking again due to this article
glutathione (maybe I need to do more research on if it’s at all beneficial to directly supplement with this or if I should be taking just glutathione boosters)
glutathione boosting products like R-ALA and NAC (and selenium which was already mentioned).
I won’t take but will also help with TH2 dominance: melatonin (if aging which I am not so I will not take this on a regular basis although i do have some lying around), DHEA (if aging or progression of rheumatoid arthritis, which I do not have so I will not likely take this).
These I will also take for sure: Also for non specific anti-inflammatory or other health boosting benefits (some were covered in the article and others were not): GLA!!! (for its ability to mop up inflammation byproducts), Fish OiL!!! and the other fatty acids like those in FA3, Vit D, adaptogenic herbs like rhodiola rosea, Superfood, curcumin, and rezveratrol.
Also I’ll take a half dose of a quality multi, drink plenty of green tea, take Z-12, Alpha-GPC, I’m sure there are a bunch more that I’m missing, and then there’s my performance boosting supps as well. Of course these recommendations are difficult and must further be added to a healthy diet and lifestyle, as boring as that sounds, but the info above is what it is. Healthy might be boring but it sure feels good. I’ll post everything I take some other time or perhaps I can PM it to you if anyone is interested.
Stay Bulletproof,
BT