A supplement by geeks, for geeks?
A while back, I received one of those ubiquitous “So-and-So is now following your tweets on Twitter” notifications. These tend to be of three distinct types: friends of mine, people who’ve seen something I’ve said that’s been retweeted by someone else, and social media marketing spam accounts. However, this particular item didn’t fall into any of those buckets.
Supplement-IT is the Twitter presence for a supplement made by, and aimed at, computer professionals. As the folks behind it said, “We started in the IT and banking industry by day [Coincidentally, so do Mike and I], but are trying to get the Supplement biz off the ground so we can one day escape cubicle life. It is this motivation that spawned the idea of Supplement-IT in the beginning.”
As someone who enjoys the world beyond my beige employment box rather more than the world inside it, I grok their attitude in fullness. I still have no idea how they found me, but after a brief correspondence, they sent your intrepid away team samples of their product for us to try.
Is it merely Snake Oil, or is there actually something to their claims? Read on to find out.
What’s it purported to do? Given the rundown of active ingredients, their claim that it “was conceived [as] a healthy way to maintain mental and physical performance during the long days and nights of the technology industry. Today’s techs are being asked to do more with more and less with less. Supplement-IT was designed to help maintain mental clarity, health, and energy” seems both ambitious and straightforward. How well does it succeed?
In my case, the answer was nearly immediate – it absolutely delivered. Within the first couple of days, I felt more alert and less stressed out, which improved my performance at the office, both objectively and subjectively. Once I used up my sample, it did take a couple days to fade back to my usual baseline attitude, but it was definitely noticeable to me, both in terms of generally feeling less sharp, and slightly more apt to get sympathetic sinus pain when my better half came down with some kind of creeping crud – when that had happened during the trial period, I had been pretty much unfazed.
On the other hand, Mike didn’t report any effects whatsoever, and ended up giving me his leftovers.
On the third hand, it’s hard to buy gloves. No, wait, that’s not right.
Krys had an unexpectedly terrible reaction to them. Acute nausea is nobody’s idea of a good time. When we brought this up to Abbie and Matt (the folks who came up with the supplement), they were stunned, but also incredibly quick to research any potential causes, going so far as to share information about the source of each ingredient with us, in case there was a potential for any of them to be the underlying cause. Their immediate and sincere concern, even if we’re all still uncertain about the root of the problem, was great to see.
This is precisely why we tell everyone to check with their doctor before taking stuff, folks.
As far as the ingredients themselves, here’s the run-down, with my remarks appended to each.
An immune system’s best friend. Beta-Glucans are found in plants, baker’s yeast, fungi, bacteria, and the bran of cereal grains.
Rafe: This is a new one to me, so I did some research and link-chasing, and, impressively, the links on the manufacturer’s site go to the same links that caught my attention when I hit Google. I don’t have the chops to parse all of betaglucan.org’s clinical jargon, but the gist of it seems to be that this stuff has your immune system primed for action. I guess it makes sure everything is off cooldown, the day’s healing spells have been studied, and you’re generally ready to deal with a Zerg rush.
Citicoline may assist with concentration, energy, optimal neural function, cognition, and healthy brain aging.
Rafe: This was also a relatively new one to me. Among the ancillary benefits listed was “slightly enhance vision.” I was remarking to Mike last week (at the office) that I haven’t had to wear my glasses for quite a while (staring at LCDs all day, and reading for pleasure, especially in sub-optimal lighting, is pretty much my MO when I’m not commuting or exercising), and I’m wondering if this might be part of the reason why. I couldn’t say if it’s made my brains any younger or spicier, and am not too keen to have it taste-tested to find out. Sorry, zombies.
A naturally occurring carotenoid found in spinach, kale, other green leafy vegetables, egg yolks, and animal fats.
Rafe: More goodness for the eyes and skin, along with a big dollop of anti-oxidant goodness. I’m not sure if I can accurately judge the efficacy of the improvement of the skin, as I tend to be kind of inobservant of that kind of stuff. However, since I took the last month off from lifting weights, my callouses did disappear rather faster than they had previously. Nobody’s going to mistake me for an Oil of Olay spokesmodel on the best of days, anyway.
An antioxidant that supports mental alertness, concentration, work performance, and attention to detail.
Rafe: More anti-oxidants, along with some anti-inflammatory properties. Since inflammation is one of the most chronic problems going (due to stress, overuse injury, and sometimes even low-grade food allergies), anything that helps abate this is good by me.
Rhodiola Rosea (also known as Golden Root)
Helps fight stress, anxiety, and depression to lighten your mood.
Rafe: An herbal trigger for the production and release of the feel-good brain juices serotonin and dopamine. Definitely a keeper, though if you’re taking any SSRIs or similar medications, this would probably be the one ingredient you’d most want to speak with your pharmacist or medical practitioner about.
Research has shown that Theanine may stimulate alpha waves in the brain.
Rafe: While I don’t know enough about alpha, beta, and gamma waves to comment on that, the biochemistry – stimulation and support of calming amino acids, such as dopamine, GABA (gamma-Aminobutyric acid), and tryptophan – is an endocrine cocktail for a sigh of relaxation. GABA is also a precursor to some of the chemicals that may help workout performance, too, which is definitely a plus in my book.
Vitamin D and E, to aid IT workers [and other sun-averse types] who are deprived of sunlight.
Rafe: I am a big fan of Vitamin D supplementing for several reasons, since a lot of us are chronically deficient – we go from home to car to office to car to home without getting the fifteen or twenty minutes’ exposure to the sun we need to manufacture our own D3. It’s also great for improving energy and strength/endurance (which is primarily why I take it as a standalone supplement). There is also a body of research that shows that having enough of it can help lessen the symptoms of depression – whether chronic or seasonal – as well as generally stabilize your mood. Vitamin E is also good for your skin, which will help offset any damage you might get from the aforementioned solar exposure, too.
At the end of the day, my penchant for taking a whole bevy of stuff in capsules is something of a running joke around here – from prescriptions to multivitamins to workout support supplements – meant that adding one more in the morning and after work wasn’t exactly a big deal. Mike and Krys are a lot more normal in terms of their regimen, so one capsule twice a day was a bit more of a change in routine. Obviously, your mileage will vary when it comes to the stuff you are or are not taking.
The bottom line? We had one “hell yeah,” one “meh,” and one “hell no.” If Supplement-IT works for you, it really works. If it doesn’t, chances are much more likely that you’ll have Mike’s non-response than Krys’ adverse one.
We’d like to thank Abbie and Matt for hooking us up with the review samples, as well as being generally and genuinely excellent human beings when we had issues with their product.
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[...] other news, my review of Supplement-IT is up over at SG. I found it to be fairly excellent, though my partners in crime [...]