Are you paying for really expensive pee?

This was a quote that I got from someone about 20 years older than me that is incredibly active for someone nearing 70 years of age.

Someone close to her recently had some health issues and in addition to the recommended actual medicine that doctors prescribe, this friend also started taking a relative mountain of supplements as was advised by another friend who really believes in that sort of thing.

I'm not a doctor and I don't pretend to have any sort of insider knowledge about this sort of thing, but I do believe that the supplement industry is mostly completely full of crap and they take advantage of the fact that their industry is unregulated and they can make almost any claims that they want on their products.

A lot of influencers are paid to back up these claims with even the top podcast makers in the world like Joe Rogan claiming that this supplement and that one are something that they take every day and it "changed their life." They try to word it like they discovered this product by accident and they really like it but in reality they are being paid millions of dollars to mention it during their shows.

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She brought up the "really expensive pee" reference when she was talking to her own doctor about various supplements and the doctor was supportive and not dismissive about the products but did mention that there are no studies other than the ones that the various supplements conducted themselves that indicate that a vast majority of supplements actually do anything at all.

They certainly don't do most of the things that various influencers will claim and I think that this is just something that most of us should just accept as fact: influencers have to make money somehow and one of the best ways for them to do this is to make claims that cannot be confirmed or denied. If you like Joe Rogan you may start to think that he is just a straight shooter and if he vouches for a product it must be good. We really need to take the blinders off and realize that if someone is paid to say something, there is a good chance that their statements could be lies. This is even worse for lower-level influence-seekers who will take the money from anyone who comes along.

For me, I don't really use any supplements but I do take multi-vitamins. I do this because they are cheap and if it does do nothing at all, then not much is lost. But I do know people that guy some majestically expensive supplements that has zero study behind it to suggest that it actually does anything at all.

Like the above picture suggests, it would be ideal to get all of your nutrition from actual food but not all of us have the time or resources (or even access to those foods) that would make this possible.

I will say but not get into too much detail about how my urine color changes a great deal when I am off the multi-vitamins for just a few days.

I take protein supplements on the days where I cannot get enough protein and i used to take creatine for years and thought it did something, but then again I was also lifting more than I ever did at any other point in my life then so was I getting bigger and stronger because of the creatine? Or what that just going to happen anyway because i was lifting so much?

There are a lot of lies in the fitness world and manufacturers are mostly allowed to say anything that they want. There are strict regulations on them not being allowed to say that it prevents any disease especially not cancer, but other than that they can basically say whatever they want. Then they will show some complicated charts that indicate that what they are saying is true. Understand this though: These "studies" for the most part were funded by the manufacturer of the actual product and when that is the case, almost always the scientists or lab people are going to do whatever it takes to make the statements appear true... which is the opposite of science.

I think that having a few supplements is ok, but any statements made by the manufacturer or the celebrities endorsing them, should be seriously questioned and perhaps presumed to be false.

If you don't believe me you can look up studies that have been done by independent hospitals and labs, most of which are esteemed teaching hospitals, and how a majority of the conclusions they come to is that almost all supplements are a waste of time and money, especially for people that are otherwise healthy.

It may make you happy that caffeine is shown to offer about as much health benefit as most supplements you can buy in a vitamin store. coffee for the win!