Why Multivitamins?

< Full Episode

Transcript: Why Multivitamins?

Season 9, Episode 6  | October 8, 2024

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David Freeman

Welcome back to another episode of Life Time Talks. I’m David Freeman.

Jamie Martin

And I’m Jamie Martin.

David Freeman

And today’s topic is about why taking a multivitamin matters. And knowing that we have a lot of what we eat in our healthy diet, a multivitamin is still an important nutrition regimen. We have minerals and vitamins within our foods, and it can be super confusing to know what to take and when to take it and what options are out there for us. So in this mini episode, we’ll cover why a multivitamin is essential for nearly everyone and why and how to identify a quality supplement. And we have a special guest might be new for some of y’all or am I just joking around with that, Jamie? Who do we got back?

Jamie Martin

I think you’re joking around a little bit. Might be new for those first time listeners. We have back with us Samantha McKinney, who is the national program manager for nutrition, metabolism and weight loss at Life Time. She’s been with Life Time for 13 years in multiple roles and is currently on the team that leads nutrition programs and supplements for Life Time members helping them optimize their metabolism and results from the inside out. Sam, welcome back to Life Time Talks.

Sam McKinney

As always, thank you for having me. I love joining you guys. This is fun.

David Freeman

Alright, Sam, we’re going to jump right into it. Being this a mini episode, let’s start with the basics. What is a multivitamin and what type of vitamins and minerals are included in it?

Sam McKinney

Sure, yeah. So, I mean, it varies across the industry, right? But kind of in the most simple terms, a multivitamin is a supplement that provides daily vitamins and minerals, or in other words, micronutrients. We always hear about macronutrients. It’s important to balance your macros, your calories. Those are like calorie-containing nutrients. Multivitamins don’t contain calories, but they contain essential nutrients, meaning you have to obtain them from the diet in order for your body to function. So one of the ways I usually present it to people is I say, hey, whenever it comes to health, overall nutrient density, how to balance your diet. You need your macros, your calories and the right balance from the right sources. And you need your micros, your vitamins and minerals together. And I use the analogy all the time of macronutrients are like fuel for the car and the micronutrients or vitamins and minerals are like the engine parts. So a multivitamin is essentially kind of a catch all, fill in the gaps micronutrient supplement. So kind of a starter supplement.

Jamie Martin

At Life Time, one of the things that you and the team often talk about is how multivitamins are part of what we call the foundational five. Why is this so essential for health for everybody?

Sam McKinney

Yes. I mean, there are so many different reasons to consider a multivitamin. I would say, I mean, first and foremost, if we’re all really honest with ourselves, we’re probably not eating exactly stellar or the best like we should on a day-to-day basis, right?

I don’t even think I’d be able to raise my hand to the question of, yesterday did you eat nine to 12 cups of produce? I probably did OK, but I can’t consistently say I’m getting over nine. And I think most people would relate to that. Or, hey, without an intentional strategy, are you getting enough protein in your diet and the nutrients associated with protein, right? So the reality is, is most of us aren’t eating optimally the way that we should every single day.

 

Secondly, our produce and our soils are depleted, so they don’t contain the same amount of nutrients that maybe our grandparents or great-grandparents got, even if the diet that they’re eating visually looks the same. So again, a little bit more micronutrient depleted, even though the foods might visually be the same foods. But I would argue that they’re probably not even visually the same foods.

And the next one is we are under different stressors nowadays that increase our nutrient demands. A lot of us are chronically stressed out. We’re probably not moving our bodies the way that we should on a regular basis. There might be a lack of sleep as well. Plus we place a lot of added demands on our body from medications that we might be taking or even just living in today’s society with pollution and exposure to cumulative environmental pollutants and toxins. I know sometimes people kind of turn up their nose to that idea, but the reality is we’re exposed to more chemicals in the environment than we ever have. And I’m not just talking pesticides and herbicides. I’m talking about what’s in our air, what’s in our water, what’s the off gassing from furniture and new cars and new construction, what beauty products you’re using, what cleaning products you’re using, what’s being used at your place of employment.

It’s like all of this together, our bodies are resilient, but they require vitamins and minerals to go through the natural processes of detoxification, the natural processes of hormone production and hormone excretion. So it’s literally like when we say the word metabolism, our metabolism relies on these critical vitamins and minerals. So the increased need is there, the usage is there. And so sometimes just adding in a consistent daily support to cover some foundational basis can be super transformational.

And I will also say sometimes people, they’re always looking for the best supplement plan. And I don’t know what it is psychologically, but I find that people are like, yeah, yeah, yeah, multivitamins, but what else should I take? I’m like, no, this is like your kind of catch all like killing so many birds with one stone supplement. Like don’t skip over this. It has a lot of power and it has a lot of potential to help too.

David Freeman

Let’s dive right into that. So you just spoke to why you should be taking the multivitamin, but what are some of the benefits, right? So when we look at, yeah, just take it. We know why I should take it. That was a great tee up, but let’s talk about what some of the benefits are behind taking the multivitamin.

Sam McKinney

Yeah, it’ll vary a little bit from person to person, quite honestly. And it depends on like, of course, you can customize it and really tailor and start assessing specific nutrient efficiencies and specific people and replete those. I’m not saying don’t do that. What I am saying is, for most people, this is a general kind of foundational support, can be helpful not only for your metabolism, but what I would say is like energy levels, right? So I find so many people complain, gosh, I just wish I had more energy. Well, your body, yes, you need calories for that, but in order for your body to actually convert the calories from food into energy, you need micronutrients. So why don’t we at least start with that? And most people notice a pretty marked increase or at least a stabilizing of their energy levels when they’re consistently taking a multivitamin.

The other thing, as long as it’s a well formulated multivitamin, and I’m sure we’ll get into the details there, people oftentimes notice that they’re not catching every little bug that they’re exposed to. Their body’s a little bit more resilient. Their immune system is functioning the right way.

I have even seen changes on blood work in people with their hormone levels consistently taking a multivitamin. So for example, in males, I think we can all appreciate there’s almost this epidemic of low testosterone going on. And while that can be complex, there’s a lot of reasons for that. What a lot of people don’t realize is that vitamin D, magnesium, and zinc, those are all rate-limiting nutrients and testosterone production. So what I mean by that is if a male is low in any one of those, his testosterone is going to be lower than it should be. So if he’s deficient, just repleting those can help, right? And women, thyroid conditions are really rampant right now too. And if you start to look at the nutrients needed for basic thyroid hormone production and conversion, we’re talking iodine, we’re talking selenium, we’re talking zinc. So just repleting and maintaining good levels of those can really help with a lot of the downstream things that we’re almost trying to play whack-a-mole with, right?

Whenever it comes to trying to like kind of treat and address separately when it’s like, hey, do you have kind of home base covered? Are you at least taking a quality, well put together, well absorbable multivitamin to help with all of these metabolic processes?

So the answer to your question different for everybody, but as generic as it sounds is you should feel better, right? Like you should feel better and you should notice if you miss a couple of days, right? Like you should be able to feel like, gosh, I’m kind of like dragging a little bit or I’m not feeling quite like myself. And that’s a sign that your multivitamin is a good one.

David Freeman

Recap, hold on, so I want to make sure to recap that as far as what you just said. So energy levels, hormone benefits, and just overall general feeling. Or was it one more? I want to make sure we get the master of three. Immune function, right?

Sam McKinney

And so all of these are complex, right? A multivitamin is not going to solve all your problems. I don’t want to necessarily make that claim. But what I will say is when you’re taking a high-quality multivitamin, you should feel a difference in your energy, right? Like your energy level should be better. You should feel like your immune system’s a little bit more resilient to things that you’re exposed to, that you’re not constantly down and out and sick, right? Especially kind of headed into winter or flu season. Ideally, your hormones should be balanced. Again, that’s a whole symphony, and I know we’ve got different episodes and content on hormone balance in particular, but nutrient sufficiency is like top priority there. You there are a lot of people walking around with messed up hormones because of their nutrient status, right? That’s not everybody, but it’s some people, so their hormones should be more balanced.

So . . . and the tricky thing is, is that it’s not like you’re going to feel this euphoric high, right, taking a multivitamin. A multivitamin is sort of that catch-all insurance policy for your nutrition to hopefully get you to where you optimally should have been feeling all along, right? Most people don’t realize how bad they feel every day. They lived with it for years and years and years. And so they think that’s normal. So then just repleting themselves up to a place where their body just should have been at baseline, it’s such a marked difference that they’re like, I feel great. Yeah, but you’re not going feel like a stimulant effect, if that makes sense. But you should feel different, especially if you headed into it nutrient depleted.

Jamie Martin

Well, and it’s not like you’re getting a cup of coffee and you’re not feeling the difference with caffeine, like you would maybe with caffeine if you’re more sensitive to it. But this is something that when you consistently, and I’d love for you to talk about what consistently means because I know I will fully admit I am the most inconsistent probably with my multivitamin compared to all the other things that I do because I generally think of myself as a healthy eater. Why is the consistency such an important aspect with this?

Sam McKinney

Yeah, so a couple of things. Number one is if you look at how many people are on medications, and those are typically taken consistently and daily. And I know that a whole separate topic could be medication overuse or not. It doesn’t matter. Let’s say you’re on a medication, whether it’s medically necessary or maybe it’s something that could be addressed elsewhere. There are real documented nutrient depletions that are associated with medical conditions. So for example, even oral contraceptives, birth control, it’s so prevalent, zaps people of B vitamins. If you start talking about medications for mood, example, like riboflavin and B6, those get zapped. Anybody under chronic stress, your magnesium, your chromium, your zinc gets zapped. When those are low, when magnesium’s low, you’re gonna have food cravings you’re gonna have muscle tightness. When chromium’s low, you’re probably gonna want more sugar. If your zinc is low, you’re going to catch every bug that comes around. And if you’re a male, your testosterone is going to drop.

So it’s sort of like, why take it consistently? Well, because we’re consistently under these situations and these circumstances that demand nutrients in our body. And most of us aren’t foraging for three meals a day in our backyard, fresh picking produce, right? And eating kind of like fresh meat and poultry and eggs all day. We’re kind of eating on the run, right? And we might forget lunch sometimes or we might grab something convenient wise. It’s not like you have to be maniacal and it’s like a huge deal if you miss a day, but you should be hitting it 80 or 90% of the time to just kind of keep that nutrient status and that metabolism humming the way that it should, right. And I mean, beyond calorie burn for metabolism. By metabolism I mean, metabolic functioning, right? Day to day important machinery for your body to go.

David Freeman

This is a question that we usually pose a lot on here and I think is warranted for many reasons. When you think about multivitamins, we hear about it. It’s talked about. You can walk through stores and there’s so many different options out there. When we think of our multivitamin and what separates us from the rest of the industry, I know a lot of times we go to the ingredients, but how do we actually know from an optimization standpoint, the absorption of what it is that we’re taking and making sure that it actually is being taken and received by our body? And I know you said earlier, you should have a different feeling, so on and so forth. But can you dive into what kind of separates us from the rest of the industry when it comes to our Life Time multivitamin?

Sam McKinney

I’m glad you brought that up because I think sometimes and you know, I don’t have to name any specific names that people hear like a multivitamin. There’s usually like two or three really common brands that have been around for decades that people, you know, might think of. But whenever it comes to actually separating yourself from the pack to make sure that what you’re producing has a metabolic impact and it’s effective and you feel good, there are about 10,000 different steps that you have to do to make sure that multivitamin gets there. So for example, let’s just talk from like an ingredient selection standpoint, right? When you’re looking at the ingredients, probably the easiest thing to look for in a label is whether or not a multivitamin contains a folic acid or a methylated folate. And I know we’ve talked about this before, but I’m not going to propose and say, folic acid is dangerous. I’m not saying that. I’m not saying it’s detrimental, but it needs to get activated in your body to get put to use. And there’s a lot of people that have trouble with that pathway of methylation. They have different genetic predispositions that might impact their conversion of folic acid to the most active form. And so there are better options out there. There’s like a methylated folate. It’s already activated. Your body can use it. It’s more expensive to use. So a lot of companies won’t do that. They’ll just kind of do the synthetic cheaper form.

A really analogous explanation applies to vitamin B12. So you’re looking at vitamin B12, a cheap synthetic form of vitamin B12 is called cyanocobalamin. Your body has to go through that process called methylation to activate it and use it. A lot of people have problem doing that. So using a methylated B12, like a methylcobalamin, it’s a more expensive raw ingredient, but it’s a more, I would say usable and effective one, right, from an absorption standpoint. So we only do that.

There’s another comparison with vitamin B6, right? Like if you’re looking at vitamin B6, you want something called a P5P form. A lot of them don’t have. there’s all these different things to look for. So it’s not like every synthetic nutrient is bad, but there are certain key call outs, like the kind of the three I just mentioned, that is like, you really do want to look for the more activated, absorbable, usable one, but just know that those raw ingredients are more expensive. When you’re looking at minerals, because when we say multivitamin, we really mean a multivitamin, multi-mineral supplement. A lot of companies use forms of minerals that are not really that absorbable. Minerals are kind of hard to absorb. And so if you’re using like mineral oxide or mineral salt, that’s cheap. And that you can kind of see that on a label, your body can’t really utilize that super well. What you want to look for whenever it comes to minerals is mineral chelates. And so essentially what that means is they’re wrapped in amino acids. And so they’re more absorbable through the gut lining. So we only use mineral chelates at Life Time, right? So that’s another example.

Then when you start looking at the actual process beyond ingredient selection is how stringent are you? So for example, with our multivitamins, there’s 11 different systems that a raw ingredient supplier has to go through before we even approve them. Then once we get them approved as a raw ingredient supplier, once they get to the manufacturing site, they’re quarantined and tested for purity, contamination, strength. Essentially, we’re making sure that we actually got what we ordered, right?

Then once it’s on the manufacturing line, because dosing is everything, there’s a lot of companies out there that microdose in the industry, we like to call it pixie dusting. They microdose these vitamins and minerals to make flashy label claims, but they’re not actually at research-backed doses that are gonna make a meaningful difference for your body and how it functions. So for us, we not only formulate it to have very specific amounts across the three different multivitamin products that we have, but during the manufacturing, they’re weighed every five minutes to make sure dosing accuracy is maintained. So again, it’s super stringent.

And then the final products, they go through extensive testing to make sure that what’s on the label matches in the bottle. And then to secure that even more, they get shipped out to a third party to also verify. So you can see it’s a pretty, we don’t take multivitamins lightly. We’re in serious multivitamin business here. We want to make sure that it’s actually effective, it’s usable, and it’s helping the customer that’s taking it. That’s essentially what our priority is. That’s what makes us different.

And then I guess the last thing that’s probably the most easy to see is just visually is our delivery format. We have powder-filled capsules as opposed to doing multivitamin tablets or gummies because tablets and gummies, if you think about all the different constituents in a multivitamin, you almost always have to use some sort of artificial ingredient, binder, tar, filler, something to hold those together. Well, your body has trouble breaking that down. So it oftentimes can go out the same way it can come in. The potency and what you can physically fit into that formula from an effective dose standpoint is then compromised. So at Life Time, we have powder-filled capsules. So if you’re look at our multivitamin, let’s say they’re all dumped out on a table, it’s literally, here’s the powder you should be consuming every day. We put it into capsules without anything artificial to compress it. And then the fewest number of capsules it fits into is three morning caps and three evening caps, which is usually surprising for people because they’re like, that’s six multivitamins. I’m like, no, you’re taking one, but you’re taking it in a delivery format and system that your body can actually break down and use.

Jamie Martin

That’s so interesting. I’ve never heard it laid out like that, Sam, but it’s really helpful to understand the why behind, like you’re saying, why we deliver it in the three capsules, morning, night, whatever that looks like to get what you need. I love that. You also mentioned, as you were talking, that Life Time has three different versions. I know there’s a men’s complex, a women’s complex, and a performance complex. Can you speak to those just briefly and why we have three?

Sam McKinney

Yep. So there are different amounts that are optimized for, again, men’s physiology, women’s physiology, and then somebody who’s looking for maybe a little bit of a performance edge, right?

It wouldn’t be dangerous. Like I’m not gonna lie. If I ran out of my women’s multivitamins, I’m not scared to take my husband’s men’s multivitamins for a day. Like it’s not gonna hurt you necessarily, but chronic use, they’re formulated a little bit differently. So like I mentioned, like the women’s multivitamin, for example, it has certain nutrients in there that can be really helpful for thyroid function. So you’ll see like 150 micrograms of iodine, for example, that’s really important. It has 225 micrograms of selenium. And oftentimes for any woman that’s got thyroid issues, they’ve heard, take 200 micrograms of selenium a day. You don’t need to do that if you’re on the women’s multivitamins, right? It has 40 milligrams of zinc. Again, important for thyroid function. It has higher levels of folate, which is important, again, especially women that are maybe premenopausal that might conceive, right? So it has slight differences.

The men’s, for example, has a lot more zinc than the women’s, men need more zinc for testosterone and hormone production. It has 55 milligrams instead of 40. So you can kind of see these slight variations. The performance one, both men and women can use it. That’s a really good baseline catch-all multivitamin that covers all of these essential bases. has 24 different essential vitamins and minerals above and beyond the RDA. Plus it has three like power performance specialty ingredients in there. So it has Relora, which is really helpful for stress adaptation, because we love exercise and we love training, but it’s a stress and you got to recover. It has Lutemax, which is actually really great for eye health. So especially if someone’s like an athlete, right? And you need really good hand-eye coordination. You need to be able to focus. And then it has TeaCrine in there, which is important for that mental energy, that mental dedication, mental focus. So I think high performers, that could be at work. It could be with exercise. It could be with athletics. That’s where the performance option is a really great one too.

Jamie Martin

So I’m going to ask a quick question about that quickly. this is going back personally I’m interested in it. I’m training for my first marathon right now. And I typically take the women’s complex. Is that an instance potentially where you would recommend switching to performance because of some of those, just because of the amount of work that I’m doing, it’s different than what I’m used to most of the time?

Sam McKinney

Yes. So what I’ll say is that we formulated across the line, right? All three of those options have above and beyond the RDA for at least 24 different vitamins and minerals. So we formulated them already for active individuals. Now, obviously, marathon training is an added stress. So I would say, hey, the mental focus from the TeaCrine and the stress adaptation from the Relora might be nice ads for you. We also offer some of those as standalone. So it depends on the person. Like, Jamie, I would assume you, you’re probably like, I don’t mind throwing another supplement in the mix. I would say, OK, maybe you could continue taking women’s multis and actually take a standalone Relora on our online store. If you’re like, hey, I’m just looking to keep it simple, then I would say for sure, if you’re doing marathon training, do performance for a while and then switch back to the women’s after. But know that the women’s and the men’s are still formulated for active bodies.

But I think you could speak to this better than me in the middle of your training. Marathon training is no joke. So maybe you want a little bit of that edge added on there from the performance side of things. And I feel like David, don’t you take the performance ones too?

David Freeman

I’m all performance all day, all performance all day. But you just made an interesting statement that I think a lot of people are curious about. So you just you said like a standalone. So a lot of what’s in the performance multivitamin, I might still need to take an additional vitamin D or magnesium or zinc. So a lot of those elements or minerals are in the actual multivitamin. So why would we want to probably have also the standalone on top of that to complement it? Can you explain that?

Sam McKinney

Yes, it’s probably one of our most frequently asked questions. It’s such a good one. So I’m glad that you brought that up.

So most people, they’re switching to a high quality multivitamin, and I will tell you, there are a couple other ones on the market, there aren’t many, all of them are multiple capsules a day. All of them, all of the good ones kind of fit that criteria, right? But what I will say is usually just switching to a high-quality multivitamin and taking in their mind, switching from one thing to take per day to four, five, six, seven, eight, that’s usually a big change, right? So when we start looking at like, hey, why can’t we formulate a multivitamin that fits all of our nutrient needs? Minerals are big, in particular like calcium and magnesium. If we were to put enough in there to really meet optimal needs, especially for active individuals that sweat, we’d probably go from six to 10 or 11 per day. And not everybody is willing to do that. So we have specific nutrients that are standalone. So people can get a good baseline from the multivitamin, but they absolutely can add in like customization as well too.

You know, like from the men’s side, if you’re just taking the men’s multivitamin, you’re getting 250 milligrams of magnesium just from your multivitamin. That is, compared to the rest of the industry, awesome. But once a man adds in, hey, I’m sweating, I’m drinking caffeine, maybe I’m drinking alcohol, their total daily dose of magnesium might need to be 400, 500, even 600 milligrams. So we got that standalone. But it ended up like every capsule would be the size of a golf ball if we did that versus something small. So it literally comes down to actually what’s reasonable and how much physical space these nutrients take up. So now I want you in your head to start thinking of alot of the really common multivitamins people take out there that might be in a tablet and there’s a single tablet that’s taken daily. Imagine the potency in those. It’s pretty scant. You’re really not gonna see, for most people, a big metabolic benefit or difference taking those consistently.

David Freeman

You know me, I like to do the recap. So if it is somebody like myself that’s taking a performance multivitamin and just had blood work done and saying, hey, David, you’re vitamin D deficient still. And I’m like, well, I’m taking my performance multivitamin. What you’re saying is kind of like, at least what I just heard is being that you’re so active or you might not be as active outside, whatever it may be, you’re going to need this additional supplement on top of the performance to get you to your daily recommended needs.

Sam McKinney

Yes, in most cases. And again, that doesn’t mean you’re going to need to supplement with a ton of different things. If you’re looking for general health, I would say for the average person in addition to a multivitamin the standalone pill supplements to take for micronutrients would be magnesium and vitamin D. Right? We can talk about omega-3 fatty acids as well, too, but that’s not necessarily a vitamin or mineral, right? It’s a fatty acid. If you’re talking vitamins and minerals, it’s usually the standouts are magnesium, vitamin D, and then in some cases, calcium. So those are kind of the three that it almost is impossible to fit the full dose into a multi. And those are some of the most common nutrient deficiencies out there, too.

David Freeman

I was going to throw zinc in there, too. What about zinc in that space?

Sam. McKinney

Ours are formulated pretty well, right? So 40 milligrams of zinc in a multivitamin is really good. Like I mentioned, the men’s specific one is 55. That is a pretty healthy dose of chelated zinc for most people day to day. From our multivitamins, usually you don’t need a ton of standalone zinc. The couple exceptions to that are like during immune season when you need a little bit of an extra boost if you’re exposed to pathogens. If you have blood work that shows that you’re lower in zinc.

For people that follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, oftentimes their zinc levels are lower, so they might need extra. But I wouldn’t willy nilly just add in a ton of zinc on top of a good quality multivitamin, because if you’re not careful, it can deplete you of copper, which is another important nutrient. So those kind of work in balance. But that’s why generally speaking, it’s a high-quality multivitamin. And then in terms of standalone vitamins and minerals, the added vitamin D and magnesium is usually sufficient for the average person.

Jamie Martin

So we know that most people probably would benefit from a multivitamin. Anybody who should just be careful with it, is there testing that maybe certain people with certain health conditions should do? What are things that people should just be aware of or potentially take some caution with?

Sam McKinney

Yes. So it depends on the type of multivitamin you’re taking, right? So for example, there’s a lot of people that have a very common genetic mutation. It’s like 40% of the population. It’s called the MTHFR mutation. It can be prudent for those individuals to avoid folic acid.

That’s not necessarily a concern because we don’t have folic acid across our entire line. But if you’re like, I’m considering a multi, if you’re kind of doing a more synthetic one, you want to be careful of that. I wouldn’t necessarily, in my clients, if they have that mutation, I wouldn’t recommend taking a folic acid-based supplement. It’s just healthier to take the activated ones. Another one is if you have any other, would say just clear anything through your doctor, especially if you have any underlying medical conditions.

There are different debates on whether or not people, for example, fighting cancer should be taking a multivitamin, right? There’s some old school mentality that’s like, hey, but what if these nutrients help support the cancer cells, right? Cancer as an, I mean, that’s a huge topic, but there’s so many different kinds. Always work with your doctor and oncologist if you’re in that type of situation, right? Because that has to be highly individualized. If you’re on any medications as well, but I would, I would kind of argue for the most part, the most common medications used actually increase your demand for a multivitamin because of what it’s draining out of your body. So I would say not really, but like anything else, again, I’m not a doctor, right? I’m a dietitian and anybody listening, I’m not your dietitian, right? I don’t know your whole health history. So just always clear everything with your healthcare team to make sure. But what I find is for the most part, everybody gets the, yeah, double thumbs up green light, particularly when it’s a quality like Life Time’s.

David Freeman

So Sam, we hit on a few things in this mini episode. Is there anything we missed that you want to add around multivitamin?

Sam McKinney

The only thing that I would add too, because this is an FAQ that we get, obviously work with your pediatrician, but people always ask, when do I switch from a kid’s ones to the Life Time ones, right? The men’s, women’s, or performance. And there’s different opinions there. But what I’ve seen clinically that works — and again, clear it with your pediatrician, I’m not saying to go do this — is typically when a child goes through puberty is sort of when they’re OK starting to take the adult version of the multivitamins because their body and metabolism has changed. They’re in a rapid period of growth and development in adolescence and it could only help. And I mean, let’s get real. Most of the teenagers we know need a little bit of TLC with their diets and their nutrient status anyway. know, filling in those nutrient gaps can be pretty powerful, but that’s really the only thing.

And the last thing I would leave people with is just cause it sounds super basic doesn’t mean it’s not super powerful, right? Like a multivitamin can be transformative. You don’t skip over, you know, the basic things that your body needs to literally function every day for some cool new tincture or herbal or something that you saw on social media, because none of that, even if they’re beneficial, none of that’s going to matter if you’re nutrient deficient. You have to optimize the vitamins and minerals going into your body for you to be a well-oiled machine. So take care, take good care of your body with good foods, high quality, obsessively manufactured supplements with final product testing, and you’re absolutely going to feel a difference from it.

Jamie Martin

Sam, always so many great tips and tricks and things to know. Thank you so much for joining us again for this episode. As always, people can find more from Sam. She has content at ExperienceLife.Lifetime.Life. There’s several past episodes of the podcast. can go back and listen to some of our most listened to are with Sam. She mentioned some stuff about thyroid. That is one of our most listened to episodes. Go check that one out. And then you can also follow Sam on Instagram @coachsam.rd. Sam, thanks so much for being here again.

Sam McKinney

Thanks for having me, guys.

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Thanks for joining us for this episode. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on our conversation today and how you approach this aspect of healthy living in your own life. What works for you? Where do you run into challenges? Where do you need help?

And if you have topics for future episodes, you can share those with us too. Email us at lttalks@lt.life or reach out to us on Instagram @Lifetime.life, @jamiemartinel, or @freezy30 and use the hashtag #LifeTimeTalks.

You can also learn more about the podcast at ExperienceLife.Lifetime.Life/Podcasts. And if you’re enjoying Life Time Talks, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. If you like what you’re hearing, we’d love to hear from you by rating and reviewing the podcast and share it on your social channels too.

Thanks for listening. We’ll talk to you next time on Life Time Talks.

Life Time Talks is a production of Life Time Healthy Way of Life. It takes an amazing team to pull together each episode, including executive producer, Molly Kopischke, audio engineer, Peter Perkins, audio and video editors, Kevin Dixon and Riley Lester, and podcast coordinator, Sara Ellingsworth. A big thanks to Coy Larson for sound and video consulting and George Norman for project management, as well as the rest of the team at Life Time Motion who supports and provides feedback for Life Time Talks.

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