In this episode of the Freedom to Flourish Podcast, Dr. Joel Miller and Dr. Tim Augustyniak discuss their top supplement recommendations for supporting overall wellness, immune system function, hormone balance, gut health, stress resilience, inflammation, and natural detoxification.
The conversation covers foundational supplements including vitamin D3 and K2, omega-3 fish oil, magnesium, methylated B vitamins, zinc, ashwagandha, quercetin, whole-food vitamin C, and artichoke extract. They also discuss supplement quality, functional medicine testing, adult and pediatric dosing considerations, food sensitivities, detox pathways, histamine intolerance, adrenal support, and how nutrient deficiencies may contribute to chronic symptoms.
This podcast transcript is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health routine, diet, supplements, or treatment plan.
Dr. Joel: Hey everyone, welcome to the Freedom to Flourish Podcast. I’m your co-host, Dr. Joel Miller, here with Dr. Tim Augustyniak.
Guys, today we’re gonna talk about the top five supplement recommendations we believe most people, if not all, should be taking. These are things we find many people need, and they offer a ton of benefits.
We’re gonna talk about the recommendations, the brands we like, the dosages for adults and children, and also the “why” behind these supplements.
If you’ve been following our channel for a while or you’re a patient, you know we do muscle testing in the office. Muscle testing is the way we neurologically assess the body. It lets us test the nervous system and figure out exactly what the body needs rather than guessing with random supplements.
A lot of these recommendations come from our clinical experience working with thousands of patients and seeing the same helpful supplements over and over again. Dr. Tim and I actually made our lists independently, so I’m excited to compare them.
But first, Dr. Tim, good morning. Glad you’re here and excited to jump into this with you.
Dr. Tim: Good morning. Hopefully this is a more practical episode. A lot of times we get into conditions most people don’t have, but this one is more foundational.
Most people come in with a laundry list of issues, but they’re usually connected rather than being completely separate problems. My list at least is focused on common issues we see because of the Standard American Diet and lifestyle: blood sugar problems, inflammation, stress, and hormone issues.
There are supplements that can help mitigate some of those things and support overall health. So hopefully this is helpful. Let’s just go one by one. Dr. Joel, why don’t you start with your first supplement and explain why you recommend it?
Dr. Joel: Yep. First off: vitamin D3 and K2. You’ve probably heard of this one before. It’s everywhere, including Walmart and all those stores.
One thing I’ll say right away though is that the brand matters tremendously. Don’t get supplements from Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Kroger, Costco, or Sam’s Club. They just generally aren’t high quality.
Honestly, I’m thankful for Costco’s return policy because I often tell patients to take those supplements back and get their money back.
So vitamin D3 and K2. I love this combination because I’d argue they’re among the most important nutrients for supporting the immune system.
In today’s world we have so many things stressing the immune system: viruses, bacteria, chemicals, stress, and so on. Vitamin D3 is one of the things that really strengthens immune function. K2 also helps significantly with the absorption and utilization of D3.
Vitamin D also supports mood and hormones. One interesting thing I’ve noticed is that when people have emotional stress going on, D3 and K2 often really help. There’s something about it that just kind of raises all boats.
The brand I use in the office is by Biotics Research called Bio-DK-Mulsion. It’s a liquid dropper, and one drop equals 1,000 IU of vitamin D3.
One reason I love it is because there are so many servings in one bottle. Five drops a day gives you around 150 servings, which is a huge amount compared to most products.
For adults, I generally recommend around 5,000 IU a day for immune support, especially for a month or so at a time. I don’t necessarily recommend that dose forever without checking labs.
Vitamin D is fat-soluble, so it’s best taken with food. For kids, it depends on age and size. Under five years old, maybe one drop every other day. Around ages six to twelve, maybe 1,000 IU a day. Around age thirteen and up, more like the adult dose.
It’s just one of those nutrients I see helping people in so many different ways. Dr. Tim, any thoughts on that before we jump into your first one?
Dr. Tim: Yeah, before you even got into the nutrient itself, I just wanna translate for Arkansas people: don’t buy supplements at Sam’s Club either. We don’t have Costco here, we’re in Walmart country. But yes, get supplements from good sources.
My question is: is your 5,000 IU recommendation for people who already have decent vitamin D levels, or more for people who are deficient?
Dr. Joel: I’d say it definitely depends on labs, which is why checking vitamin D periodically is helpful.
If someone hasn’t taken vitamin D in a while or they’re likely deficient, 5,000 IU is usually a good support dose. I always recommend starting low and gradually increasing. So maybe start with 1,000 IU for a couple days, then 2,000 IU, and work up slowly.
If someone is truly low in vitamin D, they might need 10,000 or even 15,000 IU for four to six weeks, but I’m cautious recommending higher doses without muscle testing or labs.
If someone’s vitamin D is already in a good range, around 60 to 80, then maybe 2,000 to 3,000 IU daily is more appropriate.
Most of the time, if somebody takes a little too much vitamin D, they’ll feel it. Maybe a mild headache, tension, or just not feeling great. That’s usually a sign they don’t need as much.
Dr. Tim: Yeah, if I see someone with really low vitamin D in the office, I’ll sometimes recommend much higher doses temporarily, even 20,000 to 30,000 IU for a short time to bring things up quickly. But I would never tell someone to do that on their own without knowing where their levels are.
I’ve even had patients who were really sick and clearly needed vitamin D support where we’d temporarily go up to 50,000 or 60,000 IU for a couple days to boost the immune system and help them fight something off. But again, that’s under supervision.
So anyway, Dr. Tim, what’s first on your list?
Dr. Tim: Methyl-Guard by Thorne. It’s a methylated B-complex. I’ve said before on the podcast that I’m generally not a huge fan of random B-complexes or multivitamins unless we’ve actually evaluated the patient.
A lot of B vitamins can feed overgrown microbiomes and worsen inflammation. Same with things like iron or NAC. So we always want to assess people properly first.
But Methyl-Guard specifically contains pyridoxal-5-phosphate, which is activated B6, methylated folate, methylated B12, and trimethylglycine or betaine.
These nutrients are all involved in methylation. Methylation is basically one of the body’s core repair and detoxification systems. I kind of call it the body’s fountain-of-youth process.
If you run out of resources to methylate properly, your body loses the ability to compensate for stress and toxins. That’s why people say things like, “I turned 40 and suddenly my body fell apart.”
Usually what’s happened is they’ve run out of the resources needed to compensate for years of stress, poor diet, hormones, detox issues, caffeine, and all the other stuff draining the body.
Hormone detoxification relies heavily on methylation. Estrogen, for example, has to be methylated before it can move through detox pathways like sulfation, glutathione conjugation, and glucuronidation.
Those pathways also require nutrients like activated B6. If you have issues with cortisol, insulin, estrogen, histamines, or food sensitivities, you’re likely depleting these resources constantly. Add in caffeine or stress and it gets even worse.
A lot of people are genetically predisposed to poor methylation too. So honestly, I think the overwhelming majority of people who come into our offices benefit from Methyl-Guard.
Occasionally someone reacts poorly because they have a bottleneck somewhere in those biochemical pathways and they’ll feel anxious or jittery, but that’s rare.
Usually if someone has hormone issues, histamine intolerance, hot flashes, irregular cycles, or similar symptoms, I’ll recommend two capsules three times a day initially.
Once symptoms improve, we gradually lower the dose to the minimum needed to maintain results. The goal is always to use the least amount necessary while still keeping symptoms controlled.
Dr. Joel: Yeah, that’s awesome. Dr. Tim, what kind of dosage do you recommend for kids with Methyl-Guard?
Dr. Tim: Honestly, I don’t recommend it much for younger kids because hormone issues are usually the main reason someone needs it. Once puberty starts, though, I often use more adult-style dosing.
For example, if I’ve got a 14-year-old girl with menstrual issues, she’s usually getting an adult dose. Same thing for a teenage boy dealing with insulin problems, acne, testosterone issues, or behavioral symptoms.
These are B vitamins, and temporary higher doses are generally very safe.
Dr. Joel: Yeah, that makes sense. Those nutrients are super powerful. If anybody follows holistic health content online, they’ve probably heard about methylation and B vitamins helping with detoxification, hormones, and energy production. Definitely solid stuff.
My second nutrient is EPA, so omega-3 fish oil. Most people know omega-3s help with inflammation, but one of the biggest issues in America is that our diets are overloaded with omega-6 fats from seed oils.
If you eat out almost anywhere, you’re probably getting exposed to vegetable oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, and all these inflammatory fats.
The body wants a healthy balance between omega-6s and omega-3s, and most people are extremely omega-6 dominant.
Unless someone has an incredibly clean diet with lots of wild-caught fish and grass-fed meat, I find most people benefit from omega-3 supplementation.
The product I usually recommend is ProEPA by Nordic Naturals. If somebody’s never taken fish oil before, I generally start them with two softgels three times a day. That ends up being around 3,600 mg daily.
After one bottle at that dosage, I usually lower it down to more of a maintenance dose, around two softgels a day.
For kids, I like Barlean’s fish oil because it’s liquid and flavored. They have a key lime pie flavor that actually tastes good, and kids tolerate it really well.
For kids, maybe two teaspoons twice a day initially, then one or two teaspoons daily for maintenance.
Omega-3s help massively with inflammation, brain health, joints, nervous system function, and overall immune balance. But the other side of this is also reducing omega-6 intake.
If you go out to eat, try to avoid seed oils when possible or ask if they can cook in butter, beef tallow, or coconut oil.
Dr. Tim: Yeah, omega-3s are on my list too for a lot of the same reasons.
One thing I’d add is that they’re also incredibly important for bile production and gallbladder health. A lot of people don’t realize the gallbladder isn’t just about digesting fat. Bile is one of the major ways the body gets rid of toxins and hormones.
The liver detoxifies things and either sends them out through the kidneys in a water-soluble form or through bile into the stool in a fat-soluble form.
Omega-3s help support healthy bile composition and flow. Honestly, I can count on one hand the number of women I’ve seen in Arkansas who don’t have some sort of hormone detoxification issue affecting the liver and gallbladder.
So while omega-3s are great for inflammation, one of my biggest reasons for recommending them is actually hormone detoxification and biliary support.
Most patients I see aren’t just inflamed for no reason. There’s usually some root cause driving it. So fish oil is great support, but we still want to address the underlying issue too.
Alright, my next one is Camu Camu. We usually use the one from Supreme Nutrition. Camu Camu is one of the best whole-food sources of vitamin C and it’s loaded with bioflavonoids and antioxidants.
I like to explain vitamin C kind of like white flour versus whole grain flour. Plain ascorbic acid is like stripped-down white flour. You’re missing a lot of the cofactors that help the body actually use it properly.
Camu Camu contains the full vitamin C complex along with all those bioflavonoids that make it much more effective.
It’s phenomenal as an antihistamine and incredibly helpful for food sensitivities, seasonal allergies, upper GI inflammation, reflux, and immune support.
It’s honestly one of the supplements we use most often because it works for so many different issues.
Dr. Joel: I’d actually emphasize that even more. Camu Camu is probably the best vitamin C source I’ve seen.
Most vitamin C supplements are just ascorbic acid, which is only part of the molecule. Whole-food vitamin C sources like Camu Camu, acerola cherry, and amla contain the full complex.
I find Camu Camu is dramatically more potent than oranges for immune support. It’s one of the only forms of vitamin C I personally use.
It’s also a great antioxidant and helps support glutathione recycling. One thing I’ve noticed clinically is that people exposed to a lot of EMFs or radiation often benefit tremendously from Camu Camu.
I’ll tell patients not to sleep with their phone right next to them, limit unnecessary radiation exposure, maybe use Faraday fabric around their Wi-Fi router if needed, and support themselves with antioxidants like Camu Camu.
I especially love it during travel and flying because of the immune and oxidative stress support.
Dr. Tim, what dosage do you usually recommend for Camu Camu?
Dr. Tim: It depends on the situation. If someone has significant autoimmune or histamine issues, we’ll sometimes go as high as four capsules three or four times a day.
If it’s more of a general histamine problem, maybe three capsules three times a day. For basic maintenance and immune support, maybe one or two capsules twice a day.
With kids, the biggest issue is just whether they can swallow capsules. Sometimes parents open them and mix them into food or drinks.
Vitamin C is water-soluble, so it’s hard to overdo. If a kid really needs it, maybe one or two capsules three times a day is completely fine.
Dr. Joel: Yeah, and if you really push vitamin C too hard, usually the biggest side effect is just loose stools.
If someone is actively sick or dealing with a flare-up, we’ll sometimes use very high doses temporarily, like six or eight capsules several times a day.
People are usually shocked when we recommend that much, but the body often wants it during acute stress.
One little dosing tip I’ll add for kids in general: if you’re trying to estimate pediatric dosing, think of the child’s age as a fraction of 18. So if the child is six years old, that’s 6/18 or one-third of the adult dose.
A nine-year-old would generally get about half the adult dose. That works pretty well for a lot of vitamins and minerals.
Alright, Dr. Joel, let’s keep moving because we’ve still got a couple more supplements to cover.
Yeah, so my next one is magnesium, specifically Magnesium Calm powder. I find magnesium is probably one of the biggest deficiencies people have.
Number one, Americans are chronically stressed, and stress burns through magnesium. Number two, we’re not really getting magnesium through food or mineral-rich water the way we should.
Most of our water is heavily processed, and most people aren’t consistently eating magnesium-rich foods like leafy greens. So you’ve got stress depleting magnesium while people are already deficient to begin with.
Magnesium Calm is magnesium carbonate mixed with citric acid, which turns into magnesium citrate when mixed with water.
For some reason, I find people respond to this form better than standard magnesium citrate capsules. I think it’s because the body is kind of converting it itself and utilizing it more naturally.
I generally recommend one teaspoon at night for adults. If somebody struggles with constipation, they can do one teaspoon morning and night.
Some people with severe constipation go much higher temporarily, but if you overdo magnesium you’ll definitely get loose stools.
For kids, maybe a quarter teaspoon to half teaspoon at night depending on age.
Magnesium helps with stress, sleep, detoxification, muscle tension, bowel regularity, mood, and nervous system balance. People just generally feel a lot better when magnesium levels are adequate.
My next one is zinc chelate. A lot of people are zinc deficient for the same reasons they’re magnesium deficient: poor diet, stress, mineral depletion, and gut issues.
Zinc is incredibly important for immune function, digestion, stomach acid production, gut lining repair, detoxification, and brain health.
I usually recommend around 20 to 40 mg daily for adults depending on the situation. For kids, around 10 mg daily is often great support.
People tend to notice better mood, digestion, and overall resilience when zinc levels improve.
My last one is ashwagandha. I recommend it because so many people are chronically stressed.
Ashwagandha is an adaptogenic herb, meaning it helps the body regulate and adapt to stress. It supports the adrenal glands and helps balance cortisol levels.
If someone feels exhausted all the time, stuck in fight-or-flight mode, or struggles to get out of bed in the morning, ashwagandha can be really supportive.
The dosage I usually recommend with the Supreme Nutrition brand is around 900 mg daily, which is about two capsules.
If someone’s really stressed, they might temporarily take two capsules twice or even three times a day. For kids, usually about half the adult dosage.
Stress and elevated cortisol can wreck digestion, hormones, sleep, muscle recovery, and pretty much everything else, so adaptogens can be really helpful.
Dr. Tim: Yeah, the risks with ashwagandha are pretty minimal unless you know what I’m about to say.
Dr. Joel: Don’t tell me. Nightshades.
Dr. Tim: Exactly. Ashwagandha is technically in the nightshade family. So if someone reacts badly to tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, or eggplant, they may also react to ashwagandha.
Personally, I have a nightshade sensitivity, so I always try to educate patients about that.
If somebody reacts to nightshades, we might use something like rhodiola, holy basil, or ginseng instead.
Alright, my last two are quercetin and artichoke extract.
Quercetin is another excellent antihistamine, kind of similar to Camu Camu. It also supports interleukin-10, which is an immune-regulating protein that basically tells the immune system to calm down.
So if someone has autoimmune issues, allergies, histamine problems, or immune overactivation, quercetin can be incredibly helpful for regulating that response.
My final one is artichoke extract. Artichoke is huge for the glucuronidation detox pathway in the liver. It contains glucuronic acid, which is essential for detoxifying hormones and many toxins.
It also helps conjugate bilirubin, which is important for bile production and liver function.
A lot of people have sluggish bile flow and poor hormone detoxification, and artichoke can make a massive difference there.
It’s really beneficial for gallbladder function, digestion, insulin regulation, hormone balance, and bile production.
The one caution is that artichoke is high in FODMAPs, so if someone has a significant microbiome imbalance or bacterial overgrowth, it can sometimes worsen gas and bloating.
In those cases, we usually work through the gut issues first before adding artichoke.
So anyway, that’s my list. Dr. Joel, anything else before we wrap things up?
Dr. Joel: No, I think that’s great. Again, these are foundational supplements we commonly recommend for people looking to support overall health, immune function, stress resilience, detoxification, hormones, inflammation, and gut health.
We didn’t get into highly specific herbs or protocols because those are much more individualized, but these nutrients tend to help a lot of people across the board.
So as we wrap up, I’m Dr. Joel Miller, founder of Freedom Health and Wellness in Flower Mound, Texas. You can find me online at DrJoelMiller.com or on Instagram.
If you have questions or topics you’d like us to cover, feel free to reach out.
Dr. Tim: And I’m Dr. Tim Augustyniak at Flourish Functional Wellness Center in Bentonville, Arkansas. You can find me at flourishfwc.com.
All our contact information and social links are there. Thanks everybody for listening. Hopefully this episode was helpful, and we’ll see you guys in the next one.
