What to Actually Take, by Goal: Sleep, Focus, Strength, Heart, Immunity, Aging

Six goals, four supplements each. Tier 1 / 2 evidence only — no trending wishful thinking. If you've ever opened a "stack builder" and wished it was 80% shorter, this is that page.

Sleep

• Magnesium glycinate — 200–400 mg pre-bed.
• Glycine — 3 g pre-bed; improves measurable sleep quality.
• Melatonin — 0.1–0.5 mg, physiological micro-dose.
• L-Theanine — 200 mg, calming without sedation.

Focus

• Caffeine + L-theanine — 100 mg / 200 mg, the cleanest cognitive combo in trials.
• Creatine — 3–5 g/day, now meta-analysed for cognition.
• Omega-3 — 1–2 g EPA+DHA daily.
• Rhodiola rosea — 200–600 mg for fatigue resistance.

Strength

• Creatine monohydrate — 3–5 g/day.
• Whey + leucine — 20–40 g whey + 2.5 g leucine post-training.
• Beta-alanine — 3.2–6.4 g/day for high-intensity buffering.
• Sodium bicarbonate — 0.3 g/kg pre-event for acid-base buffering.

Heart

• High-dose EPA — 2–4 g (REDUCE-IT dosing).
• Psyllium husk — 7 g (FDA coronary heart disease claim).
• Oat beta-glucan — 3 g (FDA cholesterol claim).
• CoQ10 100–300 mg or Vitamin K2 (MK-7) 90–180 µg.

Immunity

• Zinc lozenges — 13–24 mg at first symptom onset.
• Vitamin D3 — 1,000–4,000 IU/day.
• Cranberry — 500 mg with standardised PAC for UTIs.
• L. rhamnosus GG — 10 billion CFU/day.

Healthy aging

• Protein — 1.2–1.6 g/kg/day (PROT-AGE).
• Creatine — 3–5 g for muscle and cognition.
• Vitamin D3 — 1,000–2,000 IU/day.
• Riboflavin — 400 mg/day if migraine-prone.

Bottom line

The honest answer to "what should I take?" is rarely more than four items per goal — and the items barely change as new fads cycle through. Stack picks above are Tier 1 / 2 evidence in the SupplementScore database; everything else trending right now is provisional.

See the full goal-by-goal cards with dosing rationale on Discover →