A Texas-based clinical pharmacist is warning Americans against blindly piling supplements on top of one another without first getting a blood test to find out what their body actually needs.
Jim LaValle, a clinical pharmacist and metabolic medicine expert based in Texas, told Fox News Digital that millions of people are guessing their way through zinc, ashwagandha, fish oil, magnesium and other products popularized on social media, often without any idea whether they’re deficient in the first place.
“I’ve never met a supplement I didn’t like under the right circumstances,” LaValle said. “There’s some evidence around what it’s doing in the body.”
But he said the habit of taking “one of everything” and then adding peptides on top has gotten out of hand. “A lot of people take one of everything and then stack peptides on top of it — and then they’re going and doing 18 different things,” he said.
Start With a Blood Test, Not a Guess
LaValle’s advice is simple: find out what’s actually missing before reaching for a bottle. He pointed to magnesium as an example — low levels have been linked to metabolic syndrome, so a deficient person taking a magnesium supplement could see real benefit.
“We assume that if you eat healthy, you’re going to get those nutrients. But are the foods we’re selecting actually rich in those nutrients?” he said.
He gave another common example: people who feel exhausted and buy an energy-boosting adaptogen like ashwagandha or rhodiola when the real problem is low iron or ferritin — something a basic blood test would have caught.
“They’re buying some kind of stimulant adaptogen to try to get their energy up,” LaValle said. “That’s pretty basic — you’re low in iron, and you never got a blood test.”
LaValle said the number of biomarkers tested matters less than how the results are read and applied. Once a person knows their “functional highs and lows,” supplements can be matched to specific goals — whether that’s recovering from training, preparing for an endurance event like a Hyrox or Tough Mudder, or correcting a real deficiency.
“If you’re somebody who has a goal to get out there and get after it and do a Hyrox or an LT Games or a Tough Mudder, there could be supplements that would help improve your performance [or] reduce your risk of injury,” he said. “It doesn’t mean you [have to] take them all the time.”
Social Media Pressure to Stack
LaValle said online hype is driving people to overdo it. “When people are getting barraged with marketing between social media and friends telling them, ‘I did this and it worked,’ they’ll lean in and go, ‘Hey, if two is good, four is better, and why not do 10?'”
That mindset can backfire. Zinc is a good example: too little disrupts immune function, cell growth and metabolism, but too much can cause digestive problems and even trigger a copper deficiency that leads to anemia and neurological issues, according to the National Institutes of Health.
“So having low zinc is not good, but you can overdo zinc,” LaValle said. “You can overdo vitamin A. You can overdo vitamin D easily, and that could be potentially toxic if you’re taking too much of it.”
LaValle’s bottom line: talk to a doctor or pharmacist before stacking supplements, especially for anyone on prescription medication or managing an existing health condition — and get the blood work done before guessing at what your body needs.
