Supplement Scheduling: When and How to Take All Your Different Supplements

How do you know when to take all your different supplements, especially when some of them need to be taken on an empty stomach? And what do you do if some of your supplements are not compatible with each other? Read on for some guidelines, tips, and a real-life example.

Here are some tips to help you determine your supplement schedule:

• Take the fastest absorbed supplements first.
• If a substance doesn’t specify that it should be taken on an empty stomach, it’s probably okay to take it with other substances.
• If it is recommended to take an herb on an empty stomach, is it because an empty stomach is a prerequisite for proper absorption, because food interferes with its absorption? Or is it because it is a substance that needs to have a clear surface to apply its healing properties? Supplements like slippery elm, aloe vera juice, and marshmallow root all fit into the latter category and can therefore easily be taken together since everyone is trying to achieve the same thing.
• When a supplement says “take on an empty stomach,” that means 20 minutes before a meal or 2 hours after a meal.

Now that you know the basic guidelines, sometimes you still need to experiment a bit to find the best program to achieve maximum potency and effectiveness from your supplements. Let’s take a look at an example, so you can see how this plays out in real life.

Supplements for Colitis

Krista suffers from colitis, so she needs to take the following products to repopulate her gut with good bacteria, relieve gas, bloating, and diarrhea, eliminate heartburn, and heal the mucous lining of her intestines:

• Probiotics (good bacteria for the GI tract – empty stomach for powders – 3x/day)
• Psyllium husk powder (for diarrhea control 2x/day)
• Deglycyrrhized licorice (DGL): before or after a meal to relieve heartburn
• L-Glutamine (empty stomach to control diarrhea – 3x/day)
• N-acetyl glucosamine (NAG) – empty stomach for intestinal repair – 3x/day
• Slippery Elm (on an empty stomach to heal the mucosal lining of the intestines 3 times a day)
• Aloe vera juice (on an empty stomach to heal the intestinal mucosal lining)
• Multimineral and multivitamin (3 times a day for whole-body health and to replace nutrients lost through malabsorption and fecal wastage)

Krista’s problem is that she doesn’t know which ones she can have together, how far apart they should be, or how to arrange them at mealtime. Since she is taking many supplements, and many of them three times a day, she can easily see why she is so confused.

She is especially confused since the probiotics state on the bottle that any herb should be taken at least 2 hours apart from the probiotics, as many herbs have antibacterial action and will therefore kill the good bacteria in the probiotics.

Experimenting with your supplement program

First of all, Krista should be aware that even our foods can contain natural antibacterials (like garlic, onion, etc.) and Natren has had to put a time limit that applies to a wide variety of substances at all concentrations/ powers. For example, if she is taking wild oregano oil or olive leaf extract, she definitely cannot consume the probiotics earlier than 2 hours, as she would be wasting her money. However, other supplements (and foods) are much less potent against bacteria. Therefore, she may be fine if she implements one of the following supplement programs.

The main difference between the two schedules below is whether you want to take your probiotics before each meal or if you would like to take just one large dose before bed. This is where experimentation comes in. Your body will definitely prefer, and do better, one or the other. You’ll need to try each one for a week at a time and see which schedule benefits your body the most.

Schedule 1

Before a meal:

• take probiotics in powder form
• wait 20 minutes, then take the NAG, L-Glutamine, Slippery Elm, and Psyllium (these supplements can be taken together because although they all require an empty stomach, they are mutually compatible), then eat and take the Multivitamin/Multimineral with your meal
• after the meal take the DGL (deglycyrrhized licorice)

Before going to bed:

• take probiotics in powder form
• wait 20 minutes, then drink Aloe vera juice

PRAYED

Schedule #2

Before every meal:

• take NAG, L-Glutamine, Aloe vera juice, Slippery Elm and Psyllium (these supplements can be taken together because, although they all require an empty stomach, they are compatible with each other)
• wait 15 minutes, then eat and take the multivitamin/multimineral with your meal
• after the meal take the DGL (or in this case, you can also take it before the meal, if you prefer, since you are not consuming the probiotics at the moment)

Before going to bed:

• Take 1 – 2 teaspoons of each Probiotic powder

Krista will need to experiment with both schedules and see which works best for her. Probiotics may work better for her in multiple doses and may not be affected as much by the other substances, or they may work better taken alone in one large dose. Again, the only way to find out is to try and experiment.

The reason people need to experiment with their supplements is because everyone’s body and condition (or pathology) is different. Some people are very sensitive and respond to certain herbal medicines and not others. And some people need aggressive supplementation no matter what herb it is, while others are very sensitive to all supplements.

When it comes to a supplement like high potency probiotics, for example, some people’s bodies respond more favorably when taken in powdered form on an empty stomach. And other organisms prefer controlled-release probiotic capsules taken with food. Again, the only way to find out is to experiment.

You’ll also get a “gut” on which supplements to take and when. Our own body wisdom trumps any manufacturer’s instruction sheet, so definitely follow your intuition first. If you have the ability to listen to your gut or follow your intuition, you can ask your body directly when and how it wants the supplement. Place your hand on your stomach, while holding the herb in the other hand, and ask. Or place the palm of your hand on the grass and wait for the guide. This is how some medicine women/men receive the wisdom of plants. They simply hold their hand over the plant and knowledge flows to them on how to prepare the plant, what parts to use and how to take it.

If you’re not at that level of fluency with your body wisdom, in the meantime, follow the supplement programming tips above, combine them with your own intuition, and experiment.