What Vitamins and Supplements Should You Actually Take?
Walk into any pharmacy and you'll hit a wall of bottles. Multivitamins. Magnesium in many different forms. Fish oil, probiotics, ashwagandha, vitamin D, elderberry gummies shaped like bears for some reason. It's a lot.
So which ones do you actually need?
Here's the honest answer, and it's probably not what the supplement aisle wants you to hear: it depends entirely on you. Not on what's trending on social media. Not on what your coworker swears by. On what your body is actually short on.
Let's break down how to figure that out — and why guessing is where most people go wrong.
The Problem With Guessing
Most people choose supplements the same way they choose a new coffee order: based on what sounds good, what a friend recommended, or what showed up in an ad. There's nothing wrong with being curious about a supplement. The issue is taking it without knowing whether your body actually needs it.
Here's why that matters. Taking a supplement you don't need doesn't just waste money — sometimes it does nothing, and sometimes it can throw off the balance of something else. Too much of one mineral can interfere with your body's ability to absorb another. Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) build up in your tissue over time, so "more is better" isn't a safe assumption there either.
The better question isn't "what's popular right now?" It's "what does my body need more support of?"
How We Actually Answer That Question: Muscle Testing
This is where our approach looks different from grabbing a bottle off a shelf. We use muscle testing (also called applied kinesiology) as part of how we evaluate what your body specifically needs.
Here's the basic idea: your nervous system and muscles respond to different stimuli, including substances placed near or in the body. During a muscle test, we apply gentle resistance to a muscle while introducing a specific vitamin, mineral, or supplement, and we assess how your muscle responds. A strong, stable response suggests your body is receiving something it can use well. A weaker or unstable response can point toward something your body isn't currently ready for, or doesn't need in that amount.
This isn't guesswork, and it isn't the same as just picking whatever's trending on your feed this month. It's a hands-on, individualized way of narrowing down what actually matters for you, instead of throwing a generic multivitamin at the problem and hoping for the best.
We use this alongside your symptoms, your health history, and your goals — not as a replacement for a real conversation about what's going on in your life and your body.
The Vitamins and Minerals People Are Actually Low On Right Now
While everyone's needs are different, a few deficiencies show up constantly, across almost every age group and lifestyle:
Magnesium
This might be the most common gap we see. Magnesium is involved in muscle function, sleep quality, stress regulation, and nerve signaling — and most people simply don't get enough from food alone. Symptoms of low magnesium are sneaky, too: muscle cramps, trouble sleeping, tension headaches, and a general sense of being "wired but tired."
Not all magnesium is the same, either. Magnesium glycinate is often better tolerated and better absorbed than the cheaper oxide form found in a lot of drugstore multivitamins — this is exactly the kind of detail muscle testing can help clarify for your specific situation.
Vitamin D
If you spend most of your day indoors (and let's be honest, most of us do), you're a strong candidate for low vitamin D — even in a sunny place like Nashville. Vitamin D affects far more than bone health; it plays a real role in immune function, mood, and inflammation regulation.
B-Complex Vitamins
B vitamins support energy production, brain function, and stress resilience — and they're water-soluble, meaning your body doesn't store them well. If you're under chronic stress, eating a lot of processed food, or dealing with fatigue that doesn't make sense given your sleep, a B-complex gap is worth investigating.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Most people eating a typical American diet get plenty of omega-6 fats (found in a lot of processed and fried foods) and not nearly enough omega-3s, which help regulate inflammation throughout the body — including in joints and around the spine. This one matters more than people realize if chronic pain or stiffness is part of your picture.
Probiotics
Gut health affects far more than digestion — it's tied to immune function, mood, and even how well your body absorbs the other nutrients on this list. If you've been on antibiotics recently, eat a limited variety of fiber-rich foods, or deal with ongoing digestive discomfort, this is worth a closer look.
Should You Just Take a Multivitamin and Call It a Day?
It's tempting, and for some people, a quality multivitamin is a reasonable baseline. But here's the catch: multivitamins are built for the average person, and you're not average — nobody is. A multivitamin might give you plenty of something you don't need while barely touching the thing you're actually deficient in.
This is really the heart of why we don't just hand out a generic supplement list. What your neighbor needs and what you need can look completely different, even if you eat similar diets and live similar lifestyles.
A Few Questions People Usually Have
Can I just get a blood test instead of muscle testing? Blood work is a valuable tool and can absolutely be part of the picture, especially for certain nutrients. Muscle testing offers something complementary — a way to assess how your body is responding in real time, which can pick up on things that aren't always obvious from bloodwork alone. We can also use both together for an even clearer picture.
Is it safe to take supplements I find online without guidance? It's not necessarily unsafe, but it's often ineffective — and occasionally counterproductive if it's the wrong form, wrong dose, or interacts with something else you're taking. If you're on any medication, this is especially worth discussing with a provider first.
How often should I be reassessed? Your needs change. Stress levels shift, diet changes, seasons change, and old deficiencies can resolve while new ones show up. We typically recommend revisiting this every month, not treating it as a one-time decision.
Do I need supplements if I already eat a healthy diet? Maybe not as many, but "healthy" doesn't automatically mean complete. Soil depletion, food processing, and individual absorption differences mean even a genuinely good diet can leave gaps — this is exactly what testing helps identify instead of assuming.
Are expensive supplements always better? Not always, but form and quality do matter more than people think. A poorly absorbed, cheap version of a vitamin can be far less useful than a mid-priced one your body can actually use. This is another place where individualized guidance saves you money in the long run, not just improves results.
The Bottom Line
The supplement aisle isn't going to tell you what your body actually needs — it's going to tell you what's trending. The only way to really know is to test, not guess.
If you're in Nashville and tired of throwing money at supplements that may or may not be doing anything, East Nashville Chiropractic is where individualized answers start. We use muscle testing alongside a full picture of your health history and symptoms to figure out what your body is actually asking for — not what's popular this month, but what's specific to you.