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Welcome to episode 39 of Holistic Performance Nutrition (HPN) featuring Tawnee Gibson, a holistic health & endurance coach, and Julie McCloskey, a certified holistic nutrition coach and personal trainer, who you can find over at wildandwell.fit.

There is so much goodness in this episode that we’ve decided to split it into two parts, today is part 1:

Jaclyn says:

HPN 38 // Follow-Up Comment on Bone-Density Factors

I’ve been a listener since I was a college track and cross country athlete in 2016. I would listen while working a cleaning job on the weekends haha. I am now a physical therapist and first time mom and continue to love your content. I especially love the balance between family, long term health, and athletic goals. 

Anyways I am writing in follow up to HPN episode 38. I am in complete agreement with all of your recommendations and appreciate the well rounded response you provided. However I wanted to share a resource that has dramatically impacted how I think of and treat bone injuries and bone density. The podcasts and articles are specific to bone injuries but I had never had the science of how bone works explained to me like this. It brought a lot of clarity on why do runners often have issues with bone density and bone injuries when running is weight bearing (obviously energy deficiencies and overtraining play a role in many cases but I have also worked with individuals where these aren’t major factors). The variability of stimulus on the bone seems to be a missing piece in a lot of bone density/injury recovery plans. 

The paper that outlines this:

Optimal Load for Managing Low-Risk Tibial and Metatarsal Bone Stress Injuries in Runners: The Science Behind the Clinical Reasoning

Par asks:

Timing of Supplements (Food, No Food, Combos and Circadian Rhythm)

Regarding supplements, such as Omega 3 fish oil, vitamine D and the usual suspects. Is there any way that is better or worse in how you take them during the day? And I´m not referring to sticking them up your butthole. Are you supposed to spread them out, take all at once, is there a common supplement that has to be taken alone or together with something?

What the coaches say:

• Supplement protocols can get very intricate and involved. Depending on the season you’re in this can be beneficial but in other times it can be too much to manage and stressful. So in this answer we’re just going to address some of the more common supplements that people are more likely to take regularly and ongoing: 


• We buy most our supplements on Fullscript, shop through EP for a discount here!


• Easy rule of thumb: 
  
  
  
  • Fat soluble = with food (and together). This includes A/D/E/K/Fish Oil (or Rosita Cod Liver Oil)
  
  
  • Spread out other supplements. Ends up being:
    
    
    
    • Fat soluble AM
    
    
    • Vitamin Bs, C, etc at lunch;
      
      
      
      • Bs, C are water soluble but may cause upset tummy, so might be good to take around a meal (we usually do after lunch)
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • Magnesium before bed, perhaps your probiotic, etc.
      
      
      
      • Other forms of Mg may be taken at different times of day depending on form and its benefit.
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • Overall, spreading supplements at certain intervals throughout so we don’t give the body too much to process at once and help with absorption. 
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Tawnee says, “We typically do our fat-soluble vitamins in the morning with/after breakfast eg CLO or fish oil/A/D, we have pretty high-fat meals so that fits great, and gets it done with for the day. But also with the potential of Vit D to influence circadian rhythm it makes sense to do in the AM. Though sometimes we don’t take till lunch. Then, as we coffee, if we haven’t taken these vitamins by lunch time or around 12-1pm, I’ll usually skip them for that day.”


• Fish Oil
  
  
  
  • Take with food, preferably at least 1 tsp worth of fat in the meal to maximize absorption, and preferably with or after your meal (not right before on empty stomach).
  
  
  • Or try Rosita Cod Liver Oil (simplifying the number of supplements you take and food-first)!
  
  
  
  


• Vitamin D
  
  
  
  • Take with a meal (fat). All fat soluble vitamins (ADEK) should be taken with fat. 
  
  
  • Vit. D is better absorbed with Magnesium, Vit K, and calcium. So can take it alongside some yogurt.
  
  
  • Some evidence that taking Vit D in morning is beneficial for circadian rhythm and subsequently for better sleep, whereas taking before bed can interfere with quality of sleep.
  
  
  • https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32156230/
    
    
    
    • “Vitamin D has both a direct and an indirect role in the regulation of sleep.”
    
    
    • “Vitamin D is also involved in the pathways of production of Melatonin, the hormone involved in the regulation of human circadian rhythms and sleep.”
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Consider that if you get adequate sun exposure to keep up Vitamin D levels (and labs reflect that) them maybe you don’t know to be supplementing so much with it, even in winter, as we can store it up in summer season, etc.
  
  
  
  


• Vitamin A
  
  
  
  • Generally take with D and/or your fat solubles or get from CLO, beef liver, etc.
  
  
  • Rosita Cod Liver Oil can be a natural alternative for fish oil, D, A – Tawnee’s family doing more of this as of recently and less reliance on synthetic forms of D, A, etc.
  
  
  
  
  
  


• Iron
  
  
  
  • Better absorbed when paired with vitamin C and an hour away from caffeine or calcium.
  
  
  
  


• Magnesium
  
  
  
  • Take 1-2 hours apart from any supplement containing iron, zinc, folate or fiber.
  
  
  • Mg glycinate and some other forms of Mg best before bed for calming effect and sleep help.
  
  
  • But know your form of Mg and its role!
    
    
    
    • Eg, Smidge Morning Mag is something we have and it has 3 different forms (orotate, taurinate and malate with boron) that are good for taking in the morning (hence the name) as well as for heart and cardiovascular benefits;
    
    
    • Designs for Health NeuroMag, w