Supplements: A Complicated Conversation in Health
Neither a Magic Fix Nor a Waste of Money—Here's How I Actually Feel About Them
Before I say anything else, I want to be upfront about something: I have a FullScript store through my practice. When I recommend supplements to clients and they purchase through that store, I make a small commission. I'm telling you this at the top because I think you deserve to know it.
Here it is: I don't think everyone needs supplements. I don't tell clients they need them to succeed. Also, if someone can find a supplement I've recommended for less money somewhere else, I tell them to buy it there.
I say this not to seem noble, but because the supplement space has an authenticity and credibility problem—and a lot of that problem comes from practitioners, both functional and conventional, who push supplements either because they've placed them too high on the hierarchy of health priorities or because they're quietly motivated by what's in it for them. I'd rather be transparent about my own stake in it and let you judge accordingly.
Now, with that on the table—here's how I actually think about supplements.
The Question Nobody Agrees On
Are supplements just the functional health world's version of prescription medications? Is taking thirty supplements for life meaningfully different from taking ten prescription drugs for life? Do we actually need them, or can we reach our best health without them entirely?
These are legitimate questions, and I don't think they have clean universal answers. What I've landed on, after working with hundreds of clinical patients, is that supplements are conditionally beneficial. Not always necessary. Not universally helpful. And never—under any circumstances—a replacement for the foundational practices that actually build health.
That's the frame I want to hold onto throughout this conversation, because I think most of the confusion and frustration people feel around supplements comes from treating it as a black-and-white topic when it's anything but.
Why So Many People Are Depleted to Begin With
Here's the context that I think makes the supplement conversation make more sense: many people are running on empty, and it's not entirely their fault.
The modern environment creates stress on the body from multiple directions simultaneously. The food supply has become progressively less nutrient-dense over time. Environmental toxin exposure is higher than it's ever been. And the psychological stressors of daily life—work, relationships, financial pressure, the relentless noise of the news cycle—keep the nervous system in a near-constant state of low-grade fight or flight. That chronic activation burns through the body's resources faster than most people can replenish them.
The result is that we're getting squeezed from both sides: not taking in enough through diet, and requiring more than usual because of the environment we're living in. In that context, strategic supplementation can make sense—not as a solution to the underlying problem, but as support while that underlying problem gets addressed.
Foundation First. Always.
I want to be clear about something that I think separates responsible supplementation from the kind that gives the whole space a bad name: supplements should never come before the pillars of health. They should support those pillars—not substitute for them.
Eating well, moving the body appropriately, sleeping properly, managing stress, fostering healthy relationships—these are the actual levers of health. No supplement does what those things do. And any practitioner who leads with a supplement protocol before addressing foundational lifestyle habits is, in my view, doing their clients a disservice. It's like using a squirt bottle on a forest fire. The effort isn't nothing, but it's not going to solve the problem.
Where supplements genuinely earn their place is in the gaps—and in the transitions.
Take magnesium glycinate as an example. If someone is struggling with sleep during the early stages of a lifestyle overhaul, bringing in magnesium glycinate at bedtime can take the edge off and make the transition less grueling. Better sleep accelerates everything else. In that context, the supplement isn't a long-term fix—it's a bridge. It buys breathing room while the real work of changing habits takes hold.
That's a responsible use of a supplement. Throwing magnesium at someone who's chronically staying up until 2 AM and refusing to address their stress and calling that a solution? That's not.
The Minimum Effective Dose Philosophy
The way I approach supplementation in my own practice is guided by what I think of symbolically as the minimum effective dose. The goal is always to look for the path of least supplementation that still supports the outcome we're working toward. Not more than necessary. Not a protocol designed to impress or to generate revenue. Just what's actually useful for the specific person in front of me, given where they are in their health journey and what their life realistically allows.
That last part matters—meeting people where they are. Sometimes a client can't make a particular lifestyle change right now because of genuine circumstances: their work schedule, their family situation, their financial reality, or their current capacity. In those cases, a well-chosen supplement can sometimes turn a difficult situation into a more manageable one while they work toward the deeper change. That's not giving up on the ideal; it's being practical about the path to it.
What Supplements Are Not
A few things I think are worth saying directly:
Supplements are not without risk. They aren't prescription medications, but they're also not inert. The liver processes the vast majority of them, and overloading the system with more than it needs creates its own burden. The fact that something is natural doesn't automatically make it harmless or appropriate for everyone.
Supplements are not a parallel track to conventional medicine where both systems just hand out different-colored pills. That framing collapses a meaningful distinction—but it also lets the functional health world off the hook for the same pattern of symptom-chasing that it often criticizes conventional medicine for. A supplement used as a bandage over a lifestyle problem is not meaningfully different from a prescription used the same way.
And supplements are not a shortcut to the health outcomes that only sustained lifestyle change can produce. I've seen them be genuinely helpful in hundreds of cases. I've also seen people use them as a way to feel like they're doing something while avoiding the harder work. The difference in outcomes between those two groups is not subtle.
The Honest Answer
If you came here hoping for a clear verdict—supplements are great, use them freely, or supplements are a scam, avoid them entirely—I'm not going to be able to give you that. Not because I'm hedging, but because the honest answer genuinely isn't that simple.
What I can tell you is what my experience working with clinical patients has shown me: supplements, used responsibly, with strong ethics and real discernment, can support meaningful health outcomes. They work best as part of a broader lifestyle strategy, not as the strategy itself. The right supplement at the right time for the right person can accelerate progress, ease transitions, and fill genuine gaps. The wrong supplement, pushed for the wrong reasons, is at best a waste of money and at worst a distraction from the work that actually matters.
It takes nuance to get this right. It takes a willingness to look at each person as an individual with a unique history, unique circumstances, and a unique starting point. And it takes a practitioner who's more interested in your outcomes than in the size of your supplement stack.
That's the standard I hold myself to. I don't always get it perfect—but that's always the goal.
Rance Edwards is a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) with over 2,000 clinical hours of experience, specializing in chronic disease management and lifestyle medicine.
