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More than one in three Americans takes a multivitamin, according to the National Institutes of Health. That means more than 100 million of us use the same kind of magic pill in the hope of warding off diseases and filling the gaps in our diets. "Traditional multivitamins are one-size-fits-all, but they’re really one-size-doesn’t-fit-any-one," says Whitney English, a registered dietitian and nutritionist in Los Angeles. "Depending on age, sex, diet, genetics, family history, and
medical condition, you may need more or less of certain micronutrients than someone else."
That’s where customized vitamins come in. Once upon a time, building a supplement lineup tailored to your needs involved deep diving on WebMD, then navigating the aisles of the Vitamin Shoppe. Today, a slew of services has changed all that by generating a personalized routine with a few clicks, plus maybe a snip of hair or a swab of saliva. Your vitamins arrive in pre-dosed packets, no clunky bottles required.
In a world with so much uncertainty, it feels like a simple way to take back some control over your health. Customized vitamins can "be like an insurance policy. If you’re missing certain nutrients from your diet, they may help," says Avigdor Arad, an endocrinologist and director of the PhysioLab wellness center at Mount Sinai Morningside hospital in New York City. He recommends reevaluating your needs every three to six months to allow time to see how your body responds and make adjustments accordingly.
But keep in mind that supplements aren’t a replacement for eating well. “Supplements are just that — a supplement. They are supposed to be an add-on to a healthy diet and lifestyle,” says Shreela Sharma, a professor at the UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston, who holds a doctorate in epidemiology and is a registered dietitian. Vitamins and minerals are often delivered more easily to the body, and in larger doses, from wholesome foods, adds Arad. And don’t turn to customized vitamin services, or any supplement plan, to treat medical conditions, he says; for that, see a doctor who can consult on the best supplements for you or prescribe nutraceuticals with clinical backing.
But for the vita-curious (and generally healthy), taking an at-home test may be a good place to start. We scoped out four far more sophisticated ways to find your best supplement routine than wandering aimlessly through the supplement aisle at Whole Foods.
Take a quiz
"Which best describes your bowel movements, usually?" asks the surprisingly cheerful, five-minute quiz you’ll be asked to take when logging on to Care/of. You’ll be asked to choose from goals like improving digestion, getting better sleep, and boosting energy. Your answers are then fed through an algorithm (based on clinical research and input from the company's scientific advisory board) that spits out your customized regimen, showing the price and body of research behind each supplement involved. For example, the Care/of site says the ability of its vitamin B complex to help with brain function is backed by “strong research.” With questionnaires like this, says English, “you may be able to get a pretty tailored supplement recommendation.” (A service called Persona walks you through a similar quiz.) And if having a semblance of a steady lifestyle to be quizzed on seems like a distant, pre-pandemic memory, Routines by Care/of, a free app, helps you create a daily routine and then measures the benefits of consistency on your mood.
Send a hair sample
We swear, a hair mineral analysis is less invasive than it sounds: Just snip a few strands from unobtrusive areas like the nape of the neck and behind an ear — getting as close to the root as possible to capture the most recent growth — and pop it in the mail. In addition to helping identify deficiencies in minerals like zinc (which has been linked to impaired immune function), “hair mineral analysis can look at toxic metals like lead and mercury,” says Dana James, a certified nutritionist in New York City. Paragon Vitamins, which uses hair mineral analysis to generate recommendations, has users complete a 15-minute questionnaire. The recommended supplements come in personalized packs with anywhere from 6 to 18 different nutrients (catering to everyone from newbies to athletes on the brand’s “Therapeutic” plan), depending on the type of subscription you choose.
Or some blood
A blood test can identify some of the most common vitamin deficiencies, like D and B12, says James. But the thought of drawing your own blood might make you cringe, so a service called Baze makes it so you never see a needle. Baze sends you an egg-size device that adheres to your upper arm and features 30 microneedles that are released with the push of a button (you might feel a pinch), and a small sample of blood is collected in the device itself. To get a snapshot of what’s going on inside your body, Baze then analyzes your blood and produces a nutrient report with a curated selection of vitamins. A complementary app helps you track how well your new regimen is working by asking questions about, for example, your energy level (it also offers educational materials about your vitamin routine). The combination of analysis and self-reporting is key, explains Arad, since the body works to self-regulate blood — meaning deficiencies could cause physical symptoms before they show up in a blood test.
Analyze your DNA
If you’ve sent a swab of saliva to Ancestry or 23andMe, you’re already a third of the way to completing the prerequisites for Rootine, which pairs a lifestyle questionnaire with blood work and DNA analyses (which they can provide you with or pull from the aforementioned databases). Studying your DNA can offer insight into gene variants that may impact how your body uses and absorbs nutrients. But, James cautions, it’s important to note that DNA is just a predisposition. “It doesn’t mean it’s materializing [in your body],” she says. “For example, you may have an alteration on a SNP [or single-nucleotide polymorphism, a gene variant], which slows the absorption of vitamin D in the body — but that may not be materializing.” That’s why Rootine also offers an optional blood test before synergizing the information to create a custom blend of slow-release microbeads. The quinoa-size “beads” (which contain powdered versions of vitamins and minerals) can be swallowed on their own with water or stirred into yogurt and smoothies.
For our Future of Beauty issue, we’re giving you a front-row seat to see the technologies of tomorrow while exploring the impact these innovations will have on our lives. This story originally appeared in the September 2020 issue of Allure. Learn how to subscribe here.
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