Xand van Tulleken
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Why did the host and Xand decide to ditch all their supplements at the start of the conversation?
Zond, welcome to Waterstones. Very nice to be here, Will. Thank you.
Um, no pressure, but your brother's book has genuinely changed how I eat. And so when your book sort of came on my radar, I was like, oh, that'll be interesting to see whether this changes my life too. I have to say, weirdly, about a month before I read your book, I actually made a decision to get rid of all of the supplements that were in my house. And that was just because I wanted to see what happened if I wasn't taking them, because I was beginning to lose faith at They were actually doing anything. Then I read your book and I was like, wow, that I'm I'm glad I did that basically.
I should say I'm very thrilled with the idea that you got rid of your supplements and then picked up the book. And what I like about that is whereas my my brother's book might have really got you on like, yeah, it's gonna change the way you eat, I think what this book will do for some people is kind of inoculate them against all the marketing. For some people, it'll make them feel good. It'll make them mil feel more confident about their lives because the wellness industry is very brilliant at making us feel uncertain, unconfident, nervous. Am I doing the right thing? Is this okay? Do I need expert help with this? All these things, there's all this science coming at you. And so even though you've done the right thing.
I still think probably everyone needs a little reassurance that you're Getting rid of all this. Is actually the right step and you're not thinking, oh, but am I missing out? To start to go backwards.
What you cover I suppose is three distinct areas. Supplements, wearable tech, and then sort of testing, blood testing and things like that. We'll begin with supplements. I think everyone understands the logic of something like a vitamin supplement. If you don't have enough vitamin C, you get scurvy. If you don't have enough vitamin D, you get rickets. Therefore, if you supplement those things, not only will you not get those things, but if you have more of them, you will be weller, is the sort of I guess the basic logic. Why is
Isn't that the case? It's such a persuasive idea. And if you I have treated people with scurvy, I've treated people with rickets. Most of our grandparents or great grandparents would have been very familiar with these vitamin deficiency diseases. Um rickets, about fifty percent of the population had rickets uh in in the West Um at the turn of the 20th century. My grandfather had rickets. So it's totally Reasonable to believe that if a lack of vitamin D makes your bones weak and bendy, then lots of vitamin D will make your bones extra strong. That is how they get you. It is a totally reasonable, logical thing to believe. Loads of doctors believe that. I believed it for many things for most of my career. And so, really, the only way we know it's not true is that we have done very, very
very large trials of these uh supplements for many of the most popular ones, particularly the vitamins and minerals. And the evidence says that more does not equal better. If you're asking why is that true biologically, it's a great question. The body Is Terribly hard to interfere with. I write in Make Me Well, I write about the human body as a complex system, meaning it is not like a mechanical watch. It is not at all like a car. It is dynamic and responsive. It resists change. Only certain things will provoke it to get worse or get better. And individual molecules tend to be quite a bad way of changing a well human body and that's what the data suggest.
There was a thought that vitamin D might be different, wasn't there? W why why was there so much hope in vitamin D and where did the disappointment sort of set in?
Vitamin D, when I was at medical school, was going to fix everything. So there were loads of observational studies where we looked at populations and found they had low vitamin D. People with heart problems, people with dementia, people living with multiple sclerosis, uh, any number of health problems were associated with low vitamin D.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why did the host and Xand decide to ditch all their supplements at the start of the conversation?
0:00–4:15
2
What does the research say about the effectiveness of common vitamin and mineral supplements?
4:15–10:16
3
Why did the huge hype around vitamin D ultimately disappoint scientists and consumers?
10:16–16:35
4
Does collagen really improve skin, joints, or overall health according to the evidence?
16:35–21:49
5
How can continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) help—or mislead—people without diabetes?
21:49–27:02
6
What’s the truth behind the booming menopause‑supplement market and its lack of regulation?
27:02–31:40
7
Which wellness strategies actually work, and why does doing things you love matter more than pills?
31:40–36:19
8
What are the key take‑aways for listeners who want to cut through wellness hype and improve their health?
36:19–41:04