Before You Start
Disclaimer: The information on this page is for educational purposes only and doesn't constitute medical advice. Please consult your GP or a qualified healthcare professional before starting any new supplement, particularly if you're pregnant, breastfeeding, taking prescription medication, or managing a health condition.
Supplements don't work in a vacuum — what's going on in your body when you take them matters just as much as which product you choose. Here are a few quick things worth knowing before you start.
Don't compare yourself to anyone else
Everyone's body is different, and that means everyone responds differently to the same supplement — even the same certified, verified product. What works brilliantly for a friend, a family member, or someone in a review might do very little for you, and that's not a failure of the product or of you — it's just how individual biology works. Try not to measure your experience against anyone else's; the only fair comparison is how you feel now versus how you felt before you started.
Start with one at a time
If you're thinking about trying more than one supplement, it's best to start with just one first. This makes it much easier to know what's actually working. If you introduce three things at once and notice a change, you won't know which one made the difference (or if one of them didn't agree with you). Give each new supplement a few weeks on its own before adding another.
Timing
When you take something matters almost as much as what you take. Some supplements work best in the morning, some in the evening, and some need a fat-containing meal alongside them to absorb properly — you'll find the specific timing for each product on its own page. As a general habit, taking your supplements at the same time each day makes it far easier to stay consistent, which matters more than any other single factor in whether a supplement actually does anything for you.
Hydration
Most capsules rely on plenty of fluid to dissolve properly and release their active ingredients. If you're not drinking enough water, even a premium supplement may not perform as well as it should. This matters more than people realise — especially since our thirst signals can become less reliable as we get older.
Heat and cold
How it affects you: storage matters, but so does what's happening to you in the heat. Hot weather means you're likely sweating more than you realise — and even mild dehydration changes how your body absorbs and processes what you take, supplements included. Magnesium and creatine in particular rely on good hydration to work properly, so in a heatwave, that's worth paying extra attention to, not less. The same goes in reverse for very cold spells — if you're drinking less because you're not feeling thirsty, that matters too.
Storing the products themselves: keep them somewhere cool, dry, and out of direct sunlight — not right next to a heat source like an oven, or in a bathroom cabinet that gets steamy from a hot shower. And don't leave them somewhere that gets genuinely hot for hours — a car on a summer day, for instance. A bit of common sense is all that's needed; nothing here requires special equipment.
Stomas, and anything else that changes transit time
If you have a stoma, your digestive transit time is shorter than average. This means some supplement formats may pass through your system before they've had a chance to fully absorb.
This isn't only about stomas, though — anything that changes how quickly food and supplements move through your gut can affect absorption, in either direction. Conditions and medications that slow things down include an ileostomy or colostomy, hypothyroidism, and GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, or Saxenda, which work partly by slowing digestion. Conditions that speed things up include IBS-D, Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, and an overactive thyroid. If any of this applies to you, it doesn't mean supplements are off the table — it just means it's worth a conversation with a pharmacist or GP about timing and form.
This particularly applies to:
Time-release capsules: designed to release their contents slowly over several hours
Enteric-coated capsules: designed with a special coating that delays release until further down the digestive tract
Both of these formats rely on a longer journey through the body than a stoma allows for. Straightforward, standard capsules (like the ones we recommend at Acevia) are much more suitable, since they release their contents quickly.
Note: hydration is also especially important if you have a stoma, so it's worth keeping a close eye on your daily fluid intake.
Diarrhoea or a stomach upset
If you're currently unwell with a stomach bug, your gut isn't holding onto things long enough to absorb them. It's best to pause your supplements until things settle down, then resume as normal once you're feeling like yourself again.
Being unwell, or on medication
Illness and certain medications can change how your gut absorbs nutrients in general. If you're currently unwell, recovering from an illness, or taking regular prescription medication, it's always worth mentioning a new supplement to your GP.
Grapefruit is worth a specific mention. It doesn't affect most of what we recommend — but Apigenin shares a liver pathway (CYP450) with grapefruit, so it's worth avoiding grapefruit juice while taking it (see the Apigenin page for detail). Grapefruit also interacts with a number of common medications, including statins, some blood pressure medications, and immunosuppressants. If you're taking any regular medication and you eat or drink grapefruit, it's worth checking with your pharmacist regardless of what supplement you're adding in.
Alcohol
Even moderate, everyday drinking can inhibit how well your body absorbs certain B vitamins and other nutrients. It's not a reason to panic about the odd glass of wine, but it's worth knowing that regular alcohol intake and consistent supplement absorption don't always sit comfortably together.
Some of the supplements we recommend may not seem very "sexy" — but they can have a huge impact. Not every supplement comes accompanied by a marching band; some just quietly make a huge difference, day after day.
Be patient with yourself
What works brilliantly for one person might do very little for another — that's not a failure on your part, it's just how bodies work. And if what you need isn't here yet, take a look at what's on our radar, or what we're currently researching next — there's a good chance it's already on our list.
None of this is meant to put you off — it's simply about giving your body the best possible chance to get the absolute most out of your supplements.
The mind matters more than you’d think
Your expectations really do affect how you feel — it's called the placebo effect, and it can be surprisingly powerful. If you're hopeful, you might feel a lift that's partly your own expectation; if you're sceptical, you might miss a real change. That's not a weakness, it's simply how the mind and body work together.
That's why we suggest keeping a simple note of how you feel over the first few weeks — then putting it away and getting on with your life. Judge on what you've written down over the weeks, rather than on how you feel on any one day.