The Signal Report // SUPPLEMENTS
Supplements.
What the studies actually measured versus what the label claims, from a formulator who holds his own category to the bar. All reports →
17 in this beat · page 1 of 2
Does Taurine Actually Slow Aging?
A 2023 Science paper reported that taurine declines with age and that restoring it extended life in mice, and a supplement category formed within a week. In 2025 the National Institute on Aging looked again in three human cohorts, plus monkeys and mice, and found taurine flat or rising. A second group found no association at all. The trials that do exist measured blood pressure and triglycerides, which is a different claim entirely.
Read the report → Report 094 · Supplements · 2026-08-18 · 11 minThe Same Cortisol Claim, 21 Years Later
The FTC sued a supplement company in June over claims its products treat depression, anxiety and ADHD in children. But four of the seven charged claims are not about curing anything: they are about raising serotonin, dopamine and GABA, and lowering cortisol. The mechanism sentence is charged as a deceptive claim on its own, and the man who formulated the products has been under a federal order about cortisol claims since 2005.
Read the report → Report 088 · Supplements · 2026-08-15 · 9 minWhat a Proprietary Blend Actually Hides
A study used 600 mg. The label says Proprietary Blend, 750 mg, with nine names under it and no numbers. The entire permission for that is a seven-word parenthetical Congress wrote into the statute in 1994. But the same rule requires descending order by weight, and that hands you a hard ceiling on every ingredient in the blend, free, in the aisle.
Read the report → Report 082 · Supplements · 2026-08-12 · 8 minMethylene Blue Is a Drug, Not a Supplement
A synthetic dye became a wellness staple, taken by mouth for energy and focus. The only FDA-approved version is an injection, for one blood disorder, carrying a serotonergic interaction warning with a 72-hour washout and a contraindication most people cannot rule out without a blood test. The largest trial of this chemistry enrolled 891 people and was negative.
Read the report → Report 076 · Supplements · 2026-08-09 · 9 minDoes NMN Actually Do Anything?
The NMN pitch is built from three true statements, which is what makes it worth taking apart slowly. Take the capsule and a blood marker really does rise: two independent meta-analyses agree. Look at what that marker was supposed to predict and the same two find nothing. One writes it out plainly: an exaggeration of the benefits may exist in the field.
Read the report → Report 070 · Supplements · 2026-08-06 · 9 minDoes Collagen Actually Work for Skin?
Twenty-three randomized trials of collagen supplements, pooled, show significant gains in skin hydration, elasticity and wrinkles. Then two researchers sorted the same trials by funding source, which nobody had done before. In the studies without industry money the effect was not there, and the same thing happened when they sorted by study quality.
Read the report → Report 064 · Supplements · 2026-08-03 · 9 minDoes Berberine Actually Burn Belly Fat?
A UCLA dietitian asked for gold-standard trials on the supplement nicknamed nature's Ozempic. Three months later one landed: 337 people, six months, placebo controlled, with CT scans measuring visceral and liver fat directly instead of a tape measure. Both primary outcomes came back null, and both arms lost the same 1.9 kg.
Read the report → Report 058 · Supplements · 2026-07-31 · 9 minWhat's Actually in the Bottle
Two federally funded case series ran 60 supplements through a mass spectrometer and compared the results against the label. Most labels were wrong, including 83% of weight-loss products sold with military discounts. But the test asked a narrower question than the headline suggests, and the gap between presence and potency is where the real problem lives.
Read the report → Report 052 · Supplements · 2026-07-28 · 7 minDoes Magnesium Actually Help You Sleep?
Magnesium is the most reasonable-sounding thing on the supplement shelf. In 2025 it got the trial it deserved: 155 people, placebo controlled. The result cleared significance by a hair, every other measure came back null, the capsule held 1.5 g of glycine nobody separated out, and nobody's magnesium was ever measured. A formulator reads it.
Read the report → Report 045 · Supplements · 2026-07-25 · 7 minDo Height Supplements Work?
A brand sold "The Only Supplement Clinically Proven to Help Height Growth" to parents. The FTC opened the study behind it, one company-sponsored trial of 32 kids, and listed every reason it failed. A supplement founder on why that list is the best shopper's checklist published this year.
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