I've Tried Diets and Supplements — So Why Don't I Feel Better?
There was a point when my own approach to supplements probably looked a lot like many of the women I now see in clinic. And I'll be truthful - it took years to get it right, even when I was immersed in my studies - there was always more to know.
I'd read about something that sounded good for me, hear someone talking about another supplement, learn something in class, see something advertised online - and think, perhaps that's what I'm missing.
You didn't want to see my kitchen cupboards!
Before you know it, you've got a boxes full of them. A multivitamin. Magnesium. Something for your gut. Something that's apparently going to balance your hormones. An antioxidant you've heard is amazing for ageing. Perhaps the latest Instagram favourite: sea moss, mushroom gummies, greens powders taken by the 80s supermodel who doesn't seem to have aged or whatever else happens to be having its moment.
That's not to say that any of these things are necessarily useless.
The question is whether they're useful for you.
Because that's the bit that's often missing.
You don't really know why you're taking each one. You don't know whether the dose is therapeutic, whether it's a good-quality product, whether you're doubling up on certain nutrients or whether you've taken it consistently enough to know if it's actually doing anything.
Some days you remember them all. Other days you don't.
And despite spending a small fortune on trying to be healthy, you're still thinking:
Why don't I actually feel any better?
Why are diets and supplements so confusing?
I see this all the time with clients. And it isn't just supplements.
Someone told you giving up bread would help your bloating, so you stopped eating it for a couple of weeks. You weren't really sure whether it made a difference, so gradually it crept back in.
You know alcohol doesn't make you feel the way it did in your twenties and thirties, but nobody has really explained why your tolerance might have changed.
Then there's sugar. We're surrounded by messages suggesting that if we could only summon enough willpower to eliminate sugar forever, half our health problems would disappear.
Dairy is another minefield. One person tells you it's inflammatory and should be removed. Someone else tells you it's an excellent source of protein and calcium and that women in midlife should be eating more of it.
Meanwhile, you know that sometimes your stomach doesn't feel particularly brilliant after eating it.
So what are you actually supposed to do?
The problem isn't a lack of information anymore. For most women, there's far too much of it.
Just because something worked for someone else doesn't mean it's right for you
This is probably my biggest issue with a lot of health advice online.
It isn't personalised.
Someone can be incredibly convincing on Instagram. They may genuinely have transformed their own health with a particular diet, supplement or morning routine.
But they aren't you.
They don't know your health history.
They don't know about the courses of antibiotics you may have taken over your lifetime, the glandular fever that had you out of school for weeks in your teens, your digestive history and the parasite you caught on.a holiday to Cape Verde, your pregnancies and the not quite straight-forward birth (are they ever?), your prescribed medications, what you actually eat (intentional or not), how you sleep - or don't, how stressed you are, where you are hormonally or what happened in the months and years before your symptoms appeared.
And often, they don't know your blood results or anything about your physiology either.
This doesn't make all general health advice bad.
It just means general health advice is exactly that: general. It's the reason for the disclaimers written in bold at the bottom of every influencer's post.
Sometimes what happened years ago still matters
This is one of the reasons I spend time building a health timeline with my clients.
We're very good at looking at whatever symptom is bothering us today and asking, “What can I take for this?”
I'm much more interested in asking:
“How did we get here?”
Perhaps there have been repeated courses of antibiotics or infections. Perhaps your digestion changed after a pregnancy. Maybe there was a prolonged period of enormous stress. Perhaps your sleep deteriorated as you entered perimenopause. Maybe you've gradually removed more and more foods because eating has become uncomfortable.
None of those things automatically explains your current symptoms on its own.
But put them together and we start to get a much more useful picture than:
“Someone online said I should take this probiotic.”
That's one of the fundamental differences in how I practise functional medicine.
Your history matters.
Do I actually need all these supplements?
When someone comes to me taking a long list of supplements, my instinct isn't to add another ten.
I want to know:
Why are you taking this?
What were you hoping it would change?
Is it a good-quality product?
Does it contain meaningful amounts of the nutrients you're actually trying to obtain
Are there unnecessary fillers or ingredients we don't particularly want?
Are three different products giving you the same nutrients?
Have you taken it consistently?
And perhaps most importantly:
Has it actually helped?
And then there's the question of how you're taking it. Some supplements are better taken with food, others may be better away from it. Timing can matter, as can what you take them alongside. Iron, for example, is often paired with vitamin C to support absorption, while other foods, drinks or supplements can interfere with how well it's absorbed. Some nutrients are better absorbed alongside dietary fat, and certain supplements may make more sense earlier or later in the day. It's another reason why simply buying a collection of “good” supplements isn't quite the same as having a properly thought-through supplement plan.
Sometimes there are very good reasons for targeted supplementation. Sometimes testing can help us make those decisions. Sometimes a therapeutic dose of a particular nutrient is very different from the tiny amount you'll find sprinkled into a generic supplement.
And sometimes the conclusion is simply:
You don't need this anymore.
Personalised healthcare isn't always about doing more. Quite often, it's about becoming much more selective about what you're doing and why.
What about diets?
I think exactly the same principle applies. If there's a genuine reason for temporarily removing a food, I want there to be a purpose behind it.
What are we testing?
How long are we doing it for?
What are you eating instead?
What change are we looking for?
And when and how are we going to reintroduce the food?
That's very different from vaguely deciding that gluten, dairy or sugar is “bad”, avoiding it when you can, feeling guilty when you can't, and never really establishing whether it was contributing to your symptoms in the first place.
It also means we're much less likely to end up with an unnecessarily restricted diet.
Try a supplement cupboard reset
I'm not going to give you another diary to complete. Instead, open the cupboard.
Get out everything you're currently taking - including the things you take occasionally because you've heard they're good for you.
Put them on the table. Then roughly sort them into groups:
Your foundations - multivitamin/mineral, omega-3, vitamin D or anything you regard as basic nutritional support.
Gut support - probiotics, prebiotics, digestive enzymes, fibre products or gut powders.
Targeted nutrients - iron, B12, magnesium, zinc, calcium or other individual nutrients.
Herbs and botanicals - herbal products, medicinal mushrooms, adaptogens etc.
Performance and healthy-ageing products - creatine, protein powders, collagen and similar products.
The “I'm not actually sure” pile - anything where you can't really explain why you're taking it.
Then pick up each one and ask yourself three questions:
Why am I taking this? What am I expecting it to change? Do I have any evidence that I actually need it or that it's helping me?
You don't need to throw everything in the bin. The exercise is simply to notice how much of your current health regime has a clear purpose. You may be surprised.
Why can't I just stick to anything?
This is another place where I think women are unnecessarily hard on themselves.
You're working. You're looking after children or teenagers. Perhaps you're also supporting ageing parents. You're running a house. You're trying to exercise. You're trying to sleep properly. You're trying to eat well.
And every time you open your phone, somebody tells you there's something else you should or could be doing to solve your 'unexplained' fatigue.
Then we wonder why we can't stick to a complicated supplement regime, an elimination diet and twelve new health habits simultaneously.
You haven't failed - because you need some support.
Sometimes having somebody experienced look at the whole picture, decide what actually matters and give you a clear order in which to tackle things is precisely what makes change achievable.
What if I just want to understand why I feel like this?
This is where my two main ways of working are slightly different. If you're thinking:
“I don't necessarily need another huge health programme. I just want someone to look at the whole picture and help me understand what might be going on,”
that's what Decode Your Bloat is designed to do.
We map your health history, symptoms and the different areas of your physiology through a functional medicine lens. Where appropriate, we can identify areas where further testing might be useful.
The aim is clarity.
What if I know I need help actually changing things?
Sometimes understanding the picture isn't enough.
You want somebody alongside you while you actually do something about it.
That's where Feel Like Yourself Again comes in.
This is my more supported one-to-one programme, where we move from understanding your health picture into personalised nutrition, lifestyle and herbal support, appropriate testing, coaching and ongoing adjustments as we see how your body responds.
Because ultimately, I don't want you leaving with another list of twenty things you should be doing.
I want you to understand:
What matters for you. Why you're doing it. And what we're looking for to know whether it's working.
Juliana O'Boyle
IFM-certified functional medicine practitioner, medical herbalist and naturopath
Read more about Juliana
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