Chances are if you’re reading this website you’ve already at least heard of Rhonda Patrick, as she’s been a prominent feature in the Biohacking community for some time. She’s done multiple detailed interviews on the Joe Rogan Experience, the Tim Ferriss Podcast, Peter Attia’s Drive podcast, and many more.

For those of you who aren’t already familiar with Rhonda, she did her graduate research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where she investigated the link between mitochondrial metabolism, apoptosis, and cancer. She then trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute with Dr. Bruce Ames, where she investigated the effects of micronutrient (vitamins and minerals) inadequacies on metabolism, inflammation, DNA damage, and aging, and whether supplementation can reverse the damage.

She frequently engages the public on topics including the role micronutrient deficiencies play in diseases of aging, the role of genetics in determining the effects of nutrients on a person’s health status, benefits of exposing the body to hormetic stressors such as through exercise, fasting, sauna use or heat stress, or various forms of cold exposure, and the importance of mindfulness, stress reduction, and sleep.

In short, Rhonda is one of the most well known and trusted names in the fields of health and longevity. However, since she’s done so many interviews and released so much useful information (regular posts on her Instagram with detailed captions for example), it can be hard to keep track of her top supplement and nutrition protocol recommendations.

That’s why we’ve compiled everything into this (regularly updated) list.  You’ll find a summary below, followed by a detailed breakdown of the full list of supplements and foods that Rhonda Patrick uses.

One note – as far as we’re aware Rhonda Patrick has no affiliation with any of the supplement or nutrition companies that are recommended here, meaning that her advice is completely unbiased. 

*Where a particular brand of the given supplement isn’t known, we’ve substituted and starred our own top recommendation.

Rhonda Patrick’s Core Daily Vitamin & Supplements:

Multivitamin – Pure Encapsulations O.N.E. – 1 capsule/day
Vitamin D – Thorne Research D3 – 5,000 IU/day
Magnesium – Pure Encapsulations Magnesium Glycinate – 120mg/day
Fish Oil – N-PURE-3 – 4 grams/day (currently unavailable, alternative: Carlson Maximum Omega)

Rhonda Patrick’s Additional Regular Vitamins & Supplements:

Ubiquinol – Pure Encapsulations – 200mg/day
Vitamin K2 – Life Extension – 45 mcg/day
Melatonin – Pure Encapsulations – 10mg before bed
Probiotic – Visbiome  – 1 satchet/week
Sulforaphane (for raising brain glutathione) – *Thorne Research Broccoli Seed Extract
Collagen Peptides (aka Hydrolyzed Collagen) – Great Lakes Collagen Hydrolysate

Rhonda Patrick’s Supplements & Foods for Intermittent Use:
Curcumin (turmeric derivative) – Thorne Research Meriva Curcumin – 2 caps intermittently
Vitamin C – Thorne Research Ascorbic Acid – 1 gram intermittently
Nootropics – drink made with Laird Superfood Performance Mushrooms (recipe below)
Avocado with *Wild Salmon Roe Caviar (for omega-3 phospholipids)

Interested In But Currently Not Taking:
Anti-aging & longevity:
Nicotinamide Riboside (TruNiagen)
Resveratrol (*Toniiq High-Purity Capsules)

Rhonda Patrick’s Genetic Testing Service Recommendation:
23andMe – See our full guide to using 23andMe + Rhonda’s own proprietary analysis tool here. 

Rhonda Patrick Core Daily Vitamins and Supplements List

Multivitamin 

Daily multivitamins act as an insurance policy to make sure that you’re hitting your targets for mineral and vitamin consumption. They’re especially important if you’re in a situation where you can’t get adequate healthy foods like you would normally (i.e. if you’re traveling).

From what we can tell it seems that Rhonda continues to take the multi that she has been for a while now: Pure Encapsulations O.N.E.

Rhonda’s early mentor, Bruce Ames, researched what happens when our bodies have insufficient levels of micronutrients, and found that our bodies prioritize the scarce nutrients for functions related to survival and reproduction. De-prioritizing other functions, such as those that could aid in longevity.

This multivitamin combines over 20 micronutrients into one capsule which is a huge bonus. 

Vitamin D – Immunity & Overall Wellbeing

Rhonda Patrick has always placed a high value on Vitamin D and has noted several times on podcasts that the majority of Americans are Vitamin D deficient, meaning that daily supplementation would be beneficial. She’s especially made an effort to emphasize it’s importance during the Covid-19 pandemic, even mentioning on an episode of the Joe Rogan Podcast that there is strong evidence of a link between Vitamin D deficiency and increased severity in covid symptoms.

She noted a recent study published in the British Medical Journal looking at 25 randomized trials which noted that “Vitamin D supplementation was safe and protected against acute respiratory tract infection”.

The best way to accurately know your vitamin D levels (and levels of any micronutrients for that matter) is through blood testing (we recommend using Wellness FX). 

Rhonda Patrick aims to keep her Vitamin D blood levels between 40 and 60 ng/ml, and notes that it’s difficult to do so through diet and environment alone unless you spend the majority of your time outside in the sun.  For most people who work primarily indoors, it’s recommended to take 5000iu of Vitamin D supplementation per day to maintain health levels. Rhonda has mentioned multiple times that this is the protocol she follows as well, mentioning Thorne Research D3 as her go-to brand.

One thing that’s important to note (which we’ve realized a lot of people don’t know) is that Vitamin D is fat soluble, meaning that it absorbs best into your body when taken with food or drinks containing fat. One study even concluded that 32% more Vitamin D3 is absorbed by the body when it is taken with a meal.

Magnesium Glycinate – Energy Production & DNA Repair

Rhonda has recently notes that her multivitamin doesn’t actually contain high levels of magnesium, so she supplements with it separately. She likes to emphasize often that the best sources for magnesium are green leafy vegetables, but notes that it’s often hard to get adequate levels through diet alone (approximately half of the population of the US are thought to be magnesium deficient). 

Magnesium acts as a cofactor for over three hundred enzymes in the body, many of which play a role in energy production and energy utilization in the body. Rhonda describes getting enough magnesium as a ‘long term investment’ in general health, and that it’s important for repairing DNA damage in the body. It’s extremely important in longevity and delaying the aging process. 

On a daily basis, magnesium can also aid in stress-relief and help with sleep.

Rhonda has previously mentioned that Pure Encapsulations Magnesium Glycinate is her supplement of choice. 

Omega-3 Fish Oil – Heart and Joint Health

Rhonda Patrick places a high value on omega-3 fish oils for a variety of benefits, top among them being joint health, heart health, and overall cognition boosting.  The benefits of omega-3’s are well known and documented in the scientific community. However, to get enough omega-3’s from diet alone would be difficult, let alone expensive (wild-caught King salmon is averaging around $37.50/pound at the time of this writing).

Rhonda currently takes a supplement called Norwegian PURE-3 which is a high quality fish oil with low levels of oxidation, as well as low levels of heavy metals and contaminants (as notes in the International Fish Oil Standards testing).

However, Norwegian PURE-3 has had a number of supply issues lately and it’s often very hard to find. Fortunately for us, Rhonda was asked in her June 2021 members Q&A what a good alternative would be, and her top recommendation was Carlson Maximum Omega.

Rhonda mentioned that Carlson’s fish oil scores well in the IFOS tests and stores well, and fortunately it’s easy to find online. 

Rhonda Patrick’s Additional Regular Vitamins and Supplements

The supplements listed above (multivitamin, Vitamin D, fish oil, and magnesium) are the ones that Rhonda Patrick has mentioned most often and represent her core daily protocol. There are a few others that should be added to the daily list as well however, and we’ve detailed those below. 

Ubiquinol – Immune Health & Cellular Energy

 Rhonda describes Ubiquinol (the reduced form of well-known compound CoQ10) as playing an important role in mitochondrial energy production, and while it’s found naturally in our diets, Rhonda said in her February 2021 Q&A that she is supplementing an additional 200mg per day in order to help support cellular energy. 

She currently uses Pure Encapsulations 200mg capsules once per day, which while expensive, are also our favorite for the most trusted and bioavailable forms of Ubiquinol. 

Vitamin K2 – Bone & Heart Health

Vitamin K2 plays an important role in our bodies bone and heart health. While K1 comes primarily through food in the form of leafy green vegetables and is fairly easy to get enough of, K2 comes primarily from fermented foods. As most western diets don’t include too many fermented foods (unfortunately) it can be tough to get enough K2.

Rhonda mentioned on a recent Instagram post that she uses Life Extension Vitamin K2 as an insurance policy in case she doesn’t get enough K2 from her diet. 

Melatonin – Sleep Support

Rhonda recently mentioned on episode #1474 of the Joe Rogan Experience that she believes melatonin supplementation before bed can be useful as we age, because over time our natural melatonin production declines. 

Good sleep is absolutely critical for overall health and well-being, and using melatonin to support this is an easy win. 

One side effect of melatonin use can be vivid dreams and/or night terrors, which Rhonda mentioned on the podcast as well. She says that she originally was taking a low dose but has since switched to a higher dose of 9mg per night to keep the night terrors at bay. 

While that seems counterintuitive, it’s been our experience here at Biohacker Breakdown that the higher dose does indeed cause fewer vivid dreams. 

Rhonda mentioned in her February 2021 Q&A that she takes Pure Encapsulations 3mg melatonin capsules (3 per night). 

Probiotic – Digestive Health

One of the biggest benefits that we personally here at Biohacker Breakdown have gotten from following Rhonda Patrick is her recommendation for the probiotic Visbiome .

Maintaining the healthy bacteria in your gut (aka your gut biome) is extremely important, keeping you regular and helping to alleviate bloating and cramps. More than that though, a healthy gut biome also leads to a host of other benefits such as reduction in overall inflammation and even positive mood changes from increasing dopamine levels. Your gut biome should be thought of as a living organism in and of itself, and helping to support it and keep it as healthy as possible is critical for our overall health.

Unfortunately though, most western diets lack a lot of the probiotic foods that are found in other cultures. And on top of that, antibiotic use (to combat illness or infection) can have a direct negative affect on the gut biome as well.

Using a probiotic supplement is a great way to aid in that, but the problem is that most probiotic supplements don’t contain live bacteria. The products are dried out and packaged without the need for refrigeration meaning that a high percentage of the bacteria are actually dead, leading to the concentration levels of good bacteria that are absorbed into your body per dose being far lower than advertised.

Enter Visbiome…

Originally sold under the name VSL3, Visbiome is a cold-shipped live probiotic containing 8 strains of live bacteria in concentrations of 450 billion bacteria per packet. Technically classified as a “medical food”, Visbiome has been shown through numerous trials to greatly assist with irritable bowel system and overall gut biome health.

Rhonda has stated that she personally takes Visbiome satchets  once every week or two to “top up” her healthy gut bacteria. However, she also lives an incredibly health lifestyle and likely consumes a number of other probiotics as well, so a more frequent dose would likely be beneficial for most people.

We here at Biohacker Breakdown typically add one satchet of Visbiome to our daily protein and greens shake 2-3 times per week, along with including yogurt, kimchi, kombucha, and other live-bacteria-containing foods into our everyday diets.

Sulforaphane – Detoxification and Cell-Protection

Sulforaphane is a product of a chemical reaction between to plant-based compounds known as glucoraphanin and myrocinase. When ingested, sulforaphane activates what’s called the NRF2 pathway, which increases expression of a number of cell-protective genes which regulate things like:

• Glutathione (GSH) – Essential in function of Glutathione peroxidase and GST for redox balance and detoxification.
• Haemoxygenase-1 (HO-1) – Redox-regulating, broad protection against oxidative stress. Anti-inflammatory and immune-modulating properties.
• Quinone reductase (NQO1) – A multifunctional redox-regulating and detoxifying enzyme, including protection against oestrogen quinone metabolites. Stabilises the p53 tumor suppressor protein.
• Metallothionein – Removal of heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium.
• Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor – Regulator of adipogenesis and central integrator of glucose metabolism, energy homeostasis and skeletal metabolism.

Rhonda Patrick is a big proponent in the benefits of sulforaphane supplementation and has talked about it on multiple occasions. She grows her own sprouts to eat (like in the image above) since they’re a great source of natural sulforaphane, but also uses supplements to boost her levels as well.

Unfortunately the supplier that she uses no longer imports to the USA, however we’ve found a great alternative in Thorne Research Broccoli Seed Extract.

Collagen Peptides (Hydrolyzed Collagen) – Hair, Nail, Skin, and Joint Support

At around the 12:30 mark of this video detailing one of her smoothie recipes, Rhonda mentions that she incorporates collagen hydrolysate (also known by the name collagen peptides) in her smoothie for, among other things, cartilage and joint support. 

Collagen is the most prevalent form of protein in the human body, and regular supplementation can support cartilage repair, skin health, hair growth, cardiovascular health, and a host of other benefits. Collagen hydrolysate in particular offers a more bio-available form of collagen that is broken down and more readily absorbed by your body.

She’s seen using Great Lakes Collagen Hydrolysate as her brand of choice, which just so happens to be our favorite as well.

Curcumin (Mereva) – Anti-inflammation

Rhonda occasionally takes curcumin supplements for their anti-inflammatory benefits, noting that they double as a mild alternative to painkillers. Curcumin is a derivative of turmeric and has been shown to lower inflammation throughout the body. 

She has mentioned Thorne Research Meriva Curcumin as her go-to in the past. 

Vitamin C – Immune Support

Strong immune function has been top of mind for all of use these days given the ongoing pandemic, and Rhonda Patrick is no different. She has spoken at length about the benfits of Vitamin C supplementation (during her March 7th Q&A for one) and even posted a Vitamin C topic page on her website which details her recent research. This came after her initial skepticism that Vitamin C supplementation actually had as much of an effect on the immune system as most people commonly think. 

Rhonda recommends taking regular ascorbic acid form Vitamin C and typically uses 0.5-1 gram of Thorne Research Ascorbic Acid intermittently in the evenings. 

Nootropics – Energy and Mental Cognition Boost

Nootropics are compounds aimed at boosting energy, focus, memory, and overall mental cognition. And in Rhonda’s June 2021 members Q&A she updated us on her preferred nootropic to use.

As a starting point, she does give the caveat that her main keys to optimizing cognitive function (which we would agree with) are:

• Good quality sleep – see this post for how she optimizes her sleep
• Regular cardio exercise – such as running/spin bike
• Intermittent fasting – such that she stays in ketosis throughout the morning while she works
• Consuming sulforaphane – which raises glutathione in the brain, lowering oxidative stress + inflammation
• High dose fish oil – of which the DHA is key for brain function

However, when she needs an added boost to really get things done and get into that ‘flow-state’, she makes her own nootropic blend with the following nootropic drink recipe:

• Laird Superfood Performance Mushrooms (blend of Chaga, Lion’s Mane, Cordyceps, and Maitake)
• Cocoavia Cocoa powder (1 satchet)
• Coconut powder and MCT powder
• Stevia to sweeten (to taste)
• Cinnamon
• Water

She says it’s like dynamite for the brain and she feels “on fire” with it. 

Avocado and Salmon Roe – Omega-3’s and Fatty Acids

If you’re a fan of Rhonda Patrick you’ve probably come across the image above, as the snack of avocado and wild salmon roe is one of her favorites. She especially talked about it when she was pregnant – highlighting the benefits of the Omega-3’s and other compounds for fetal development.

We’re a big fan of the combination as well (provided we can find ripe avocados) and fortunately we’ve also been able to find a reputable supplier of wild salmon roe that has a solid supply line: Sassanian Fresh Wild Alaska Salmon Roe.

If that source isn’t available for some reason, we also like this one from Vital Choice.