My Physician Wellness Stack: What I Take Daily
- P. Murray
- 8 hours ago
- 5 min read
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I have a confession to make.
For years, I gave my patients careful, evidence-based advice about nutrition and supplementation, and then I'd go home, pour myself a lukewarm cup of coffee that I'd reheated three times, and take exactly nothing. Not a vitamin. Not a mineral. Nothing.
I told myself I ate well enough. I told myself supplements were mostly expensive urine. I told myself I didn't have time.
All of that was partially true and mostly an excuse.
It wasn't until my third year of attending life.... when I was running on five hours of sleep, had gained fifteen pounds, was getting sick every time my kids brought something home from school, and had a vitamin D level of 18 (eighteen!).... that I finally started taking my own medicine. Literally.
What follows is my actual daily stack. Not an aspirational list. Not a sponsored fantasy. This is what I actually open the cabinet and take every morning, and why.
Why Physicians Are Particularly Bad at This
Before I get into specifics, I want to name something: physicians have a particular set of risk factors that most supplement conversations don't account for.
We work indoors. Almost entirely. I haven't seen the sun between 8 AM and 5 PM on a weekday in years. We are chronically sleep-deprived, which tanks everything from immune function to mood regulation to metabolic health. We are under sustained, high-level psychological stress.... the kind that burns through magnesium and B vitamins like kindling. We skip meals. We eat standing up. We forget to drink water until we notice our urine looks like amber.
This is the context in which I built my stack. Not "optimizing performance." Just.... trying to function like a human being.
Morning: The Non-Negotiables
Vitamin D3 + K2
This one is personal. When I saw my vitamin D level was 18, I felt genuinely embarrassed.... and then I went and checked my colleagues, and most of them were under 30. We are an indoor profession in a sun-deprived culture, and the data on vitamin D deficiency affecting mood, immune response, bone density, and even cardiovascular risk is substantial enough that I consider this non-negotiable.
I take D3 specifically because it's the bioavailable form, and I always pair it with K2 (menaquinone-7 form) because D3 raises calcium absorption and K2 directs that calcium into bones rather than arteries. That pairing matters. A lot of cheaper supplements skip the K2. Mine doesn't.
Omega-3s (EPA/DHA)
I fought this one for a while. The headlines swinging back and forth on fish oil drove me crazy. But when I actually sat with the literature.... particularly around EPA's role in inflammation and mood, and DHA's role in brain and cardiovascular health.... I landed firmly in the "worth it" camp, especially for someone with my family history.
I take 2g combined EPA/DHA daily, from a high-quality triglyceride-form fish oil. The triglyceride form absorbs significantly better than the ethyl ester form you find in bargain brands. And purity matters enormously here.... I want third-party testing for heavy metals and oxidation levels. This is not the place to go cheap.
Probiotics
My gut took a beating during residency. Years of irregular eating, stress, and a few rounds of antibiotics left me with what I'd describe as a "sensitive" digestive system. I've been on a multi-strain probiotic for two years now and the difference is real. I look for Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains with documented clinical evidence, CFU counts that are guaranteed at expiration (not just at manufacture), and refrigerated storage.
I'll be honest: I tried four different brands before I landed on one that worked. Most of them did nothing.
Evening: What I Take at Night
Magnesium Glycinate
If I could only take one supplement, it might be this one.
Magnesium is involved in over 300 enzymatic reactions in the body. Stress depletes it. Poor sleep depletes it. Most Americans.... and almost certainly most physicians.... are running low. I take magnesium glycinate specifically because the glycinate form is gentle on the stomach, crosses the blood-brain barrier, and has the most evidence behind it for sleep quality and anxiety reduction.
I take 400mg about an hour before bed. The difference in my sleep quality was noticeable within two weeks. My husband started taking it too after I wouldn't stop talking about it.
Methylated Folate (on most days)
I'm MTHFR heterozygous.... I found this out almost by accident.... which means I have a reduced ability to convert folic acid into its active form. Methylated folate (L-methylfolate) bypasses that conversion step entirely. If you've never had your MTHFR status checked and you struggle with mood, fatigue, or have a personal or family history of depression, it's worth asking about.
I don't take a full B-complex every day anymore. I tried it for about six months and honestly didn't notice enough of a difference to justify the bright yellow urine situation. I kept the methylated folate and dropped the rest. That's the kind of honest editing that took me years to do.
What I Don't Take Anymore
Speaking of editing.... here's what got cut:
Ashwagandha. I wanted to love it. The adaptogen appeal is real for stressed-out physicians. But it made me feel subtly off.... a little flat, a little foggy. Some people swear by it. I'm not one of them.
Iron. I supplemented for a while after my ferritin was low postpartum. Once my levels normalized, I stopped. Iron supplementation when you don't need it is not benign, and I was not going to keep taking it indefinitely without monitoring.
Collagen peptides. I took them for about a year. I'm genuinely unsure if they did anything. I stopped. No noticeable change either way. (Your mileage may absolutely vary.... the connective tissue data is real, I just didn't feel it personally.)
What the Kids Take
My two kids take vitamin D drops and omega-3 gummies daily. Neither of them gets enough sun either.... same problem, smaller humans. The omega-3 gummies are a harder sell but we've found a brand they'll actually eat without a negotiation. Wins where you can get them.
Why I Use Fullscript
Here is the part where I tell you that not all supplements are the same, and I mean it in a way that is not just marketing language.
The supplement industry in the United States is vastly under-regulated. A study published in JAMA found that many supplements contain ingredients not listed on the label.... and sometimes lack the ingredients that are listed. Heavy metal contamination is real. Bioavailability differences between forms are clinically meaningful.
I source my family's supplements through Fullscript because it's a practitioner-grade platform that carries brands held to higher manufacturing standards.... NSF certified, third-party tested, no unnecessary fillers or artificial binders. It's where I send my patients when they ask where to buy what I recommend, because I trust that what's on the label is actually in the bottle.
It also means I'm getting professional-grade formulations at a discount, which.... yes, matters when you have a family of four and a mortgage.
If you want to see exactly what I recommend.... the specific brands and formulations I've landed on after years of trial and error.... I've put together a curated list on our Fullscript storefront.
Final Thoughts
Building a supplement routine that actually works took me longer than it should have, mostly because I kept thinking I was too busy or too skeptical or too educated to need one. None of those things were true.
The stack I have now isn't complicated. It's not expensive. It's the result of paying attention to the evidence, paying attention to my own body, and being willing to cut what wasn't working.
You deserve the same thing. And you don't have to figure it out from scratch.
.... R
This post reflects my personal experience and is for informational purposes only. It is not medical advice. Please consult your own physician before making any health decisions.
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