Only What You Need: Supplements

Coming soon

Coming soon. The Supplement Check and the Online Health Assessment open once our safety testing is complete.

Our principle

We treat supplements the same way we treat medications

“Food first. And if we give you a supplement, we treat it as if we’re prescribing a medication, because many of these compounds act as medications, with the same level of medical scrutiny and responsibility.”

Dr. James French

So every product we use has a monograph, like a medicine:

What a deficiency really is
The evidence
Who it is for
Cautions
Interactions
Dose
Timing
Storage

A hand tipping a supplement pot, with gold coins pouring out

Supplements are big business

Worldwide, people spend about US$200 billion a year on supplements. In Canada, natural health products sell about $13 billion a year, more than $300 for every person in the country, and Health Canada has licensed more than 128,000 of them. Nearly half of Canadians take at least one; among women over 50, two in three do.

I've spent 30 years in medicine, and I'm not against supplements. Some work well: folic acid before pregnancy; vitamin B12, iron or vitamin D when a blood test shows you're low; creatine and protein if you're training to build or keep muscle; fibre to bring cholesterol down.

But most supplements are bought “for general health”. The largest reviews, covering hundreds of trials and close to a million people, found that multivitamins, antioxidants and vitamin D for people who aren't deficient do not prevent heart disease, cancer or early death. A few, such as high-dose beta-carotene and vitamin E, did harm. Only about a quarter of supplements are taken on a health professional's advice. By my own estimate, roughly one dollar in five goes on something with good evidence for the reason it was bought. That estimate is rough, but every way I look at it, the answer is a minority.

Quality is the other problem. When Canadian researchers tested melatonin sold here, the amount in the bottle ranged from 83% less to nearly five times more than the label said, and a quarter contained serotonin that wasn't on the label. In the United States, regulators have found prescription drugs hidden in hundreds of products sold for weight loss, sexual performance and muscle building. Canada's Auditor General found misleading advertising for 88% of the natural health products sampled. A licence number tells you a product is registered, not that it will help you.

So we recommend a supplement only when there is a reason, the evidence supports it, and it won't clash with your medicines, and we tell you how big the benefit is likely to be. Often the right advice is to stop something. You may end up buying fewer supplements, and the ones you keep will be worth taking.

Sources: Health Canada (2021 sales; Licensed Natural Health Products Database, Oct 2026); Statistics Canada, Canadian Community Health Survey – Nutrition 2015; Khan et al., Annals of Internal Medicine 2019; US Preventive Services Task Force 2022; Bailey et al., JAMA Internal Medicine 2013; Erland and Saxena, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine 2017; Tucker et al., JAMA Network Open 2018; Auditor General of Canada 2021.

What you get

Which supplements you need, which you can stop, and what to eat instead.

Our supplements are a short list Dr. French chose after reviewing the evidence: ones he has often taken himself or recommended to patients. Good, pure, Canadian products are hard to find, so we did the searching.

What to take, the dose, why, and how strong the evidence is
What you can stop taking
Anything that clashes with your medicines, flagged
Blood tests worth asking your doctor about

$59 when it opens, paid once. Private, not covered by Medicare. Anywhere in Canada.

Already a White Pine client? Don't buy here. We send you your link.

To go through your results with Dr. French, book a consultation.

How it works

1 Buy
$59, on this page, when it opens.
2 Get your link
Your secure questions, by email.
3 Answer
Health, medicines, food and current supplements. Add your latest blood results, if you've had any.
4 Built and checked
Dr. French's evidence-based rules build it. While the service is new, he reads every report himself, and an AI checker reviews every one too.
5 Your report
Within 3 working days. What to eat first, what to take, what to stop, what to test. Only what you need.

Who it is for

You already take supplements
Find out which are worth it.
Long-term medicines
Metformin, acid blockers, water pills, thyroid tablets.
GLP-1 medicines or dieting
Eating less makes it hard to keep nutrition up.
Gastroparesis or gut problems
When food doesn't sit or move normally.
Poor absorption
Coeliac disease, Crohn's, after weight-loss surgery.
Vegan or vegetarian
B12 and a few others to cover.
Planning a pregnancy
Folic acid, and what to avoid.
Over 50
Needs change with age.
Training hard
Creatine and protein, done properly.

Not for: anyone under 18, a pregnancy with complications, advanced kidney disease or dialysis, or an illness that needs a visit.

Tested in sport?

Can you be drug-tested in your sport? That means you compete on a national or provincial team, in U SPORTS or the NCAA, or in the CHL, AHL or a similar league. It is about the level you compete at and its testing rules, not how fit you are.

If so, we only use products that are NSF Certified for Sport or Informed Sport (both test batches for banned substances) and licensed by Health Canada. For example:

Creatine
Blue Star Nutraceuticals Creatine (Canadian): NSF · NPN 80079431
Klean Creatine: NSF · NPN 80072354
Vitamin D
Klean-D 1000: NSF · NPN 80061134
Multivitamin
Klean Multi: NSF · NPN 80074644

Full lists: nsfsport.com and Informed Sport. Certification is by product and flavour (and, for Informed Sport, by batch), so check yours. Even a certified product is your responsibility under anti-doping rules.

How we decide

Food first
Oily fish before fish-oil capsules.
Evidence
Good trials, a low blood result, or a medicine or condition that causes a shortfall. Weak evidence is called weak.
Safety
Checked against your medicines, pregnancy, age, kidneys and cancer history. No iron without a blood test.
Purity
Health Canada licensed, third-party tested, results published, Canadian supplier where one exists. The least expensive that passes.
No sale without your history
A product your check flags is never offered to you.

What it is not

Not a visit
It is not a consultation, and it doesn't replace seeing your own doctor. To go through your results with Dr. French, book a consultation.
Questions can't prove a deficiency
Where a blood test would settle it, we name the test.
Keep your prescriptions
Never stop or change a prescribed medicine on your own.
Not for emergencies
Call 9‑1‑1 or go to your nearest emergency department. If you are thinking about suicide, call or text 9‑8‑8.

Disclosure of financial interest

White Pine Medical earns money from products bought through our Fullscript dispensary. Dr. French's Code of Ethics requires him to tell you this. You do not have to buy anything from us: every product is named by its ingredient and dose so you can buy it at any pharmacy, and the advice is the same wherever you buy it, or if you buy nothing.

Questions

Who can buy it?

Adults 18 and over, anywhere in Canada.

I'm already a White Pine client.

Don't buy here. We send you your link directly.

Does Dr. French look at my report?

Yes, at first. While the service is new, Dr. French reads every report himself before it is sent to you, and an AI checker reviews every report as well. Once he is satisfied with the quality, he will check a sample of reports instead, and the AI checker will still review every one. Any safety question goes to a clinician before your report is sent. To go through your results with Dr. French, book a consultation.

How long does it take?

Your report arrives within 3 working days of your answers.

Do I have to buy supplements from you?

No. Every product is named by its ingredient and dose, so you can buy it anywhere. See the disclosure above.

What if I don't need anything?

Then your report says so, and tells you what you can stop taking.

Is it covered by Medicare?

No. It is a private service.

Is my health information secure?

Yes. We follow Canada's federal privacy law, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and New Brunswick's health privacy law, the Personal Health Information Privacy and Access Act (PHIPAA). Your health record is encrypted and kept in Canadian data centres.