Stack Analyzer

Add your current supplements to analyze synergies, conflicts, timing, and gaps in your stack.

Your Stack

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Your Goals

What the Stack Analyzer does

The Stack Analyzer takes the supplements you’re already taking — or considering — and checks them against a database of 80+ evidence-backed entries to surface four things:

  • Synergies — pairs that work better together than alone (e.g., Vitamin D + K2 for calcium routing, Magnesium + B6 for absorption).
  • Conflicts — pairs that should be separated in time, or avoided entirely (e.g., Calcium blocking Iron and Zinc absorption, Green Tea Extract reducing non-heme iron uptake).
  • Timing issues — supplements that compete for the same transporter or shouldn’t share a meal window.
  • Gaps — common supporting nutrients missing from your stack given your goals (e.g., taking high-dose Zinc without any Copper).

It also produces an optimal timing schedule (AM / with-meal / PM / fasting) so you stop accidentally cancelling out your own stack.

How to use it

  1. Search and add each supplement you take in the box above. Autocomplete matches common names and the most popular forms (e.g., “magnesium glycinate” → Magnesium).
  2. Pick a goal (sleep, energy, recovery, longevity, etc.) — the analyzer biases its gap suggestions toward your goal.
  3. Read the results panel. Synergies are highlighted in green, conflicts in red, timing notes in amber.
  4. Use the generated schedule as a starting point. The analyzer groups items into AM / with-meal / PM / fasting slots based on each item’s absorption profile.
  5. Iterate. Drop or add items and the analysis updates live — no page reload needed.

Examples

Example 1 — A common “more is better” stack that’s quietly cancelling itself

Inputs: Multivitamin (with iron), Calcium 1,000 mg, Zinc 30 mg, Magnesium 400 mg, all taken together at breakfast.

What the analyzer flags:

  • Calcium blocks ~50% of the iron in the multivitamin when taken in the same window.
  • Zinc and Calcium compete for the same transporter — taking both at once drops Zinc absorption.
  • Magnesium is fine to take with food, but combining all four turns a 30 mg Zinc dose into roughly an effective 12–15 mg.

Recommended split: multivitamin + Zinc at breakfast, Calcium + Magnesium at dinner.

Example 2 — Sleep stack with a hidden gap

Inputs: Magnesium Glycinate 400 mg PM, L-Theanine 200 mg PM, Melatonin 0.5 mg.

What the analyzer flags:

  • Strong synergy: Magnesium + L-Theanine + Melatonin is one of the most evidence-backed sleep stacks.
  • Gap: no GABA-pathway support beyond L-Theanine — Apigenin (50 mg) or Glycine (3 g) are common additions if onset latency is still long.
  • Timing: take Melatonin 30 minutes before bed, not at lights-out.

Top 10 mistakes the analyzer catches

These are the recurring patterns we see when people paste their real stacks into the analyzer. None of them are obvious — they’re each costing somebody money or absorption right now.

  1. Calcium + Iron together — Calcium can cut non-heme iron absorption by 40–60%. Split: Iron at breakfast (with Vitamin C), Calcium at dinner.
  2. Zinc + Calcium together — same transporter. A 30 mg Zinc dose with 1,000 mg Calcium delivers ~12–15 mg effective Zinc. Take Zinc on an empty stomach or far from Calcium.
  3. High-dose Zinc with no Copper — long-term Zinc >40 mg/day depletes Copper. Add ~1 mg Copper per 15 mg Zinc, or pick a Zinc + Copper combo.
  4. Vitamin D with no Vitamin K2 or Magnesium — D3 alone over-routes Calcium and can deposit in arteries. K2 (MK-7, 90–180 mcg) directs Calcium to bone. Magnesium is required to activate Vitamin D.
  5. Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) on an empty stomach — fat-soluble means fat-required. Take with the meal containing the most dietary fat (usually dinner).
  6. Magnesium Oxide as your “Magnesium” — ~4% bioavailable. Switch to Glycinate, Citrate, or Malate. Costs about $3 more per bottle.
  7. Iron + coffee/tea within 1 hour — tannins block iron absorption by up to 60%. Take iron 1 hour before or 2 hours after.
  8. All supplements at once “with breakfast” — convenient, but lumping them together creates compete-for-transporter conflicts that cut effective doses by 25–40%.
  9. Melatonin at lights-out — peak blood level lands ~45 min after intake. Taking it at lights-out means you fall asleep before it works, then wake up at 3 AM as it peaks. Take it 30 min before bed.
  10. Stacking three nootropics that all hit the same receptor — common with caffeine + L-theanine + a racetam + a choline + DMAE. Pick one mechanism per goal; redundancy doesn’t compound, it just makes side effects more likely.

How the schedule works

The analyzer groups your supplements into four time slots based on absorption profile:

SlotWhyTypical contents
AM, empty stomachBest absorption window for several aminos and IronIron (with Vit C), L-Tyrosine, Carnitine
AM, with breakfastWater-soluble vitamins + caffeine pairingsB-complex, Vitamin C, Caffeine + L-Theanine
PM, with dinnerFat-soluble vitamins + most mineralsVitamin D3+K2, Vitamin E, Calcium, Magnesium (if not at bedtime)
BedtimeSleep-supporting activesMagnesium Glycinate, Melatonin, Apigenin, Glycine

When two items belong in the same slot but conflict (e.g., Zinc + Calcium), the analyzer splits them across adjacent slots and explains the reason in the timing notes.

FAQ

Is this medical advice?No. The analyzer surfaces evidence-backed interactions and gaps, but it doesn't know your labs, medications, or conditions. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist before adding anything new, especially if you take prescription medication.
What if a supplement I take isn't in the database?Search by the active ingredient (e.g., "ashwagandha" rather than a brand name). Most stack issues are at the ingredient level — if the active is in the database, the analyzer can reason about it. If you find a real gap, let us know via the contact page.
Why does the schedule split things into so many slots?Because the alternative is wasted money. Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) need dietary fat. Iron is blocked by Calcium, Zinc, and tannins (coffee/tea). Magnesium relaxes — it belongs in the evening. Lumping everything into one "with breakfast" dose can cut absorption by a third or more.
How accurate are the synergy and conflict calls?Each interaction in the database is tagged with the strength of the underlying evidence (clinical trial, mechanism-only, or observational). The analyzer shows the strength inline so you can weight your decisions. We update the database as new research lands.
Can I save my stack?The analyzer state lives in your browser. Save the URL after building a stack to come back to it. We don't store anything server-side.