Beauty bible

Celia Walden on supplementary benefits

IN THE FIVE YEARS I lived in LA, I never quite managed to fit in. I refused to up-end sentences that weren’t questions, my breasts moved up and down when I jogged and I was a habitual user of alcohol rather than prescription drugs, which was considered deeply antisocial. And there was something else: because I didn’t have any nutritional or vitamin deficiencies (that I knew of), I couldn’t join in dinnerparty discussions about how an obscure Chinese herb known locally as ‘magic pigweed’ had, like, totally transformed my skin/hair/energy levels/sleep.

Because Angelenos had bred such a mistrust of supplements in me, I assumed the constant fatigue I felt on my return to London was just being a working mum of over 40. Then a friend insisted I go and see top hormone doctor Dr Jan Toledano of the London Hormone Clinic, who promptly sent me off for some blood tests. There was nothing wrong with my thyroid function, and my brain and ovaries were apparently ‘communicating well’ (I wonder what they talk about?), but my vitamin D levels were 59 (the optimal level is 150) and Dr Toledano explained that because vitamin D is in fact a hormone, many of the women who came to see her were so amazed by the results they got from taking a supplement of 2000iu a day that they didn’t need to explore further options.

It sounded too good to be true, but it wasn’t. Within two months I had more energy, I was less moody and even my little grey cells seemed to be functioning better (apparently our brain has receptors for vitamin D much like it does for other chemicals). I was also much more open-minded about other supplements, trying out everything from Hello Day’s new Seasonal Boxes to Udo’s Choice Ultimate Oil Blend, which my facialist, Su-man, has long-insisted I should be cooking with.

But by far the biggest revelation was the ‘supermodel super-supplement’ Lyma, which contains a hefty dose of D (and therefore shouldn’t be taken in conjunction with other supplements). The prettiest multivitamin on the market had a 3,000-strong waiting list when personal trainer to the Victoria’s Secret brigade, Russell Bateman, launched it in the UK earlier this year, making it the perfect dinner-party topic – if only Brits were inclined to discuss anything other than Brexit.