The supplement scanner and stack

The supplement scanner adds a supplement to your stack from the bottle. Point the camera at it and the app reads the barcode, or the label if there is no barcode. Your stack is grouped by morning, midday and evening, and one tap logs the whole group.

How it works, step by step

1. Scan the bottle. Barcode first; if there is none, the app reads the label.
2. Place it in the day. Put it in the morning, midday or evening group.
3. Log the group. One tap logs everything in that group for the day.
4. Change it when the stack changes. Add or remove items, and the history keeps what you took when.

Why supplements belong in the record

Supplement use is the norm, not the exception. The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics found that in 2017 to 2018, 57.6 percent of US adults had used at least one dietary supplement in the past 30 days. Use rose with age: 80.2 percent of women aged 60 and over. And 24.9 percent of adults aged 60 and over had used four or more.

Supplements matter to a protocol for two reasons. The first is interpretation. Several of the markers people track in bloodwork can be moved by supplements: vitamin D obviously, but also others. If a lab value shifts and the supplement stack changed in the same month, you want both on the timeline before deciding what caused it. The second is that supplements are not reviewed the way drugs are. The FDA states plainly that under the 1994 law governing them, it "does not have the authority to approve dietary supplements before they are marketed." What is in the bottle, and how much, is on the manufacturer. Having the exact product recorded, from the barcode or label, makes it easier to tell a clinician or pharmacist precisely what you take.

A supplement can change a lab result without changing you

There is a more direct reason to record supplements before a blood draw. Biotin, which is common in products marketed for hair, skin and nails, can interfere with laboratory tests that use biotin in their chemistry, producing results that are falsely high or falsely low. The FDA has issued safety communications on this, has published guidance for test makers on checking for it, and keeps a list of troponin tests still subject to the problem after receiving reports of falsely low results. The fix on the patient side is simple: tell the clinician and the lab what you take. A dated stack makes that a matter of reading it off the screen.

Why one tap for a group

Supplements are usually taken in clusters: a handful with breakfast, something at lunch, magnesium before bed. Logging each one individually is the kind of chore that stops after a week. Grouping by time of day and logging the group in one tap keeps the record going without making it a job. The reminder logic is the same idea as the protocol planner: make the right action the easy one.

Who it is for

• People with a long supplement list who want it recorded accurately, not from memory.
• Anyone tracking labs who wants to rule supplement changes in or out when a marker moves.
• People on a peptide protocol who want the whole picture of what they take in one place.
• Anyone who has been asked by a clinician or a lab what supplements they take and could not list them all from memory.

How it connects to the rest of the app

The stack sits on the same timeline as the dose log, the nutrition log and the training log. When you upload bloodwork, supplements are part of the history the markers are read against. Remi answers from your own log, which includes the stack. The compound library covers the peptides; supplements are recorded as you take them.

Scan everything you take this week, morning to evening, once. After that the daily cost is three taps. The app is on the download page.