Without a doubt, keeping up to date on supplement and medical research is a challenge.  And no shortage of information exists on dietary supplements: a Google search of the term offers 19 million results. To read them all would take approximately 537 years. 

Effective ways to sort the wheat from the chaff can be game changing. Here are some of my favorite ways to keep up to date on the rapidly growing science of healthy ingredients:

1.) Read by QxMD for iPad: According to the developers, it provides a simple interface that drives discovery and seamless access to the medical literature by reformatting it into a personalized digital medical journal. Simply download, check off the subjects, keywords, and/or journals of interest, and watch as streaming updates of abstracts and full text links come on a daily basis. Apps like this one could eventually make PubMeds website obsolete.

2.) Tweetbot: If you arent already on Twitter, what are you waiting for? Login and follow Dr. Weil, Dr. Oz, and Dr. Who all at the same time. Plus, frequently news items and medical research is posted on Twitter before being reported in the mainstream media. Tweetbot is one of the best Twitter clients offering a better experience than the official Twitter apps. This app costs $2.99 not free, but less than a grande half-caff caramel macchiato.

3.) Wolfram Alpha: This digital encyclopedia offers information on plant species, computes blood glucose from HbA1c levels, and will tell you how many calories are in a chocolate Frosty (in case you were wondering). On the Web: www.wolframalpha.com

4.) About Herbs: Although there are not many comprehensive apps listing botanicals used for health, this one developed by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center has a decent amount of information summarized on some of the more popular botanicals used in supplements. On the Web: http://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/about-herbs-botanicals-other-products

5.) Evernote and Instapaper: For those of us who like to keep papers because maybe this will be useful later, apps like Evernote and Instapaper are how we ensure that we never appear on Hoarders. On the Web: www.evernote.com and www.instapaper.com.

Happy reading!