Health is one of the most important factors for playing better bridge.

After all, you can’t play much bridge if your health goes to hell and you’ve booked your ticked out. This means that I always try to take a little better care of my health from one day to the next.

Health advice is a weird thing. You’ll notice that most of what people tell you about health (and staying healthy) will turn out to be a fad, a trend or a lie. 

Here are a few nuggets of health advice for bridge players (nobody tells you).

#1: Vitamin & Mineral Absorption is Finite

Vitamins and minerals are good for your health – but this doesn’t mean buying most of the supplements on the shelf (or doubling your current dose of vitamin anything) will make your health improve.

There’s only so much of each vitamin and mineral the body is willing to absorb. Once you’ve consumed more than this amount, your body only expels the excess.

Speak to your doctor first about which minerals and vitamins are actually useful, and which quantities you should be taking.

#2: Diets Aren’t Just For Weight Loss

The word “diet” was like a bad word when I was growing up.

People were always discussing their diets, how they cheated their diets or which new diet was doing the rounds – and this meant that a lot of people have a terrible association with the word. 

But I also learned that diets aren’t just meant for weight loss.

I’ve seen a great deal of health professionals throughout the course of my life. Diets can be for feeling better, too; for sustainable health.

For a proper diet, avoid any fads and trendy diets and seek out ones designed by health professionals.

#3: Some Diets Can Kill You

Now that we’ve talked about how not all diets are bad, let’s talk about how some diets are very bad.

For example, for a while, people tried something called the clay diet. It’s exactly what it sounds like. When you get hungry, eat some clay. Eat. Some. Clay.

Then, there was the water diet, where you fill the gaps in your diet by drinking water.

Both of these diets are great illustrations of terrible diets that could kill, and have. 

Always be careful when “picking” a diet – and make sure you’re not following one of these. That’s why it helps to seek out a professional to help out when trying to find an eating plan that works for you.

#4: Some Supplements Are MLM Scams

Always be careful when a pill or health supplement seems to offer any initiative for advertising or selling it.

Pharmaceutical companies who legitimately distribute medication use sales reps who make their way to doctors and pharmacies. They don’t ask you to sign up your friends. (When you pick up your prescription, do you get asked to recommend your heart medication to five more people? Nope. Because it doesn’t work like that.) 

Multi-level-marketing schemes are the new pyramids. Sign up, sell and sign up more along the chain until the whole thing falls apart.

Don’t fall for it.