Rick Rosner's 50 Daily Pills and Supplements: What the Evidence Says

In late 2014, television writer Rick Rosner, often described as having one of the highest IQ scores in the world, shared the roughly 50 pills, prescription drugs and supplements he took each morning with Business Insider. The list is a mix of ordinary medicines, popular supplements and obscure "smart drugs". The short answer to the question most readers have is this: a few items have solid evidence for specific medical conditions, many have little or none for healthy people, and several can cause real harm without a doctor’s supervision. Rosner himself said as much at the time.

"Scepticism is advised. At the very least, Wikipedia this stuff."

Below is his list, grouped by what each item is meant to do, with a plain look at what the evidence says. None of this is a recommendation; anyone thinking about trying a drug or supplement should talk to a doctor first.

Who Rick Rosner is, and what his IQ claim means

Richard G. "Rick" Rosner was born on 2 May 1960. He began writing for quiz shows on MTV’s Remote Control in 1987 and later worked on The Man Show, Crank Yankers and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, earning an Emmy nomination for the last. Before that he collected odd jobs, by his own account including bouncer, roller-skating waiter and stripper, and he famously spent about a decade in high school. In 2000 he lost on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire over a question about the world’s highest capital city and disputed the answer.

His intelligence reputation comes from unsupervised "high-range" tests created by Ron Hoeflin. Rosner scored highly on the Mega Test in 1985 and joined the Mega Society, later editing its journal. The World Genius Directory, a privately run list, ranked him second worldwide with an IQ of 192. Psychologists treat such numbers with caution: no validated IQ test can reliably tell apart one-in-a-million scores, and results above about 160 are widely seen as doubtful. "Second-smartest man in the world" is a headline, not a measurement.

Rosner as a boy. He has said he spent years trying to work out a "theory of everything" in his spare time, and his supplement routine reflects the same urge to tinker with how the brain and body work.

The prescription drugs on his list

These are real medicines with proven uses, which is exactly why they should only be taken under medical care.

• Half an aspirin a day. Rosner called it a cheap way to live longer. Guidance has changed since 2014. In 2022 the US Preventive Services Task Force advised that people aged 60 or older should not start low-dose aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke, because the bleeding risk outweighs the benefit. The 2018 ASPREE trial in older adults found no overall benefit and more bleeding. People already prescribed aspirin after a heart attack or stroke are a different case and should not stop without advice.
• Metformin. A first-line drug for type 2 diabetes that lowers glucose output from the liver. It is being studied as a possible anti-ageing drug, but whether it extends life in healthy people is unknown, and reviews suggest any cancer benefit seen so far applies to people with diabetes.
• Metoprolol. A beta blocker for high blood pressure and heart conditions. Rosner used it to blunt his stress response while driving. It works on adrenaline’s effects, but stopping it suddenly can be dangerous.
• Avodart (dutasteride). Approved for an enlarged prostate and used in some countries for male hair loss. It blocks the conversion of testosterone to DHT. One correction to his original note: the risk to women is not a "hermaphrodite" birth. Women who are or may become pregnant should not handle the capsules because the drug can cause genital abnormalities in a male fetus. Men taking it should not give blood for six months after stopping.
• Cholesterol-lowering drugs, both prescription and over the counter, which he did not name.

Supplements for heart, joints, liver and "cellular clean-up"

This is the largest group, and the one where evidence is thinnest. Rosner listed:

• Omega-3 fish oil capsules
• Glucosamine and chondroitin, for joints (the family dog took it too)
• High-dose multivitamins from Life Extension and Vitacost
• SAM-e and milk thistle, for the liver
• Astragalus, which he hoped might slow telomere shortening
• Glisodin, a melon-extract antioxidant
• Curcumin, from turmeric
• ToCoQ10 (a coenzyme Q10 product), L-carnosine, ALA (alpha-lipoic acid) and acetyl-L-carnitine
• Vitamin D3, vitamin C, vitamin E with selenium and gamma E, vitamin K and calcium
• Lycopene, TMG (trimethylglycine), benfotiamine and N-acetyl cysteine
• A mangosteen, pomegranate and noni complex
• Horse chestnut, for varicose veins
• Quercetin and bromelain

Some of these have legitimate roles. Vitamin D or calcium can be prescribed when levels are low or bones are weak, and N-acetyl cysteine is used in hospitals for paracetamol overdose. Large trials of glucosamine, antioxidant vitamins and fish oil in healthy people have mostly produced modest or disappointing results, and claims about telomeres, "cellular gunk" and anti-ageing remain unproven. High doses can also clash with medicines: vitamin K affects blood thinners, and several herbs change how the liver handles drugs.

Diet aids: fibre, carb blockers and fat blockers

Rosner was open that these were there to offset his eating habits rather than to make him healthier. He chewed fibre gummies, took carb blockers with meals in the belief that they cut carbohydrate absorption by about a quarter, and reserved fat blockers for the fattiest meals because of their unpleasant digestive side effects. His most useful tip was not a pill at all: eating less fat in the first place, such as scraping some of the cheese off a pizza slice. Fibre from food has clear benefits; carb-blocker supplements have weak evidence, and prescription fat blockers work but are known for oily, urgent bowel side effects.

Rosner with his wife, Carole. The couple moved west to California after she accepted a job there.

The "brain drugs": coffee, nootropics and methylene blue

The final group was aimed at memory and alertness:

• Coffee
• Phosphatidylserine
• DMAE
• Aminoguanidine
• Centrophenoxine
• Piracetam
• Cognitex from Life Extension
• Vinpocetine (occasionally)
• Methylene blue

Rosner singled out caffeine as the one item he was confident about: it kept him from dozing at work in the afternoons, though it did not make him any cleverer. That matches the research, which shows caffeine improves alertness and reaction time rather than intelligence.

The rest are a different story. Piracetam is not approved as a medicine in the United States. US regulators warned in 2019 that vinpocetine should not be taken by women who are or may become pregnant. Methylene blue is a genuine medicine for a rare blood condition and turns urine blue-green, a side effect Rosner joked about. It was investigated for Alzheimer’s disease, but large trials of a related compound reported in 2016 did not show a clear benefit, and it can trigger dangerous serotonin syndrome when combined with many antidepressants.

Myths his list can feed, and what to take from it

It is easy to read a genius’s pill box as a shortcut. A few common assumptions are worth unpicking:

• "A smart person must have chosen well." A high score on a puzzle test says nothing about pharmacology. Rosner made this point himself, saying chemistry was his worst subject.
• "More is better." Fifty products means fifty chances for side effects and interactions, and it makes it impossible to know which, if any, are helping.
• "Natural means safe." Herbal products can thin the blood, affect the liver or interact with prescription drugs, and supplement quality varies widely.
• "What worked in a mouse works in me." Many anti-ageing claims come from animal or cell studies that have not been confirmed in people.

The habits with the strongest evidence for a healthy brain and body are less exciting: regular exercise, sleep, not smoking, a diet rich in plants, managing blood pressure and staying socially and mentally active. If you are curious about a supplement or a medicine you saw on a list like this, take the name to your doctor or pharmacist and ask whether it makes sense for you.

Sources: Business Insider (original list, December 2014); Minds; Wikipedia: Richard G. Rosner; Wikipedia: Aspirin (USPSTF 2022, ASPREE); Wikipedia: Metformin; Wikipedia: Dutasteride; Wikipedia: Methylene blue.

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