HMB and medications.
HMB is in the Distil supplement database, evidence Grade B. The page below lists every medication we have explicitly assessed it against.
HMB, short for beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate, is a metabolite of the amino acid leucine, taken at 3g a day split into three 1g doses with meals. Its job is anti-catabolic: it slows muscle protein breakdown through mTOR activation and proteasome inhibition, a different route from creatine's phosphocreatine mechanism, which makes the two complementary. The evidence is Grade B for preserving lean mass and preventing sarcopenia, with a meta-analysis by Wu in 2015 and a systematic review by Bear in 2019 both finding small but real gains in muscle mass and strength, particularly in older adults and during clinical conditions. The honest read is that the effects are modest and most relevant when muscle is under threat, such as ageing, calorie restriction or injury recovery, rather than as a general muscle-builder. It has no significant negative drug interactions and may mildly lower LDL. It is very well tolerated across all trials. A practical note: it earns its place most clearly after 50 or during a fat-loss phase, alongside creatine and adequate protein.
We have not yet completed an explicit assessment of medications for HMB in the Distil interactions database. We surface this distinction deliberately: the Distil checker tells you when we have explicitly assessed a pair and when we have not, because both are useful information. If you take HMB alongside a medication, the checker below will surface anything already in our database, and the missing-item form at the bottom of the page routes uncatalogued pairs into our next curation pass.
What this list does not say. Pairs not flagged here are not implicitly safe. They are either not yet in our database, or fall outside our inclusion scope. Use the checker below to surface any medication, and submit a missing item if you take something we have not catalogued.
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How we grade severity, choose what's in scope, and what we exclude.
Every call on this page is reasoned. We publish the full rubric for severity tiers, the medication inclusion logic, the evidence grades we accept, and what we deliberately leave out. About three thousand words. Worth reading once if you use this tool more than occasionally.
Read the full methodologyA full supplement review, built around you, not a generic stack.
The free checker answers one interaction question at a time. A Distil report reviews the bigger picture: your goals, diet, medications, current supplements and any blood results you provide, then shows what appears worth keeping, changing, adding or leaving out.
- what your diet already covers, so you are not adding a capsule for something food is already handling
- which evidence-graded compounds are worth considering for your goals, and which were considered but left out
- what to keep, change or stop from what you already take, plus the order to introduce anything new
- how your medications and complete supplement stack fit together, with daily timing and a clear point for reassessment
The interaction check is one section of the full report. You also get the reasoning behind each recommendation and the evidence references used.
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Something missing?
If a supplement or medication you take isn't in our autocomplete, tell us. We go through what people flag every week and add what's missing.