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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: What’s what with some common supplements for exercise performance

Feb 16, 2018 | 9:20 AM

When Sergio Leone directed the 1966 Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” — with Clint Eastwood as Blondie (the “Good”), Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes (the “Bad”) and Eli Wallach as Tuco (the “Ugly”) — he helped create a
phrase (never spoken in the movie) that entered the American language as an enduring favorite. “Good, bad and ugly” has been applied to everything from presidential speeches to the running of the bulls in Pamplona. It also can be used to
describe the endless array of supplements that are pushed to the American public for improving exercise performance.

Now, the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health has decided to make it clear which category the most commonly available supplements fall into! The Good are the effective and/or safe supplements. The Bad are those that take your money without delivering any proven benefit. The Ugly are those that pose a serious health risk to you.

The various additives evaluated in the new ODS fact sheet, “Dietary Supplements for Exercise and Athletic Performance,” include antioxidants (vitamins C and E), arginine, beet juice/beet root, beta-alanine, beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate
(HMB), betaine, branched-chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine and valine), caffeine, citrulline, creatine, deer antler velvet, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), ginseng, glutamine, iron, protein, quercetin, ribose, sodium bicarbonate, tart or sour cherry and tribulus terrestris.

Many are benign — or may even boost your energy a bit (think caffeine and creatine) — if you take in the ingredients from foods/beverages or from recommended doses.

But these supplements don’t always show up one at a time!

Products often have multiple ingredients, and there’s virtually no research on how they interact.

In addition the amount of individual supplements in a product’s dose is often hard to determine.

Risk No. 1: Doses you end up taking  are beyond known safe levels; combos of supplements are untested.
Risk No. 2: For some supplements, there are no reliable studies available to determine safety at any level.
Risk No. 3: The supplements are contraindicated for certain medical conditions or with certain medications.
Risk No. 4: Some supplements interfere with athletic performance!

For example, about something as simple as vitamins C and E, which are touted for their antioxidant powers, the ODS says, “Little research supports the use as ergogenic aids [aids to exercise performance] of antioxidant supplements containing greater amounts than those available from a nutritionally adequate diet. In fact, they can adversely affect some measures of exercise and athletic performance.”

How? “Free radicals that form when you exercise seem to help muscle fibers grow and produce more energy.

Antioxidant supplements [in advance of exercise] might actually reduce some of the benefits of exercise, including muscle growth and power output.”

One example of a useless, but generally harmless, performance-enhancing supplement is ginseng. The ODS states: “Numerous small studies, with and without placebo controls, have investigated Panax ginseng’s potential to improve the
physical performance. … In almost all cases, the studies found that Panax ginseng in various doses and preparations had no ergogenic effect on such measures as peak power output, time to exhaustion, perceived exertion, recovery from
intense activity, oxygen consumption or heart rate.”

So what does work? A nutritious diet.

That means getting 7 to 9 daily servings of fruits and veggies; lean protein from fish, skinless poultry and legumes, and 100 percent whole grains. Skip the sat and trans fats and added sugars and syrups in prepared and highly processed
foods. Stick with a multivitamin that offers doses near recommended levels of nutrients and minerals (take half in the morning and the other half at night) and talk to your doc before taking other supplements to see if they’re The Good, The
Bad or The Ugly move for you.

As the ODS says, “If you are a competitive or recreational athlete, you will perform at your best and recover most quickly when you eat a nutritionally adequate diet, drink enough fluids … and are properly trained.” The complete ODS fact sheet is available to you at http://bit.ly/2BpQ8tE.
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Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Wellness Officer and Chair of Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic. To live your healthiest, tune into “The Dr. Oz Show” or visit www.sharecare.com.
© 2018 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc

This column is sponsored by your local choice for healthy lifestyle products -Nutter’s Bulk and Natural Foods
365 36th St. W, Prince Albert, SK
Phone: (306) 922-3835