Supplements in Sports Nutrition

by Sathishbabu Raghav Financial Adviser

Sports nutrition has been widely discussed and talked about in the last few years. In fact, it has been receiving even more attention given that nutrition plays an important part in the performance of athletes. Nutrition plays a critical role in producing energy and helps in recovering from exercise. Now, much like anxiety supplements, most of the sports nutrition supplements available for athletes have less scientific supporting their ability to improve athlete training or performance. However, much like some of the best anxiety supplements, there are a host of sports nutrition supplements that have been shown to improve the athlete’s performance and recovery.

Also Read: Best Anxiety Journals

Also, the FDA does not regulate the safety and effectiveness of these supplements much like other anxiety supplements to deal with anxiety. In fact, the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (JISSN) defines ergogenic acids and dietary supplements and how they are legally regulated.

Dietary Supplements

The dietary supplement health and education act of 1994 (DHSEA) places dietary supplements in a special category of ‘foods’. This law defines dietary supplements as a product defines dietary supplements as products that contain dietary ingredients and have the objective of supplementing the diet.

The term ‘dietary ingredients’ include minerals, vitamins, herbs or other botanicals, amino acids, and substances like enzymes organ tissues, and glandular extracts. In addition to this, these may also include extracts, metabolites, or concentrates of those substances.

Further, dietary supplements are available in the form of powder, capsules, soft gels, tablets, gel-caps, or liquids and these are specifically for oral ingestion.

Ergogenic Acids

Ergogenic Acids may be nutritional ingedients, mechanical devices, training techniques, or any pharmacological or psychological techniques that help in improving the capacity for performing exercises or training adaptations. Further, these may help in preparing individuals to enhance recovery from exercise, exercise efficiency, or prevent injuries during rigorous training sessions.

In addition to this, the ISSN also provides a classification of the nutritional supplements which is as follows.

Categorizing Nutritional Supplements

It is very important to study and assess the scientific literature available to be able to understand nutritional supplements. Taking this into consideration, nutritional supplements are divided into :

Strong Evidence to Support Efficacy and Apparently Safe

These include supplements that have a strong theoretical ground with most of the available research in appropriate populations. Further, the research is done using proper dosage to illustrate both the efficacy and safety of these supplements.

Limited or Mixed Evidence to Support Efficacy

The supplements that come under this category have a strong scientific rationale for their use. However, the available research has not been able to generate consistent results that support their efficacy. Thus, such supplements need more research to be undertaken before researchers can figure out their effects.

Little to No Evidence to Support Efficacy or Safety

The supplements under this category do not have a concrete scientific rationale. Further, the available research shows a lack of efficacy of such nutritional supplements. understand what The ISSN categorizes nutritional supplements into the following three categories.

Suggested Nutritional Ergogenic Acids - Minerals

Nutrient	Suggested Ergogenic Value	Research Findings
Boron	A dietary supplement that promotes muscle growth	No available evidence for promoting muscle growth
Calcium	Involved in tooth formation, nerve transmission, and blood clotting	Provides no ergogenic effect on exercise performance
Chromium	Proposed to increase lean body mass and reduce body fat levels	Animal and early human research indicated chromium supplements resulting in increased lean body mass. But, recent studies suggest that such supplements do not improve lean body mass.
Iron	Increase aerobic performance in sports	Supplements do not improve aerobic performance unless the athlete is anemic.
Magnesium	Activates enzymes involved in protein synthesis. Also involved in ATP reactions	Most studies suggest that magnesium supplements do affect exercise performance in athletes.
Phosphorous	Has been studied for its capacity to improve the three energy systems mainly oxygen system or aerobic capacity	Controlled studies reveal that sodium phosphate supplements improved oxygen energy systems in endurance tasks.
Potassium	An electrolyte that helps in controlling nerve transmission, fluid balance, and acid-base balance. Imbalance in potassium levels may lead to cramping in athletes	No clear evidence for potassium supplementation leading to a reduction in muscle cramping.
Selenium	Sold as a supplement to increase the aerobic exercise performance	No evidence for selenium supplements improving aerobic capacity
Sodium		Initial intense training results in loss of sodium due to sweat. Increased salt availability during heavy training helps in maintaining fluid balance
Vanadyl sulfate	Vanadium has got increased attention as a supplement to increase muscle mass, increase power, and strength.	There is no evidence that Vanadyl sulfate has any effect on muscle mass, strength, or power
Zinc	The theory says that zinc reduces chances of upper respiratory tract infections in athletes	Studies show that zinc supplements during training minimize changes in the immune system due to exercise.

Dietary Supplements Categorization

Category	Muscle Building Supplements	Performance Enhancement
Strong Evidence to Support Efficacy and Apparently Safe	HMB Creatine monohydrate Essential Amino Acids (EAA) Protein	β-alanine Caffeine Carbohydrate Creatine Monohydrate Sodium Bicarbonate Sodium Phosphate Water and sports drinks
Limited or Mixed Evidence to Support Efficacy	Adenosine-5′-Triphosphate (ATP) Branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) Phosphatidic acid	L-Alanyl-L-Glutamate Arachidonic acid Branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) Citrulline Essential amino acids (EAA) Glycerol HMB Nitrates Post-exercise carbohydrate and protein Quercetin Taurine
Little to No Evidence to Support Efficacy or Safety	Agmatine sulfate Alpha-ketoglutarate Arginine Boron Chromium Conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) D-Aspartic acid Ecdysterone Fenugreek extract Gamma oryzanol (Ferulic acid) Glutamine Growth-hormone releasing peptides and Secretagogues Isoflavones Ornithine-alpha-ketoglutarate Prohormones Sulfo-polysaccharides Tribulus Terrestris Vanadyl sulfate Zinc-magnesium aspartate	Arginine Carnitine Glutamine Inosine Medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) Ribose