Supplement Research
Amidst the site contruction I felt like creating a normal update. I’ve been doing research into supplements. There is a rediculous amount of hype out there surrounding supplements. Do not believe anything a website selling them says. Here’s what I’ve found so far.
I estimate that 90-95% of supplements are useless or even harmful. Even multi-vitamins can be unhealthy since many give you well over the daily recommended values. For example, taking twice the daily recommended dose of vitamin A has been shown to cause hip fractures in older women. ((Feskanich D, Singh V, Willett WC, Colditz GA. Vitamin A intake and hip fractures among postmenopausal women. JAMA 2002; 287:47-54.)) One supplement that has been repeatedly show to assist muscle growth: creatine monohydrate. I’m not going to list a bunch of research but I will show one study. ((Okudan N, Gokbel H. The effects of creatine supplementation on performance during the repeated bouts of supramaximal exercise. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2005 Dec;45(4):507-11.))
I strongly recommend you do your own research before buying a supplement. Two of the best sites I’ve been able to find are PubMed and PDR Health. PubMed is a government listing of scientific research and PDR Health has summaries of various studies for many different drugs and supplements.
on June 6, 2006 at 3:17 am
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Hi Dan, found your site recently, and found your ideas and goals in line with mine – very interesting reading!
A good site for supplement info is http://www.mercola.com. It’s worth bearing in mind that the recommended values for vitamins are the amount required to prevent scurvey, and not the amount required for a healthy active person! Bodybuilding sites are frequently the best places for this type of information, as they take very good care of themselves and read all the latest research papers…
-TPO.
on June 6, 2006 at 7:56 am
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Let me address each of your points. Mercola is not a very good site for information. They have a vested interest in promoting supplements because they sell them. As I said in my post you can’t believe anything a store tells you about supplements. Also, bodybuilding sites are full of misinformation. Most are trying to sell you products and the chat forums are full of people repeating ads they have read from other companies. Very rarely are sources cited and even more rarely is there solid research data to reinforce what is being reported.
While you are right that the daily recommended amount is less than optimal for some vitamins and minerals, going waaaaay over it can be hazardous too. If you look at some of the mainstream products (take GNC Mega Men for example) you’ll find that there are many igredients that are 1000-2000%+ of the recommended dosage. I don’t feel it necessary to go through the whole list, but let’s look at a few.
Mega Men has 100% of vitamin A. Assuming you eat properly this is excessive because you could easily get another 100% from your food. As I said before studies have shown that excessive vitamin A can be harmful. You have to remember that while taking the supplements alone may not be harmful you still ingest food containing most, if not all, of what your body requires. There have been very few long term studies on excessively high vitamin and mineral intake.
One final thing. Even if a multivitamin isn’t harmful, you could be, quite literally, pissing away your money. I’ve seen research that shows you absorb very little from a multivitamin supplement. I can’t seem to find the article now. If anyone can provide me a link to said research I’d be greatful
on June 7, 2006 at 3:07 am
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Argh, did a long response and it got lost!! Anyway, to summarise:
- I didn’t intend to say mercola was good for supplements, I only meant for medical info
- Most bodybuilding sites are run by supplement makers, true but there those written by independent people who have much better advice on proteins etc. Something that annoys me are protein powders sold for £40+ a tub which are full of fillers and other crap (Xanthem Gum – what IS that??) when you can buy the protein on it’s own for £5-8 a tub online (in the UK at least, I’m sure you can do the same in the US though)
- The Vitamin A study – aren’t post-menopausal women most likely to suffer from hip fractures anyway? Did it cover exercise levels, bone density and calcium intake etc? My mum is 61 but has done aerobics for years so she has the bone density of a 30-year old so the doc tells her!
- You’re right – too much of any supplement will lead to it being ‘washed away’! But personally I take a multi-vit because my diet is quite poor and I hope to cover any gaps I have…
Thanks for the response, all the best
-TPO.