These supplements might be popular, but the science doesn't (yet) show they actually work.
The world of supplements is full of amazing - and dubious - claims. And in this episode, Neal and Jinger look at some popular supplements which haven't been proven by science to actually work. From HMB to Ketones to CBD to fish oil and more, they give you the knowledge you need to make better decisions about what you put in your body.
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Neal Henderson 0:00
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Knowledge Podcast by Wahoo. I'm Neal Henderson.
Jinger Gottschall 0:05
And I'm Ginger Gottschall. This is part four, and the final portion of our series on illegal performance-enhancing supplements. Now, this episode is a little bit different because previously, we've gone over the evidence-based meaning research has demonstrated to a large degree that there are actual benefits, enough data to show give these supplements a try. This episode is going over popular supplements, but there is not enough information either on the dose or the outcome for us to support giving you these as something to try.
Neal Henderson 0:45
So we might call that an equivocal series of results from some of these Correct? Correct may or may not?
Jinger Gottschall 0:53
Yes. So perhaps you want to talk with your medical practitioner about these specifics and do some trialing during your training. But in terms of the science behind it, not quite there yet.
Neal Henderson 1:07
Definitely. And remember, there's a host of things we need to consider your genetics, your conditioning, sports, specific training, periodized programs, your mental health, recovery strategies, and nutrition are all primary factors for endurance, athlete development, and performance. Dietary Supplements are a secondary factor with the potential to make a minor contribution to success.
Jinger Gottschall 1:29
Exactly. Now, I know you have had a lot of experience and discussions with athletes about supplements. So what is kind of your bottom line on this?
Neal Henderson 1:41
Yeah, a lot of times, a lot of times we kind of start with the highest thing. First, as you know, the biggest ergogenic aids are water, fuel, and sleep. If you're not doing the basics, right, and the fuel part, you know, just your basic macronutrient you know, carbohydrate, protein, and fat if you're not doing a good job there, all this other stuff has, it doesn't matter if you can't get the basics, right,
Jinger Gottschall 2:07
exactly. So concentrate on your big picture first. And once you feel like you've got that dialed in, and you feel confident about the time that you're putting in the training, the various intensities of what you're eating your sleep strategies, then you can worry about some of the small stuff.
Neal Henderson 2:29
As we say, in some cases, this might be the 1%. If you're not doing the other 90-plus percent to a high degree, then you're probably barking up the wrong tree.
Jinger Gottschall 2:39
Exactly. Now, is it also a concern that supplements could have things in them that we don't know about that could get you in trouble?
Neal Henderson 2:49
There are some risks. So here's my PSA or public service announcement about illegal ingredients. There are studies out there that indicate that on average, nearly 20% of over-the-counter supplements contain illegal substances, which will cause a positive drug test period. Okay, that should alone put a very big cause for concern for anyone out there. And especially because the world anti-doping Association's anti-doping code dictates that an athlete is responsible for anything that is in their system, a positive drug test, whether by accident, accidental or uninformed intake, will result in the same kind of prosecution right bands and penalties as a knowing drug violation.
Jinger Gottschall 3:49
All right. So you are responsible for what goes into your body, make sure you know, without a doubt 100% what those ingredients are.
Neal Henderson 4:01
Yep. And so you if you even buy something, it doesn't, it's not going to say it contains this contaminant. That's the problem. That's the 20% you buy something that says, oh, it's only a, b, and c ingredients, but it has D and E, which D and E are illegal. You are responsible for that being in your system.
Jinger Gottschall 4:21
So what is reported, and what you see on the ingredients list sometimes is not everything. If it results in a small enough percentage, it doesn't need to be put there on the label. This is our warning.
Neal Henderson 4:35
Yep. And the smallest amounts of many of these substances will cause positive, exactly hidden nanograms per picoliter. Like it incredibly small concentrations,
Jinger Gottschall 4:46
but resulting in the same positive and could result in punishment or bans.
Neal Henderson 4:52
Yep. So buyers beware, know the risks associated with taking any supplement that may place you at risk of an end. anti-doping violation, excellent, in best recommendations, you know, anything that has specific information regarding its testing and what it does contain. So USP United States Pharmacopoeia is like a vitamin, we'll ensure that it only contains what it says and nothing more. Excellent. Uses for helpful. Yep, it's the only thing that you can use with some level of certainty.
Jinger Gottschall 5:35
Excellent, that can give you confidence after that
Neal Henderson 5:41
theory and I want it to sound scary, right,
Jinger Gottschall 5:44
right. It's like the total clouds over your perhaps great race result. We are now going to switch gears a bit, which is giving you a definition, a mechanism, and a proposed outcome. And just some interesting tidbits and fun facts about seven different supplements. And again, these ones do not quite have enough of the science backing, not quite enough data in terms of the dose and the outcome for us to recommend them, but something that you might want to think about and talk with your medical practitioner. The first one we're going to talk about is H M B, and it is a leucine metabolite is a leucine. Leucine is an amino acid. And it's the one that has been shown to improve muscle recovery the most it's found in dairy products. So post-exercise, dairy products are a great recovery, either drink or food. And the mechanism here for HMB is to stimulate protein synthesis for this muscle recovery. It has been illustrated to show that endurance athletes can maintain muscle mass when utilizing the supplement and can improve aerobic capacity. It has sufficient data for individuals who are in a state of starvation and or are victims of severe burns. But the data for healthy individuals and or endurance athletes aren't quite there yet.
Neal Henderson 7:29
Yep. And that's, I would say you might see some of that in some of the following substances were in certain states where an individual is not healthier, well, that there might be more beneficial. Somebody who's already at a relatively healthy normal level may not see the same kind of
Jinger Gottschall 7:47
benefit exactly in a deficient state, it may do significant show benefits.
Neal Henderson 7:56
Next, stepping into ketones has definitely gotten a lot of press in the cycling world. As a definition, basically, ketones are chemicals produced in your liver when you do not have enough insulin to turn sugar into energy. Proposed mechanisms and outcomes include replacing glucose as the Flyme primary energy substrate for skeletal muscle to alter muscle fuel preference during exercise by promoting the sparing of your glycogen which is your stored carbohydrate,
Jinger Gottschall 8:27
right? So then you'd be using others, you'd be using fat as well as eventually, you're getting into protein synthesis.
Neal Henderson 8:36
Exactly. And staving off the use of the carbohydrate as again proposed mechanism as well as potentially improved cognitive performance during exertion. And that there's potentially again proposed some improvement or increased rate of muscle glycogen synthesis after exercise.
Jinger Gottschall 8:55
Got it? So we have a cognitive performance during as well as glycogen sparing during and then synthesis of glycogen
Neal Henderson 9:03
after. Yep. And so there have been a lot of different practitioners and athletes trying to use ketones in different ways. And I would say from what I have observed in terms of other protocols, methods, and what the results are, it's really difficult to discern, is there an effective utilization because there are so many different ways that they've been tested without a lot of repeats of some of the similar protocols. And so, I'd say the variety of results, and the ways that it's been tested and used say that the consistently available benefit has not yet been proven in that way.
Jinger Gottschall 9:47
And just in terms of personal witnessing of side effects, too. I've also had a lot of athletes complain of nausea. Getting migraines, low energy. So be aware too that there could be some not-so-positive feelings. You want to try this out. Yep. And it's
Neal Henderson 10:12
not very palatable No at all.
Jinger Gottschall 10:17
To put it mildly, yes, it's a little bit of the gag reflex coming out. Yep. Now one of the most popular I'd say these days is CBD. And this is an active ingredient in cannabis. It's so it's derived from the hemp plant, it does not cause a high and it is not addictive. But it is part of the endocannabinoid system. So it has regulatory functions in terms of homeostasis. Therefore, it's helping you recover and prevent oxidative stress as well as inflammation. So there are some potential benefits in terms of physiological and also psychological concerning feeling more relaxed, and a little bit more in that Zen state is what people have reported.
Neal Henderson 11:10
Yep. And CBD is one of the biggest trends and supplements out there. You see you know, drinks, you know, tea and all kinds of other things with CBD, you have CBD bombs of placing, you know, the transdermal on your skin, you have, you know, pills with it, there's a lot of different methods of intake. And so I think that's one of the things in terms of what the results have shown in terms of recovery, that it hasn't been shown to be an absolute Yes, use of CBD creates improved recovery or improved performance, we even did work with a company testing, an intake of a recovery drink that had CBD in it. And we were looking at the impact on performance and a repeated high-intensity effort. We didn't find a clear benefit of CBD on recovery or improved performance. But we also didn't see any negative benefits. So again, in a lot of these, there might not be this dramatic change or measurable change observed. But if there aren't negatives in that way, at least, you know, the risk-reward is on the lower side,
Jinger Gottschall 12:27
correct. And then perhaps trying at maybe have less deficit or less scary, perhaps give it a try and see if you see any benefit, whether that's a placebo or doing something for you, not as risky.
Neal Henderson 12:43
Exactly. And again, speaking of risk Rewinding back to the early warnings, there are cases that have some CBD products that also do have some level of THC. THC is a substance that can cause a positive anti-doping test. And so if somebody is using a CBD supplement, ensure that there is no THC, I've had athletes go as far as testing batches of those sending them away to a lab to be tested as well as performing their testing after taking those supplements to ensure that they're not getting any THC metabolites in those products and their system.
Jinger Gottschall 13:24
And also, just another warning about CBD is that there are different rules in different states here in the United States. So you do want to be very clear about where you live and what those protocols are. Because sometimes it's legal, but the actual amount is regulated. So
Neal Henderson 13:45
yep. And from country to country. Absolutely. They're drastically different rules. So just because it's okay, where you live does not mean that that same thing can be carried across state or national borders.
Jinger Gottschall 13:56
Absolutely. And we've seen that in the headlines in the last few months for sure.
Neal Henderson 14:02
Next one, we're going to get into our omega-three fatty acids, you know, basically fish oils of some kind. There are kind of two primary aspects within the omega-three fatty acids, what we call EPA and the DHA there are much longer chemical names if you want to get into it. Organic Chemistry was not my favorite class. So I'm just going to stick with the EPA and DHA side of things. But these are found in basically a salmon with different allergies and krill and the proposed mechanisms and outcomes are that they're anti-inflammatory. The improves endurance capacity, reduces muscle soreness, and enhances recovery. I would say that, again from a day-to-day basis. The evidence isn't maybe terribly strong in that though there may be one possible area in a post-Rick post-concussion recovery protocol, that higher intake of omega-three fatty acids, especially with the EPA and DHA in certain ratios, at a high enough dose, may be improving the recovery from concussion.
Jinger Gottschall 15:10
Again, we are looking at a state where you are in a deficiency or in a place where adding this could do more benefit but healthy endurance athletes may not Yeah,
Neal Henderson 15:24
and the doses required are very large. So again, consult with your physician if you have a concussion. This is not a self-diagnosed thing. You want to work with a neurology neurologist or neurological specialist in assessing how you're recovering from a concussion. I had this a couple of years ago myself, saw the neurologist and had recommended EPA DHA DHA omega three supplements that I had at a pretty high dose for several weeks following and, you know, I didn't do a placebo with myself of getting a concussion and not taking it but I did feel that I recovered reasonably well relative to the severity of injury that I did have.
Jinger Gottschall 16:07
Excellent. And again, that was the prescribed dose, correct, and protocol. Next up is menthol. And an example of menthol would be peppermint. These are natural herbs that topically could give you an anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic, antioxidant, and vasoconstrictor effect that would assist in recovery. Another interesting outcome of these Menthols is a decrease in blood lactate. Personally, athletes that have used this that I've worked with or coached haven't gotten this benefit specifically blood lactate. But topically post-workout or heavy strength training has given a little bit of relief, and relaxation. So again, maybe not a huge concerning performance. However, if it makes you feel good after and isn't doing anything, in terms of side effects, then
Neal Henderson 17:12
Yep, and I've seen, you know, you probably have seen some athletes maybe put some of this on like in a cotton ball and put it in their nose while they're warming up for a time trial or something like that, to have a little bit of a cooling sensation. And again, whether there's any actual benefit, but if there's a little bit of a placebo, if you feel like you're getting into you know, you're getting ready to do something, and that's part of your process, then there can be just that little bit of benefit that you have, this is how I do it. And this is what I get ready to do before I perform this kind of thing. The next thing we're gonna get into is polyphenols. And so these plant compounds. They come as extracts, juices, infusions, or even just from an increased intake of polyphenol-rich foods like berries, flax, seed chestnuts, olives, artichokes, T, et cetera. The proposed mechanism and outcomes are about reducing oxidative stress or decreasing inflammation, as well as then having a net reduction in muscle damage. An example of a polyphenol is resveratrol. And this is finely found in red wine. For those of you who know me, I do enjoy a little bit of red wine. And you know, if there's a little resveratrol that may be providing me a benefit, that's fantastic, though, if you read deeper and look at the amount, it would take about 1000 glasses of red wine. So there are about four glasses per 750 ml bottle. So 250 bottles, that's like 20 cases of red wine required to get the kind of dose of resveratrol that is associated with some of these anti-oxidative stress results. And so while I do in joy, a little bit of wine, I don't take in enough wine to get the resveratrol benefit.
Jinger Gottschall 19:13
Not going to happen. Maybe in a five to 10 year
Neal Henderson 19:19
period, over an extended period, which there would have to be a lot of controls being run to study something over a five or 10-year period like that. Yes, probably not going to happen but I'll do my part. I will continue with my frequent polyphenol intake in the form of red wine.
Jinger Gottschall 19:40
Excellent and feel good about it while you are throwing it back or sipping it back. I'll say yes, yes. Enjoy. I love it. The last one is antioxidants. And this is a very broad category, but it includes vitamin C and D as primary as well as Torchiere. Reduce. And antioxidants are molecules that fight free radicals, I'm really into this free radical concept. And what they are are compounds that cause harm, when there are too many of them in the body, so antioxidants can bring that level down. What happens then is you're reducing the oxidative stress, therefore, you can have improved training. And because of enhanced recovery, it can stimulate stress-related signaling pathways. So, therefore, you know, a little stress is good, too much, not so good. So Antioxidants help with the homeostasis of this, they can stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis. So it's helping those tissues that are related to oxidative capacity and decreasing inflammation. You can find antioxidants in fruits and vegetables, and it kind of goes into that same category that Neil was talking about, with the berries, nuts, teas, even, etc. So a good thing to keep as primary food groups in your basic nutrition, but can also do some real help concerning the stressors that you've put on in your endurance, high intensity, and strength training.
Neal Henderson 21:26
Yep. And interestingly, I've heard a few folks talk about this the thought t that in some instances when you're training hard, you don't want to have excessive anti-inflammatory because there are some positive signaling adaptations to stress. And then there are periods where then you want to kind of have an increased intake. So it's not always about staying completely topped up at the maximum level of anti-inflammatory that impacts on cases you do want to have.
Jinger Gottschall 21:57
Exactly. You want that training stress to provide the benefit. So, therefore, it's a balance that says anything. So there is too much of a good thing in this case.
Neal Henderson 22:12
Absolutely. So I think that brings us to about the end of this episode.
Jinger Gottschall 22:19
And this series, sadly, is for parts that give you five different evidence-based supplements. And then this last one illustrates some that are quite popular, and you may have heard of or even used, but not quite enough evidence to give a dose and a primary outcome for healthy endurance athletes.
Neal Henderson 22:42
We do hope that you're able to take away some information on these legal supplements that may or may not be useful for you and that knowing more about them will help you be a better and more informed endurance athlete. Thanks for listening to the knowledge podcast by Wahoo