Natural supplements for athletes -
It is known for its ability to reduce stress and anxiety, which can be beneficial for athletes who may be under a lot of pressure during training and competition. Ashwagandha has also been found to improve muscle strength and endurance, as well as reduce muscle damage caused by exercise.
Cordyceps is a type of mushroom that has been found to have numerous health benefits. It is often used in sports supplements for its ability to improve oxygen uptake and utilization, which can enhance endurance and overall performance.
Cordyceps has also been found to have anti-inflammatory properties, which can aid in muscle recovery after exercise. Beetroot is a vegetable that is rich in nitrates, which can help to improve blood flow and oxygen uptake during exercise.
This can enhance endurance and overall performance, making it a popular ingredient in sports supplements. Beetroot has also been found to have anti-inflammatory properties, which can aid in muscle recovery after exercise.
Green tea is a popular beverage that is often used in sports supplements for its ability to boost metabolism and burn fat. It also contains antioxidants, which can help to reduce inflammation and aid in muscle recovery after exercise. Green tea has also been found to improve cognitive function, which can be beneficial for athletes during training and competition.
Herbal supplements can be a safe and effective way for athletes to enhance performance and promote muscle recovery.
Although these supplements are generally considered safe, it is important to consult a health professional before starting a new supplement regime. We love drinking green tea , especially before a workout. A study done using green tea e xtract over a prolonged period of time 10 weeks indicated that it is beneficial for improving endurance capacity by burning more body fat for fuel.
The amount of green tea extract used in the study is the equivalent of drinking about four cups of green tea a day. MCTs have gained traction with athletes seeking to increase energy levels and improve endurance during high-intensity exercise. It can also serve as an alternative energy source through nutritional ketosis for athletes on high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets.
Additionally, MCTs can be quickly mobilized in the post-exercise recovery phase to rebuild muscles and prevent muscle breakdown. MCTs can cause nausea and gastric discomfort, so start low and increase dose only as tolerated.
Watermelon is rich in l-citrulline, an amino acid that can be converted to l-arginine, an amino acid that is used in the synthesis of nitric oxide, a vasodilator. Consuming watermelon or watermelon juice before exercise helps cut recovery time and boost performance.
BCAAs refer to the structure of three amino acids , leucine, isoleucine and valine, that have been studied to help improve strength, power and endurance. The best evidence seems to be with using BCAAs for endurance workouts, such as sipping on BCAA-enhanced water before and during a long workout session.
Current research on the dozens of botanical dietary supplements used by athletes all suffer from the problems outlined above. Two of the most well known of these supplements, echinacea and ginseng, will serve as representative examples.
Echinacea is purported to boost defense against upper respiratory infections, so athletes use it primarily to offset the deleterious effects of intense training on immunity. Although the general public uses the genus name as the common name, genus Echinacea is comprised of nine species some divided into subspecies.
The three species most often used commercially are Echinacea angustifolia , E. pallida and E. Bioactive molecules produced by these species include alkamides , organic molecules made of fatty acids often found in plants, and phenols , another class of organic molecules also dubbed carbolic acids that are known for their acidity.
Phenols encompass caffeic acid derivatives, echinacoside and ketones; distributions and quantities of these molecules vary by species. It is important to differentiate these molecules because the body processes them differently and they have different effects.
Alkamides move from gut to bloodstream apparently unmodified within an hour. Complex carbohydrates have largely been discounted by multiple studies due to their inability to move from gut to bloodstream without modification. Roots contain the highest levels of these compounds, but oftentimes manufacturers will instead harvest aboveground parts, such as leaves and stems, to allow the plants to regrow and thus provide multiple harvests per planting.
In North America, echinacea is most widely consumed as capsules or tablets. Figure 6. Immunological and physiological effects of Echinacea purpurea supplementation in aerobic athletes, summarized from five studies, and based on illness rates and blood, saliva and urine analyses. Athletes supplemented with echinacea reported reduced incidence or duration of upper respiratory infections, perhaps because of changes in circulating concentrations of immune system signaling molecules cytokines and antibodies.
However, more studies are needed to understand the full gamut of possible outcomes. Pictured: Erin Poss, Drake University cross-country. Photograph courtesy of the author.
Only five studies have been published concerning in vivo dosing of athletes with echinacea supplements Figure 6. Studies by Aloys Berg of Albert Ludwigs University and collaborators and Heather Hall of Elmhurst College and collaborators reported reduced incidence or duration of upper respiratory infection events after intense exercise such as competitive sprint triathlons or laboratory sprint cycling in athletes dosed with E.
purpurea supplements for four weeks either before or after a scheduled bout of exercise. The reduced incidence of infections was corroborated by molecular immunological data from blood, saliva and urine samples, demonstrating increases in circulating concentrations of certain antibodies and changes in circulating concentrations of several signaling molecules important in regulating inflammation see Figure 6.
White blood cells are the cells associated with the immune system, but no changes in white blood cell subsets or counts were identified. Taken together, the findings suggest that echinacea may reduce incidence and severity of upper respiratory infections by changing the quantities of immune molecules produced by white blood cells, rather than changing other aspects of white blood cells, such as their rate of multiplication or specific functions.
In further support of the link between echinacea, exercise and upper respiratory infections, Roland Schoop and colleagues at Bioforce AG in Switzerland reported reduced incidence and duration of self-reported upper-respiratory-infection symptoms in athletes dosed in a similar manner to those in the previous two studies, when compared to a control group generalized from control data in previous studies.
Looking at physiological parameters important in athletic performance, Malcolm Whitehead, now at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, published two reports with colleagues from Troy University, College of Charleston and the University of Southern Mississippi on a recreational group of athletes, dosed with E.
purpurea for four weeks and compared to placebo-treated controls. They found that common measures of aerobic performance—maximal oxygen consumption VO 2 max , running economy oxygen use efficiency and erythropoietin a hormone that controls red blood cell genesis —were higher among the echinacea-treated group than among controls.
However, the authors reported no differences in total red blood cell count, hemoglobin the molecule within red blood cells that carries oxygen or hematocrit packed red blood cell volume between the two groups.
The fact that there were no changes in red blood cell—associated parameters but there were changes in performance parameters is difficult to interpret but may suggest that echinacea supplementation influences performance by modulating oxygen dynamics or metabolism at body sites distinct from the red blood cells themselves.
Other scientific teams report relatively good tolerability and low side effects from echinacea supplements, although interactions with certain prescription medications have been documented.
Figure 7. Putting the seed-to-stomach model into action reduces variation introduced by preclinical factors. These first two steps account for many preclinical factors that are ignored in many studies. Using metabolic monitoring, intensity is standardized. Measurements such as cell proliferation rates or signaling molecule production are used as markers of immune function.
Photographs courtesy of the author. In contrast to studies in athletes, studies of echinacea supplementation in the general population have yielded conflicting findings, likely due to the confounding factors discussed previously.
Our team has endeavored to reduce the problem of preclinical factor variation by translating the concepts from our seed-to-stomach model into an experimental design adapted for athletic applications Figure 7. We opted for an ex vivo approach, where white blood cells were taken from study participants before and after an acute exercise bout and then treated with echinacea extracts in the laboratory.
This method, although less representative of the organismal context, allows us to more tightly control some variables. We initially worked with white blood cells from resting donors to establish the effects of key preclinical factors. Several interesting findings accrued; for example, our lab and others have repeatedly demonstrated that different echinacea species vary in the way they modulate the immune system, probably because of differences in plant chemistry.
We showed how deliberate choices in species, plant organ, solvent and extraction method influenced cell growth rates and production rates of immune system signaling molecules. Figure 8. Different species of echinacea may result in different immune system effects.
White blood cells isolated from the blood of male soccer athletes, both before rest and after post a two-hour aerobic exercise bout, were cultured in vitro with Echinacea pallida tincture, E. simulata tincture or a solvent vehicle control.
After 72 hours, cell cultures were assayed for a cytokine important during infection, called interleukin IL simulata extract, but not E. pallida extract, improved IL production.
Senchina et al. Inset, Drake University soccer player Logan North. After the work in resting subjects we incorporated an acute exercise component, still controlling for the preclinical factors as we had in our previous studies.
We also showed that acute exercise changed how echinacea supplements interacted with the white blood cells. However, we have since switched to testing athletes individually on treadmills and stationary bicycles so we can better ensure that the amount of exercise is more consistent across subjects.
Collectively, data from studies of echinacea in athletes suggest that different species of echinacea have different effects on the human body, that exercise changes these effects and that effects are cell- and body site—specific.
The work also suggests that preclinical factors have not been adequately accounted for across studies; further, preclinical factors are expected to vary greatly between manufacturers and even between batches from the same manufacturer.
Given that awareness, and the understanding that so few studies have been conducted and often with small sample sizes, one cannot conclusively argue for or against the use of echinacea by athletes.
Like echinacea, ginseng is taken to augment immunity, but its primary indication is to improve performance. The name ginseng refers to any of approximately a dozen species within the genus Panax , three of which are used most often commercially P.
ginseng is used most frequently, but also P. pseudoginseng and P. Roots are used most often, typically in dried or powdered form.
So-called Siberian ginseng, Eleutherococcus senticosus, is sometimes confused with ginseng and is also frequently used by athletes, although it has different bioactive molecules and may be less effective in the context of performance enhancement.
Unlike echinacea, studies of ginseng or Siberian ginseng in athletic contexts have yielded conflicting results owing to differences in experimental design or outcomes measured. Systematic reviews by Johannah Shergis and colleagues at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, and Michael Bahrke of Human Kinetics along with collaborators at University of Wisconsin-Madison, have concluded that human studies have not convincingly demonstrated any ergogenic benefits of ginseng supplementation in athletes, although supplementation may transiently alter cardiological or pulmonary function.
Side effects and prescription drug interactions appear to be more severe and extensive than those associated with echinacea and may include insomnia, gastrointestinal upset and heart palpitations. Figure 9. Summarized from eight different studies on the effects of ginseng on immune function in strength athletes, research remains inconclusive and contradictory.
Preclinical factors could account for some of the wide variation in results. For example, four different ginseng preparations were used across these eight studies. Pictured: Travis Merritt, Drake University football.
Less contentious but more complicated are findings regarding the effects of ginseng supplements on immune function in athletes Figure 9. From eight different studies that used no fewer than four different ginseng preparations along with a spectrum of exercise modalities, no clear overall patterns emerge.
This lack of clarity is probably due to interexperimental variability. Indicators of immune system activity including white blood cell counts, subsets and activities, as well as interactions with signaling molecules associated with the immune system, were variously upregulated, downregulated or unaffected.
Conservatively, these facts together indicate ginseng is likely a modulator of immune system activity, but the specific effects that different preclinical factors have on clinical outcomes are poorly understood.
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