The Bark

Supplements: Who needs them?

By Ken Parker

CANADIAN triathlete Kelly Guest’s positive drug test (blamed on contaminated supplements) has brought to the forefront the growing use of supplements in sports.

Supplements are big business in North America. One recent report estimates that consumer sales of dietary supple

ments is a US$23.3 billion industry involving 2,026 manufacturers and materials suppliers, nearly all of which are American.

Why are athletes so interested in supplements?

The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) offered one answer. “The sports world is filled with pills, potions, powders, bars and drinks that promise to give the athlete a winning edge.” But the question remains: do these products work as advertised?

Scientists are skeptical that there’s a direct correlation between supplements and an athlete’s performance, according to the AIS. In the Institute’s words, the relationship between the two is little more than “circumstantial.”

Professor Craig Sharp, who carries out research into the science of sport at Brunel University, takes a slightly cynical approach to supplements and vitamins. He doesn’t believe they help athletic performance. In his words, “It has been said that the only difference between doping and ergogenic aids is that doping works.”

More Records Broken?

If professor Sharp is wrong, one would expect to have seen an increase in endurance performance standards in recent years, especially with the boom

Statistics suggest that supplements slow athletes down, not speed them up.

in endurance sports in North America and the growth of the sports supplements market. However, statistics seem to prove Sharp right.

In 1983 Americans produced 267 sub-2:20 performances in the marathon, but just 41 in 1997. In Ottawa's National Capital Marathon,

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a finish time of 2:42 was good for 118th place in 1981; this year it would have resulted in a 30th placing.

In shorter distances, American high school athletes recorded 84 sub-nine minute performances for the two mile distance during the 1970s, but only 15 in the 1990s. In the mile, high school athletes recorded 95 instances of running under 4:10 in the 1970s, but only 36 in the 1990s. While there are a number of factors that influence performance times, it seems that the increasing use of supplements is having a negative impact r a t h e r t h a n a positive one.

Want more evidence before making up your mind?

The Physician and Sports Medicine Journal says this about supplements: “Aggressive marketing has led millions of recreational and elite athletes to use nutrition supplements in hopes of improving performance. Unfortunately, these aids can be costly and potentially harmful, and the advertised ergogenic gains are often based on little or no scientific evidence.”

Don’t Forget the Risks

Even if someone decides to ignore the issue of supplement effectiveness (or lack of it), athletes must consider the well-documented risk of registering positive on drug tests. There appears to

be almost no control over what the supplements actually contain, and many of them contain nandrolone—the banned substance for which triathlete Kelly Guest tested positive.

“Unfortunately, these supplements are subject to little regulation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA),” says the Physician and Sportsmedicine Journal. “The resulting lack of regulation can lead to unscrupulous advertising, impurities in manufacturing, and potentially dangerous reactions among supplement users.”

The Web provides more documentation on this topic than most people would be able to read in their lifetime. A word of advice: don't bother reading so-called “scientific” studies done by makers of the products. Remember all those studies funded by the tobacco industry? According to the Australian Institute of Sport, “...most of the research that has been undertaken has failed to support the claims of the majority of nutritional ergogenic aids.”

The Bottom Line: Eat Healthy

Do you need supplements? Probably not, unless a doctor prescribes them.

Most people don’t need any special food supplements to take part in competitive sports. All they need is to get back to the basics of eating properly. As most doctors will admit, eating good meals with solid nutritional value, provide the most important benefit to your training program. Talent, hard work and time are three extra ingredients that will lay a solid foundation for your athletic goals.

In short: recreational athletes don’t need supplements; elite athletes should only consider their use after medical consultation.

About the author: Ken Parker is a long-time runner, coach and race-organizer.