Supplements? Do you use them? (Page 3)

Just my own experience on and off of it over 10 years. Maybe it's a placebo effect, maybe it's not - either way, I recover quicker, whether it's me thinking myself better or not. And for $15 a month, I'll take it.

The occasional multi or Vit C, but I eat a pretty varied diet which seems to hit the four corners. I've never noticed any positive effects from regular supplementation, and there was a time when I took loads of supplements.

ok I have been trying to keep out of this thread, but this is my area.  I do believe in supplements for different things.  Multi vitamins if you have a healthy diet, you can probably get away with 1-3x per week.  Quality of the multi matters, and some of the bigger marketed brands do not assimilate well in the body (ie you could still read their pill graphics when found in septic systems...)

I am actually very interested in how supplements affect endurance athletes, and here is what I do and why

I started taking BioAstin and Lycomato (astraxanthin and tomato based lycopene) because both have data on protection from the sun (from the inside out) and we are in a sport that puts us out in the sun a long time.... I found that I was recovering faster from  workouts (which makes sense as they are both very potent antioxidants, and soreness is oxidative stress)

so then I added grape seed extract (meganatural gold) as it is also a potent antioxidant.

I take Injuv (low molecular weight hyaluronic acid) for joint protection)
Vitamin D - at least a couple of days a week - 5000IU

Theanine for SURE at bedtime and sometimes other points in day for stress reduction, improved sleep (needed for recovery) and focus.  theanine is a non proteineic amino acid found in tea that at rest increases alpha wave production (the brain waves that are seen in a calm relaxed state) and on attention suppresses alpha wave production (ergo improved focus).  I take the pharmaceutical version - Suntheanine, 200 mg (produced by a japanese pharmaceutical company) WIDELY available.

I have done self experiments and definitely see a difference in recovery speed with and without, as well as sleep quality.

Oh, and I just started taking protein powder as I do a lot of strength training in the offseason and I don't think I wasn't getting enough after reading a few things. Of course, there are a lot of fortified foods as well that you could considering as supplementing, such as pasta, milk, cereal...

TriTroy...very interesting. I'm going to take a look at some of those.

Right now I take:

Multivitamin (food state, so that I don't waste it all)
Omega 3
B12 (I used to take this for circulatory issues and now it just sticks around)
Ciwujia Root via Endurox

I take a multivitamin and extra Vitamin D.  I am not so good about it though when I am not pregnant oir nursing.

I'll leave it. Lots of real good you can do with $180/year.

Just a multi-vitamin + antioxidant here. I don't take them expecting any performance gain, but to keep the immune system strong and ward off illnesses.

The only other supplement for me is that I'll occasionally have a whey protein smoothie if I've been breaking down muscle but haven't been eating much meat.


Edited by delosh 2009-11-21 5:10 PM

I have a good diet, lots of greens, fish and such, but a blood panel last year showed that I had low CoQ10 and D.  No suprise on the D, I live in MN.  I've experimented a little back and forth and I definitely have a small but noticeable energy boost in the fall/winter when I'm taking the D.  I'm a still up in the air on the CoQ10, plus it's expensive.