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Supplement demand is upDate: 21.12.2006
Posted by: Anabolic Info Team United States
The Christmas rush is nothing compared to the shopping blitz that next week will hit stores specializing in vitamins, proteins and other supplements designed to benefit physical workouts.
With new year's resolutions will come a booming demand for any type of enhancement designed to assist those wanting to firm up, trim down, or just get into better shape.
"Our business will double or triple after the new year," said Steve Reece, co-owner of American Nutritional Wholesalers in Hermitage. "People have become very dependent on these types of items to help them in whatever type of training they do."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration steadily has gotten more involved in the vitamin/supplement business. When the government in 2002 declared as illegal the use of the highly-popular ephedra, an herb whose active ingredient, ephedrine, purportedly supplied athletes with a boost of adrenaline and helped dieters shave off weight, some expected the industry to take a big hit.
It didn't happen.
Manufacturers began producing a flurry of alternatives to ephedra. This year, according to the Nutrition Business Journal, about 125 million Americans took some kind of dietary supplement and spent more than $20 billion either on dietary supplements, vitamins, minerals, herbs, or sports nutrition.
Finding the right formula
There's muscle in that mix, power in that powder, energy in that envelope. All kinds of promises are made by the producers of myriad of products currently on the market.
"Some things work for some people and some things don't," Reece said. "You just have to figure out your own chemical balance."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration suggests consulting a doctor or healthcare provider before taking any vitamins, minerals, herbals or other supplements to avoid changes in heart rate or blood pressure. And that's even before touching on the sensitive subject of controlled and often-banned substances such as anabolic steroids and human-growth hormone.
When asked if he believes some customers use some supplements as substitutes for anabolic steroids, Mark Johnson, co-owner of American Nutritional Wholesalers, said, "Absolutely. The things over the counter are so very close to the real thing (steroids) today. Definitely, when you're competing in sports, these things, hands down, give you an edge."
Johnson also cautioned that athletes competing at the NCAA level or any level that tests for banned performance-enhancing substances should be aware that some prohormones can cause them to "test positive for steroids."
Figuring out what works best for a particular individual can be daunting, Johnson said.
"You have proteins, which most everybody knows what those are; you have vitamins and herbs and amino acids, which are your building blocks to protein," Johnson said. "The amino acids help your body to utilize the protein you take in, which will translate into muscle growth. You have fat burners, prohormones, which are testosterone boosters, and then the pre-workout energy drinks and post-workout drinks that help in recovery."
There can be side effects to taking some supplements that serve as warning signals, which indicate problems such as stomach discomfort, headache, rashes, dizziness or lethargy.
Reece warns that the usage of many supplements is effective only if accompanied by a consistent workout regimen.
"If you start eating a lot of protein bars and get into a lot of the weight gainers, and you don't exercise properly, it will, because of the carbohydrates that are in them, turn to fat," Reece said.
Balancing act
Parents of teenage athletes become concerned at times about a child's stamina after a tough workout, said Nick Garrity, a certified strength and conditioning coach at D1 Sports Training in Franklin. That is when he might recommend nutritional supplements.
"We have a lot of people that come to us and say, 'My kid gets so lethargic and so tired, I feel like they need something else,' '' Garrity said. "It's not that the parents aren't working on having a very balanced diet. It's just that with kids and their hectic schedules and the things that the schools are offering a lot of the times, they don't get enough of the proper nutrition."
As prudent as some people might be in designing and sticking to well-balanced diets, Garrity said: "You still miss out on a lot of important vitamins and minerals."
Getting an edge
Randall Sanderson, a high school football and soccer player at Donelson Christian, worked hard to add 20 pounds over the last two years.
Not long after he began his weight training routine, Sanderson, who now weighs about 190 pounds, started using supplements, including N.O.-Xplode, a hot-selling mixture that includes creatine, perhaps the most popular supplement on the market today.
"When I really started getting focused about working out is when I started using supplements," Sanderson said. "I researched this stuff myself, and my dad used to be a bodybuilder, so he told me about a lot of it, too."
Mt. Juliet's Craig Thibodeau, 39, competes in bodybuilding contests on the amateur level.
The benefits he gets from supplements, he said, include "energy, increased size, and endurance."
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