Supplements...

Michelle Murphy, ARNP
Peak Performance & Prevention, LLC
P3life.com

​There are two types of clients I see every day… the one who has every possible supplement ever and the one who doesn’t take anything…because “who has time for that?”!

…So, what should we be taking as age group athletes?  

What should “normal” people take to support healthy biological function and what should athletes take to support recovery and optimize performance?

I will lead this… everyone in the Pacific Northwest should be taking Vitamin D3 5,000iu in a gel capsule daily and I would second that with Omega 3 fatty acids between 1200-1600mg daily… I’m not going to delve into why because there is no counter for why not.  The research overwhelmingly supports both of those items in both athletes and non-athletes… The next item in order of importance without seeing your genetics, inflammatory markers, metabolic markers, or hormone levels… for my athlete clients is CoQ10. 

Have you seen this on the shelf at Super Supplements or as a sample in the supplement section of Costco? It is the most widely sold supplement in the US right now and I can’t find one person that can explain why… but here you go!

CoQ10 is a coenzyme that is in every single human cell and its role in aerobic metabolism is crucial (and I rarely if ever see a normal level in any client coming in for their initial lab review!). 

This Coenzyme is diminished when people are placed on statin medications (to lower cholesterol) which is why so many folks don’t tolerate statins …. muscle aches secondary to diminished CoQ10.  Anyone on a statin absolutely should be supplementing with CoQ10. But back to the athletes….

Multiple studies have found that after 2 weeks of daily supplementation with CoQ10 that time to exhaustion on treadmill studies was extended… so we gain endurance but even more interesting is that there was less post oxidative stress.  CoQ10 essentially helps your muscles perform and protects from the free radicals produced from extended duration of exercise (take note endurance athletes that any exercise greater than one hour produces damaging free radicals, so recovery and antioxidants are critical).

The dosage is contested and not agreed upon in the literature.  I have found that most folks reach therapeutic levels at 300mg daily.  Most of the research supports dosages between 100mg and 300mg daily. 

This is just one of the indicators we check at Peak Performance & Prevention to optimize our clients’ health and attain their goals.
 
Journal of International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2008; 5:8

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