The Dangers Of Supplements For Cyclists

Why every cyclist needs to know about the dangers of supplement use.

As competitive athletes, we’re all looking for ways to enhance our performance and give ourselves an edge over our competitors, particularly if those methods don’t require a significant investment of time or effort. Enter dietary supplements.

The global supplement industry is huge. It has a turnover in the billions of pounds and there are literally hundreds of thousands of products on the market all staking claim to being able to transform your physique/performance/life.

A very high proportion of athletes use dietary supplements, with as many as 44-100% of different athlete populations doing so, for a multitude of reasons.

The supplement industry is generally a bit of a bin fire, thanks to it’s poor regulation, which creates several serious problems for athletes.

1. Inadequate Science - For a start, many supplements are simply not supported by adequate scientific research to show their effectiveness; this often means athletes can be investing time and money into supplement strategies that simply don’t work. It’s easy to find literally thousands of cases of this.
2. Cutting Through The Marking - It often takes a suitably qualified professional (with integrity, might I add) to be able to review the often outlandish marketing claims made by manufacturers and establish if the supplement will really do what it says it will in the context of the athlete using it. This poses a problem for the athlete who may not have access to a professional (Fuel The Ride Academy enters the chat).
3. Active Ingredients - The active ingredient in many supplements can be expensive, and as such, many supplements are formulated in ways that mean they do not have adequate quantities of the active ingredient required actually to have an effect to save on costs. This means that whilst you may be consuming a supplement that can improve performance, you’re not consuming nearly enough of it to get the desired effect.
   
   
4. Contamination With Banned Substances - Supplements have a significant contamination risk. This can result from cross-contamination with another ingredient during production, through poor cleaning practices or substances becoming airborne. Contamination can also occur deliberately, to enhance the effectiveness of the product. Contaminants can not only be

As an athlete, regardless of your competitive level, if you race in sanctioned sporting events, you are likely to be subject to anti-doping rules in order to ensure that competition is fair. In the UK for example, this is rolled out by UK Anti Doping.

As such, when entering these events, even as a low-level athlete, you are subject to anti-doping rules. In particular, the principle of strict liability whereby you are solely responsible for any banned substances found in your system, regardless of how they got there. This means that if you consume a supplement that contains a banned substance, it is still your fault, and you can still be subject to sanctions, like a ban from competition.

To try and deal with the issues associated with supplement contamination, there are third-party companies such as Informed Sport (See here... https://sport.wetestyoutrust.com) or NSF Certified For Sport (See here… https://www.nsfsport.com), who independently batch test products so you can show that you’ve completed your due diligence.

While these programs are useful in showing the supplement you’re using doesn’t contain banned substances, they don’t test anything related to the efficacy of the product. As such, you can find products that have these certifications but are under-dosed or contain ingredients that simply aren’t effective.

Many supplements will only work under very specific circumstances. Let's take Dietary Nitrates (beetroot juice), for example, which, based on the current research, appear to only be effective in non-elite athletes. Buffers like sodium bicarbonate or beta-alanine will only work if they are dosed correctly and you are making the types of efforts where they are effective. Many micronutrient supplements will only have an effect on health or performance if you have an underlying deficiency (i.e. iron supplements), and if taken without a deficiency, can negatively impact health (i.e. taking a toxic dose). It often takes a professional to know under what circumstances a supplement will work.

If you want to know more about which supplements are effective for enhancing performance, we cover this in detail within Fuel The Ride Academy with our team of nutritionists on hand to answer any questions you might have.

Coach Ben

Reference - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38653450/