New to supplements?

What is a dietary supplement?

Dietary supplements are pills, drinks or enriched foods which can be taken alongside meals to enhance the diet and fill in any deficiencies you may have.

Sports supplements are similar and are carefully composed to give benefits specific to people who are participating in sports and trying to increase their performance in certain areas

Why would I need to take sports supplements?

If you take part in sports on a regular basis, using supplements will help support your healthy eating regime by making sure you don’t have any nutritional shortages during exercise. Having plenty of essential nutrients means your body has a ready supply.

Endurance athletes actually have an increased need for vitamins and minerals because this form of exercise stresses systems and there is an increased turnover in vitamins and minerals.

Certain nutrients, like protein are essential for anyone taking part in sport as they help with repair and maintenance of muscle tissue and joints. If you are taking part in aerobic exercise you’ll be increasing the amount of lactic acid in your bloodstream. This is the chemical which makes us feel stiff and sore, but there are supplements designed especially to help your body clear the acid and so aid recovery and allow you to work out more often. And it’s far more comfortable to wake up the next day and be able to walk easily!

If you want to be the best at your chosen sport, supplements can help Make It Happen because nutrient deficiencies can impair performance. So it’s wise to include some supplements and aids in your diet as a health insurance policy.

If you are working out hard you’d have to eat a great deal to gain the levels of energy at the correct ratio of proteins, carbohydrates and vitamins and minerals for optimum performance. Supplements make it easy to get the combination right. They are also more convenient in many cases as they can often be eaten on the run or carried in a bag so you don’t have to worry about being caught out with only a burger and fries as your meal option!

What are the benefits of dietary supplements?

The benefits of dietary supplements will depend on what extent you are deficient. For example, if you have only a minor vitamin deficiency you may find you suffer fewer colds when you start taking a supplement - or if you have a greater deficiency you may find you suddenly have a lot more energy, your hair and skin is glowing and you feel in much better health. If you find it hard to build muscle at the gym or have reached a plateau with training you may find using a protein supplement and creatine allows you to achieve greater gains in your training.

Aren’t sports supplements like drugs and really dangerous?

Sports supplements, especially those related to bodybuilding, have received a bad press in recent years. You can be sure Bio-Synergy products are 100% safe and will only enhance your health. They contain no banned or controlled substances - and never have. Top athletes, who are subject to regular testing by doping officials, use our products because they know they can have every confidence in them.

When it comes to ingredients, only the best go into our products and we use the most natural we can find. None of the products we make are anything other than compounds naturally occurring in our diets and body.

Are they addictive?

The answer is no - and no! There is nothing psychologically or physically addictive about any of our products. You will want to use them because we are confident they will improve your life and enhance your routine, but you certainly won’t become addicted. We are very clear on our packaging exactly what the dose is to gain the greatest results - if you take more you certainly won’t become ill - it’s just that you won’t see any extra benefits in line with the extra amount you have used.

I eat a healthy diet - surely I get all my nutrients that way?

This is a matter of current debate. Because of changes in farming methods which see the over-farming of soil and increased use of pesticides, there is a view that our food is simply not as nutritious as it once was. Recent research has found the primary reason for the decline in nutrient content and quality of several foods is the way the food is grown, processed and prepared^[1]

In a comparison of government tables published in 1940, and again in 2002 it was found the iron content in 15 different varieties of meat had decreased on average by 47%, with some products showing a fall as high as 80%, while the iron content of milk had dropped by over 60%. It took four carrots rather than one to supply the same goodness as 60 years previously^[2].

So even if you don’t work out intensively, and eat as well as you can, you may still benefit from sports or dietary supplements to top-up your intake of nutrients and make sure you are able to give 100% to every area of your life.

How long can I take a supplement for?

In most cases you can take the supplements indefinitely. But you may want to alter your dose or change the quantity you use according to your lifestyle or even the time of the year.

For example, you may want to take a higher dose of vitamins, or give the higher end dose to your children, in winter months to boost your immune system^[3]. Equally you may be particularly busy at work, travelling a lot and finding little time to eat a balanced diet with fresh fruit and vegetables, so may want to be sure you are maintaining your vitamin and mineral levels with a good product at its maximum dose for a month or so.

If you are taking part in a certain sport it may be in season and so you require that extra something to get you to the top of your game. Some of our products are great for the game itself and so you may wish to increase your training quantity.

We do recommend you have break from the products you buy from us for a few weeks every now and then just to see how they are helping you - to feel the contrast when you stop. We would also recommend you stop taking a creatine-based product for one month every three just to flush the body - although it’s fine to continue using it, we think it’s beneficial to stop for a short time.

How would I find out what the best supplement for me is?

Call us 9-5 Monday to Friday on 020 7569 2528 or email advice@bio-synergy.co.uk

^[1] 2 006, Donald Davis, at a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in St Louis.

^[2] 2006, Dr David Thomas, independent researcher, for ConcenTrace.

^[3] 1994, Michael Schmidt, Beyond Antibiotics: 50 (Or So) Ways to Boost Immunity and Avoid Antibiotics, North Atlantic Books.