Vitamin D remains a recurring topic in sport because low vitamin D status is common in athletic populations, particularly during winter at higher latitudes, and because vitamin D has well-established roles in calcium–phosphate homeostasis and skeletal health. Interest has expanded beyond bone, driven by mechanistic evidence that vitamin D receptors are expressed in multiple tissues (including skeletal muscle and immune cells) and by observational reports linking low vitamin D

Supplements are a multi-billion-dollar industry, with the majority of athletes using supplements to support training performance and recovery. However, it is also clear that many supplements are based on wishful thinking rather than evidence, and some supplements on the market have quality issues. Supplements may not contain what you expect, they may also contain ingredients you don’t expect. The label doesn’t always describe accurately what a supplement contains (or the cont

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, are a class of drug that is commonly used (worldwide) to reduce inflammation and pain. As we will see in the next blog by Dr Nick Tiller, NSAIDs are also used in sport for performance reasons. To understand what NSAIDs are and how they work, we need to have a basic understanding of the inflammatory response. This blog outlines what NSAIDs are, how they work, and provides the basis of their use in sport. Prostaglandin formatio

With increasing age muscle strength, lean/muscle mass and functional ability decline. This is commonly referred to as sarcopenia. Sarcopenia decreases the ability to perform activities of daily living (1). It is also associated with reductions in bone mass/strength and cognitive function (2). Creatine has been proposed as a possible countermeasure of sarcopenia. Accumulating research over the past few decades shows that creatine supplementation, primarily when combined with r

One of the most researched supplements on the market is creatine. Creatine combined with strength training has been shown to consistently help individuals gain more muscle mass, strength, power, and muscle function across the lifespan (from adolescents to older adults). The effects on endurance performance are much less studied, but there is a growing body of evidence that creatine can benefit endurance athletes in critical race situations such as finishing kicks or breakaway

Ketone ester supplements continue to receive attention from athletes for their claimed potential to enhance endurance exercise performance. The basis of this interest stems from being able to drink this supplement and quickly induce ketosis (high blood levels of ketone bodies) without the need to restrict dietary carbohydrate (for example, adhering to a ketogenic diet). It is becoming increasingly clear that ketone supplements influence exercise responses, however scientists

In previous blogs we have discussed the role of protein intake for muscle protein synthesis. However, muscle contains many different...

Iron deficiency is a prevalent issue among athletes, which can significantly affect training consistency and performance if left...

Carnitine (also known as L-carnitine) is a substance present in relatively high quantities in meat (the Latin word carnis means meat or...

The term “Fat burners” refers to a category of supplements. These supplements are claimed to influence fat metabolism in some way. Fat...

We are learning more and more about the importance of the microbiome and the links with various diseases. However, the consumer is...

In one of the early blogs on mysportscience, we discussed how many athletes start building a pyramid from the top without a solid...

Caffeine is considered one of the few performance-enhancing supplements that can truly elicit an ergogenic effect. There is a large body...

Insects have arisen as the latest novel protein source. In addition, more and more insects have been approved over the recent years by...

Good nutrition choices can support the health and performance of footballers, whereby the intake, type, quantity and timing of foods,...

Ashwaganda is a supplement that is extracted from the root of the Ashwaganda plant. Ashwaganda (Withania somnifera), also known as Indian...

Ketone esters have received a lot of attention amongst elite athletes but also in the media. We covered the potential role of ketones in these previous blogs ( effects on glycogen and performance and ketone bodies: fuel or hype? ). Athletes have used ketones for the fuel they can provide, but there is increasing evidence that ketones act as signalling molecules as well as fuel. In fact, the role of ketones as a fuel during exercise has been questioned, since the amount of in

In this series of blog posts, we’ve discussed what is meant by the ‘electrolytes’, that are promoted in sports nutrition products. We’ve looked at how much you actually lose during exercise, and what role they play in athlete health and performance during exercise. So far we’ve seen that: Electrolytes are minerals that dissolve in water into their individual, positively or negatively charged ions: Sodium: Na+ and Potassium: K+ Chloride: Cl- Magnesium: Mg2+ and Calcium: Ca2+ a

In this series of blog posts we’ve discussed what sodium is , what it does in the body , how it’s lost in sweat , and how to quantify those losses . In this post, we’ll discuss how to decide if sodium needs replacing during exercise, and whether a targeted approach is necessary or not. Why do we need to replace sodium? As discussed in a previous post, sodium consumed during exercise may have benefits in terms of: improving the taste of drinks maintaining blood sodium concentr

Sodium is said to be important for athletes, and different arguments are used to explain why it is so essential. We will dive into the evidence a little more but the infographic below will already provide a short summary of the analysis. Sodium plays several essential roles during exercise. Firstly, sodium plays a crucial role in water balance. It does this due to its effect on osmolality of the extracellular fluid (fluid in the bloodstream and surrounding the outside of cell