Supplements for Ultrarunning with Brady Holmer PhD (c) and Examine.com | KoopCast Episode 175
Episode overview:
Brady earned his bachelor’s degree with honors from Northern Kentucky University and is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Florida, where he’s researching the effects of exercise and sleep deprivation on cardiovascular health. His other research interests include low-carb/keto diets, intermittent fasting, and how lifestyle can be used to optimize performance, health, and longevity.
He is a former Division I collegiate runner and is still an “endurance junkie” who loves to rack up miles on a run or bicycle. Brady spends his free time working on his podcast (Science & Chill) or hanging out with his wife and dog at breweries, where he often plays Scrabble. He also loves reading, but the “unread” section of his bookshelf grows faster than the “read” section.
His comfort foods are a spoonful of peanut butter, chili (no beans!), ribeye steak, and dark chocolate (especially when dipped in peanut butter).
Episode highlights:
(46:48) How to choose good supplements: recognize your individual needs, the goal is to treat a deficiency, get nutrients from your diet, supplements are more expensive than real food
(54:20) Individuality and supplements: ergogenic aids versus deficiencies, nitrates and creatine example, not all exercise is the same, not all populations are the same, beet juice example, trained and untrained individuals have different limiting factors, sport specificity, males versus female
(1:08:02) Blended supplements: single supplementation is best, co-supplementation is not well researched, proprietary blends are unknown mixtures
Our conversation:
(0:00) Introduction: the supplement world is confounding, the supplement hype cycle, how to researching supplements, consensus statements by the ISSN and IOC, Examine.com, introducing Brady
(3:15) Reasons for keeping the podcast unsponsored: unbiased content, being approached by and turning down supplement companies
(4:41) Ranking common supplements 0-5: caffeine (5), amino acids (1-2), exogenous ketones (1-2), iron (1-5), athletic greens (-1-2), creatine (4-5), nitrate (4), probiotics (0-2), prebiotics (0-2), beta alanine (4-5), sodium bicarbonate (4-5), vitamin D (-1-2), glutamine (2), vitamin E (2), HMB (2-3), collagen (1-3), curcumin (1-2), tart cherry juice (2-3), mitochondria-targeted antioxidants (0-2)
(10:20) Discussing supplement rankings: illustrating the myriad of supplements on the market, navigating a dizzying landscape, speculation and sales happen before research, marketed supplements are usually blends of substances
(12:09) Examine.com: a tool to understand supplements, a comprehensive unbiased source to learn what works, interpreting research results in context
(16:40) Expertise at Examine: composition of the research team, the process of reviewing supplements, internal reviewers, medical copy editors, external reviewers
(20:34) How much time it takes to review supplements: 10-12 hours to research, create, and review a 10-15 minute read, the importance of reviewers, example
(23:46) Public pushback: polarization of the supplement arena, Examine presents the function of supplements and avoids suggesting use cases, practitioners decide those use cases
(27:16) Curating research: some research is bad quality
(28:45) Examine’s supplement guides: comprehensive guides, dosage, timing, exercise performance guide, tiered list to show what works
(30:34) Examine database: randomized control trials and meta-analyses, grading to demonstrate statistical strength and effect, updating content, only human studies are considered
(32:48) Study summaries: discussing individual studies, targeted toward specificity
(33:35) Gathering research: by eye, systematic searches of scientific journals, media
(35:34) Omitted research: observational studies, case studies, animal models, in vitro, reasons for omitting research, you are not a rat
(38:22) Randomized control trials: the gold standard in research, eliminating the placebo effect, ice bath study example
(41:05) Meta-analyses: good for lay audiences, you can find a study to support almost any claim, meta-analyses indicate the research consensus, the drawback is specificity
(43:43) How not to choose good supplements: the hype cycle, don’t blindly follow influencers, recognizing conflicts of interest, avoid the bandwagon
(46:48) How to choose good supplements: recognize your individual needs, the goal is to treat a deficiency, get nutrients from your diet, supplements are more expensive than real food
(49:06) Athlete-specific needs: navigating sleep and stress, you can be deficient in sleep, try lifestyle changes before supplements
(50:45) Summary of how to approach supplements: identify the problem or situation that could be improved, is the problem worth solving, can the problem be solved naturally, if not try Examine.com
(53:26) Magnitude of importance: even if a supplement generally works it may not be worth it, VO2max example, individuality
(54:20) Individuality and supplements: ergogenic aids versus deficiencies, nitrates and creatine example, not all exercise is the same, not all populations are the same, beet juice example, trained and untrained individuals have different limiting factors, sport specificity, males versus female
(1:00:00) Finding the right supplement: try one supplement at a time, test it on your individual situation for a few weeks, most supplements are chronic, remove it from your system for a few weeks to remove placebo
(1:03:28) Supplement dosage: start at the lowest recommended dose and increase to maximum recommended dose as necessary
(1:04:05) Supplements and doping: NSF and Informed Choice certifications, the additional cost is worth it
(1:06:00) Testing for reversibility: legacy effects, placebo, taking rest weeks to avoid developing a tolerance, examples
(1:08:02) Blended supplements: single supplementation is best, co-supplementation is not well researched, proprietary blends are unknown mixtures
(1:11:49) Stacking supplements: combining multiple supplements, creatine and nitrate example, stacking is based on speculation
(1:13:12) Marketing techniques: stacks and blends create differentiation in the supplement market, proprietary blends are often used to underdose expensive or functional components with cheap filler
(1:16:25) Brady’s supplement list for endurance athletes: caffeine, nitrates, beta alanine, and possibly sodium bicarbonate for race performance, tart cherry juice, whey protein, and exogenous ketones for recovery
(1:20:29) Sodium bicarbonate: only useful for very high intensity exercise, the delivery mechanism is problematic, speculation about sodium loading during ultras
(1:24:29) Sodium bicarbonate with exogenous ketones: mechanistic speculation, potential performance enhancing effects
(1:25:15) Why use Examine.com: comprehensive user-friendly information, tier cost, $19/month, Koop’s unbiased endorsement
(1:29:05) Wrap-up: giving thanks, challenges and dangers of the supplement industry, objectivity and skepticism
(1:30:47) Outro: next week’s episode on creatine supplementation, share the KoopCast
Additional resources:
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