Do Runners Need Supplements?

#376 - The vitamin and supplement industry makes billions of dollars per year, much of it from athletes, like us runners. My question this week is: Do runners need supplements? This isn't an easy question to answer. We may or we may not. I break it down and go over the yes and the no answers, as well as what vitamins may help our running. I conclude the episode by talking about those additions in our supplements we do NOT want, including lead! You don't want to this this one! 

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(Cont.) Do Runners Need Supplements?

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Do you enjoy stories of interesting places and fascinating history? Hidden West on YouTube is about the past, present, and future that make Western America such a unique place. Every week, a new video will bring you insightful and inspiring stories showing why there is no place in the world like the West. Welcome to Martha Runs the World, a podcast with a new take on running, fitness, and all things health oriented. I'm Martha Hughes, your host, and each week I present a new topic that is of interest to all runners. Hi and welcome to episode 376 of Martha Runs the World. Thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it. I always appreciate it each and every week. The question this week is do runners need supplements? Millions of dollars are made in the vitamin and supplement industry. The global dietary supplement market is estimated to reach approximately$209.5 billion in 2025. In the US, the dietary supplement market was estimated at a roughly$68 to$78 billion in 2025 last year. And it's growing even more this year. But are supplements, vitamins, that kind of thing, are they necessary for runners? Well, that's not such an easy question to answer. The first myth I'm going to dispel, I'm going to dispel a few myths this week, and we're going to talk about it a little bit. I did a lot of research on the subject. And the first myth I'm going to dispel this week is not every runner needs to take supplements, although it's helpful for many. Supplements make sense for those runners with a proven deficiency, restricted diet, or specific conditions known to benefit from them, the experts say. Getting blood tests through a medical provider can show whether someone is clinically deficient in certain vitamins or minerals. Symptoms like fatigue, skin changes, and brittle nails can be assigned to get checked out. Blood labs don't provide a full view of nutrition, however, as we don't store most nutrients in the serum. Meeting with a dietitian can help with personalized recommendations if you think you have a problem and are not getting all your needs from your nutrition. Vegans are recommended to take vitamin B12, typically found in animal products, and consider calcium, zinc, iron, and vitamin D as well. Those who have undergone bariatric surgery or are taking GLP1 products such as Ozempic likely need additional nutrients because they are eating less. I'm going to do a whole full episode on GLP1s and their alarming trend of the rapid weight loss in industry. I'm going to do an entire episode on that, so stay tuned for that later. Patients who are pregnant should be taking prenatal vitamins containing folic acid and omega-3 fatty acids. And registered dietitians also recommend this. Also, people over 50 may need extra nutrients like calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin B12 to promote bone and nerve health. I do take a calcium and vitamin D supplement myself because I know probably I'm not getting enough. I have problems with dairy products. So that's a good way for me to get extra. Supplements are also have been proven to help health conditions such as osteoporosis, high triglycerides, and age-related macular degeneration. Athletes and those going through parametopause may also need extra iron. Now for others, taking a good quality multivitamin isn't usually harmful, but it may not be necessary. If a runner is eating a relatively healthy and balanced diet, they probably don't need it. The Food and Drug Administration regulates supplements as food, not drugs, so they don't verify their safety, effectiveness, or contents before they're sold. Remember that just remember that when you buy your supplements to make sure and purchase them from a reputable company, as a result, the purity and dosage of products can vary widely. This kind of scares me about a lot of supplements. I'm very wary of what to buy, and I try to buy from particular brands because there's a lot of additions in them that I don't want in my body. For example, some turmeric pills have been found to contain high doses of heavy metals, and I'll be talking more about that in a few minutes. And spirulina and chlorella tablets can include myoto mycotoxins. Sorry about the pronunciation in these things. The experts recommend sticking to supplements whose quality is verified by independent groups such as US Pharmacopoeia and SF or Consumer Lab. And I have to say that my allergies are kicking my butt today. It's terrible. I don't know why. Maybe it's the sudden um change in temperature. Yesterday was 80. Today it's going to be about 65. It's like, make up your mind already, you know? So I do apologize. I'm having to stop a lot, take pauses, and cough because uh my sinuses are just out of control. Anyway, back to the show. Supplements can also interact with medications. For example, vitamin K can make blood thinners less effective, and combining St. John's wart with antidepressants can be dangerous. It is highly recommended to talk to your primary care physician before you start taking a supplement, if you take other medications to be sure they won't interact. That's really important. A lot of people take a lot of different herbs and things like that, and a lot of those don't sit well if you do take regular medications. Just be careful with that kind of stuff. Many runners think they can make up for a poor diet by taking a multivitamin or by taking vitamins. Evidence suggests that many nutrients are better absorbed from foods than from supplements, and heat processing to make supplements shelf stable can make them less potent. So you might not be getting the nutrients that you think you are. There is strong evidence that fermented foods such as yogurt, kefir, and kimchi improve gut health better than uh the probiotics that you take by in pill form. And it it's better tasting. Come on, kimchi is delicious. I'd rather have that. And you can make your own pickled vegetables. They're really good and easy to make, and they are so delicious. Higher dosage of nutrients don't necessarily lead to better results and can sometimes backfire, the experts warned. Some compounds that are not water soluble can build up and pose health risks. For example, too much vitamin B6 can damage nerves, high doses of omega-3s can trigger irregular heartbeat in some people, excess vitamin A in retinoid form can harm the liver, and excessive vitamin D may increase the risk of fractures. All these you really have to be careful with. And if you have any questions about that, consult with your physician. To avoid overdoing it, it is suggested sticking to recommended dietary allowances set by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which vary based on age, sex, and other factors. Supplements containing multiple minerals or high doses of a mineral may not be fully absorbed. It's recommended splitting up high doses of minerals throughout the day if you're going to take larger doses to make sure they're all absorbed. In some cases, claims of supplement efficacy are backed by solid research. For example, magnesium is a proven stool softener, and creatine has been shown to help contribute to muscles' energy supply. I've heard a lot of great things about creatine. I don't know that much about it. I would like to try it out myself before I give my seal of approval on that. Even when taking unnecessary supplements isn't harmful, it can be costly. Just compare the prices of vitamins these days. It is not inexpensive. It really isn't. And the good ones, the good quality ones, you're gonna pay an arm and a leg for. And sometimes it's worth it because you need those extra vitamins and the extra supplements, especially if you are one of the people that I talked about first in the episode who's lacking some. I mean, it's worth it if it helps you. If you feel fatigued or have other symptoms while otherwise healthy, nutritionists and doctors suggest looking at major pillars of well-being before turning to micronutrients. Are you getting enough carbs, protein, and healthy fats from your diet? If not, start there first. Please stop starving yourselves. It's not worth it. There is a huge trend, and I'm going to talk about this in my Ozempic episode, but please stop starving yourself. Losing a few pounds is not worth losing all your nutritional gains. Now, here's the question. If runners are going to take supplements, what should they take? And here are some good ones for us to take. Calcium. Calcium is important because it plays a major role in basic body functions, including muscle contraction and blood clotting. If you don't get enough calcium and vitamin D, you increase the risk of low bone mineral density and stress fractures. You can get it in dairy products if you can handle dairy products. You can also get it in other products like canned salmon, fortified orange juice, leafy greens, or if you're not getting enough, you can also take it in pill form. I take it in pill form just every day, just as a precaution. I don't think it hurts anything. Maybe it helps. I'm not sure at this point. Vitamin D. Now I take my vitamin D in the same pill that I take my calcium. Vitamin D is important because it vitamin D, the body needs vitamin D to absorb calcium and regulate phosphorus for optimal health, bone health. If you train indoors most of the time or live in a place with limited sunshine, talk with your doctor about whether you're at risk for deficiency. I think winter may put us at a deficiency, especially if you don't see the sunlight often. You get it in dairy as the main source for vitamin C, and it can be hard to find at other foods. Now, other foods can be fortified with vitamin D, like breads, orange juice, and margarine. And mushrooms grown under UV lights can have vitamin D, but I wouldn't rely on them. It's just a good thing to have as a supplement. You can take it in the same pill as you do your calcium. That's probably something that's that's kind of important to do. B vitamins. Now this includes thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, B6, pantothenic acid, biotin, folate, and B12. B vitamins are essential to energy metabolism. Some of them help produce energy during exercise, others help produce red blood cells, synthesize protein, and repair strained tissues. Female athletes, especially vegetarians, or those with disordered eating patterns, are often low in riboflavin, pyridoxine, folate, and B12. You can get in an enriched and whole grains, and other sources include meat, nuts, dairy, and green vegetables. If you don't eat meat, nutritional yeast is a good source of B12. I love nutritional yeast on my popcorn. I don't know if you've ever tried that. Try it, it's really good. Iron, why it's important. Without adequate iron, you're likely to tire easily and feel winded before you finish your run. Low levels of iron can impair muscle function and limit your capacity to exercise. Iron is also one of the most prevalent deficiencies in athletes, especially females. If you're concerned that you are iron deficient, see your doctor. You can get it, it's easy for the body to absorb iron. The form of iron comes from animal products like beef, pork, poultry, and liver. If you don't eat meat, iron sources can also include black beans, kidney beans, fortified grains, and breakfast cereals. The body will absorb iron better if you consume iron-rich foods with those that are also rich in vitamin C. Zinc, why it's important. Zinc plays a role in immune function, energy production, and building and repair of muscle tissue. You can get zinc in red meat, dark meat poultry, raw oysters, whole grains, enriched grains and cereals. Magnesium. Magnesium is critical to maintaining strong bones. It helps to regulate a proper balance of calcium and vitamin D in the body. Magnesium is also critical to blood sugar control, protein synthesis, and blood pressure regulation. You can get in leafy greens such as spinach, as well as whole grains, seeds, nuts, are also good sources. Seafood, beans, and dairy products contain some magnesium. Refined and processed foods are generally low. But I would say processed foods are probably pretty low in any nutrition, in my opinion. If you're looking to add a meal replacement to your daily nutrition, there's some guidelines that you should follow to make sure you're still eating healthy. We runners need more nutrition and calories than those sitting on the couch. Now just remember that. Try not to starve yourself too much. I'm gonna get more into that in another episode, but try not to go too low on your calories, especially if you're upping your miles. If you're training for a long distance race, now is not the time to try to lose weight. It really is not. Even if you have a few extra pounds, that's fine. It's not gonna hurt you. You should not go low on your calorie needs. I am firmly against fasted long runs. If you want to fast a three or four mile, that's fine. I don't usually eat if I go out early in the morning, I'm not gonna eat before a three-mile run. But before a 10 to 12, 15 mile run, yeah, I'm gonna have breakfast. Small, something small, like a piece of peanut butter toast, I'm not gonna have a huge meal, but it's gonna be something. I just don't think that um fasting all your runs is a healthy thing, and I think it's gonna set a runner up for eating disorders, and it is now doing that. And like I said, I'll get more into that in a future episode. If you think you're not getting enough nutrition and you want to fill up the empty spots that you think you have, meal replacement in the form of uh powder, like a protein powder or a drink, might be right for you. And using it as an addition to your calories that you already take is a really good way to do it. Meal replacements are safe and effective for runners when used to fill in those nutritional gaps, offering a convenient source of protein and carbohydrates for recovery. They are ideal for quick nutrition after intense runs or busy days, but should not completely replace a balanced whole food diet. The benefits for meal replacements for runners optimal recovery. They provide a balanced mix of carbohydrates to replenish glycogen and protein in a 2 to 1 to 3 to 1 ratio. They're convenient, easy to consume after a run, they're nutrition dense, and the weight management, they're useful for maintaining a calorie deficient to maintain weight without sacrificing necessary nutrients. If you're trying to watch your weight, I understand I am too, I'm losing weight, but I'm also don't want to go too low or too high in my calorie count. Best practices and considerations. Don't rely on them solely. Whole foods should remain the primary nutrition source to ensure intake of fiber and antioxidants. Timing, they are excellent as a post-workout recovery snack or convenient lunch when training prevents cooking. And they do kind of fill you up enough for a little while after you after your workout. Protein intake. Endurance runners should aim for roughly 0.55 to 0.64 grams of protein per pound of body weight, and shakes can help you achieve that. Quality matters. Choose products that are third-party tested and avoid excess sugars. And also, it depends on how you're what your body can handle. I am allergic to high levels of whey. I can handle like yogurt and that kind of thing, but I cannot do whey uh protein powders. I have to do the the vegetarian, the pea protein powders. So if I have a whey protein powder, I am in big trouble. So I stick to the pea protein powders and I try to stick to a a good brand that I like. I don't do the off brands, but I I'm not really doing them anymore because they're very expensive and they're not cheap. Even the off-brands are still expensive. You're you're gonna spend a bit of money on them. Let me talk a little bit about metal in supplements. You may be thinking, metal in my vitamins? Yeah, it happens more than you think it does. I mean, it should never happen at all, but it happens a lot. The key findings on metal contamination in vitamins and supplements. Prenatal vitamins. A 2025 study found that 83% of prenatal vitamins contained detectable lead and 73% contained cadmium. 83% contained lead. Can you believe that? That's that's unbelievable to me. Contamination rates. One study found that 5% of tested supplements exceeded safe daily limits for arsenic, while 2% exceeded limits for lead, cadmium, and aluminum. Common contaminants. The most commonly found metals and supplements are lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and aluminum. High risk products, supplements containing herbs, calcium, or iron, as well as tablets and capsules are more likely to be contaminated. Third-party testing. Experts recommend choosing products with seals from independent testing organizations such as USP, NSF International, or Consumer Lab to ensure safety. And those three organizations make sure that your vitamins or supplements have a label from either USP, NSF International, or Consumer Lab to make sure that they're safe. If they don't have that, one of those labels, don't buy them. Supplements can be contaminated during the manufacturing process from raw materials or due to contaminated soil where herbal ingredients are grown. While not all supplements contain high levels, contamination is frequent enough that testing is recommended. Not surprisingly, herbal supplements have the most contamination. Unfortunately, many of them originate in the US. This information is from the National Center of Biotechnology information. It pays to only purchase brands that are reputable, with those seals of one of those companies. The vitamin supplement industry isn't regulated like the food industry, unfortunately, although it is getting better. That's a good thing, and we need it to get better. The main thing out of what I'm talking about today is that each one of us can choose what we eat every day. We can make our diet as healthy and balanced as possible for our runs to help our runs because we don't want to work against our runs. What we eat is either going to help us or hurt us. So let's help our runs. I mean, running is hard enough as it is, and being the The best runner that we can be is hard. So why make it harder on ourselves, right? All right. So I hope you guys are having good runs. I went on my longest run that I had since last June. It was uh short of ten miles, but it was really, really good. And boy, I I'm not sore today, but I was sore yesterday. I did it Saturday. And boy, man, I was so sore. But it was a good sore. It's it's that good feeling that you have knowing that you actually went out and and did a successful uh run. And I there was a walking and then I didn't run the whole way. It was really good though. It was it was nice. The weather wasn't too hot. Um yesterday it was really, really hot. So thankfully I didn't go out yesterday. I went out Saturday when the weather was the w the weather has been so strange. It's like one day it'll be hot, the next day it'll be cool, the next day it's hot, the next day it's cool. It's like, can you make up your mind here? Really? I don't know. It's crazy. It's just like it just bounces all over the place, the weather. It just can't make up its mind. I think tomorrow we're even gonna get some rain. So I guess winter isn't over yet. I say didn't get the memo that uh it's spring. Yeah, hello? All right, well that is it for me, and that is it for my show, and thank you so much for listening. I truly appreciate it each and every week. If you want to email me at smart thornsheworld at gmail.com. And until next week, let's tie our pushoelaces and go for run.