It is very important to know the advantages and disadvantages of supplements.
Actually, many people only major on the advantages of supplements to achieve their needs, despite the disadvantages of supplements.
However, the supplements were strictly used by bodybuilders and professional athletes through doctor’s instruction.
Currently, a larger number of people use supplements without a doctor’s consultation for weight loss.
Either to improve overall health, maintain their health, to prevent health hazards, or to stimulate their immunity.
However, supplements have advantages and disadvantages.
Creatine
Creatine is a molecule that is produced naturally in your body, however, When you consume creatine as dietary.
It can increase muscle creatine content by up to 40% above the normal levels.
This affects your muscle cells and exercises performance, promoting muscle gain.
It is one of the widely used supplements.
Advantages of creatine
- It provides maximum energy by boosting adenosine triphosphate in your body, and helps in building lean body mass
- Creatine boosts energy levels and strength
- Using creatine can help prevent muscle loss
- It improves mental focus and overall brain health
- In addition, it enhances effective performance during high-intensity, short-duration exercise, and help elevate resting testosterone level in men.
Disadvantages of creatine
It can cause stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea, muscle cramping, and temporarily weight gain due to muscle retaining water.
Protein powder
There are different forms of protein powder that you can easily get.
They include soy, whey, and casein.
They can help to increase the amount of complete, maximum protein in several food ingredients. Per day, averagely you can take 45 to 65 grams. see the protein intake per day for weight gain.
Advantages
Protein powder can help improve your muscles’ ability to recover and adapt after strenuous exercise.
It can also promote muscle hypertrophy and improve body composition.
The mixing of whey and casein keeps the body in a highly anabolic environment for a long duration, helping to boost the rates of protein synthesis, while minimizing any muscle breakdown.
It also helps prevent muscle loss in elderly people. This helps them to stay healthy and stronger.
The supplement also improves thier neurological transmission, thereby, boosting their cognitive skills.
Studies show that taking whey protein can help prevent several neurological disorders such as epilepsy, Alzheimer disease, Seizure disorders,and many others.
For that reason, you should always take whey protein to boost your muscle growth.
Disadvantages of protein powder
Every coin has two sides, therefore, an overdose of protein powder can result in increased bowel movements, bloating, cramps.
It also reduces appetite, fatigue, and headache.
Glutamine
Glutamine is an amino acid that the body produces naturally.
Taking glutamine as dietary, can improve the repair, recovery, and removal of waste products, promotes healthy immune system function, may also help in digestion and brain functions.
Advantages
Glutamine helps to remove excess ammonia, which can accumulate during intense exercise, helping to stabilize your body’s acid-base balance.
It also helps to boost the repair, and recovery of muscle and stimulate muscle tissue growth.
Furthermore, it helps to promote healthy immune system functions as well as brain functions.
Research show that taking glutamine can help improves the cardiovascular system and can help in overall body functions.
Disadvantage
This supplement can cause mania, seizures, worsening cases of cirrhosis, and other conditions.
It can lead to cough or hoarseness, frequent urge to defecate, and straining while passing tools.
Therefore, you need to consult your doctor for any abnormal body changes. seeking medical attention is very important.
Glucosamine
Glucosamine is a substance found naturally in the fluid around joints. It helps in building cartilage, which holds bones together.
However, the body may not produce enough of it, therefore, supplementing with this supplement can boost your blood counts and help in strengthening your bones.
It helps prevent arthritis and joint pain.
Advantages
The supplement strengthens your joints and may help in the treatment of osteoarthritis.
However, it has not been proven scientifically, there is clear evidence supporting its effectiveness.
Disadvantages
It can cause nausea, heartburn, diarrhea, and constipation, and other metabolic syndromes.
Prohormones supplements /testosterone boosters
They are hormone precursors that the body can convert into a suitable and more appropriate hormone.
This supplement is largely used by bodybuilders as they aim to enjoy anabolic steroids without the legal risk.
The Prohormones of testosterone androstenedione, androstenediol, and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), but some of the prohormones are also outlawed.
Advantages
So far, no research proves any benefits of prohormones. However, they may help boost your testosterone levels
Disadvantages
The negative effect varies from various types of prohormone, however, it can cause acne, hair loss, liver damage, and enlarged breast tissue.
Animal Pak
Animal pak is one of the supplements that are widely used by bodybuilders.
It features performance optimizers such as pyridoxine alpha-ketoglutarate (PAK), carnitine, lipotropic, L-arginine, alpha lipoic acid, and eleuthero. This makes it a very powerful mass gainer supplement.
In fact, in every pack, there are over sixty major ingredients, which are proportionally distributed within the package with the right amounts at the right time, every time cited from the company website.
Advantages
Intake of alpha-ketoglutarate daily for five weeks improves general performance, but carnitine considered unlikely effective for improving athletic performance.
Animal pak stimulates the growth of new muscles and helps in muscle recovery.
It can also boost your mental focus and prevent neurological problems.
The supplement is designed to improve your strength, energy levels, and overall performance. The supplement has several health benefits that you can find here.
Disadvantages
Animal Pak is best for use and there are no specific disadvantages.
However, Pak and carnitine may cause diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, cramps, and a potential allergic reaction.
Therefore, you need to take the dosage as recommended.
Nitric Oxide
Nitric oxide is a gas produced naturally from the body. However, you can use the supplement to boost its content in the body.
When taken as dietary, It helps cells to respond and can affect the release of hormones and adrenaline.
A good number of pre-workout supplements contain L-arginine that the body converts into nitric oxide.
Advantages
There is no proved evidence to support the advantages of Nitric Oxide supplement on the workout.
Disadvantages
L-arginine can cause abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, gout, blood abnormalities, allergies, airway inflammation, worsening of asthma, and low blood pressure.
Therefore, you should seek doctors’ advice before using this supplement.
Caffeine
The use of caffeine worldwide results in its vast significance. It aids in both prolonged exercise and high-intensity activity.
However, when it comes to strength performance, the effects of caffeine are a little ineffective.
Some studies reveal that caffeine consumption prior to resistance training can increase one-rep max (1RM) for the bench press, while other studies have found no strength benefits from caffeine.
According to another study, caffeine decrease the rates of fatigue and lower perception of effort, which may be of benefit during high-intensity workouts, or if you just need some kind of a little starter before lifting the weights.
Advantages
Caffeine helps to stimulate the central nervous system, therefore, reducing feelings of exertion, and improving performance during exercise or workouts such as running.
Nevertheless, it does not improve performance in short-term, high-intensity exercises such as weight lifting.
Disadvantages
Caffeine can cause insomnia, nervousness and restlessness, stomach irritation, nausea and vomiting, increased heart rate and respiration.
Caffeine can worsen sleep disorders, and larger doses might cause headache, anxiety, agitation, chest pain, and ringing in the ears.
How long should you use supplements
Many bodybuilders and new gym-goers are often confused on how long they should be taking supplements
In order to get the full benefits of taking dietary supplements, you should be taking them daily and on a continuous basis for effective results.
After about three months, it’s recommended to take a two-week break.
However, some are even recommended to take a break after 6 months, but this will depend on the supplement you are using.
Do not exceed six months before taking a break of two weeks.
This is because you don’t want your body to rely solely on supplements and become dependent on them.
In fact, it is the main reason as to why you need to eat a balanced diet, have a workout routine, and exercise regularly.
Surprisingly, some people still take supplements yet continue eating junk food and following other bad habits that can cause metabolic dysfunctions.
This is too bad, however, being that the requirements for essential nutrients will vary slightly from person to person, you need to improve your metabolic health.
Must you use supplements?
Actually, many people take these supplements to make sure they get enough essential nutrients and to maintain or improve their health. While others take them to gain weight or lose weight.
However, not everyone needs to take supplements.
In fact, following a good healthy balanced lifestyle is the framework behind every health-based goal or objective.
Supplements are the extra tools that may help support you to get bigger muscles or to lose weight faster.
If you ignore common sense and try set health goals while continuing to keep bad lifestyle habits, no supplement on earth will magically boost your health.
Therefore, eat real food to support your overall health for the long-term.
It all starts with you, your commitment to stick to your intended health goals and eat healthy food, is what will improve your metabolic health and achieve your dream goals more effectively.
Precaution When Using Supplements
There are several supplements all over the world, sold by unskilled individuals, with no idea about the negative effect of the supplements.
Being that you know the advantages and disadvantages of supplements, always consult a medical provider before initiating a new supplement regimen.
Your health care provider will assist you to know the advantages and disadvantages of supplements in a more equitable way, and possibly offer safer alternatives.
Remember, most of these substances are naturally present in your body.
Therefore, eating a well-balanced diet can improve its functionality and gain weight healthily.
I think you may not need to buy supplements at the moment you will provide your body with what it needs at the right time.
Last Verdict
Every coin has two sides, therefore, there are several advantages and disadvantages of supplements that you need to keep in mind.
Using the right supplement and using it correctly, is the best way to stay safe while using supplements.
It is also important to seek advice from experts before using any supplement.
Remember long-term use of the supplement is not healthy, therefore, the purpose to use supplements for short-term, actually, three to six months.
Have you realized that most of the nutrients that we get from dietary supplements are already available in the body.
I think eating real food is a better way to achieve our dream goals than using supplements.
So be wise, and get real food on the table.
In fact, eating a healthy balanced diet is the key to better health.