Nutrient Deficiencies in Athletes: Supporting Performance and Recovery

Optimal sports nutrition is vital for sustaining performance and accelerating recovery in athletes. While balanced macronutrients—carbohydrates for energy, proteins for muscle synthesis, and healthy fats—form the core, high-intensity training significantly spikes the demand for micronutrients, often leading to deficiencies.

  • Increased Nutrient Demand: Due to the elevated stress on metabolic and energy pathways, athletes require a substantially higher intake of vitamins and minerals. The most prevalent deficiencies occur in essential minerals such as sodium, calcium, potassium, iron, zinc, and magnesium.
  • The Impact of Sweat and Stress: Thermoregulation through sweating causes a heavy loss of fluids and key electrolytes, which must be replenished alongside post-workout carbohydrates. Furthermore, competitive stress heavily impacts adrenal function. This is where "stress vitamins" (B-complex vitamins including B5, B6, B12, and folate) act as vital regulators to minimize physiological stress responses.
  • Metabolic Challenges (Type 1 Diabetes): Elite athletes like Alexander Zverev and Matthias Steiner demonstrate the critical need for precise nutrient management when managing Type 1 diabetes. Magnesium is crucial here, as a deficiency impairs insulin sensitivity. Adequate intake of magnesium combined with Vitamin B6 enhances insulin function and helps stabilize blood sugar levels during intense physical exertion.

Link to the article (Article available in German only)

Nutrient Interactions: How Vitamins, Minerals, and Trace Elements Influence Each Other

Targeted micronutrient supplementation is a cornerstone of orthomolecular medicine. However, understanding the complex interrelationships between nutrients is vital for therapeutic success, as elements can either enhance each other's effects (synergism) or inhibit them (antagonism).

  • Synergistic Effects: A prime example is how Vitamin B6 improves the absorption of zinc, which significantly boosts immune function and skin health. Similarly, Vitamin D and calcium work together to maintain bone density, while Vitamin C enhances iron uptake.
  • Antagonistic Effects: High-dose supplementation of single nutrients without balance poses risks. Zinc and copper, for instance, compete for the same absorption pathways; an excess of zinc blocks copper uptake, and vice versa. Similar competitions occur between calcium and magnesium, zinc and manganese, as well as calcium and iron.
  • Heavy Metal Interactions: Maintaining optimal nutrient levels also provides a shield against environmental toxins. Selenium acts as a powerful antagonist against arsenic and mercury by binding to them and promoting their excretion. Conversely, a zinc deficiency allows toxic metals like lead or cadmium to easily displace zinc, disrupting enzymatic and hormonal systems

Link to the article (Article available in German only)

Orthomolecular Therapy- why, when and where

According to Dr. M.Jensen, Past President of the American College for Advancement in Medicine and the Center for Preventive Medicine, Amherst, NH, USA "Dietary supplements, including vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, amino acids, flavonoids, herbs, and accessory food factors, are among the most valuable and safe substances for prevention and treatment of serious chronic and acute diseases associated with mortality, as well as everyday health problems that cause discomfort and disability. It is important to take adequate doses for their full benefits. Because they prevent deficiency diseases at low doses, they have acquired a reputation for being necessary only at these low levels."  

He rightfully states that "Orthomolecular medicine is the restoration and maintenance of health through the administration of adequate amounts of substances that are normally present in the body. Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling, one of the leading molecular chemists of the century, established this definition of orthomolecular medicine in 1968. The aging process is typically accelerated as a result of free radical exposure, frequent or chronic inflammation, and toxic exposures (such as to heavy metals or industrial and agricultural hydrocarbons). Reversing this process or slowing it down is one goal of orthomolecular therapy, along with treatment of health problems."*

More information about this natural treatment can be found in the articles listed here.

*Janson M. Orthomolecular medicine: the therapeutic use of dietary supplements for anti-aging. Clin Interv Aging. 2006;1(3):261-5. doi: 10.2147/ciia.2006.1.3.261. PMID: 18046879; PMCID: PMC2695174.

Healing nutrients

Was Linus Pauling right?

Nutrient therapy has few side effects and is cost-effective.
It is a root cause treatment that helps patients to improve their
well-being.
The concept of clinical orthomolecular therapy is the
answer to the requirements of our highly industrialized
industrialized era. This is characterized by progressive environmental pollution,
widespread, unbalanced factory nutrition
and the high stress levels of an increasingly
driven population. It is a therapy with few side effects
therapy that - as Pauling quoted - tries to heal with the right
molecules.

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link