Over the past few months, I had been increasing tired. I couldn’t pinpoint why. I was spending most of my Sundays napping throughout the day. That’s unlike me. I’m a pretty energetic person and never needed naps before. I knew it wasn’t overtraining because my running times were good and I wasn’t feeling like I was losing steam.

I was getting frustrated. Nothing made sense. However, I noticed after taking creatine in the morning, I crashed after that. I also looked into the other supplements I was taking and the alpha lipoic acid caused fatigue.

After removing both supplements from my day, I feel great! My energy levels came back and my run times are getting faster. The reason I wanted to talk about this is because supplements are good, but only if they help you. In this case, they were hurting me.

Take creatine. This is one of the most studies supplements. It’s generally safe, but it doesn’t work for everyone. It may even stop working like it did for me. I started feeling tired after years of using it. The best thing to do was to stop using it.

The same with the alpha lipoic acid. Well studied, but started to adversely affect me and caused me to be tired. Supplements are not completely safe. Many people think that if you can buy it on the supermarket shelf, it’s thought to be safe. However, because of DSHEA, vitamins and supplements cannot make any health claims and have not been thoroughly tested.

According to the Federal Drug Administration:

The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) requires that a manufacturer or distributor notify FDA in advance and submit safety information if it intends to market a dietary supplement in the United States that contains a “new dietary ingredient,” unless the new dietary ingredient is present in the food supply as an article used for food in a form in which the food has not been chemically altered. 

If you see the following statement on your supplement, be wary:

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Make sure to really look at the science behind the supplement. There are many ways to find this. Google Scholar is one. Another is looking at the Mayo Clinic or other health care related websites. Do not follow the advise of anyone that is hocking their own supplements as well as health and wellness influencers. Many of these people don’t fully understand what they are promoting. They don’t have your best interest in mind, but are all too happy to take your money.

The bottom line, be careful with supplements. Use the ones that have good evidence and work well for your goals.