Dietitians use and recommend dietary supplements: report of a survey.

BACKGROUND: Dietary supplement use is common in the United States, with more than half of the population using such products. Nutrition authorities consistently advocate a "food first" approach to achieving nutritional adequacy but some, including the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association), also recognize that dietary supplements have a role to play in improving nutrient intake to support health and wellness. Surveys show that many health professionals use dietary supplements themselves and also recommend dietary supplements to their patients or clients. METHODS: As one component of a series of surveys of healthcare professionals (the "Life...supplemented" HCP Impact Studies), 300 registered dietitians were surveyed in 2009 regarding their personal use of dietary supplements and whether they recommend dietary supplements to their clients. Respondents were registered dietitians whose business involved seeing clients in a private practice or at a clinic. RESULTS: Seventy-four percent of the dietitians surveyed said they were regular users of dietary supplements, while 22% said they used dietary supplements occasionally or seasonally. The primary reasons for using dietary supplements were for bone health (58%), overall health and wellness (53%), and to fill nutrient gaps (42%). When asked if they "ever recommend dietary supplements to clients," 97% of the respondents said they did. The primary reasons were for bone health (70%), to fill nutrient gaps (67%), and overall health and wellness (49%). Eighty-seven percent of the dietitians agreed with the statement, "There are gaps in clients' diets that could effectively be addressed with dietary supplements." The dietitians surveyed said they followed healthy habits including eating a balanced diet (96%), managing stress (92%), visiting their own healthcare professional regularly (86%), exercising regularly (83%), maintaining a healthy weight (80%), and getting a good night's sleep (72%). Nearly all respondents (95%) expressed an interest in continuing education about dietary supplements on a variety of topics. CONCLUSIONS: Many dietitians, like other health professionals, use dietary supplements regularly as part of their own approach to a healthy diet and lifestyle. They also recommend dietary supplements to their clients or patients, to promote health.

Eating for performance: bringing science to the training table.

Despite many advances in nutritional knowledge and dietary practices, sports nutrition-associated issues, such as fatigue, loss of strength and stamina, loss of speed, and problems with weight management and inadequate energy intake, are common. Sound nutritional practices and well-designed patterns of eating are not awarded the same priority as training and many athletes fail to recognize that poor eating habits or suboptimal hydration choices may detract from athletic performance. Those who care for athletes and active individuals must take an active role in their nutritional well-being. This article reviews the present generally accepted principles for nutritional management in sport.

Supplements: help, harm, or hype? How to approach athletes.

Supplement use by athletes presents many challenges to health care professionals. We need to respect the athlete's desire to optimize performance and balance this with the need to protect the athlete's health. Supplements are available so readily and hold significant appeal because of the promise of quick results with little effort. Because we work with athletes who may have underlying health issues that could be compromised by misdirected supplement use, we need to ask the questions: what do you take, how much, and how often. Why must we do this? Our goal is to help our athletes strive, thrive, and stay alive.

National athletic trainers' association position statement: preventing, detecting, and managing disordered eating in athletes.

OBJECTIVE: To present recommendations for the prevention, detection, and comprehensive management of disordered eating (DE) in athletes. BACKGROUND: Athletes with DE rarely self-report their symptoms. They tend to deny the condition and are often resistant to referral and treatment. Thus, screenings and interventions must be handled skillfully by knowledgeable professionals to obtain desired outcomes. Certified athletic trainers have the capacity and responsibility to play active roles as integral members of the health care team. Their frequent daily interactions with athletes help to facilitate the level of medical surveillance necessary for early detection, timely referrals, treatment follow-through, and compliance. RECOMMENDATIONS: These recommendations are intended to provide certified athletic trainers and others participating in the health maintenance and performance enhancement of athletes with specific knowledge and problem-solving skills to better prevent, detect, and manage DE. The individual biological, psychological, sociocultural, and familial factors for each athlete with DE result in widely different responses to intervention strategies, challenging the best that athletics programs have to offer in terms of resources and expertise. The complexity, time intensiveness, and expense of managing DE necessitate an interdisciplinary approach representing medicine, nutrition, mental health, athletic training, and athletics administration in order to facilitate early detection and treatment, make it easier for symptomatic athletes to ask for help, enhance the potential for full recovery, and satisfy medicolegal requirements. Of equal importance is establishing educational initiatives for preventing DE.