A Natural Guide To Enhancing Athletic Performance, Part II

Aside for stressing the importance of making sure your body is getting the right nutrients, any athlete should be equally focused on getting rid of anything that may hurt your body’s performance. It’s pretty critical to try and eliminate any toxins from your body to reach your peak performance. Even if you don’t smoke or drink alcohol, you can still have toxins floating around. Try as you might to be careful what you eat, there are ways that toxins that are in the environment can enter your body, limiting your athletic abilities.

Bacteria Can Be Brutal

Harmful bacteria use a process similar to cellular respiration to create their own metabolic pathways. This adaption can lead to an increase in pathogens and change the bacterial metabolism in the cells. Athletes should decrease any risk of bacteria by practicing proper hygiene habits, like washing hands and surfaces and eating healthy nutrition. Likewise, fungi can develop the same way and infections can quickly lead to outbreaks among athletes.

Lyme disease is a common yet concerning bacteria among athletes, especially in outdoor sports. An infected tick with the B. burgdorferi bacteria spreads Lyme disease through biting. Unfortunately, Lyme disease is misdiagnosed frequently because of testing limitations and because it often looks like other disorders. Don’t mistake Lyme disease symptoms such as soreness as overtraining. If left untreated, chronic Lyme disease carries coinfections with flu-like symptoms such as fatigue, headache, fever, muscle or joint pain, neck stiffness, and swollen lymph nodes.

In 2020, WNBA player Ella Delle Donne discussed her challenges with chronic Lyme disease and the coinfections caused. It’s essential for athletes to confirm if their tiredness is normal or because of an underlying issue that needs to be taken care of.

Heavy Metals and Oxidative Stress

The body has trace amounts of essential heavy metals such as iron and zinc to maintain physiological and biochemical functions. Nevertheless, toxic heavy metals like mercury and lead can affect the body’s energy. Having a high toxicity level of heavy metals leads to low energy levels, altered blood composition, and damage to the brain, liver, lungs, and kidney.

Be sure to avoid exposure or consumption of toxic heavy metals. The digestive tract and your blood circulation allow them to travel to your tissues and organs and store in the bones, which will directly affect an athlete’s performance.

Oxidative stress is an imbalance of antioxidants and free radicals, which is detrimental to athletic performance, growth, and optimization. If you have an imbalance between antioxidants and free radicals, it can cause oxidative stress, and it’s essential to understand each component to reduce your oxidative stress.

Antioxidants are produced in the body and come from whole foods, and vitamins like E and C. Free radicals are molecules with oxygen and uneven electrons. If antioxidants don’t balance the free radicals, you can damage your body. You can increase your levels of antioxidants by eating healthy foods to reduce your oxidative stress. Another option is to lower your exposure to environmental pollutants.

Parasite Possibility

Anybody can get a parasite, and it is more common than you think. Poor hygiene conditions that can exist in sports settings can lead to athletes passing intestinal parasites to each other. Besides, using public places or having close contact with groups can only increase the transmission of parasites. Having a tapeworm will sap your energy, make you lose weight, and have extreme fatigue.

Hockey player Carson Meyer suffered serious effects from a 25-inch tapeworm in 2018. He would lose an unhealthy amount of weight, didn’t have an appetite, and was falling asleep during team practices. He tested negative for mono, and it was unclear what the issue was until the parasite showed up after a trip to the bathroom.

Microscopic parasites like Toxoplasma gondii are also common, which come from touching cat feces that has been contaminated by them eating infected prey. This parasite will alter the neurotransmitters in the brain. Athletic performance is also hindered since it changes how people respond to stressors, as well as slowing down reaction times. Although getting a parasite can be related to iron deficiency, anaerobic issues, and other poor muscle strength, more research needs to determine other susceptibilities.

Watch Out For Pesticides and Radioactive Elements

People are unknowingly exposed to pesticides every single day. That goes double for athletes who practice on fields sprayed with harmful chemicals containing pesticides. Pesticides can affect your mitochondria, and in turn, limit you from reaching your peak performance as an athlete.

Another way you can come into contact with pesticides every day is through the food you eat, which often has pesticide residue. Make sure you rinse all of your foods before consuming them. Home pest management may also cause pesticide exposure and harm the metabolites that help performance and energy. Although you can’t always avoid pesticides, you can reduce the ones you have in your home and your food through proper cleaning.

These can affect the deep cellular level of the body by compromising the role and function of the mitochondrial. Over time, radioactive elements might even damage your DNA tissues. Exposure may come from drinking contaminated water with glyphosate, a pesticide, and not knowing it. Distilled water is the healthiest to consume because it undergoes a safe method for removing radioactive elements that other tap or bottled waters do not.

Do Away With The Drugs

It’s all-too-common unfortunately, for athletes to start taking drugs, performance-enhancing or otherwise. Sure, drugs may boost your energy temporarily or help you build your muscle quicker, however, they can carry substantial health risks can be detrimental to your body.

Even drugs that are legal, and used for therapeutic reasons, can have adverse health effects. Whether you take them for a “competitive edge” or simply to reduce anxiety, you should understand there are natural ways to help. Overusing a prescription or illegal drug can lead to the opposite result you intended, like impede your abilities and cause long-term health problems.

Many over-the-counter energy drinks, powders, and shake mixes for workouts contain stimulants. These stimulants, like caffeine and amphetamine, are meant to jumpstart your central nervous system to decrease fatigue, increase alertness, boost endurance, and improve strength. However, they can also cause extreme side effects, such as tremors, hallucinations, as well as a whole host of heart issues.

It’s essential to read the label and research all the ingredients listed before making a powder or shake a part of your regular workout regime. Pre-workout stimulants usually have too much caffeine and niacin, which will harm your body instead of creating optimal performance. Even though you could carefully select what stimulants you consume, you should generally stay away from dietary aids and focus on more natural methods.

Having a pre-workout powder or drinking a multi-ingredient shake might seem like an excellent way to boost your energy levels. However, try not to go beyond the serving size, and take just the recommended amount for removing side effects.