The Peak Performance Phenomenon

Earl Mindell's Peak Performance Bible
by Earl Mindell, R.Ph., Ph.D.

You Can Be Stronger, Smarter, Sexier, and Healthier!

One of the bestselling names in vitamins, herbs, and supplements, Dr. Earl Mindell takes on the hottest category in natural products: performance enhancers that will make you stronger, smarter, sexier, and healthier. Consumers are spending more than 10 billion dollars annually on these products. But not all of them work — some are really effective, some are downright dangerous, and some are a complete waste of money.

Earl Mindell's Peak Performance Bible will take the mystery out of performance enhancers, which are crowding out an earlier generation of vitamins and herbs in health-food stores around the country. These hot products include:

• The new cancer-fighting supplement that helps build bigger muscles

• The Asian aphrodisiac that can help you in the gym and in the bedroom

• The supplement that can enhance sexual function, sharpen your thinking, and help prevent disease

• The tea that fights cancer, cleans out your arteries, and can make you thinner

• The amino acid that can stave off mental exhaustion — it's so effective it has been studied by the U.S. military!

Including his trademark hot hundred, Dr. Mindell includes specific chapters on products designed to help you bulk up, slim down, gain endurance, improve sexual performance, and maintain the competitive edge at work. He even includes info for teens on safe but effective ways to build up strength.

Chapter 1

You're reading this book because you want to do everything better! You want to excel at the gym, win on the playing field, succeed at work or at school, and have energy to spare to enjoy your life. You're not alone. You're part of a growing trend of millions of men and women who are using performance enhancers: hundreds of new, cutting-edge supplements and meal-replacement products that can help you look and feel better. Some performance supplements build muscle, burn fat, and boost athletic performance. Others heighten energy and stamina, speed recovery after a workout, or boost sexual function. Still others enhance focus and mental alertness. These products are fast becoming best-sellers among weekend athletes, dieters, baby boomers who feel they are losing their edge, and, even, teenage athletes. In the United States alone, consumers are spending billions of dollars on performance supplements.

I am writing this book to help you choose the performance supplements that will best suit your needs. There's a great deal of hype surrounding performance supplements. Flip through the pages of any fitness magazine or turn on TV, and you will see advertisements touting the benefits of these high-tech wonders. Burn fat! Get ripped! Rev up your sex life! Get energized! They all sound great, but do all they work? Some really do live up to the hype, and you will learn about them in this book. But not all performance supplements are created equal. Many are safe and effective, but others are worthless and downright unsafe, particularly for teenagers. Still others are old supplements in new bottles; that is, supplements that have been around for years, but are now repackaged and given hot new names to cash in on this trend. I don't mean to disparage these old supplements — many of them are some of the best performance products on the market. To my way of thinking, however, it's not fair to let consumers believe that they are new (and often, charge more for them).

How do you distinguish between good products and bad products? First, high-quality products are usually backed by good research, that is, some scientific studies confirming their safety and efficacy. Second, there should be ample anecdotal support for products. In other words, if a product is supposed to help people build muscle or lose weight, there ought to be hordes of happy consumers willing to tell their stories. By the time you have finished this book, you will know which peak performance supplements truly live up to their name, and which are a waste of money.

As many of you may know, I've been writing about supplements for more than twenty years. I am a pharmacist and a master herbalist. Published in 1979, Earl Mindell's Vitamin Bible is still widely read today, and is generally regarded as one of the books that helped popularize vitamins throughout the world. Nearly a decade ago, I wrote Earl Mindell's Herb Bible, which helped bring herbal medicine to millions of homes. When I first wrote the Herb Bible, few people had even heard of herbs such as echinacea, ginseng, and ginkgo biloba, which are now household names. Today, one-third of all Americans use herbal supplements and related products. (In fact, there are so many new herbal products that an updated edition of the Herb Bible was published in 2000.) The Peak Performance Bible has a similar mission to that of the Vitamin Bible and the Herb Bible. This book is written for the both the new and experienced user of performance products. Similarly, I am confident that many of the worthy peak performance products that I introduce in this book will be around in decades to come.

What Are Peak Performance Supplements?

Peak performance supplements consist of a wide variety of seemingly unrelated supplements with one thing in common — they are designed to enhance your body or your mind. This diverse group of supplements include vitamins, minerals, herbs, protein powders, amino acids, enzymes, hormones, sports drinks, and sports bars. (If you are unfamiliar with some of these terms, check the section at the end of this chapter, "Answers to Commonly Asked Questions.") They are sold over the counter at natural food stores, discount pharmacies, general merchandise stores, supermarkets and even on the Internet.

Peak performance supplements come in many different forms: pills, capsules, tablets, powders that can be mixed with water or juice, beverages, extracts, food bars, and in lotions and gels that can be applied topically. Choose the form that is easiest for you to use. For example, if you hate to swallow pills, you may be able to use a liquid or extract. In some cases, I do recommend one particular form of a supplement because I feel that it is the most effective, or least likely to produce unwanted side effects. After I describe a product, I tell you how to use it. Please follow my directions, and be careful not to exceed my recommended dose. Although most performance products are safe at even high doses, some can cause adverse side effects (like stomach upset) at higher-than-recommended doses.

How to Buy Peak Performance Supplements

You walk into a natural food store or a discount pharmacy, and you see row upon row of supplements. How do you choose the right brands? Nutritional supplements are not regulated by the government so, to be sure that you are getting the best-quality products, stick to brands from reputable, well-known manufacturers that take special steps to ensure safety and effectiveness. Some unscrupulous manufacturers may water down a product so that it does not contain the quantity of supplement that it should. This is unfortunate, and has hurt the reputation of the entire industry. Most of the well-known manufacturers, however, do have good quality control. Here are some tips as to how to choose the best products:

• Buy products that come in tamperproof packages with both an inside and outside seal.

• Look for products that state on the label that they are laboratory tested and guaranteed, which means that the product has been assayed by an independent laboratory.

• To be sure the product is fresh, look for an expiration date on the package; an old supplement may have lost some of its effectiveness.

• Look for a quality-control number on the package. If something is wrong, the manufacturer can quickly pull the product off the shelf.

Just a reminder: Most supplements don't come in childproof packages. If there are children in your home, be sure to put your supplements in a childproof container, or be scrupulous about keeping them out of reach of children.

How to Take Peak Performance Supplements

Unless otherwise noted, take your supplements with a full glass of water, after eating, to enhance absorption. There are times, however, that I will tell you to take a particular supplement before meals on an empty stomach. It's usually best to take your supplements in two doses: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. In all likelihood, you will need to carry your supplements with you to work so that you don't miss a midday dose. I recommend that you take a few minutes on a weekend to set up your week's supply of prepackaged supplements in plastic baggies or special pill containers. Take one bag of supplements in the morning, and take another bag to work. This way, you won't have to count pills every day, and you'll have your supplements at your fingertips when you need them.

Some performance supplements are best taken up to an hour before exercise to boost stamina and energy, or immediately following exercise to speed up recovery, which means that you'll need to bring your supplements with you to the gym or playing field.

Some supplements can be taken daily like vitamin pills, others should be taken only occasionally to get a desired result, or should be used only for a limited time. If a supplement works well, why not take it every day? First, overusing some supplements can render them in- effective. You'll be wasting your money! Second, some supplements may be not be safe for long-term use. So, please follow my directions carefully.

Some supplements can be taken with prescription drugs, other should not. When in doubt about taking a supplement, check with your pharmacist, physician, or natural healer. They will be able to tell you about potential interactions between your medication and your supplements.

At times, I don't recommend a precise dose for a particular supplement; rather, I will give a range of doses. Some people are highly susceptible to the effects of medications of any kind and may only require a small dose of a particular substance to get an effect. Older adults tend to fall in this category. To make sure that a supplement agrees with you, start with the smaller dose and work your way up to the maximum dose.

Use your common sense. Don't take a stimulating supplement at night when you want to sleep, or a supplement that promotes sleep when you need to feel energized and active. Be especially careful not to use natural tranquilizers or sleep aids if you have to drive a car or operate heavy machinery (and that includes the machines at the gym).

Supplements are sold separately, or in multicombination formulas. When you take more than one supplement, the peak performance term is stacking. In some cases, the multicombination supplement is more economical than buying several different ones. However, in some cases, the doses for each supplement could be so low that the product is a waste of money. If you chose to use multicombination supplements, read the label carefully to make sure that you are getting the full dose that I recommend. Also be sure that you're not getting any ingredient that you don't want.

Store your supplements in a cool, dry place out of direct sunlight. Some supplements need to be refrigerated; read the label for precise instructions.

Copyright © 2001 by Earl Mindell, R.Ph., Ph.D., and Carol Colman

About the Author

For the last thirty years Dr. Mindell has researched and studied the nutrients your body needs on a daily basis to function at its best and maintain optimal health.