Vitamin water sits in the cooler right next to plain water, and its labels talk about energy, focus and defence. The name suggests water plus a dose of nutrition.
Search for vitamin D deficiency symptoms and you will find long lists: tiredness, hair loss, low mood, frequent colds, back pain, poor sleep.
Vitamin B12 in athletes is often associated with one thing: energy. The assumption is widespread — B12 injections are popular in some sports settings, particularly endurance sports, and the vitamin has developed an almost mythological status as a performance enhancer.
Most athletes who come to me worried about anaemia-related fatigue immediately assume iron is the culprit. Iron deficiency is reported to affect approximately 10% of male and 35% of female athletes and is among the most commonly reported nutrient disorders in athlete populations.
Vitamin B7 in athletes is rarely discussed the way iron, vitamin D, or B12 are — and that is precisely why it warrants attention.
Vitamin B6 plays a fundamental role in human metabolism. It participates in a wide range of physiological processes throughout the body, and true deficiency can produce diverse clinical manifestations, including anemia, dermatitis, and oral or mucosal symptoms.
Niacin, or vitamin B3, plays a central role in human metabolism. Because it participates in many cellular energy reactions, it is easy to assume that it must be especially important for athletes.
Most athletes who run regular blood panels focus on ferritin, hemoglobin, and vitamin D. This is understandable, as these markers are familiar, easy to interpret, often included in standard laboratory panels, and directly connected to fatigue, recovery, and performance.
Vitamin B1 in athletes is not a topic that usually gets much attention. Most athletes think about protein timing, carbohydrate periodization, iron status, vitamin D, or magnesium long before they think about thiamine.
In clinical practice, vitamin A is often overlooked by both clinicians and patients. Among patients, it is generally not a particularly well-understood vitamin, and even among clinicians there is often a somewhat cautious or negative association with vitamin A.
In clinical practice, vitamin E rarely receives much attention on its own. Most athletes I see are not supplementing it deliberately; more often, it appears incidentally as part of multivitamins or fish oil products that contain fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, and E.
Vitamin C is a widely used dietary supplement, including among athletes. The logic is intuitive: hard training increases oxidative stress, vitamin C is an antioxidant, therefore vitamin C should support faster recovery and better performance.
It is entirely natural for athletes — and patients more broadly — to want to maximise their performance. They invest significant time and effort into optimising every aspect of their training, recovery, and daily routine.
Vitamin D status is frequently assessed in athletes, yet its interpretation remains a common source of uncertainty in clinical practice.
