Mineral Supplements May Give Athletes an Edge
This article would be of great interest to any long distance runners. I will always strongly recommend that long distance runners that higher levels of antioxidants than everyone else because they are producing greater amount of free radicals. It is ironic that something viewed as healthy like running, can actually create more damage to your body if you don’t get the nutrients you need.
(article) Athletes may improve their performance by incorporating trace mineral supplements in their diet. In fact, this strategy could turn out to be a legal, healthy, and perfectly acceptable alternative to doping and perhaps even give Danish athletes an advantage in international competition, the chief coach for the Danish Elite Athletes told Reuters Health. Some experts claim that deficiencies in minerals such as selenium, zinc, magnesium, manganese, and calcium are detrimental to basic physiological functions of the heart, muscles, and immune system, coach Lars Nielsen said. “Team Denmark, the self-governing institution of elite sport in this country, places great emphasis on optimal guidelines for nutrition, but the idea of supplementing minerals is new,” he added. “Top-notch athletes often exert themselves to the point where their bodies are depleted of natural substances like magnesium, zinc, or calcium. If you c! ompare such athletes with normal individuals, who are not as active, you will find that the athletes have enormous nutrient requirements and may therefore easily run into shortages,” Dr. Knut Flytlie, a Scandinavian expert in nutrition, pointed out in an interview with Reuters Health. He is conducting the pilot study in collaboration with The Danish Athletic Federation and Nielsen.