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OysterMax® for Athletes & Bodybuilders
70% of all athletes tested have been shown to have either a depletion (which is what Prasad calls a "mild deficiency") or an outright deficiency. In either case, in one or more ways health and performance may be impaired. In the case of a deficiency, the individual will have one or more overt symptoms identifiable by any knowledgable physician.
This includes entire professional football and basketball teams, many amateur and professional bodybuilders, hundreds of Olympic athletes scattered among many different events, karate champions, and even elite tennis players.
By and large, these athletes are people who pay careful attention to their diet, yet the majority are depleted or deficient in zinc.
Bodybuilders are prone to zinc depletion or deficiency for a number of reasons. First, one of the best sources of zinc is red meat. Many bodybuilders eat a reduced amount of meat, concentrating instead on chicken and fish as their main protein sources.
Second, bodybuilders lose more zinc than do non-exercisers. Zinc exits the body in a number of ways, including through sweat. On an exercise day, an athlete will lose 50% more zinc through sweat than on a non-exercise day.
Third, bodybuilders require significantly more zinc than do non-exercisers.
Because bodybuilding involves the infliction of a great deal of micro-damage to cells and tissues that must be repaired, and because the muscle are stimulated through exercise to grow, bodybuilders and athletes may require up to twice as much zinc as do non-exercisers.
If you are a bodybuilder, you are very likely to have either a zinc depletion or deficiency.
If you are using steroids, which depress the body's zinc, magnesium and copper levels, you are even more likely to be zinc deficient.
As you get older, your testosterone levels decline. That's one reason why older bodybuilders have more difficulty adding muscle mass than the younger men in the gym. Many bodybuilders begin to sense at the age of 35 or 40 that adding muscle has become more difficult. For someone around this age who is zinc depleted or zinc deficient, supplementation with a highly absorbable form of zinc can make a noticeable difference.
Results of a comprehensive study by a team of researchers headed by Dr. Ananda S. Prasad, M.D., Ph.D. has enormous implications for all bodybuilders, especially those who are "natural." Click here for the article.
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