What kind of vitamins should a high level athlete take?

you should take vitamin s

Check this Web site out. I've been taking a packet every day for the last three months and have been feeling great; especially in the muscle soreness department. It's for sure worth checking out.

http://www.pr1pak.com

Food.

You think taking calcium will prevent a stress fracture? Good luck with that.

Glucosamine and chondroitin is something many runners swear by to keep cartilage and soft tissue healthy. No conclusive studies, but it can't hurt (unlike taking too much of some vitamins...)

c and b-12. do it.

the challenger wrote:

Glucosamine and chondroitin

No. Glucosamine doesn't do anything, though you get the feeling of joint relief.

Maybe you're looking for vitamin E for muscle repair? Just make sure you're eating regular portions of greens, fruits, and nuts and you'll be fine with micronutrients.

quercetin and curcumin

Thats why you should always get Glucosamine combined with MSM and Chondroitin...which does do something

NOTHING. Let me say that again...NOTHING

Gluco/Chondr=snake oil.

I have never taken vitamins. Your toilet will get more vitamins than you will.

Lets see...

C

E

R

A

I've used Siberian ginseng in the past, and it was effective.

run for the sun wrote:

I have never taken vitamins. Your toilet will get more vitamins than you will.

Where does this notion come from? Is it only based upon the fact that your urine changes color? If so, don't ever let anyone trust your ability to come to sound conclusions.

I just looked Centrum up. It's a pretty cheap brand. That definitely brings its quality into question.

Assuming you are a guy, men generally get all the iron they need from meat and it can possibly build up if taken in excess. A lot of vitamins for men are iron free or low in iron, while Centrum has 100% rda of iron. Just something to consider...

A few supps to take besides your Centrum multi:

fish oil (1-2 grams dha/epa a day)

magnesium (400-600 mg a day - Centrum is very low in magnesium and there are better forms than magnesium oxide, which it contains)

vitamin d3 (2000 IU - Tough to know for sure as age, skin color, uvb exposure, etc all play a factor)

A few other useful supps, depending on how much money you have to throw away:

coenzyme q10 - (25-100 mg a day)

acetyl l-carnitine (100-500 mg a day)

alpa-lipoic acid (50-300 mg a day)

taurine (1 gram twice a day)

I take Cordyceps, CLA, and Eleuthero. There are some good resources on the nutritional value of these supplements for runners.

Cordyceps is shown to boost stamina, even Dr. Weil thinks so.

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/REM00021

Eleuthero appears to boost immune system function slightly by increasing the activity of immune system cells. In laboratory studies, various chemicals found in eleuthero have also shown some antiviral and anticancer properties, but these effects have not been well studied in humans.

http://www.drugdigest.org/DD/DVH/HerbsWho/0,3923,552084/Eleuthero,00.html

CLA has lots of research proven to build muscle, reduce body fat, and induce an optimum cellular environment for improved health!

http://www.eatwild.com/cla.html

NONE!!! - unless you want to risk failing a USADA drug test and ruining your career (as happened to someone I know). Vitamins are supplements, and there is still some "cross contamination" of supplements in the US due to poor manfacturing processes. In many small vitamin manufacturing companies they use the same equipment to make everyday vitamins and also Joe's Body Building Supplementa packed full of stuff prohibited by WADA. You can't trust that these companies properly clean the equimpment between making batches of different products.

Some companies make vitamins and other supplements that are certified by another outside company to be free of any WADA prohibited substance. Generally this certification has to be done on a batch by batch production basis. This raises the cost but not so high that it is prohibitive.

Even then you still might get a contamination vitamin supplement, but if you lose your right to compete, you have a guaranteed-win lawsuit for at least $500,000 or more against the manufacturer.

Several US athletes have already been given suspensions by USADA because they took a simple common supplement that was later proven to be accidentialy contaminated by the manufacturer. That guaranteed them a successful lawsuit against the manufacturer, but the USADA suspension stood. If you test positive, there is nothing you can do avoid being suspended for 2-4 years.

You must read this IOC study which found 19% of supplements sold in the US in 2002 were contaminated with substances on the WADA prohibited list.

http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_324.pdf

There may be less cross contamination today but it's still likely to be in the 5%-10% range. You have been warned.

The problem here is the supplement business controls contamination to about 1 part per million, while the USADA and WADA drug testers can detect prohibited drugs in concentrations as low as 1 part per billion or even less.

Wow dude are you a conspiracy theorist or are you trading stock options (puts) on the major vitamin manufacturers. You need to stop opening those emails from sketchy sources and buying chinese made melamine fortified protein powder.