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Okay, we're not going to keep you in suspense. The answer is yes. Especially if you're a highly active, fitness-conscious person.

While it's true that we get most of the vitamins and minerals we need from whole food sources, you'd have to have a team of dietitians on hand to cover every single micronutrient you need to function at optimal levels strictly via diet. And then, too, stress continually leads to conditional bodily shortfalls of numerous trace elements essential to organ health, tissue support, cognition, recovery, and many other physiological processes.

For instance, if you're a runner who competes in races, you know that there's always a table heaped with bananas at the finish line. Why is that? Because when you sweat you lose potassium, the primary electrolyte in intracellular fluid that regulates water content throughout the body. Without sufficient amounts of it, your post-workout recovery will suffer and you'll be subject to cramps.

You also lose magnesium through sweat, which is a problem because magnesium is a component in over three hundred enzymes required for energy metabolism. It's also a crucial support nutrient for bone density support. As is calcium, which many people -- including women entering middle age and anyone's who's lactose intolerant -- may be deficient in. Calcium deficiencies are especially dangerous for physically active people because decreased bone density combined with vigorous exercise can result in increased risk of stress fractures.

Are you vegetarian or simply someone who is trying to eat in a more green-friendly manner? Chances are, you're deficient in the B vitamins, iron, and zinc. Your body utilizes the B vitamins -- B6, B12, thiamine, riboflavin and folate -- to synthesize red blood cells and convert protein and sugar into energy. Meanwhile, an hour of extensive physical exercise can deplete iron levels up to 5%. Iron plays a key role in helping red blood cells carry oxygen to muscles. Zinc is essential to testosterone production in men and a lack of it has been associated with low energy levels and an earlier onset of fatigue during exercise.

How about Vitamin D? Under normal conditions, your body can synthesize sufficient amounts of Vitamin D -- which is actually a hormone -- from exposure to sunlight. (Vitamin D is not particularly abundant in food sources, though you can acquire some from fish sources or egg yolks.) During the winter however, anywhere from 40% to 75% of people are Vitamin D deficient. Absent sufficient quantities of Vitamin D, the mitochondria in muscle fibers cannot adequately generate the energy needed for efficient muscle contraction, leading to early onset fatigue. Lack of Vitamin D also correlates with decreases in testosterone production in men.

 

You see where we're going with this. The are countless examples of bodily stress of the kind athletes face every day leading to conditional shortages of key nutrients. (Heck, we haven't even gotten to boron and phosphorus yet.) The truth is, your body is fairly well provided with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants under ideal circumstances. But as an athlete or active person -- or simply the busy, overworked, under-rested person you are -- you're rarely living in ideal circumstances. And that's where a high-quality, wide-spectrum daily multi-vitamin/mineral supplement can provide huge performance and physique benefits.

Vitamin/Mineral Supplementation For Highly Active People

Notice we didn't say, "just any old vitamin/mineral supplement." It's important to remember that common retail vitamin/mineral formulations, the kind found on store shelves, usually vary greatly in ingredient quality, efficacy, and dosages. Many of these one-size-fits-all formulations use lower quality, lower potency ingredients while leaving out other important nutrients entirely. Though their nutrition facts panels can be purposefully difficult to decipher, you can be sure they don't come close to approaching the elevated nutritional needs of more active people. Simply put, incidental dosages of a handful of vitamins and minerals are not enough to support a highly active lifestyle.

ProSource's Super MegaMax, on the other hand is one advanced multivitamin/mineral/antioxidant complex that meets the high standards of fitness-conscious people who require the widest spectrum of key nutrients with higher potencies for optimized performance and enhanced recovery support.

Seeking increased energy? This super-charged formula includes a blend of B-Power Energy Factors with potent amounts of performance-enhancing B vitamins (including thiamine, folate and riboflavin) and an exceptionally high amount of B12 to support metabolic energy demands -- as much as 100 times the potency of common store brands. You'll also find clinically significant dosages of zinc, magnesium, and potassium.

Got the winter doldrums? Super MegaMax features an ultra-potent combination of 400 IUs of vitamin D, as well as 20,000 IUs of beta carotene for natural antioxidant protection, and 200 mcg of chromium to facilitate balanced blood sugar levels during the day. It also contains MSM and boron to help support healthy joints and an isomer blend of natural vitamin E, shown to be many times more powerful than synthetic forms of this crucial antioxidant.

Among its many other nutritional co-factors, Super MegaMax is also fortified with superior antioxidant protection from a highly bioactive form of vitamin C plus lycopene, quercetin, N-acetyl-cysteine and CoQ10. This last nutrient does double duty as a powerful antioxidant as well as an essential component in providing cellular energy. In short, every nutrient in Super MegaMax is precision-targeted to address specific elements of performance, growth, recovery and overall wellness.

 

 

Vital Men's: Another Premium Option For Optimal Male Health

While we're on the subject, we should note that ProSource also offers another daily multiple created with the active man in mind. ProSource Vital Men's is manufactured to the highest industry standards to attain optimum bioavailability, with impactful dosages of 23 vitamins and minerals, including vitamins A, C, D, E, K, thiamin, riboflavin and niacin, plus calcium, iodine, magnesium, zinc, selenium, copper, manganese and chromium, among others.

Vital Men's also features fundamental male-health-oriented additions such as saw palmetto and nettle root for prostate support, plus raw oyster extract its support of sexual function. Korean ginseng is included as a focus and cognition enhancer, as well as PABA (para aminobenzoic acid) as a norepinephrine potentiating cognition and stamina enhancer. Odorless garlic and alpha lipoic acid are incorporated for their support of powerful free-radical-scavenging action. Lycopene has great potential as a cholesterol regulator, due to its ability to prevent oxidation of low density lipoprotein (LDL). ProSource's Vital Men's is a perfect complement to an energetic, high-performance lifestyle.

Choosing a multi-vitamin/mineral formula can be every bit as important as selecting pre-workout, post-workout or protein supplements. Whether you go with Super MegaMax or Vital Men's, you can rest assured, that you're maximally supporting your active lifestyle.