Astaxanthin For Athletes

Astaxanthin shows great promise for athletes. Astaxanthin is an antioxidant associated with eye health, vision, depth perception as well as significant increases in muscle strength and fat loss.

Anti Oxidant and Joint Pain

It’s a known fact that oxidation (which can be compared to ‘rusting’ in our body’s) can lead to inflammation of the muscles and joints. Astaxanthin has been shown to reduce the pain of that kind of inflammation. One study discussed later, conducted on athletes, found that their strength and endurance nearly tripled after using astaxanthin with less pain and inflammation. Athletic performance was also shown to be enhanced due to an improvement of depth perception.

Fat Loss and Endurance

Researchers in Japan demonstrated that mice given astaxanthin in several different doses along with a high fat diet had significantly lower body weight and body fat levels. The results were compared to mice fed a high fat diet of the same calorie level. There was a reduction in liver weight, liver triglycerides, blood cholesterol and triglycerides. When added to a high-fat, high-calorie diet, astaxanthin prevented mice from becoming overweight. Astaxanthin did this by increasing the usage of fat as an energy source. There was also a decrease in the respiratory exchange ratio (RER), which indicates that fat was used for fuel, instead of carbohydrates being used.

Depth Perception

In a sports vision study led by Sawaki et al., they demonstrated that depth perception and critical flicker fusion had improved by 46% and 5% respectively on a daily dose of 6 mg. The effect of astaxanthin on visual performance prompted a number of other clinical studies to evaluate the optimum dose and identify the mechanism of action.

Strength

A six-month randomized double-blind study of 40 healthy young men was recently conducted at the Karolinska Institute in Gustavsberg, Sweden. Half the students were given a daily dose of 4 mg. of a proprietary astaxanthin formula, while the other half received a placebo. After measuring the results of standardized exercise tests, the researchers discovered that the students taking astaxanthin had nearly three times more muscular strength and endurance than the placebo group. Better yet, astaxanthin contains potent anti-inflammatory properties.

I’ve added 12 mg of astaxanthin to my daily intake and I’ve noticed good results. Try it and see for yourself.