Valued for it’s healing and vitalizing qualities by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for over 2000 years, deer velvet is now finding recent studies to support traditional claims.
Research at New Zealand’s AgResearch facility at Invermay, near Dunedin, demonstrated elevated production of white blood cells just after treating with extracts of New Zealand antler velvet. An increase in white blood cells is a crystal clear sign of improved immunity.
Deer Velvet is gathering serious attention for boosting strength and recovery in athletes. In fact many professional baseball and football athletes are not waiting for further research and have begun to view deer velvet as their edge to speedier recovery from injury, more explosive strength and endurance.
The University of Otago Human Performance Centre has completed preliminary research that indicates a possible link between New Zealand deer velvet and improved athletic performance. It seems to promote improved strength and endurance in response to training. Also there is an improved recovery response from exercise associated muscle tissue damage.
In a double blind study at the University, 51 male athletes undertook a 12 week period of supervised training during which strength and endurance were monitored. The group that exercised and took a deer velvet supplement showed greater improvements in muscle strength and endurance than the control group did.
A second study that measures creatine kinase enzyme levels in the bloodstream, an indicator for muscle tissue damage found that those athletes supplementing with deer velvet for 2 weeks prior to the testing had much reduced enzyme levels. In other words the muscle damage in the group taking the supplement was less. It also became apparent that these supplemented athletes suffered significantly less muscle soreness and recovered on average a day earlier than the non-supplemented group. This is a significant benefit to athletes as it allows to them return to training quicker than before. While further research is necessary to confirm the knowledge base of TCM it seems that this natural product may be of enormous benefits to athletes.
Renowned traditionally for greater energy levels, supportive to the joints and bones, offering greater muscular strength deer velvet is also acknowledged for improved immunity and enhanced sexual performance. It is also known to stimulate collagen production, a factor that gives skin its elasticity and youth. With such a wide range of potential benefits further research is revealing more all the time.
Deer antler velvet is a rich source of collagen and IGF-1 and IGF-2. Insulin Growth Factors are substances that have a similar molecular structure to Insulin. It is important in childhood growth but the body produces far less of it as we age. IGF-1 increases lean body mass, reduces fat, builds bone, muscle and nerves. One of the most exciting benefits of IGF-1 is its ability to repair peripheral nerve tissue that has been damaged by injury or illness.
Deer velvet is an all natural product and is steroid free. Deer velvet may cause stomach upset in some susceptible individuals. However deer velvet extracts in spray form not only avoid stomach issues but are much more potent. Deer velvet spray is at least 10 times more potent when applied under the tongue. It enters the bloodstream quickly by this method and is quickly becoming the preferred method of ingestion by athletes.
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