If Cooper Complete Is Good, Is Elite Athlete Better?

We recently had this question: "My doctor has suggested that I (female) take Cooper Complete With Iron, and that my husband take Cooper Complete Iron Free. I noticed that there is a Cooper Complete Elite Athlete which seems to have more of certain key ingredients. What is the difference for us between the two kinds of multivitamins?"

Cooper Complete Iron Free and Cooper Complete With Iron are our most comprehensive multivitamin/mineral supplements. These two products are identical save for the 18 mg of iron in the "With Iron" formulation. The daily "serving" is 8 tablets (4 in the morning with breakfast and another 4 in the evening with dinner). The level of the ingredients in these products is typically much higher than you'll find in a one-a-day product. For example, in addition to great levels of vitamin D (2,000 IU) and robust levels of the B vitamins, we also have 10 mg lycopene, 6 mg lutein, and 50 mg CoQ10.

Cooper Complete Elite Athlete has been for formulated for those who exercise at least 5 hours per week at 80% (or higher) of their maximal heart rate. The average person who is exercising an hour most days of the week just isn't going to hit the baseline for Elite Athlete because of the heart rate level.

For this product (Cooper Complete Elite Athlete), we define 80 percent of maximal heart rate as 205 - 1/2 age x 0.8. (You'll may see the maximal heart rate equation elsewhere as 220 - age (instead of 205 - 1/2 age), but we use this formula for Elite Athlete because of the higher overall level of fitness of these individuals.)* The foundation of Elite Athlete is the original formulation (described above) to which we have a higher level of vitamin C (2,000 mg instead of 500 mg) and E (800 IU instead of 400 IU). This product also contains 18 mg Iron (like Cooper Complete With Iron).

The iron in Elite Athlete is important for athletes, but not needed for men and postmenopausal women who are not exercising at these high levels.

*Both of the calculations for maximal heart rate are really rough estimates but the best you can do the gold standard treadmill stress test, available at Cooper Clinic as part of the overall preventive exam.