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Overlooked and Hushed Up?! The 10-20% Performance Gain From Short-Term Glucocorticoid ('Dex', 'Pred' & Co) Use

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Even though their efficacy is still doubted by some doping researchers, the existing evidence leaves little doubt that glucocorticoid doping is as prevalent and efficient as it is risky (Duclos. 2010). If you have read my "all about cortisol"- article from 2013 , you belong to the handpicked elite of fitness enthusiasts, who understand that the glucocorticoid and/or its natural, i.e. cortisone, or artificial, i.e. dexamethasone and prednisone, cousins are not - as many people believe - generally bad for you. Rather than that, the allegedly fat building, muscle burning hormone(s) can, if elevated at the right times and not chronically, help you boost fat loss, strength and overall exercise performance. That's bogus? Well, I know that the vendors of so-called "cortisol-blockers" want to make you believe just that. The effects of the publicly downplayed doping practices in various sports and scientific evidence speak a very different language, though. Chroni...
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Breakfast of the Healthy: Coffee... or a Purple-Orange Carrot Smoothie? Chlorogenic Acid in Coffee and Beyond

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Don't worry you can  stick to coffee Good news has become scarce in 2020, it feels. So, let's appreciate the ones we have:  A coffee shortage is not in sight . Reason enough for me to write another "latest coffee research"-article. One that turned out to be a chlorogenic acid (#CGA) article because ...  well, it's still 2020, so scientists drink coffee to speed up their warp-speed operations and don't spend time investigating the effects of the stimulant the world is craving (Think you're drinking a lot of coffee? Are you a Fin ?). You can learn more about coffee and caffeine at the SuppVersity For Caffeine, Timing Matters! 45 Min or More? Caffeine Helps When Taken Intra-Workout, too Coffee can Help You Get into Ketosis Post-Workout Coffee Helps With DOMS Coffee Brewing 101 (Optimal Health) Caffeine dosing 4 Testosterone:Cortisol Increase Needless to say that previous research shows ( Sinisi 2017 ) that - coffee, and the previously...
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Fish Oil for Athletes? Fish for Everyone? Not for Ergogenic Benefits | Summary of Latest Metas + Umbrella Review

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An illustrated synthesis of the most recent evidence. There are two fishy articles in the latest issue of Advances in Nutrition , two articles worth taking a closer look at, as I've found. Paper 1 and probably the more SuppVersity-ish paper comes from the University of Bath and is, as the authors themselves highlight, the first systematic review of fish oil supplements (#FS) in athletes that has ever been conducted in the 25-years+ history of fish oil supplements 😮 (the "fish-eating"  umbrella review is addressed in the infobox). You can learn more about omega-3 & co. at the SuppVersity Don't drink rancid fish oil How to Avoid N3 Oxidation N3/N6 Ratio Doesn't Matter!? MUFA & Fish Oil Don't Match Fish Oil Doesn't Help Lose Weight Rancid Fish Bad 4 Health Impossible? Everybody knows that fish oil is rather a vitamin than a supplement, right? So why wouldn't athletes benefit? Ahh... Wrong question: The right question wou...
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Coffee Research 10/2020: Coffee's Origin Affects Glucose Effects | Coffee, Tea & Cancer - Similar but Different + More

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Why are the captions in the thumbs back? Facebook won't allow replacing the preview picture of links easily. Don't worry, not all news in 2020 is bad news... unfortunately, though, there's some 'bad coffee news' out there, too. In the following overview, I am going to cover a bunch of interesting studies - good and bad news, just as you'd see them in the ever-more non-scientific apocalypse that we live in. Enough said, here's what I've found being published from late September to early October 2020: You can learn more about coffee and caffeine at the SuppVersity For Caffeine, Timing Matters! 45 Min or More? Caffeine Helps When Taken Intra-Workout, too Coffee can Help You Get into Ketosis Post-Workout Coffee Helps With DOMS Coffee Brewing 101 (Optimal Health) Caffeine dosing 4 Testosterone:Cortisol Increase Kenyan coffee - a special bru for glucose management? ( Okada 2020 ) Japanese researchers report in their latest paper that co...
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Probiotic Hair Care - Where is it, When You Need it? #SV Reviewing the Research that Could Bring Your Hair Back

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The idea of probiotic shampoos has been thrown around for quite some time, now. Gonna get rid of the text-containing thumbs, btw. I've recently got a request by a SuppVersity reader suggesting I write something about #hairloss... well, I thought: "I've addressed all there is in the two older articles on hair loss," and a cursory search of the latest literature seemed to confirm just that. It (or the absence of corresponding research) did yet also trigger my interest in the role of the microbiome in hair loss, hair maintenance, and hair regrowth... and I am not referring to expensive (useless) probiotics you'd swallow and hope for magic on your scalp. What I wanted to know was: Do we know anything about the scalp microbiome ? Overdoing it on  fasting  may also promote hair loss Monthly 5-Day Fast Works "Lean Gains" Fast Works Habits Determine Effects of Fasting Protein Modified Fast 4 Health IF + Resistance Training = WIN ADF Beats Ca-...
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Washing Down 6g/d of Beta-Alanine not Enough to Saturate Muscle Carnosine? Beta-Alanine Research Update 07/2020

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Carnosine saturation!? It may occur (if at all) only at much higher dosages / longer supplementation periods  than they're currently recommended. If you've been a faithful SuppVersity reader for the last almost 10 years, you will have noticed that my initial excitement about beta-alanine (#BA) has been fading ever since the classic meta-analysis by Hobson et el. was published in 2012. Yes, there were small benefits (2%) but only in the high(er) intensity 'long sprint' exercises... after having read the latest meta-analysis by Rezende et al. (2020), I am asking myself if this rather mediocre result could be in part due to the relatively low median dose of BA. In the studies Hobson et al. reviewed, the median amount of cumulative #BA intake was 179 g of β-alanine. Now, Rezende et al. hypothesize that "commonly used BA supplementation protocols may not come close to saturating muscle carnosine content?" Let's take a look at how a group of Brazilia...
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