SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

No, I still do not recommend the chronic (ab-)use of NSAIDs, bro. No, this is not the first study about the effects of NSAIDs on muscle gains I discuss here at  www.suppversity.com , but it is certainly one of the more interesting ones. The study which is about to be published in the FASEB Journal was designed to investigate the role of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in human skeletal muscle regeneration. As you may remember, previous studies have yielded conflicting evidence with respect to the ability of NSAID to accelerate muscle healing and thus accelerater and ultimately shorten the adaptational process. Hormesis  is why soothing the inflammation is not always good for athletism Is Vitamin E Good for the Sedentary Slob, Only? Even Ice-Baths Impair the Adapt. Process Vit C+E Impair Muscle Gains in Older Men C+E Useless or Detrimental for Healthy People Vitamin C and Glucose Management? Antiox. & Health Benefits Don't Co...

Are NSAIDs over-the-counter anabolics from the pharmacy next door? Even though this is not the first SuppVersity  article about the effects of NSAIDs or COX-inhibitors like Aspirin, Tylenol, Pain-Eze and co., I would like to highlight one again  that the existing evidence suggests differential effects in young(er) vs. old(er) individuals, with the former seeing no or detrimental and the latter no or beneficial effects when using NSAIDs during resistance training regimen. It is thus neither guaranteed, nor likely that a young man or woman would see the same 28% extra-increase in type I fiber and 11% extra-increase in type II fiber diameter, Trappe et al. describe in their soon-to-be-published paper in the journal of the Gerontological Society of America  (Trappe. 2016). The link to hormesis research is far from being straight-forward Is Vitamin E Good for the Sedentary Slob, Only? Even Ice-Baths Impair the Adapt. Process Vit C+E Impair Muscle Gain...

Among 18-35 year-old Canadians 80% present with premature hardening of the arteries that could potentially lead to an ischaemic event (LLSA). Despite the fact that it ain't Saturday, yet, I decided to compile a couple of short news for you, also to make sure you re-appreciate the value of melatonin as a prerequisite to be and stay healthy and beautiful. It should therefore not come as a surprise to you that the SuppVersity Figure of the Week comes from the exact same context. The exact serum value is 51.5 pg/ml melatonin and it is the cut-off point for decreased nocturnal melatonin as a significant marker of an increased risk of stroke (Atanassova. 2009). Accordingly, every 1.0 pg/ml  decrease in melatonin would be associated with a >2% increase in stroke risk with a 50% risk suffering from an ischaemic stroke for people of all ages with a 3 a.m. value for melatonin of approx. 25pg/ml.  Foam roll yourself towards a healthier cardiovascular system Who would have t...

No pain inflammation, no gain? In the long(er) run this could in fact be true. All of you who followed my advice to "like" the SuppVersity Facebook page and are thus keeping up with the numerous additional news I am posting there, should actually have seen the news item on the non-significance of the exercise-induced interleukin-6 (IL6) response for the exercise induced improvements in glucose metabolism ( read more ). The mere fact that the glucose metabolism of IL6(-) mice, which are mice who simply cannot express IL6, is still improved by "working out" does yet by no means preclude that the demonized cytokine does play a fundamental role in the exercise-induced systemic and local benefits. In fact, an even more recent rodent study would suggest that a certain degree of inflammation and the respective increase in IL6 immediately after a workout is even essential for persistent skeletal muscle hypertrophy. As you may remember from the Intermittent Though...

Image 1: Part of Christian Bale's protocol to become the skinny Machinist was, you guessed it, overtraining - accompanied by undereating, the results (left) were profound. The debate on the practical implications and even the existence of a certain physical condition that is generally referred to as "overtraining" is probably one of the most longstanding debates in the realms of physical culture. From a scientific point of view, it stands out of question that the same exercises that turn a stringbean into a heavily muscled berserk can also change him back into a stringbean, when the narrow yet tremendously productive margin between "just enough" and "already too much" is repeatedly exceeded. Scientists from the Department of Sports Medicine at the Shanghai University of Sport probed the underlying causes of this phenomenon and came up with a few interesting observations ( Xiao. 2012 ). Update: My friend Carl Lanore from Super Human Radio hap...