SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

In the long run, choking the exercise-induced fire too much is going to negate all the cherishable benefits of working out. As a SuppVersity  reader, you know what hormesis is and are aware that the proinflammatory assault of exercise, is an essential stimulant to musculoskeletal adaptation - a number of human and dozens of animal experiments show: if you quell the production of pro-inflammatory reactive oxygen species with high doses of vitamin C and E the growth and health response to exercise will be impaired. And vitamin C + E are not the only radical scavengers with this side effect. In 2013, I wrote about a study  that clearly demonstrated how N-acetyl-l-cysteine aka NAC "Reduces Inflammation, Muscle Injury & Cytokine Expression, but Impairs Anabolic Signaling, Satellite Cell Activity and Recovery" ( re-read it ) - keep that in mind before getting overly excited. Read about exercise- and nutrition-related studies in the SuppVersity Classic Articles ...

Theoretically it's already available for everyone. Costs are yet not the only thing you should keep in mind before you buy into Knight Scientific's overtraining analysis system I've got plenty of positive, skeptic and euphoric feedback in response to last week's first installment of this two-part series on "proven" methods to test for overtraining syndrome (OTS). Before I tackle method number two in today's second installment, I do thus want to briefly remind you that the HRV method is not going to work, when you are chronically overtrained, already. It's also questionable, whether it will be able to identify parasympathetic overtraining syndrome (POTS). The latter is associated with marked decreases , not increases in the ratio of high / low frequency component (Portier. 2001). In people who train intense and with a high volume this effect can even mask the early increase in sympathetic tone and would thus render the HRV method basically useles...

Can cooling down the inflammation make your belly grow!? (Mito-)Hormesis and the important and beneficial role of "inflammatory" cytokines, molecules etc. are one of my favorite topics. It's simply intriguing that health, performance and longevity apparently depend on the presence of a healthy amount (whatever that may be) of inflammation. Even the provision of low dose arsenic does not - as you may expect - shorten, but prolong the lifespan of several common model organisms (Schmeisser. 2013). Findings like these don't just conflict with common sense, they are also in opposition to the still prominent free radical theory of aging and it's central message: Oxidation and inflammation are bad for you! No matter what!  Too little is just as bad as too much Most of you will remember one of my previous articles on (mito-)hormesis - if if that's not the case, I'd recommend you start with the "Inflammation is a True Fat Burner" article ( re...

Researchers working in the field of nutrigenomics prioritize berries over pills and individuality over "one-size-fits-it-all approaches" - can they also tell us how to "eat away cancer"? "Live longer, live stronger"... rings any bells? Anyone? Of course. That's the motto of Super Human Radio. So anyone, who has been listening to the Science Roundup over the past couple of weeks will  have heard it at least once. Now, while the "stronger" part of Carl Lanore's slogan is still largerly under-researched if you asked me, the nutritional angle, which does not appear in the slogan, but is still a major theme of the show is really taking off, these days. Nutrigenomics , i.e. the science of (a) how what we eat determines how our genes functions - keyword: epigenetics and (b) how our very individual genes determine how we're supposed to eat, is really talking off these days. Reason enough for me to invite you to take a peak at what we alr...

Inflammatory cytokines won't build muscle, but without them your body won't notice that it's time to adapt. As a SuppVersity student and listener of the SuppVersity Science Round-Up on Super Human Radio, you will be well aware of the fact that "inflammation" is a pretty loosely - or, I should say, lousily - defined and largely misunderstood term. What most people think of, when they hear the word has little to do with our bodies cytokine reponse (which is "inflammation") and is all about oxidative stress, which is one of the triggers of the release of cytokine. This is a process of which you've already learned that it plays a vitally important role in our bodies' ability to appropriately react to the wear and tear each and every of our cells is exposed to day by day, month by month and year by year. In fact, the misunderstood "inflammation" is a vital necessity to avoid the development of cancer. After all, it is the inflammator...

Do they train at the right intensity and what is the right intensity? What's right , anyway? Lot's of questions, tons of words, a couple of answers and some interesting revelations in today's 2nd article of the SuppVersity Exercise Science Week . This is day 2 of the  SuppVersity Exercise Science Week -- another day, another news. After you've learned about the various mechanisms by which exercise will induce structural changes to your beer belly, lover handles and other problem and non-problem areas, in yesterday's first article of the SuppVersity Exercise Science Week , today's post does actually pick up on the notion of the superiority of high intensity exercise and takes a look at how low vs. high(er) intensity endurance exercise effects the antioxidant defense system of the body. This will lead us to an issue that was once considered to be a downside of high intensity workouts: their notoriousness to deplete muscle glycogen, of which we now know tha...