SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

24%, 23% and 22% of the DV for magnesium that's what you can find in one serving of sunflower seeds (0.25cup), halibut (4oz) and a large(r) banana - now you tell me it was impossible to get your magnesium from dietary sources. After having handled half of the Science Round-Up from Thursday yesterday, yesterday , there is still something left to serve: seconds to the seconds, if you will and probably not so "new" as the average SuppVersity news. In order not to bore you, I will yet refrain from telling you how important magnesium is and how it is involved in thousands of enzymatic reactions ... you know the whole magnesium-guru-spiel all too well, anyway. I mean, anyone doing a cursory Google search will have to conclude that there is nothing magnesium cannot cure, right?. Whatever you may suffer from, someone has already found out that it must be related to magnesium deficiency or, even more profitable, taking the wrong form of magnesium supplements. Apropos defici...

Image 1: Beta alanine It is not new that there exists an antagonistic relationship between muscle carnosine (M-Carn, which is increased via beta-alanine supplementation), on the one hand, and muscle taurine (M-Tau) levels on the other.  The study by Harris, et.al. (Harris. 2010) is however the first to report on the immediate effect of supplementing with 2x800mg of a time-released beta-alanine (structure, cf. image 1 on the right. HMDB v2.5 ) formula on muscle taurine content in seven male subjects after four weeks of daily supplementation. A realistic scenario as these dosages can be found both in stand-alone, as well as an kitchen-sink approach supplements such as NO-Xplode & Co : Pre and post supplementation M-Carn was 25.9 ± 4.3 and 41.3 ± 5.5 mmol.kg -1 dry muscle and M-Tau 28.1 ± 7.1 and 22.6 ± 7.0 mmol.kg -1 dry muscle . Despite the 20% fall in M-Tau , values of M-Tau remained within the normal physiological range . Before supplementation M-Tau was negative...