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No-Carb Foods, Artificial Sweeteners & The Cravings: In The End, It's The Glucose, Not The Taste Our Brains Crave

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Despite the fact that candy is per definition (literally) made of sugar, you can buy "no carb candy" at every corner. The results of this study tell you why these aren't worth the money. I have written extensively about artificial sweeteners in the past and would thus hope that it's not necessary to recount all the information about how they interact with insulin, potential toxicity risks, their (non-existent) effects on satiety... ah, well actually I do want to talk about the last point, because it is highly relevant to understand the implications of the results of recent Yale study (Tellez. 2013). I know, it's just a rodent study, but I guess you will feel reminded of yourselves during your diet, when I tell you about the observations Luis A Tellez, Xueying Ren, Wenfei Han, Sara Medina, Jozelia Ferreira, Catherine Yeckel and Ivan E de Araujo made an experiment that is the first to demonstrate that the lack of glucose utilization in the brain makes artifi...
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The Neurotransmitter Depleting Effects of Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs) and Their Potential Ergolytic, Anxiogenic & Depressive Downstream Effects

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Oh yes, this will happen despite if not because you've taken large amounts of BCAA before the workout. Usually you don't put the cart before the horse, but I guess you won't mind if I do so and postpone a summary of the information on magnesium from yesterday's installment of the Science Round-Up to tomorrow, when this means that we are going to take care of the "BCAA crisis" today. Ok, maybe "crisis" is not the best word to describe the reverberations the recent publication of a study by SuJean Choi et al. should be having (=nobody buys BCAAs anymore), but I was looking for something better than the usual "the truth about..." Science, and I am not going to tire repeating that, is after all not about truth (that's what the confessional box is about), but about experimentally verifiable/verified and non-verifiable/non-verified hypothesis (Popper. 1994). BCAAs can have ergolytic effects - A verifiable hypotheses? Based on the ...
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Capsaicin - 2.56mg to Keep Your Metabolism Running on a Diet. Cold Thermogenesis - 5°C for 6kcal/h. Mobile Phones - 0.853 W/kg Pulsed EMR to Mess Up Neurotransmitters

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You don't have to worry, the "guidelines" do not require you to perform either your 150 minutes of moderate cardio, or your 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, and not even your two weekly full-body workouts in these shorts. 24% that's the SuppVersity Figure of the Week and it is actually not so low as I would have expected it to be, after all those 24% describe the ratio of US adults who meet the Physical Activity Guidelines for muscle-strengthening physical activity . Which guideline? Ah, you are the US guys and gals, so you should know that you are advised to "perform muscle-strengthening activities that are moderate or high intensity and involve all major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week, because these activities provide additional health benefit" (2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans) Additional benefit? Well, it goes without saying that the 150 minutes of moderate aerobic training and the reduction of salt, as...
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Dopamine, Serotonine, Creatine: Creatine Supplementation Modulates Post-Exercise Neurotransmitter Levels in Man

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Can creatine beneficially influence your neurotransmitter so that you can run longer? I guess, some of you will remember, while others will still ignore the discussion revolving around the serotonin (5-HT) depleting effects of high doses of BCAA (see news item " BCAAs inhibit serotonin metabolism "). To those who remember and may even have followed the ensuing discussion it is probably no news that the acute ingestion of ~60g of BCAAs suppresses 5-HT, raises prolactin and lowers dopamine to such a degree that it has a direct negative impact on emotional decision making in human beings (Sevy. 2006). Against that background you may probably be assuming the worst, when I am now telling you that every gymrat's darling, creatine monohydrate, does also exhibit non-negligible effects on the levels of the two important neurotransmitters. All clear: Creatine probably won't make you depressed Contrary to BCAAs which exert their effect irrespective of whether you do or ...
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Lack of Drive? Theacrine Will Get You Going - Every Day! Camellia Kucha Alkaloid Acts via Dopamine and Adenosine

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Image 1: Coffee vs. tea, if it comes to the persistent dopaminergic "get going" effect it appears that a hitherto hardly known tea variety, Camellia Kucha has the edge on the #1 average westerner's #1 morning drink. Caffeine is the #1 drug for anyone looking for that little extra of burst of energy and yet there are people who claim they would kill for their morning coffee, while others swear by having one cup right before bed to keep the blood sugar levels from dropping during the night. Whatever your personal preference may be, it probably did not escape your notice that cup no.10,000 does not exert the same magic as cup  no. 10, decades ago. The reason for that is a pretty rapid habituation effect, the extend of which varies remarkably from person to person.If you do belong to the vast majority of people for whom  the morning coffee has become more of an entrenched habit than an energizer, you will therefore probably be interested in the results of a recent study...
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Gingko Biloba, Your Dopaminergic Brain Viagra. Plant Extract Stimulates Sexual Arousal via the Paraventricular Nucleus and the Mesolimbic System.

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Image 1: Gingko biloba trees are one of a kind, with no close living relatives (image Schwabe Pharm .) I bet you got one of those Viagra spam mails, today, as well, didn't you? Well, although I assume you would not need the small blue pills, anyway, you may be interest to read that researchers from the People's Republic of China may have found a viable Viagra alternative in a longstanding (pun intended ;-) ingredient of Traditional Chinese (and meanwhile also Western) Medicine : Gingko biloba . In order to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of previously ( Yeh. 2010 ) observed beneficial effects of Ginkgo biloba extract on noncontact erections in male rats, Yeh et al. ( Yeh. 2011 ) recorded both copulation, as well as non-contact erections in a group of 20 male Long-Evans (telling name, isn't it?) rats, which had been randomly assigned to a treatment ( 50mg/kg body weight Gingko biloba extract [EGb 761 from Schwabe Pharmac...
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Set to Be Obese!? Dopamine Turns Out to Be Another Major Player in the Neurological Orchestra of Obesity

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As I promised, I am trying my best to keep up with current research on the neurological aspects of obesity, I also talked about on Carl Lenore's Super Human Radio on March 31, 2011 . While the focus of the previously mentioned study was on the less well-known relationship between inhibitory and excitatory neurons in the hypothalamus, the major player scientists from the University Medical Center at Leiden in the Netherlands studied is a rather famous one: Dopamine. Figure 1: Basal glucose & insulin levels in DIO & DR mice after 2 weeks on placebo (P), bromocriptine (B) or haloperidol (H) (data adapted from de Leeuw van Weenen. 2011 ) What de Leeuw van Weenen et al ( de Leeuw van Weenen. 2011 ) found in the same diet induced obesity [DIO] mouse model Ravussin ( Ravussin. 2011 )had used in his study (cf. Follow Up on Set-Point Theories: Could Royal Jelly Help With Obesity / Diet Induced Structural Brain Changes? ) were altered dopaminergic transmission exaggerated basa...
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Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera) as a Natural Test Booster and Ergogenic

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A very recent study ( Saddiq. 2010 ) published in the Journal of the International Society for Horticultural Science found that the seeds of Phoenix dactylifera can raise testosterone, norepenephrine (NE), dopamine (DA) and GABA levels and may counteract the negative effect of prednisolone administration in rats. [...] the daily oral administration of pits of date palm caused the maximal increase in NE, DA and GABA content that was found in the brain stem after 2 weeks . The daily oral administration of methylprednisolone caused a decrease in NE, DA and GABA content found in the brain stem after 2 weeks. Moreover, the daily oral administration of pits of date palm and methylprednisolone caused an increase in NE content found in the brain stem after 2 weeks. The daily oral administration of pits of date palm and methylprednisolone caused a significant increase in testosterone level in serum blood of male albino rats. While all this sounds promising, further studies would ...
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Barley Water: Traditional British Soft Drink Turns out to be Natural Ergogenic

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A recent investigation into the effects of 4 weeks feeding of barley water ( talbina ), a traditional British soft drink ( click here for recipe ) to albino mice found remarkable neurological and endocrine changes ( Bawazir, 2010 ): [...] this treatment caused significant increase in, dopamine (DA), serotonin (5-HT) and gamm-aminobutyric acid (GABA) contents in different brain areas (Cerebellum, striatum, cerebral cortex, hypothalamus, brain steam and hippocampus) of male albino rats. Moreover, it caused the maximal increase in GABA content in the cerebral cortex after 4 weeks (+41.51%) and the maximal increase in DA, GABA, 5-HT and 5-HIAA content in the cerebral cortex after 3 weeks ((+62.85, +41.51, +72.73 and (+71.98%, respectively) . Significant increases in cortisol (+20.09 %) and testosterone ( 46.8%) levels were found in blood after 4 weeks. The tubules of testis showed an increased active spermatogenesis with significant rise of number of mature sperms. Before you start bo...
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