SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Image 1: I wonder, why gerontologists don't use plain BCAAs - too convenient? If, as I hope, you are a regular visitor of the SuppVersity, you know that in this day and age of vitamin-D3-loving , I am an outspoken skeptic, as far as the "magic" of supplementing with the undreestimated bone-building vitamin is concerned. That being said, I am all the more happy that after thousands of worthless epidemiological studies, scientists eventually begin to conduct well-controlled clinical trials, which provide factual information instead of dodgy hypothesis on the complex mechanisms by which our vitamin D status modulates a number of metabolic processes which reach far beyond the health of our bones. Did you know that the most recent studies on the effects of vitamin D on weightloss ( Soares. 2011 ) and type 2 diabetes ( Mitri. 2011 ) conclude that "[c]urrent evidence from RCTs [randomized controlled studies] did no...

Figure 1: Molecular structure of HMB (HMDB v2.5) In view of the fact that the educated gymrat will already have known this for years, it is hardly worth being cited that scientists ( Slater. 2010 ) provide further evidence for the ineffectiveness of oral HMB supplementation in the latest issue of the International Journal of Sports Nutrition & Exercise Metabolism . None of the variables the scientists measured (body mass, body composition - using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry, and 3-repetition maximum isoinertial strength, markers of muscle damage and muscle protein turnover), was influenced by supplementing 3g HMB per day: While the training and dietary intervention of the investigation resulted in significant strength gains (p < .001) and an increase in total lean mass (p = .01), HMB administration had no influence on these variables . Likewise, biochemical markers of muscle protein turnover and muscle damage were also unaffected by HMB supplementation. In vi...