SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Vitamin C ain't yellow, but it's not as black-and-white as it is portrayed on social media, these days. A couple of years ago, the #1 discussions about vitamin C one could have would usually address the following questions: "Does vitamin C prevent/treat the common cold?" and... (I still get this question, by the way) "Is ascorbic acid/manmade vitamin C bad for your health?" Don't worry, neither of these questions is going to be re-addressed in this short C-special (for the latter question, I suggest you re-read my article about 'natural' vs. 'synthetic' vitamins, here . Learn more about hormesis and how antioxidants can also impair your gains Anti-histamines, exercise and your metabolic health Even Ice-Baths Impair the Adapt. Process Vit C+E Impair Muscle Gains in Older Men C+E Useless or Detrimental for Healthy People Will ALA, Berberine & Co Ruin 'Ur Gainz? Antiox. & Health Benefits Don't Corre...

The "classic" user of silymarin supplements is either fat, sick and suffering from NAFLD, or big, buffed and taking oral steroids. Athletic women like the ones in the photos above, on the other hand, have not yet  been very likely to buy and use silymarin supplements... well, unless they were (ab-)using oral, hepatoxic steroids, as well, obviously. When bros talk about Silymarin, the active ingredient in milk thistle, they usually do that in the context of "cycle support", i.e. the use of supplements to buffer the negative effects of (oral pro-)hormones on organ- and, specifically, liver-health. A recent study from the  Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences  in Iran, however, the "bro-talk" may change that, though. In the study, which was meant to test, whether silymarin a scientifically proven (Dixit. 2007; Saller. 2009; Surai. 2015) "powerful antioxidant" (Shirali. 2016), will also affect athletic performance, N = 45 (unfortuna...

The anti-long-term health, but pro short term fat loss effects of vitamin C + E I must admit that I filed the study by Paulsen et al. (2014; accepted manuscript) under "further evidence that high doses of anti-oxidants do more harm than good to active individuals" the very moment I posted the information from the corresponding press release in the SuppVersity Facebook News ( read it! ). A couple of days ago, I wanted to cite the paper in a different context and took a closer look at the actual results (yeah, even I sometimes only read the abstract) and as it turns out,... ...the scientists left out some information, you may be interested in, ... ...even though it may not be relevant from a statistical perspective. How I know things about your interests?Based on the visitor statistics of the SuppVersity . I just have to take a brief look at them to know that the vast majority of you will be intrigued to hear that the "daily vitamin C and E supplementation...

Human study shows: Antioxidant supplements hamper "gains" in elderly individuals, as well. The effects appears to be less pronounced than in younger trainees, though. Most of you will be aware that I have been following and at least in parts subscribing to the hormesis hypothesis as it was proposed by Ristow and Zarse who proposed in 2010, already, that the mitohormesis hypothesis would provide "a common mechanistic denominator for the physiological effects of physical exercise" (Ristow. 2010). If we subscribe to the fundamental principles of this theory, any exogenous manipulation of the exercise induced stress would be expected to block or at least reduce the beneficial effects of exercise - and guess what!? Ristow et al. have already shown that ( learn more about hormesis ). The previous research By then, Ristow, Zarse, Oberbach et al. had already gotten quite some public attention, when they published the results of an experiment that involved 19 prevous...

Image 1: If you add some reactive oxygen species to this mitochondrium, this will trigger beneficial, (mito-)hormetic adaptations, that could be blunted by too many antioxidants. As a diligent reader of the SuppVersity, you have probably been following my posts on antioxidants and their potentially negative effect on the adaptive (hormetic) response to the exercise induced formation of reactive oxygen specimen. Although, I still believe that the theory may have its merit - especially in metabolically deranged people, where the exercise induced ROS formation would initially have to overcome the low-grade chronic "background" stress - it appears that for healthy people, and "moderately trained young men" on an intense exercise protocol, in particular, the ingestion of reasonable amounts (<1g of vitamin C and <400IU of vitamin E) does not pose a problem . At least this is what the results of two relatively recent studies by scientists from Washington Schoo...

Image 1: Walter Breuning died in April 2011at the biblical age of 114! And you bet that a man who has seen two world wars has had his share of mitohormetic stress in his life. As a diligent reader of the SuppVersity you will be familiar with the work of S. Schmeisser and M. Ristow from the Department of Human Nutrition at the University of Jena , here in good old Germany (where not everyone eats Sauerkraut und Weisswurst, even now that the Oktoberfest is in full swing). In previous publications, the scientists have (at least in my mind conclusively) argued against the publicly accepted free-radical hypothesis of aging, which implies that the presence of free radicals is one of the fundamental mechanisms of aging. Now, a few month after the publication of their last review back in May 2011, they are presenting the latest results from their own lab in a paper that is going to be published in the October issue of Hormone and Metabolic Research ( Schmeisser. 2011 ) . Want to liv...