SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Oxytocin as fat loss adjuvant? We are not there, yet, but maybe in 5 years. Classically, oxytocin has been regarded as a polypeptide hormone, produced by the posterior lobe of the pituitary gland, that stimulates contraction of the smooth muscle of the uterus. In fact, oxytocin is yet far more, the mammalian neurohypophysial hormone that is produced in the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei of the hypothalamus by nerve axons, and stored in the posterior pituitary gland, acts as an important neuromodulator in the brain and plays an important role in the neuroanatomy of intimacy, specifically in sexual reproduction of both sexes. Over the last decades scientists have begun to investigate oxytocin's role in various behaviors, including orgasm, social recognition, pair bonding, anxiety, and maternal behaviors, the direct effects of oxytocin on muscle, bone, adipose tissue and metabolism, on the other hand, have been discovered only recently. OT drops as you age. Learn how t...

Alberto Contador almost certainly wouldn't benefit from the use of a nitrate supplement. 17 seconds and 5 watts! Those are the SuppVersity figures of the week and the performance "increases" which were associated with the consumption of either 0.5 L nitrate-boosting beetroot (BR) juice over a 0.5 L placebo (PLA) drink with blackcurrant juice during time trials and repeated maximal sprints, respectively, in 10 male elite cyclists who are competing at the highest domestic level in a study that was conducted by P. M. Christensen, M. Nyberg and J. Bangsbo from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark (Christensen. 2012). What does sound as if it could make the difference between victory and defeat, was however statistically non-significant and is further evidence of the fact that things that work in rookies are not necessarily advantageous for highly trained athletes (for nitrates benefits have been reported in untrained or recreationally active individuals by e.g. Ba...

Image 1: At least in his later life, Muhammad Ali could hardly be considered a "bro". Notwithstanding, he was 100% convinced that having sex the night before a fight was a total no-go. I you are a bro, or frequent one or many of the pertinent boards, the question whether or not sexual intercourse with yourself or your partner will have beneficial, neutral or negative effects on your performance in the gym, and more importantly your gains and endocrine system probably is not news to you. Even in case you do not belong to either of the former categories, I am sure you will have heard about Olympians or other athletes refraining from the previously mentioned exchange of bodily fluids on the day, if not during the whole week, let alone weeks before a competition. Now, as chance would have it, I stumbled across an interesting study that was conducted by a group of researchers at the University of Liege in Belgium (it goes without saying that Liege is in Wallonia, the French-s...

Image 1: Chemical structure of finasteride Other than the FDA some European medicine and health care agencies, such as the Swedish Medical Products Agency and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency of the United Kingdom already had the guts to declare in their patient informations that " persistence of erectile dysfunction after discontinuation of treatment with Propecia has been reported in post-marketing use. " While this was obviously no reason for the all-mighty FDA to correct or re-evaluate their own documents, two it did intrigue Michael S. Irwig and Swapna Kolukula, two US scientists from Washington and Baltimore, respectively. In their study ( Irwig. 2011 ), the scientists conducted standardized interviews with 71 otherwise healthy men (age: 21–46y), who experienced permanent (>3 months) sexual side effects after temporary use of Finasteride. Their reports are staggering: 94% developed low libido , 92% developed erectile dysfunction , 92% d...

The release of a new PCT-supplement by Fusion Supplement ingeniously called " Post Cycle Matrix " triggered my interest in the biological functions of L-histadine. According to the producer L-histadine will "compliment the increase of LH production from the Cordyceps, this compound acts to increase the responsiveness of the Leydig cells which use the LH to produce testosterone. These two components work together to jumpstart the Testosterone Feedback Loop back into production and finding your body's delicate balance. L-Histadine is a direct precursor to histamine which is an important component in the production of the testosterone activators and has been shown to increase the responsiveness of Leydig cells." Although there is no scientific evidence that oral L-histadine (according to my research this is identical to l-histidine, cf. servinghistory.com ) supplementation will increase LH and thus the release of androgens, there is scientific evidence for reduc...