SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

No this is not Liza Oz after taking Mehmet's beloved RK supplements ;-) The Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition is one of the few "major" scientific journals, where scientists can actually publish those studies, "healthy freaks" (no, not "health freaks", but people who are still healthy and thus freaks ;-) like us are interested in. Studies such as the one Hector L Lopez and his colleagues conducted; studies that investigate the effects and effectiveness of dietary supplements such as Prograde Metabolism (TM), a proprietary blend "fat burner" containing your usual blend of B-vitamins, chromium, caffeine, citrus aurantium, ginger, garlic, capsaicin, l-theanine and piper nigrum... ah, and of course as the #1 ingredient on the label Raspberry-K (TM). Too much blubber? "Grab the rasp and berry it off!" Ah, well... Hold on, another of those "proprietary blend studies"? Can we even trust the data...

Image 1: The reformulated PES Alpha T2 contains higenamine , alpha yohimbine and 3.3-diiodo-l-thyronine I just received an advertisement email containing some information about the reformulation of PES popular fatburner Alpha T2 (make sure to read " T2 a Fat Burner for Bulking? " for some details on the thyroid stimulating properties of 3.5-diiodo-l-tyronine the metabolically more active "brother" of the 3.3.-diiodo-l-tyronine in PES Alpha T2) mentioning a compound that is advertised as "an all new beta-agonist", that would have been found to be "more effective" than synephrine. While this claim did not impress me at all, I took the time and dug up some information about "higenamine"... The adrenergic effects of higenamine ( Hig. demethylcoclaurine ) have been well established since the 1980s ( Park. 1984 ). In fact, the cardioactive benzylisoquinoline alkaloid isolated from Aconiti tuber has long been used as a cardiotoni...

It was praised as the ultimate safe replacement for ephedrine and has been present in numerous fat burner for years. Lately, synephrine is disappearing from the next-generation fat burners and there appears to be some reason for that. A 2004 review by Fugh-Berman & Meyers (2004) had already established: There is little evidence that products containing C. aurantium are an effective aid to weight loss . Synephrine has lipolytic effects in human fat cells only at high doses, and octopamine does not have lipolytic effects in human adipocytes. Just taking more synephrine to achieve the required levels, on the other hand, is dangerous. As a study by Arbo et al. (2009) indicates, Citrus aurantium (400/2000mg/kg) consumption leads to oxidative damage in mice: There was an increase in reduced glutathione (GSH) concentration in groups treated with C. aurantium 4000 mg/kg and p-synephrine 30 and 300 mg/kg. In glutathione peroxidase (GPx), there were an inhibition of the activity in C...

USP Labs refutes the rumors of Oxy Elite Pro being spiked After yesterday scare about USP Labs' newest fat burner Oxy Elite Pro being "contaminated" with alpha-methyl-synephrine, USP Labs has posted counter-evidence (thanks to Alex from the PN-Pinwall for letting me know) in form of a lab reported from 07/23/2010. According to the new data the sample that's been tested contained no methyl-synephrine at all. This, however, neither tells us whether the original lab report (cf. yesterday's news ) was real or just a mischievous attack on the companies good name ;o) As far as the "underdosed" herbs are concerned the USP Labs official puts forward exactly the same arguments, I've used in yesterday's blog , i.e. 'weight of extract is not supposed to be weight of active ingredient'. So, what? In spite of the counterstatement, USP Labs' credibility suffered and their competitors who keep tricking consumers into buying useless ...