SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

It is quite obvious that an elevation of testosterone and growth hormone facilitates muscle gains by jacking up protein synthesis and ameliorating protein breakdown. Now, intense leg training is famous for increasing both, testosterone as well as growth hormone levels of trainees. It is thus quite logical that Ronnestad et al. found ( Ronnestad. 2011 ) that your arms grow faster, if you train them right after your legs. The study design the scientists used is quite awkward, but clever. They had 9 (unfortunately) untrained subjects perform 4 workouts per week. On two of the occasions the subjects trained legs + one arm (L + A) on the other two occasions they only trained the other arm. Thus, Ronnestad et al. made sure that "both conditions have the same nutritional and genetic environment". Figure 1: Plasma testosterone and growth hormone  measured before the strength training session (T-0), immediately after the leg exercises in the L ? A session (T-1), immediately after...

Just in case you got nothing else to do: Tune in live and listen to some more (probably Carl) or less (probably me ;-) intelligent Supp-Talk on Carl Lenore's Super Human Radio ! Listen live @ 9:00AM AM/12:00PM ET Edit: Show is available for download now:   Super Human Radio Episode 676 with ProfDrAndro ProfDr Andro brought his best game and endowed us with ALL the required info on Omega 3's and fish oil. PLUS he discussed a recent study that links hypothyroidism to soy consumption.

"Soy is healthy!" At least the majority of women in the western hemisphere still seems to believe this. Interestingly, it is this group of individuals who is most susceptible to subclinical and clinical hypothyroidism. A recent study may reveal why... A group of scientists from the UK ( Sathaypalan. 2011 ) investigated the effect an 8 weeks dietary intervention with "high-dose phytoestrogens (30 g soy protein with 16mg phytoestrogens, representative of a vegetarian diet )" on thyroid function in sixty patients with subclinical hypothyroidism. The results were unequivocal - high dose phytoestrogens put your thyroid over the edge : Six patients (10%) developed overt hypothyroidism after high-dose phytoestrogen, and none after low-dose phytoestrogen supplementation. [...] All six subjects were diagnosed as having overt hyothyroidism during their end-of-study visit after the 8-wk high-dose phytoestrogen supplementation period, when they were found to have raised TSH...

Do you like your 0.1% yogurt? No? Well, what if I told you that it ain't even healthy? A recent study from Sweden ( Warensjö. 2011 ) shows that milk fat is heart healthy! Particularly in women. The study population comprised roughly 1000 Swedish men and women, whose anthropometric, biomarker fatty acid, physical activity, and dietary data were collected and comparisons were made between people with previous myocardial infarctions (cases) and healthy age-mates (controls). In women, proportions of milk fat biomarkers in plasma phospholipids were significantly higher ( P < 0.05) in controls [i.e. healthy individuals] than in cases and were, in general, negatively, albeit weakly, correlated with risk factors for metabolic syndrome. [...] After multivariable adjustment for confounders, the inverse association remained in both sexes and was significant in women. In agreement with biomarker data, quartiles of reported intake of chees...

Diabetes is the big "D" in the metabolic synDrome and probably the most destructive of the various faces of the plague of the century. Now researchers from the United Arabian Emirates have found that licorice may ameliorate the destructive effects of high blood glucose levels on your kidneys. In a rat experiment, Kataya et al. ( Kataya. 2011 ) found that... ... oral ingestion (1 g/kg body weight) of licorice extract for 60 days after the onset of diabetes reversed the adverse effect of diabetes on rats . Licorice extract alleviated blood glucose levels, restored renal function, and attenuated body-weight loss. In addition, licorice extract modulated the adverse effect of diabetes on renal malondialdehyde, glutathione, superoxide dismutase, and catalase activity. Further, licorice extract restored the total antioxidant capacity of diabetic rat kidneys. What I find most intriguing is that licorice ingestion at a dosage that would amount to roughly 12g for an average...

I refrained from posting each and every study on vitamin D that has been published within the past weeks - nothing new or exciting there + way too much hype, if you want my opinion... BUT now, finally, there is some additional large-scale scientific data on the issues of how much is enough and how much is too much of supplemental vitamin D ! In the latest issue of Anticancer Research Garland et al. ( Garland. 2011 ) published a study in which self-reported supplemental vitamin D intake in a cohort of 3,667 men and women from different ethnic backgrounds was assessed and corresponding serum vitamin D levels were measured. Figure 1: Reported daily intake of vitamin D vs. measured serum 25(OH)D levels in study cohort of 3,667 subjects ( Garland. 2011 ) Unsurprisingly, "serum 25(OH)D rose as a function of self-reported vitamin D supplement ingestion in a curvilinear fashion", but other than some fear mongers would have us believe, ... no intakes of 10,000 IU/d or lower ...

Lately, whey protein is all the rage. Rightly, as it seems! A recent study on the effect of protein supplementation on appetite and calorie consumption in rats showed that whey is way superior to soy protein in inducing satiety and reducing caloric intake. For 10 weeks rats were fed a standard diet (control), or a high protein diet, with either 24% whey or isoflavone-free soy protein added to the chow. Both dietary interventions, i.e. the increase in protein intake, led to significantly reduced body weight and body fat gains, but ... [...] cumulative food intake measured over the 10-week study period was lower in the HP-W vs. control and HP-S groups (P < 0.01).[...] Plasma concentrations of total GLP-1 [glucagon-like peptide 1] were higher in HP-W and HP-S vs. control group (P < 0.05), whereas plasma CCK, PYY, and leptin did not differ among the three groups. In how far the reduced caloric intake is retractable to the GLP-1 (exclusively?) is questionable. What is certa...