The Official Aminogen Blog

Can Strength Training Make You Smarter?

Research shows that weight lifting may help brain cells to grow.

Scientists found that lifting weights increases levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), which in turn promotes the growth, survival and differentiation of neurons. They also found that weight lifting reduced homocysteine levels in older men. Elevated levels of homocysteine are associated with impaired cognitive performance and diseases like Alzheimer's.

A study from the Archives Internal Medicine recently reported that resistance training improved cognitive and functional brain function in older adults suspected of mild cognitive impairment.

A second study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that women ages 65-75 who did strength training 1-2 hours weekly for a year showed a 10-12% improvement on tests of cognitive function.

Typical Cognitive Decline, or, Take All the Help You Can Get

To put this strength training's influence in perspective, women in the same study who practiced stretching and balancing exercises for the same year, but did not strength train, actually experienced a slight decline (0.5%) in executive function. Typical cognitive decline with age over a ten year period averages -9.6% for men and -7.4% for women.

For a great collection of studies and more information on how your muscles affect your brain, check out the Franklin Institute's webpage on the topic. You'll look smarter just reading it.

Reminder: For informational purposes only. Always consult your doctor or health care provider before beginning any exercise program.

 

Building Muscle, Rebuilding A Life

When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold.  They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.  

-Barbara Bloom

 

 

You build muscle by first breaking it down.

And the process is always personal.

You may do it for looks, or you may do it for the thrill . You may do it to regain strength after injury or illness, or you may do it to fight back the blows of aging.

But building muscle is always about striving for something more, striving for a stronger, better you.

Meet three inspiring individuals- ranging in age from 10 to 100, male and female- who built a better life when they began building muscle.

Ten years old and standing at 4 foot 8, Naomi Kutin recently broke the world powerlifting record for the female raw squat, beating out women with more inches, pounds, and years of lifting experience.  She said she was tired of not being able to do some of the things her friends could do, and she wanted to accomplish something extraordinary.

Another record setter, Ernestine Shepherd is now the Guinness Book of World Record's oldest female bodybuilder. She hadn't exercised a day in her life before the age of 53, when she was inspired by her sister- and a day of bathing suit shopping- to make a change. Picking up her first weights at that age wasn't easy, and losing her sister (and workout partner) soon after was devastating. But Ernestine persevered, and today at age 73, she says she looks and feels better than she ever has.

Finally, meet former Mr. Universe Manohar Aich. Born in India, Manohar struggled with poverty, jail time and raising a family. He focused on eating right, exercising, and keeping a positive attitude: "Whatever the situation, I remained happy." Still healthy, happy, and going strong, this former Mr. Universe just turned 100.

 

So now the question is, what will you try to build?

 

 

 

The Scoop: Single Serve Protein Facts

Not to be missed! From the American College of Nutrition, this paper isn't brand new, but it is chock full of information on whey protein.  Lactalbumin, glycomacropeptides, immunoglobulins and other words you'll want to throw around the gym... just kidding.  But you will want to know more about these powerful components of whey.

A New Year and A New Reason to Love Your Protein

Welcome back!

It has been a while since my last post, but what better way to begin the new year on the Aminogen blog than with some  truly exciting protein research, hot off the presses?

Let's get right to it. We know that in addition to being important for your muscles, bones and immune system, protein increases satiety and decreases hunger hormones. 

Now, a study in Neuron reveals that protein gives your body a boost in yet another way.  Turns out, the amino acids in protein stimulate orexin neurons.

As the name suggests, these cells produce the hormone orexin.  Orexin revs up your metabolism and makes you want to move. In other words, it energizes.

Orexin is also necessary for the development and regulation of brown fat- the body's thermogenic "good fat;" it actually burns calories.

Low levels of orexin have been found in people with conditions like obesity and narcolepsy, and the hormone is being investigated as a treatment for narcolepsy and other conditions that excessive sleepiness. Orexin seems to counteract the cognitive deficits caused by sleep deprivation.

Even if you've gotten a good night's sleep (can we talk?) orexin plays a definitive role in sleep/wake cylcles, daytime alertness, hunger and metobolic rate. And who couldn't use some help in one, ALL of these departments?

Check out Wired's Jonah Leher for more on how this works in Why Sugar Makes Us Sleepy and Protein Wakes Us Up.

Time Crunch: Making the Most of Your Workout Minutes

The New York Times asked physiologists what they considered to be the single best exercise. It's a question a lot of people would like answered- especially those of us who struggle to fit a workout into our too-busy days, and want to get the most out of any precious moments we can set aside for exercise.

Swimming, walking, H.I.T., running up stairs, the burpee and the squat were all on the list. In addition to providing a decent workout, these activities were considered practical because they could be done in a reasonable amount of time and weren't too difficult to stick with.

 

 

One element of a good exercise all of these experts mentioned-

- building muscle strength.

 

 

It's not about how many hours of aerobics you can squeeze in, or how many calories you can burn (people tend to compensate by eating more after aerobic and endurance exercise, anyway). 

Building and maintaining muscle should factor into any exercise you can find the time to do. Muscle is just too vital for our overall health. And age-related muscle loss, called sarcopenia, is something we are all up against.  It begins as early as age 30.

The article quotes McMaster University Professor of Kinesiology Dr. Stuart Phillips, who proposed the squat for single best exercise.

 

“Each of us is experiencing sarcopenia right this minute,” he said. “We just don’t realize it." Endurance exercise, he added, unlike resistance training, does little to slow the condition.

 

The experts also pointed out that most of the benefits of exercise result from the first 30 minutes of your workout, so if you can find a half-hour somewhere in your day, go ahead and do something good for your muscles!

Protein for Endurance

When it comes to endurance, we generally think carbs. The runner loading up on the pre-run pasta. The cyclist with the energy gel.

We've discussed the importance of protein for runners before. Specifically, protein plays an important role  in muscle recovery. Without it, musclecan be broken down for fuel during runs, and unreplenished, lead to loss of lean mass.  Some runners and cyclists struggle with this, and end up looking a little too lean.

Adequate muscle mass is vital for our immune system, bone health and fighting inflammation, not to mention mortality risk- so it's definitely something we want to protect.

Now a report in Medicine and Science in Sports Exercise, the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, shows that protein does even more than protect and recover exercised muscles. 

Researchers found that a high protein diet reduced stress and improved athletes' endurance performance. Athletes in the high protein group also reported feeling better.

Lead researcher Dr. Kevin Tipton theorized tyrosine may one reason protein has this effect, noting previous research on this amino acid's mood-boosting effects.

Read More:

Are You Running in a Carbohydrate Rut?

In It For the Long Haul... Endurance Exercise and Aminogen

Does More Protein Mean More Muscle?

It's kind of like asking, Do tempting foods make you want to indulge?

Um, yes. That's why they're tempting. (Why is this even news?? To be fair, the study was interesting, looking at brain activity when viewing tempting food- it's just the headline that elicits a resounding duh.)

And so, maybe the question does more protein equal more muscle?  sounds like a no-brainer too. 

BUT...but...

 

Let's admit it, it's a diet jungle out there. It can be hard to forge your own path to fitness through all of the conflicting nutrition and diet information.

If you're caught in the crossfires of the diet wars (to switch up metaphors) and don't know which way to turn-  low-carb, no-carb, high-fat, vegan, paleo, Dukan, cottonball  (...whaaa?)-  then you want to some good solid science to hold on to.

And even if you already have a healthy admiration for high quality protein, it's cool when science uncovers the mechanisms that make your protein perform.

Plus, it's handy when you're debating the topic with friends.

Let's start with the general premise that, whether you want to lose weight, improve your body composition, or just get healthier, the idea is to keep fat mass minimal while maintaining/building muscle. 

 

 

 

Does protein help you do this? And does more protein = more muscle?

 

Let's start with what we know.

We know protein can help curb your appetite because it increases satiety, making you feel fuller, longer.

And it's not just a mind game; protein lowers levels of the hunger hormone, ghrelin, for at least six hours- much longer than carbohydrates or fat. In fact, while carbohydrate intake also lowers ghrehlin, levels of the hormone not only shoot back up faster, but higher, producing an appetite rebound.

We also know that amino acids leucine and isoluceine promote muscle synthesis and discourage fat accumulation.  (Good news for Aminogen fans, since adding Aminogen to whey protein was found to increase branched chain amino acid levels by 250% versus the same whey protein without Aminogen!)

 

And if that weren't enough, research shows that if you are not getting enough protein, you will be inclined to eat more refined carbs and nutrient-poor substitutes. This is called the Protein Leverage Effect. (Read One Reason You May Be Overeating, and How To Stop Today). 

 

What happens when you start to eat more protein, and fewer carbs?

 

Earlier studies show that a modest increase in protein, combined with a similar decrease in refined carbs leads to weight loss.

Now a new study zooms in on the issue with a close-up look at the genetic effects of increasing protein consumption. (Yup, what you eat can actually upregulate and/or downregulate genes. Which is really good news or really bad news, depending on how you look at it... and what you had for lunch.)

Researchers found that increasing protein intake and reducing carbs (like in the study above) influenced specific gene activity. The increased protein stimulated genes Akt and p70s6, and lowered plasma c-peptide. The net effect: improved insulin sensitivity and muscle protein sythesis in the higher protein group. Increasing carbs and reducing protein had the opposite effect, blunting insulin sensitivity and promoting more metabolic signaling in fat tissue.

It's really important to note here that while the protein:carbohydrate ratio was changed in this experiment, intake totals still fell within the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI, formerly RDA), or the rat equivalent thereof. So we are not even talking about mega doses of protein here, just a shift from more carbs to more protein.

 

 

In this case, more dietary protein did mean more muscle protein synthesis.

 

As for increasing protein intake above and beyond what's currently recommended, that subject is still up for debate. (Remember: Never make changes to your diet without consulting your physician). For now, this is an exciting addition to a growing volume of protein nutrition research that let's us examine how the food we eat changes our body.

If You Have Muscles, Or Know Someone Who Does

The BBC has a 30 minute report on muscle loss that you don't want to miss. It includes interviews with several of the foremost researchers on the subject, which you may also be familiar with as sarcopenia. So pull a chair up next to your computer speakers and get comfortable, your muscles will thank you for it.

 

[BTW-I couldn't track down a transcript of this broadcast, but if you are unable to access this program from your computer, this older BBC article provides some of the same information, minus the most recent research. The bottom of this page also provides links to the researchers mentioned in the audio program.]

 

One of the featured scientists, Professor of Clinical Physiology, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences at the Univerisity of Nottingham Medical School Mike Rennie, said he was surprised by one of the conclusions from recent research:

 

Loss of lean muscle (lean muscle is crucial for good health ) is primarily a problem of inadequate protein synthesis.

 

Why is this surprising? 

 

How Muscle Is Made

Because muscle is constantly being regenerated through a process of tearing down and rebuilding of tissue.  Muscles are broken down by the body to harvest amino acids, which are then used, in part, to rebuild these muscles. 

The amino acids from muscle may also be used to build hormones, neurotransmitters and other tissues.  They perform a host of other functions within the body. When amino acids are adequately supplied through the diet, the carefully balanced give-and-take of protein supports the healthy functioning of all of these systems, as well as the maintenance of muscle. 

Exercise can cause muscle tissue breakdown, but this breakdown then signals the body to rebuild muscle and store more amino acids there, resulting in muscle growth.

 

How Muscle Is Lost

Both aging and illness can make it difficult for the body to maintain this process; muscles grow weaker and smaller as they are depleted of amino acids.  Rebuilding muscle tissue slows or stops as the body becomes overwhelmed by the demand.

Exactly how this happens is still a hot research topic - getting hotter, in fact, as the US population ages, because loss of muscle mass affects the immune system, bone health, the ability to fight off and recover from major illness, and can lead to injury and disability.

Scientists simply don't have all of the answers yet. But what they have learned is that it's not so much the breakdown of muscle (sometimes called catabolism) that's the problem.  It's when this breakdown is not followed by rebuilding (anabolism).

 

Headed for a Breakdown

Muscle breakdown in and of itself is not the problem, scientists like Rennie and others have concluded, because this breakdown is normal part of muscle regeneration.

For example, as I mentioned earlier, exercise actually induces muscle breakdown. Findings published in the 2004 Journal of Nutrition even show that exercise specifically induces the breakdown of the branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) in muscle.

When everything is functioning properly, this then triggers repair and rebuilding of muscle.  If this doesn't happen, however, muscle is lost. 

Over time, this can add up to some serious lean muscle loss, up to one pound each year, and 80 percent over a lifetime.

 

Why Do You Build Me Up, Buttercup

Branched chain amino acids, it turns out, are really important for muscle building. After exercise, these amino acids have been shown to activate key enzymes that stimulate protein synthesis.

 

The authors of the 2004 Journal of Nutrition study on exercise-induced BCAA catabolism concluded that "....that the BCAA requirement [may be]increased by exercise. BCAA supplementation before and after exercise has beneficial effects for decreasing exercise-induced muscle damage and promoting muscle-protein synthesis."

 

So muscle breakdown during exercise can teach us something about how muscles deteriorate, and what may protect them. 

But what about age-related muscle loss? Does it happen the same way? Can BCAAs  - or anything else, for that matter - help preserve muscle, the way they do after exercise? (pssst...they help when taken before exercise, too, but that's for another post.)

 

 

BCAAs and Age-Related Muscle Loss

For one thing, we know that the BCAAs leucine and isoleucine are known to help preserve lean muscle. Moreover, scientists have recently found that BCAAs leucine, isoleucine and valine increased the lifespan of mice by 12 percent, and improved age-related muscle deficits and mitrochondrial biogenisis (think energy) too.

Their study, "Branched-chain amino acid supplementation promotes survival and supports cardiac and skeletal muscle mitochondrial biogenesis in middle-aged mice," is published in Cellular Metabolism. (quiz: what kind of car does a middle-age mouse drive?)

But older adults may have difficulty taking in adequate BCAAs, since they may have difficulty chewing, produce fewer endogenous digestive enzymes and may be less inclined to choose protein foods. In fact, between 15 and 38 percent of adult men and 27 to 41 percent of adult women may not be getting the RDA for protein on a daily basis. Unfortunately, we know that protein intake is directly correlated to how much lean mass is lost with age.

This does mean though, that older adults can take help support their own muscle health by making sure their diet contains enough quality protein.  Remember, changes to the diet should never be made without consulting a physician.

  

 

Exercise and Aging Muscle

The other good news is that resistance exercise seems to do a good job of maintaining and building muscle, even with age. In fact, Rennie calls the growth response of older adults' muscles to weight bearing exercise "a much bigger response than expected."

While older muscles may respond to exercise more slowly- and perhaps less efficiently- than younger muscles do, they do respond. 

 

 Many say muscle wasting is more a disease of inactivity rather than of age. 

It may be a combination of both.  Scientists are still sorting out the roles of hormones, diet, activity and genes in this puzzle. But the role of exercise is undeniable.

Take a look at this MRI of an 70 year old woman's quadriceps, before and after resistance training, from this study in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Her muscle increased in size by 32 percent over 8 - 12 weeks of daily resistance exercise. Improvements in muscle strength, not just size, were also seen.

Organizations like the National Strength and Conditioning Association provide guidelines for weight-bearing exercise for seniors, but this should only be done under the supervision of a physician or health care provider.

And so, to summarize what we now know about preserving and building lean muscle, the two factors that can make a difference are:

1. Eating and absorbing adequate amounts of high quality protein

2. Stimulating muscles with resistance exercise

Both of these steps should only be done with the guidance of a physician, of course. But science is showing that they may go a long way when it comes to supporting healthy lean muscle.

 

Why Timing Is Everything: Pre Exercise Protein Boosts Metabolism All Day Long

A study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that protein taken 30 minutes before resistance training gave the metabolism a boost that lasted long after the exercise was over- up to 24 hours later, in fact!

The study was small (eight subjects) but I like that it included both men and women in a double-blind two-trial crossover design. Compared with pre-exercise carbohydrate supplementation and heavy resistance training without supplementation, 20 grams of pre-exercise protein supplementation significantly increased metabolism, as measured by resting energy expenditure (REE).

Protein vs Carbs

Here's the difference: while pre-exercise carbohydrate supplementation raised metabolism as well, pre-exercise protein supplementation outperformed carbs at the 24 hour mark and continued to keep REE elevated.

So taking at least 20 grams of protein, 30 minutes before resistance training, just might keep keep you revved up all day long. 

And while we're talking about timing, make sure you are absorbing that supplemental protein properly. 

Read how gastrointestinal transit time (GTT) and the rate of protein digestion can affect absorption (hint: so does Aminogen) here. Don't let incomplete protein absorption slow you down!

 

Nutraceuticals Spotlight: Aminogen and Sarcopenia Applications

Whether you're worried about losing lean muscle, or you're formulating a new product for same, you don't want to miss this new Nutraceuticals World article.   I'm excited to see a great publication like NW covering this issue!

 

Here's a quote:

"Adequate protein intake is essential for muscle mass maintenance, however, upwards of 40% of Americans, age 70 and older, do not consume enough quality protein. “The body produces fewer endogenous digestive enzymes as we age, meaning that our ability to break down traditional sources of protein (from meat and fish) and absorb amino acids may be compromised,” explained Triarco’s Dr. Anderson. “Nitrogen retention, which is a measure of how much protein is conserved during digestion, can therefore also be affected. Additionally, poor digestion of protein can cause uncomfortable symptoms such gas, bloating and constipation, which can discourage older consumers from getting all of the protein they need.

...Much of what makes Aminogen a great addition to a bodybuilding whey protein…is what also makes Aminogen ideal for older adults wanting to maintain their lean muscle mass,” he said. “Plus, Aminogen’s ability to triple the rate of protein absorption and reduce symptoms of incomplete protein digestion make it ideal for tablet and capsule applications that older adults can take with their regular meals and snacks, in addition to their whey protein."