Science Round-Up Seconds: Follow-Up on Gum Arabic for Fat Loss. DMAA or Schizandra, Which Caused a Stroke in a Young Soldier? Low Doses of Resveratrol Better Than High Ones? Vitamin E Keeps Diabetic Brains Intact.

When it's served like this, Gum Arabic looks more like a healthy snack than a weight loss adjuvant.

I guess everyone who has already listened to the podcast of yesterday's show or was even able to listen live, will have noticed that the audio quality - yet not my German accent - have improved significantly, now that Carl and I did eventually switch to Skype instead of the landline. I know, you have been telling me that all along... be that as it may, unless my Internet connection hangs up for whatever reasons we will continue to do the SuppVersity Science Round-Ups via Skype from now on. Apropos, there will definitely be another show next Thursday (assuming that the world did not collapse by then ;-)

Follow up on Gum Arabic: Dosing & mechanism

In addition to that, I was actually presently surprised how much ground we were able to cover. Allegedly, we have gone way over the scheduled 60min, and I guess I could have said a couple of additional words on the Gum Arabic study and the astonishing fat loss results what I did mention was that it works astonishingly well, what I did not tell you about - or I have forgotten I did (too little caffeine I guess ;-) - is the dosage and the mechanism of action. At least as far as the former is concerned there is no debating that the fat loss magic (-2.1% from ~20% body fat to ~18% in 6 weeks; cf. Babiker. 2012) happened with just 30g of the substance that's derived  from exudates of Acacia senegal or Acacia seyal trees per day. Oher than the diarrhea and bloating, I did already mention on the show, the on average 19-year old perfectly healthy young women in the active arm of the study complained about nausea (82% in the first week) and an  "unfavourable oral viscous sensation" (100% in the first week). The latter is particularly interesting, because it does actually give us a hint on the underyling mechanism which is "not yet fully elucidated, because of a small number of conducted studies" (on its weight loss effects, but could be related to the increase in plasma leptin (without resistance obviously) as well as the increased fatty acid oxidation in muscle tissue in response to viscous fiber ingestion Islam et al. have reported only recently in Obesity (Silver Spring) earlier this year (Islam. 2012). I guess that we are going to see follow up studies on this one pretty soon and you all know that the Science Round Up and of course the SuppVersity news is where you are going to read about them first ;-)

Now that we lost the working weight loss adjuvants behind us, let's get to one which doesn't have any record of helping with weight and was still in each and every fat burner on earth before it was banned: DMAA (1,3 dimethylamylamine) aka geranium oil or geranium extract.

DMAA induced stroke in young soldier!? Or is it maybe the Schizandra that's to blame?

We all know that the job of a soldier is dangerous. A recently published case-report in Military Medicine does yet show that these dangers may not always be due to standing in the line of fire, but can also arise as a consequence of having too much DMAA supplements in your stash (Young. 2012) :

Is schizandra to blame? While the data is in fact scarce and the overall understanding of it's effects would suggest that the TCM herb would rather protect than harm the brain, it is at least worth noting that (a) schizandra has been found enhance the stimulation of the dompaminergic system (Chang. 1991) and (b) that we know that the abuse of cocaine has very similar effects on neurotransmitters (Prakash. 1993) and is associated with an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (Kousik. 2012)

"A 26-year-old male was presented to a military treatment facility in Afghanistan shortly after taking a weight-lifting supplement called Jack3d with a severe headache and was subsequently found to have suffered a Dejerine-Roussy variant right thalamic hemorrhagic stroke. Jack3d active ingredients include geranamine, schizandrol A, caffeine, β-alanine, creatine monohydrate, and L-arginine α-ketoglutarate. A literature search revealed case reports suggesting some of the constituent ingredients may predispose to stroke and hemorrhage and also revealed a substantial paucity of data existed regarding schizandrol A, a herb used in traditional eastern medicine." (Young. 2012)

Now, you always have to take case reports like this with an appropriate amount of skepticism - specifically, when the subject has a personal interest of not disclosing all the "supplements" he may have been taking in order not to lose is job. That being said, you know my take on DMAA from the round-table discussion with Patrick Arnold, Kurtis Frank, and one of the guys from Ergo Log. Bottom line: There really isn't any reason to be pissed of by the ban. Even if it's not to prevent stroke, it will prevent the onset of chronic fatigue syndrome in many aspiring physical culturists.

A re-appreciation of vitamin E and resveratrol

"Regular" vitamin E, i.e. alpha tocopherol, has gotten somewhat of a bad rep as of late and whenever resvertatrol is found to produce any the myriad astonishing health effects scientists have identified, it's either these effects occur either in the petri dish or in a rodent model with (often injected) mega-doses you imply couldn't afford taking on a regular basis. In this regard, a recently published paper which reports profound reductions in the fatty acid synthase, and fatty acid oxidation in the livers and adipose tissue of mice in response to a 0.005% resveratrol enriched high fat chow (this would be ~36mg/day for a human) is yet more than only an exception to the rule (Cho. 2012).

Figure 1: Metabolic effects of high fat diet (HFD) or HFD with two different doses of resveratrol; data expressed relative to mice on a standard diet (Cho. 2012)

I mean, take a look at the effects this low dose had compared to the 4x higher dosing in a second group of mice who received the human equivalent of ~142mg/day (see figure 1). Is this really another instance where more does not only yield no additional benefits, but actually reduces the effect (incidentally, de la Lastra et al. have discussed the pro-antioxidant effects of high doses of resveratrol in 2007 already; cf. de la Lastra. 2007)? Or is this just because "mice are no little human beings" and the results are therefore meaningless for us?

If you believe the latter is the case, I suggest you simply scroll down to the overview of some recent facebook news instead of reading how the adminstration of vitamin E to alloxan-induced diabetic rodents (standard model for type II diabetes) did ameliorate the shrinkage of Purkinje cells and apoptosis of cells in the granular layer, the mitochondrial defects, the splitting  of the myelin sheaths and widening axonal spaces, as well as the decrease in the number of GFAP-positive astrocytes (those that still produce a protein, namely GFAP that's responsible to keep their structure intact) in the cerebellar cortex (Mohammed. 2012)

 + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

That's it for today: You know the holiday season is coming so having too many Seconds isn't a particular good idea these days. If you still need something I suggest you pick one of the easily digestible Facebook news, for example...

• GI, GL and cancer risk - While there are statistically significant associations, only the ones for the glycemic load, which adds another quality factor namely GI + carbs per 100g to the equation, appear to have real world significance, though (read more)
• Folic acid in pregnancy - It's not all gold that glitters in ads and carries the letters "RDA". Among the profound epigenetic effects that have been observed in rodent studies, some sound as if they were from a list of the most rampant current pathologies (read more)
• Adiposity will shrink your brain - Leptin resistance is associated with reduced brain volume, associations persist even when they are corrected for BMI (read more)

You know there is more and there is even more to come. So in case the world does not explode within the next hours you know where to go if you are bored waiting for the "Zombie Repopulation" to happen.
 
References:

• Babiker R, Merghani TH, Elmusharaf K, Badi RM, Lang F, Saeed AM. Effects of gum Arabic ingestion on body mass index and body fat percentage in healthy adult females: two-arm randomized, placebo controlled, double-blind trial. Nutr J. 2012 Dec 15;11(1):111. 
• Cho SJ, Jung UJ, Choi MS. Differential effects of low-dose resveratrol on adiposity and hepatic steatosis in diet-induced obese mice. Br J Nutr. 2012 Dec;108(12):2166-75.
• de la Lastra CA, Villegas I. Resveratrol as an anti-oxidant and pro-oxidant agent: mechanisms and clinical implications. Biochem Soc Trans. 2007;35:1156–1160.
• Islam A, Civitarese AE, Hesslink RL, Gallaher DD:  Viscous dietary fiber reduces adiposity and plasma leptin and increases muscle expression  of fat oxidation genes in rats. Obesity (Silver Spring)2012, 20(2):349–355.
• Kousik SM, Napier TC, Carvey PM. The effects of psychostimulant drugs on blood brain barrier function and neuroinflammation. Front Pharmacol. 2012;3:121.
• Prakash A, Das G. Cocaine and the nervous system. Int J Clin Pharmacol Ther Toxicol. 1993; 31:575–581.
• Young C, Oladipo O, Frasier S, Putko R, Chronister S, Marovich M. Hemorrhagic Stroke in Young Healthy Male Following Use of Sports Supplement Jack3d. Military Medicine. December 2012; 177(12): 1450-1454(5).
• Zhang L, Niu X. [Effects of schizandrol A on monoamine neurotransmitters in the central nervous system]. Zhongguo Yi Xue Ke Xue Yuan Xue Bao. 1991 Feb;13(1):13-6.

OxyElite, Jack3D and PowerFULL - USPLabs' "Own" Studies Find: The Products Are Safe and OxyElite Does Even Work!

Image 1: When the sales of the "crown jewels" in their line-up is at stake, even the average supp company CEO becomes interested in "science"

You know that I am a huge fan of supplement companies spending some of your (the customers) hard earned money on actual research. The latest "science offensive" from USPLabs, however, has a negative connotation. I mean, you should expect that you establish that your product is safe before you throw it onto the market, right? Be that as it may, the way USP is currently under attack by the FDA and Johnny Pacheco, whose motifs for filing a class action suit against USPLabs are somewhat nebulous (cf. armytimes.com), is still overblown and the petty controversy about whether DMAA aka "geranium" is or is not a natural constituent of geranium oil puts me off big time... so let's stop gossiping and take a look at the latest data from the USPLabs at the University of Memphis ;-)

"We have got three products here, make sure they are safe and effective!"

I guess, when the whole issue about the "false claims" about 1,3-dimethylamylamine (aka geranium) boiled up, someone in the USPLabs head quarter in Dallas must have had the glorious idea that his, or I should say, the company's money would be better invested in some research to refute at least those claims pertinent to the possible adverse health effects of USPLabs mega-sellers Jack3D and OxyElite Pro than in yet another Ferrari for the CEO. The results of this glorious idea have recently been published in the journal Nutrition and Metabolic Insights and, assuming that USP did not get a bulk discount, must have cost them 5x $1699 for the publication, only...

Figure 1: Summary of study design and main findings of the five recently published studies on Jack3D (Whitehead. 2012; Farney. 2012), OxyElite Pro (McCarthy. 2012a; McCarthy. 2012b) and Powerfull (Alleman. 2011)

I have summarized the study design, as well as the main results, of which I do believe that they are reliable, despite being "sponsored" and despite being published in a "pay and have your articles published in 3-weeks"-journal, in figure 1. The main message here is obvious: The "geranium" containing products are safe!  The problem with this message is yet, that ephedra is just as safe, when it is consumed in reasonable doses and by healthy, young and athletic people. Whenever something is touted as a fat burner, you do yet get people like the obese diabetic who is supposed to have died after taking a dozen of the "good old" Super Caps (30mg ephedrine) along with a few cans of coke in his "effort" to lose weight.

As safe as a weapon - in the hands of the right person ;(

In this context it is also quite telling that the subjects in the acute OxyElite study were advised to take only a single cap, while the recommendation on the label says that a "regular" serving would be two caps. By selecting the right subjects (lean, healthy, young, athletic) and using a "minimal dosing approach" the scientists thusly produced the results USP needs to present them in court, where they will be having a hard time, anywas. After all, a recent study by Lisi et. al. apparently confirms that...

[...] geranium oils do not contain methylhexaneamine and that products labelled as containing geranium oil but which contain methylhexaneamine can only arise from the addition of synthetic material (Lisi. 2011)

With respect to the "natural" claim, USP thus appears to be on the losing side, it will therefore be all the more important for them to refute the claim that their "unnatural" product is (on top of being unnatural *outrageous* ;-) also bad for your health.


The products "work", but without making a noticeable difference

And despite the fact that the other study results pertaining to the effectiveness of the products are going to be of little value in court, I suspect that you will be interested to hear that all three products, i.e. Jack3d, OxyElite Pro and PowerFULL do "work" - the extend to which they do so is however either not statistically significant or very unlikely to come up to what USP is making their customers believe the products would do.

Image 2: Jack3D is a powerful stimulant, but chronic intake will rather burn you out than increase your gains.

Note: It should be said that none of the studies investigated the effects on training performance. This is relevant, because I personally believe that for the "supplement naive" subjects in the study, the caffeine + geranamine rush from Jack3D would definitely have made a difference on an acute basis. With regard to the chronic effects of pre-workout products, we do yet all know that their contribution to both strength and muscle gains is meager and has been scientifically validated only for products which contain relatively large amounts of BCAAs - something Jack3D, which is not much more than a beta alanine laden stimulant cannot boast of.

The meager +27kcal (total) increase in resting energy expenditure in the 2h after the ingestion of a single capsule of OxyElite, for example, is about as useless as the pronounced increase in free fatty acids (+100%) and glycerol (+44%) in the same trial as long as you don't get your ass off the couch and "exercise the fat away" - in the worst case, the decreased insulin tolerance that comes with the increase in catecholamines in response to the ingestion of the caffeine + geranamine + yohimbine containing supplement will have people who take the word "fat burner" too literally stash away even more fat, when they pop their 2 caps of OxyElite in the morning, benefit from the statistically like-wise non-significant appetite suppressant effect of the product, to fast all day long and then go on a rampant binge in the evening.

Figure 2: Changes in appetite, dietary intake in kcal, total fat free and fat mass, trunk fat (measured by DEXA) and skinfold thickness after an 8-week intervention (regular exercise was maintained and the subjects voluntarily reduced their energy intake) with either OxyElite Pro or placebo (data calculated based on McCarthy. 2012b)

The data from the 8-week trial on the OxyElite Pro (McCarthy. 2012b), I plotted in figure 2 does yet show that the addition of a "fat liberator" like OxyElite or any other stimulant based self-proclaimed "fat burner", can actually help you shed body fat, if you combine it with a reasonable reduction in energy intake (~20% in the study at hand) and exercise (5.2 ±0.3 hours/week in the study at hand).

OxyElite Pro is a reasonable addition to diet + exercise, but PowerFULL?

Image 3: Duong at the beginning and end of his impressive12-week transformations I've seen in quite some time (click here to read more)!

And, by the way, if you want to support USPLabs' fight against the FDA and a group of notorious litigators, you better buy another bottle of OxyElite and a container of Jack3D, before spending a single buck on the false hope that the transient and highly individual (more than 40x difference between subjects; Alleman. 2011) increase in GH, Alleman (French for "the German" ;-) and his colleagues observed after the ingestion of one serving of PowerFULL would increase anything, but USPLabs non-DMAA dependent income.

Apropos, with methylhexaneamine (DMAA), as chemists sometimes refer to it, being banned in Europe as of now, everyone here in the EU who wants to give either Jack3D or OxyElite Pro a shot, to see similar results as Duong (cf. image 3), who used the latter during his awesome transformation, should better hurry. The products will disappear from the market, as soon as the retailers have sold their last stock.