Beyond Testosterone: 200mg/day of Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma Longifolia) for Stress Management & Improved Mood!?

It does not always take a pill to effectively manage your stress levels. Don't forget to take your well-deserved timeouts - from work and workouts and use a hot bath to "pre-regenerate" (learn more)

While "long jack" as it is also called is probably best known for its testosterone boosting effects  (learn more about Tongkat Ali aka "Ali's Stick") and one of the staple ingredient in the standard OTC-testosterone boosters (previous news), its traditional use as a longevity agent does already hint at the fact that its ability to boost testosterone levels and fertility may actually be mere side effects of a more general effect, of which a recent study from SupplementWatch would suggest that it is the ability of the this herbal medicinal plant that grows in South East Asia (Malaysia, Vietnam, Java, Sumatra,Thailand) to normalize the reaction to all sorts of exogenous stressors (including exercise and everyday stress).

"Our employers produce supplements that work!"

In their recently conducted study, Shawn M Talbott, Julie A Talbott, Annie George and Mike Pugh, of who have all ties (either as employers or sponsors) with the supplement business, found that the administration of 200mg/day of a standardized hot water extract from Eurycoma Longifolia to 63 subjects (32 men and 31 women) had statistically significant beneficial effects on the subjects' psychological

• 

  20x higher doses of TA produced impressive changes in body composition in rodents (read more)

  tension (−11%), 

• anger (−12%), and 

• confusion (−15%)

and physiological

• reduced cortisol exposure (−16%) and 

• increased testosterone status (+37%).

response to moderate everyday stress. The supplement was generally well-tolerated (2 subjects in the
TA group and 1 subject in the placebo group reported feeling unusually fatigued during the first two weeks) and did not produce any changes in the usual markers of hepatic toxicity (ALT; AST).

Putting the results into an unsponsored perspective

The time-course of serum T-levels in users of real gear vs. those who use natty test boosters will have significant effects on the net gains (learn more)

Contrary to previous studies, the researchers did not observe and effects on either body weight, body fat percentage, lean muscle tissue and whatever else you are actually looking for (or are you trying to score higher numbers on a lab report?).

Actually, this is a result which should not surprise you, if you read my various comments on the usefulness / real world effect of moderate changes in the cortisol / testosterone profile on body composition and/or athletic performance (e.g. "Quantifying 'The Big T' - Do increases of testosterone, which are well within the physiological range matter?"; read more).

Moreover, a closer look at all psychological / mood parameters that were accessed, reveals that that the "[m]ood state parameters showed mixed results" with "no effect" being observed "between supplementation groups for indices of Depression, Vigor, or Fatigue [sic!]" (Talbott. 2013). 

Figure 1: Salivary cortisol levels before and after the interention (left; Talbott. 2013) and the questionable reliablility of salivary testosterone measurements due to their susceptibility to simple things like using chewing gums (‘O’ = Orbit, ‘E’ = Extra, ‘D’ = Dentyne; ‘S’ = Spearmint, ‘P’ = Peppermint; cf. van Anders. 2010)

Similarly, the statistically significant reduction in cortisol (compared to the placebo group) is a classic hoax and mere result of significantly elevated cortisol levels in the treatment group before the intervention (see figure 1), which leaves us with a net increase in salivary testosterone that can be brought about by simply chewing a Dentyne Spearmint gum (+150% salivary testosterone in men; +75% testosterone salivary testosterone in women; cf. van Anders. 2010) and puts another question mark behind the physiological relevance of the observations (note: the results could be skewed in both groups, also previous studies have already established the beneficial effects on testosterone levels, so this is more of an "aside" than a valid argument).

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If you follow the "Three Simple Rules of Sensible Supplementation" this will not just save you tons of money, it will also avoid that your breakfast is ever going to look like this. This is not the breakfast of a champion, it's the breakfast of a complete moron who disregards the first, and probably all other rules of "sensible supplementation" (img consumersearch)

Bottom line: While there are probably benefits to Tongkat Ali supplementation. However, studies like the one at hand make them appear to be "larger than life" and will raise expectations the corresponding supplements are not going to satisfy - this is particularly true, when you combine them with the prevalent but unwarranted marketing claims of "steroid like muscle gains" that come with most of the corresponding products.

For people with low-normal testosterone levels, it may still make sense to do a test-run although previous studies would suggest that more than the 200mg/day used in the study at hand will be necessary to elicit noticeable physiological effects, the low dosage could well have psychological benefits. Just don't buy a whole batch and follow the "Three Simple Rules of Sensible Supplementation" (specifically those listed under principle #3) when you insist on giving long jack a try.

References:

• Talbott SM, Talbott JA, George A, Pugh M. Effect of Tongkat Ali on stress hormones and psychological mood state in moderately stressed subjects. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2013 May 26;10(1):28.
• van Anders SM. Chewing gum has large effects on salivary testosterone, estradiol, and secretory immunoglobulin A assays in women and men. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2010 Feb;35(2):305-9.

Up Your Coffee Intake & The Temperature of Your Baths to Get in Shape; Up Your Mood W/ Self-Paced Aerobics; Up Your Vitamin D in Time; Up Both Fat & Sugar For Diabesity

Ice cold baths are retarded. A cosy hot tub and a cup of coffee make a way better peak conditioning strategy.

+38% that's the SuppVersity Figure of the Week and it is the fat liberating advantage of the ingestion of 3mg/kg caffeine (in water) before sitting for 30 min in a hot bath (42°C; up to the navel) - yeah, you read me right:  The latest study from the Graduate School at the Department of Health Care of the Soonchunhyang University in the Republic of Korea is about the thermogenic effects of HOT (not cold) baths.

Even in the absence of additional caffeine ingestion the latter increases the amount of circulating free fatty acids by 52% (80% with caffeine) with the ~200-300mg of caffeine before the bath it almost doubles the amount of free fatty acids and increases the circulating leptin levels by 28% (vs. 5.6% w/out caffeine).

Whether the significantly more pronounced reduction in waist circumference (8.9mm vs 6.7mm) Tae-Wook Kim & Jeong-Beom Lee observed in their 9 male subjects (age ~26y; BF% 20%; no habitual caffeine consumers) is yet a result of real fat loss, remains highly questionable. However, even if that's not the case  sitting in a hot tub after having a large cup of coffee would still qualify as a potentially valuable peak-conditioning technique before a contest or photo shoot - or, for the less ambitious, before the high school reunion or the a first date ;-)

Aerobic workouts for a better mood

(Buscombe. 2013) You know these drill instructor classes, where the mostly female participants get their more or less over- and under-sized butts kicked ending up either severely overtrained or chit-chatting with the lady next to them? Yeah, I see - you know exactly what I am talking about ;-)

I guess Richard M. Buscombe and Helen Inskip from the University of London won't like my prelude to their study and there is in fact nothing bad about doing aerobic session like the ones in the Buscombe study, but both, the effects on body composition are about as intensity dependent as the affective changes, Buscome & Inskip measured in their study.

Figure 1: Psychological and physiological effect of 40 min or aerobics at different intensity (Buscombe. 2013)

As you can see in figure 1 the absolute affective change from pre- to post was clearly intensity dependent. Yet despite the fact that the intense workouts had the most significant (beneficial) effect on the feeling scales, the researchers are probably right, when they highlight that

"there was a positive pretest-to-posttest shift in the FS scores, irrespective of the intensity of exercise [and that this] finding supports existing literature advocating the role exercise plays in contributing to positive affective change" (Buscombe. 2013)

Still, in this group of 15 women (medium age 35.08) who think of themselves that they are "fit" or "highly fit", the high intensity (complete routine performed matched to a music with a 140bpm speed) has the greatest reward effect (pre- vs. post).

You have no idea, why I am mentioning the speed of the music here? Read up on the "Accustic Gear" post from 2011 (read more) and the corresponding research overview from April 2013 (learn more) to understand why the rhythm and tempo of the music matters.

In view of the significantly highly rate of perceived exertion and the frustration during the workouts, it does yet stand out of question that the "self-paced" routine, in the course of which

"[t]he participants were instructed that they could add or take away levels from their 'Step' aerobics box, as appropriate [and were allowed] alter the intensity of their session at any stage throughout the course" (Buscombe. 2013)

would be the preferable way to exercise on a regular basis - also, or rather especially because it does not entail the same risk of overtraining as the "push yourself to the limits" high intensity pattern.

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One thing to keep in mind, though, is the fact that not everyone is as willing and able to push him-/herself, when he or she is told that it was not necessary. For less ambitious individuals, the "self-paced" workout may thus well end up mirroring the low intensity routine, in the course of which the participants used only small body movements and minimized any lifting or propulsion actions, performing their workout in sync with a 125 bpm music.

Detrimental effects of vitamin D deficiency on the heart accumulate with time 

(Assalin. 2013) I know that I am already notorious for being the "anti vitamin D guy", but that is about as overgeneralized as the notion that everyone must be taking at least 4k of vitamin D per day. People who have been following the SuppVersity for some time now will be aware that I have always maintained that you go and check your vitamin D levels, supplement, if necessary and re-check after 3-4 months. After all, we all know how detrimental it is to be in a state of full-blown deficiency....

What we did not know - at least up to a couple of days ago, was how "fast" the detrimental effects of vitamin D deficiency can become potentially life-threatening. At least for rodents a recent study from the  São Paulo State University in Botucatu, Brazil, fills this important knowledge gap.

Figure 2: Effects of short (2 months; D2) and long (4 months; D4) on vitamin D deficient diet in the absence UV light on inflammatory markers, anti-oxidant status and heart morphology; data relative to levels after 2 months on the standard diet with 1,000IU vitamin D/kg chow (Assalin. 2013)

The scientists put a group of weanling Wistar rats under non-UV lights on diets containind either 1,000IU VD/kg of chow (C2 and C4) or a vitamin D deficient, but otherwise identical diet for two (D2) and four months (D4), respectively and observed:

• lower beta-hydroxyacyl coenzyme-A dehydrogenase activity and higher lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity, as well as 
• increased cytokines release, oxidative stress, apoptosis and fibrosis and 
• left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and lower fractional shortening and ejection fraction 

in all vitamin D deficient animals. The differences in LDH activity, LV weight, right ventricle weight, and LV mass did yet not achieve statistical significance before the rodents had been kept on the vitamin D deficient diet for four months.

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Bottom line: Given the fact that the animals in the study did not consume any vitamin D and were - due to being exposed to evanescent (non-UV) light unable to produce even minimal amounts of vitamin D, the study results confirm that you can survive without supplements for a couple of weeks. On the other hand, they underline the importance of getting your vitamin D levels checked regularly. After all, we do as of yet have no idea to predict, where you as an individual are on the 25OHD spectrum ranging from deficient to over the tops - for some it may suffice to get regular sun exposure in the summer, for others 5,000IU of D + sunlight may still not suffice to keep their levels in the normal range: Don't be cheap! Get your levels checked.

What's the best diet to induce metabolic syndrome? The SAD diet!

(Pranpawit. 2013) The research design of the latest study from the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health at the Massey University looks like Araya Pranprawit, Frances M. Wolber, Julian A. Heyes, Abdul L. Molan and Marlena C. Kruger wanted to participate in a competition, where those researchers win whose rodents gain the maximal amount of weight in the minimal amount of time. I mean, if you put the little critter on either

• control: 23% protein, 12% fat, 55% starch, 11% sugar
• high sugar (HS): 22% protein, 18% fat, 60% sugar
• high fat (HF): 16% protein, 60% fat, 20% starch, 4% sugar
• high fat + high sugar (HFHS): 19% pro, 40% fat, 41% sugar

the question that remains is not: "Are the rodents going to develop diabesity"?, but rather "Which group of rodents will die from the consequences of it first?" ... well, guess what, in the end this was more or less what the scientists wanted to find out.

Image  from NYC Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene: The words on this poster from a 2009 campaign in the NY subway must be taken literally (learn why)!

Since published data with regards to diet‐induced metabolic syndrome in the SD rat model remain inconsistent, it is hypothesized that different types and amounts of diet as well as the period of time the animals are exposed to the experimental diet may significantly affect metabolic parameters in SD rats. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to compare the effects of consuming diets high in saturated fat, high in sucrose, and the combination of high saturated fat plus high sucrose, for a short time (4 weeks) and a long time (8 weeks), on selected markers related to metabolic syndrome in order to identify the optimal diet and experimental period for establishing metabolic disorder in the SD rat model (Pranpawit. 2013)

While the rodents in the HFHS and the HS diets consumed about the same amount of fat, those who had been randomized to the high fat (only; HF) diet obviously did not really enjoy their chow. At least weight-wise these rodents consumed significantly less food than their peers and still gained (due to the high energetic density of the chow) significantly more weight than the rodents in the "pure sugar" (HS) diet (see figure 3).

Figure 3: Weight and fat gain, as well as changes in Homa-IR (insulin resistance) and serum cholesterol; * indicates expressed in reference to control group at 2 weeks (Pranpawit. 2013)

As you can see the actual fat gain was slightly more pronounced in the high fat + high sugar diet (no this does not stand in contrast to yesterday's post on insulin not increasing fat storage, because we are not dealing with insulin sensitive critters here, but with severely obese pre-diabetics with elevated FFA levels, which do not require prior conversion to fat to be stashed away).

SAD, but true: "Human Study Shows: Three Days on "High Fat" Standard American Diet Produce Heart Healthier LDL Particle Profile Than NCEP  Approved Low Fat Diet" (read more).

"In all groups, fasting glucose, insulin concentrations (and insulin resistance (HOMA‐IR index) significantly increased between the 4 week and 8 week time points (p = 0.05; data not shown), indicating that these parameters increase with age regardless of diet. At 4 weeks, test diets had no effect on fasting glucose compared to CONT. HS, HF, and HSHF slightly elevated insulin and HOMA‐IR (Fig. 1). At 8 weeks, glucose was slightly elevated in test groups compared to CONT. HS had no measurable effect on insulin or HOMA‐IR, while HF slightly increased and HFHS strongly increased these parameters, although this did not reach statistical significance." (Pranpawit. 2013)

Somewhat surprisingly, none of the test groups differed from CONT as far as the weights of liver, kidney, pancreas, or caecum (data not shown) are concerned. The only, yet statistically non-significant difference was a "tendency for an increase in pancreas size with body weight" (Pranpawit. 2013). Moreover, rats on fat‐containing diets had markedly heavier abdominal white adipose tissues compared to CONT and this effect was unsurprisingly greater after 8 weeks on the diet compared to 4 weeks.

What's certainly interesting and an observation that flys right in the face of the generally held believe that it was the dietary fat that would precipitate to a messed up cholesterol metabolism is the fact that the rodents in the HS group showed elevated circulating cholesterol levels, as well. The often touted effect of sugar on the elevation of triglycerides, on the other hand, was absent unless the rodents received additional fat in their so that the combination of exogenous and endogenously produced (by fatty acid synthesis) fat reached a level that could not be compensated for by an increase in fat storage and/or oxidation.

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Suggested read: "Standard Am. Diet Has 'Optimal' Fatty Acid Ratio to Induce Diabesity. Plus: Doubling SFA Would Yield More Benefits Than Halving Them" (read more)

Bottom line: While we have to be careful about direct extrapolation of conclusions pertaining to the corresponding effect in human beings, it is still interesting to see that (a) the high sugar diet with literally no fat produces a "skinny, but sick" (remember those rodents were not fat) phenotype that is characterized by a messed up glucose and cholesterol metabolism in the absence of obesity and insulin resistance, that (b) taking fasting or postprandial glucose levels as a means to judge the insulin sensitivity is not generally accurate and overestimated the de facto non-existent insulin resistance in the high sugar group (HS), that (c) it's rather the rise in free fatty acids than the carbs that are responsible for both the developing insulin resistance (in the HF group in the presence of low fasting glucose; cf. (b)) and last, but most intriguingly that "the starch‐based control diet may also gradually cause impaired glucose tolerance" and is thus not exactly healthier for the glucose metabolism of the rodents than the high fat or even the high fat + high sugar diets.

If we had to pick a "winner" to be awarded the grand prize for the most metabolically damaging diet it would thus (without question) be the high fat + high sugar diet, which does - not much to your surprise as I would get - actually show a high resemblance to the SAD diet with a relatively high content of saturated and omega-6 fatty acids (from lard, in the case of the study at hand) and tons of simple sugar. The high fat (only) diet and the high sugar (only) diet, on the other hand lead to obesity and insulin resistance, respectively - both did thus fail to induce the key features of the metabolic syndrome, the presence both.

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That's it for today and aside from the obligatory information that you can find addition real short (and I mean "short" as in few words) short news on www.facebook.com/SuppVersity, e.g.

• 

  Most nuts deliver way less energy than the label or calorie tables tell you - for almonds, for example it's ~35%  less (learn more)

  More direct evidence for the free fatty acid - muscular glucose uptake connection: Reducing the amount of free fatty acids in the blood has immediate effects on the ability of the muscle (esp. of diabetics) to take up glucose (read more)
• The verdict on nuts: Not only are nuts not fattening, a recent meta review suggests that incorporating them into your diet may even yield reductions in BMI and more important waist circumference (read more)
• Stupid fools! "Reduced fat" labels are a signal to overeat... well, sort of at least the average customer is more likely to overeat, when the label tells him/her "this food is not as bad as the real deal" (read more)

there is just one thing left to do for me, which is to wish all of you a great Saturday morning, noon, afternoon and evening (whatever your clock may tell you it is now and will be in a few hours :-)

References:

• Assalin HB, Rafacho BP, Dos Santos PP, Ardisson LP, Roscani MG, Chiuso-Minicucci F, Barbisan LF, Fernandes AA, Azevedo PS, Minicucci MF, Zornoff LA, Rupp de Paiva SA. Impact of the Length of Vitamin D Deficiency on Cardiac Remodeling. Circ Heart Fail. 2013 May 24.
• Buscombe RM, Inskip H. Affective change as a function of exercise intensity in a group aerobics class. Journal of Exercise, Science & Fitness. 2013 [epub ahead of print]
• Pranprawit A, Wolber FM, Heyes JA, Molan AL, Kruger MC. Short-term and long-term effects of excessive consumption of saturated fats and/or sucrose on metabolic variables in Sprague Dawley rats: A pilot study. J Sci Food Agric. 2013 May 24.

Sunlight, L-Tryptophan & Vitamin B6 With Breakfast Increase Serotonin and Wakefulness During the Day and Melatonin and Restful Sleep at Night

Image 1: For these kids the high tryptophan + B6 breakfast would be useless unless they already got their 10min+ of direct sun exposure this morning

A recently published study that was conducted by a team of international researchers led by Miyo Nakade from the Gakuen University in Nagoya, Japan (Nakade. 2012), concludes that sunlight exposure and vitamin B6 and l-tryptophan intake with breakfast could be profound modulators of circadian rhytmicity in young children (N=816, age = 2-6 years). The results the researchers published in the latest issue of the Journal of Physiological Anthropology clearly suggest that the increased production of serotonin from l-tryptophan and the vitamin B6 metabolite pyridoxal 5’-phosphate (also known as PLP or p5p) exerts beneficial effects on the morningness-eveningness (M-E) score - a measure for the natural and highly desirable difference in wakefulness in the morning and sleepiness in the evening, the disturbance of which is among the emerging correlates of metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, obesity and abnormal lipid metabolism.

[C]hildren showed a tendency to be more morning-typed if they ate breakfast with
a high estimated Trp content. This study also confirmed a similar trend with estimated Vi-B6
content. Among essential amino acids, the Trp content in food is quite small, and thus it is
necessary to make a special effort to consume a sufficient amount in one’s diet.

That those foods with specifically high tryptophan content are, as so often, eggs, meats, and fish is something I probably don't have to tell you - just as I don't have to tell you that soybeans, and other soy products, which also contain significant amounts of tryptophan should not constitute a major part of your diet; regardless of whether you are a man or a woman.

Sunlight must not be hidden behind curtains or seen just through the windows your car

Interestingly, all the vitamin B6 and tryptophan in the world appears to be of little use, if you get too little sun-exposure (Rosenthal. 1997). And, now listen up!, they can become disturbed when you sleep with black out curtains and use an alarm clock to wake you up (Harada. 2003) - in how far these effects are mitigated, or even reversed (i.e. using black-out curtains = beneficial) in people who would otherwise be constantly exposed to unnatural light-exposure (e.g. a street lantern right before your window) would require further investigation, though.

Figure 1: Distribution of early birds (low M-E score on the x-axes) and late risers (high M-E score) among the study population (data calculated based on Nakade. 2012).

Anyways, as you can see in figure 1 the effect of the curtains was statistically significant, but not as pronounced as the scientists' emphasis in their report would have it. There are tendencies for more morning types (lower M-E scores) in the children sleeping without blackout curtains, yes. And there are no real evening types in the children sleeping without blackout curtains, but the broad majority falls into the same 18-23 M-E score range on the 7-28 early bird to long sleeper scale Nakade et al. employed.

Vitamin B6 and inflammation: Although this is only indirectly related to the topic of circadian rythmicity and wake-sleep patterns, it is quite intriguing that vitamin B6 is still touted as an anti-inflammatory agent. And though even very recent population based studies confirm that there is in fact an inverse relation of low plasma vitamin B6 and its active metabolite pyridoxal-5-phosphate (PLP) are inversely associated with the "overall inflammation" score in the US population (Sakakeeny. 2012), another recent study by Ulvik et al. clearly suggests that these associations are corollary, at best (Ulvik. 2012). In their trial, the results of which have been published in the May issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Ulvik et al. administered 40 mg pyridoxine hydrochloride per day to patients with stable angina pectoris. Contrary to their expectations, this practice did neither replete the low vitamin B6 levels, nor sooth the inflammation. On the contrary, the rapidly metabolized vitamin B6 appeared to preserve or even increased the expression of inflammatory markers.

What's good in the morning won't hurt at night

With tryptophan being a serotonine precursor and vitamin B6 a necessary co-factor in its synthesis, it may come as a surprise that both, and the sunlight induced serotonin synthesis boost can boost "morningness" and make you more alert. After all, you will probably have read on the label of various dietary supplements that tryptophan is supposed to make you sleepy, right? What those labels don't tell you is that the exposure to sunlight and not the shear availability of precursors and co-factors, let alone the position of the hands on your clock modulate its destiny. And determine whether the tryptophan will get you going, as it obviously does in the children with the highest breakfast intake of tryptophan and vitamin B6 (cf. figure 2), or helps you fall and stay asleep at night.

Figure 2: M-E index relative to group mean in high / low tryptophan & vitamin B6 breakfast intake groups (data calculated based on Nakade. 2012)

That both is possible and obviously works quite fine, is thus the main message of this study, the results of which Nakade et al. interpret as direct evidence for the potential usefulness of

[...] a higher Trp and Vi-B6 intake [to] promote the synthesis of serotonin via light stimulation in the morning and have a natural sleep-inducing effect when converted to melatonin at night [and thus] help prevent a phase delay in young children’s circadian clocks and promote their morningness against the effects of the 24-h commercialization of society.

Against the background, that similar improvements have been observed in 35 middle-aged/elderly (aged 55-75 year) volunteers who consumed a tryptophan enriched  (+30mg per serving) cereal at breakfast and dinner for three weeks by Bravo et al. (Bravo. 2012). And since there is no effect without "side effects", I guess I better mention that the Spanish researchers also observed significant increases in

Table 1: Tryptophan content of various foods (in g per 100g, 2nd column), ordered by tryptophan per protein content (3rd column; data based on Wikipedia)

• sleeping time,
• sleep efficiency, and
• immobile time

as well as concomitant decreases in

• sleep latency (almost 25%!),
• wake bouts,
• total activity, and
• sleep fragmentation index

If you take into consideration that their subjects' total antioxidant capacity levels and mood improved, as well and that the treatment elicited a -50% decrease in state anxiety and a significant drop on Beck's Depression Inventory Index, both of which returned to their initial value, when the treatment was seized, it should be obvious that you better make get out in the sun, immediately after you made the right food choices (and no, I am not talking about tryptophan-enriched breakfast cerals, here) at breakfast and watch the sunset after dinner ;-)

References:

1. Bravo R, Matito S, Cubero J, Paredes SD, Franco L, Rivero M, Rodríguez AB, Barriga C. Tryptophan-enriched cereal intake improves nocturnal sleep, melatonin, serotonin, and total antioxidant capacity levels and mood in elderly humans. Age (Dordr). 2012 May 24.
2. Harada T, Matsumura A, Takeuchi H: Effects of the usage of a blacked-out curtain on the sleep-wake rhythm of Japanese University students. Sleep Biol Rhythms 2003, 1:179–181
3. Nakade M, Takeuchi H, Taniwaki N, Noji T, Harada T. An integrated effect of protein intake at breakfast and morning exposure to sunlight on the circadian typology in Japanese infants aged 2-6 years. J Physiol Anthropol. 2009 Sep;28(5):239-45. 
4. Nakade M, et al. Can breakfast Tryptophan and Vitamin B6 intake and morning exposure to
   sunlight promote morning-typology in young children aged 2-6 years? Journal of Physiological Anthropology 2012, 31:11
5. Sakakeeny L, Roubenoff R, Obin M, Fontes JD, Benjamin EJ, Bujanover Y, Jacques  PF, Selhub J. Plasma Pyridoxal-5-Phosphate Is Inversely Associated with Systemic Markers of Inflammation in a Population of U.S. Adults. J Nutr. 2012 May 23.
6. Rosenthal N, Schwartz P, Tumer E, Nalm S, Matthews J, Hardin T, Barnett R, Wehr T:
   The psychobiology of SAD and the mechanism of action of light therapy. Biol Psychiatry
   1997, 42:57S.
7. Ulvik A, Midttun O, Ringdal Pedersen E, Nygård O, Ueland PM. Association of plasma B-6 vitamers with systemic markers of inflammation before and after pyridoxine treatment in patients with stable angina pectoris. Am J Clin Nutr. 2012 May;95(5):1072-8. 
8. Wikipedia contributors. Tryptophan. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2012 May 26, 00:42 UTC [cited 2012 May 27]

I-Force Dexaprine Ingredient Write-Up.

Figure 1: I-Force Nutrition's
newest fat burner Dexaprine

Just received an email from the marketing guys @I-Force Nutrition informing me that "Dexaprine is finally here...". Well, to be honest, I had not been waiting for it, but the email intrigued me and I would like to give you a brief rundown on the ingredients, which are "guaranteed to give you more energy, increased appetite suppression, and insane mood enhancement than you have ever experienced!" - I don't know about you, but I think I have heard similar claims before ;-)

Ok, here we go: One bottle of Dexaprine, which is 39.99 (pre-order offer @ I-Force webshop) has 60 servings (serving size 1 capsule) of the "thermogenic powerhouse" (I love these advertisment guys) @ 600mg of the following ingredients

• Thermophoric Amine Mood Enhancing Complex,
  which is basically just synephrine (from citrus aurantium) + geranamine (which is also known as 1,3-dimethylamylamine, 4-methyl-2-hexylamine, or as I-Force has it on the label 1,3-dimethylpentylamine)
  
• Extended Release Energy Complex,
  which is a combination of caffeine and theophylline, with the latter having identical beneficial (stimulant, beta receptor agonism, etc.) as well as detrimental (e.g. temporary insulin resistance in muscle tissue, cf. Colnes. 2010, adrenal problems due to long term (over-)use etc.) effects on perceived energy and weight loss, but a longer half-life, which is even prolonged by the concomittant admistration of caffeine (Jonkman. 1991)
  
• Anabolic Protein Synthesis Enhancing Complex,of which I think that it is completely mislabeled, because it is a combination of the two diiodo-L-Thyronines (also known as T2s), 3,3'-T2 and 3,5-T2, of which I have already written in a paper for a German BodyBuilding and fitness magazine (click here for Google-translation) that their impact on metabolic rate (in non-hypothyroid individuals) is probably negligible and would - according to the mice studies that are presently available - require much higher doses than those present in current "thyroid stimulating" products to up-regulate UCP significantly above "normal" levels.

So, overall this does leave us with a probably relatively long lasting stimulant that will enable you to work harder and thus burn more calories and subsequently more fat. Not bad, but nothing new or even revolutionary here.

On a side note: As it is quite often the case in the supplement industry, Dexaprine is deliberately named to sound similar to a potent drug, the synthetic amphetamine Dexedrine (has up to 15 mg dextro-Amphetamin per cap). This practice is about as shabby as calling a product XYZ-"drol". The latter, i.e. the "drols", have incidentally been banned by bodybuilding.com - good idea, guys ;-)