Remove Blackheads With Honey

Do a Honey Pat-Down

This is only slightly different than the honey face wash, in that you don’t want to wet your face before you start – in any way, shape, or form. (Although you do want to have a clean face before beginning.)

Your honey should be very, very sticky if you want this to be as effective as possible. Clearing Your Blackhead With Toothbrush

Simply pour a small amount of honey on your fingers and start rapidly patting the areas on your face where you want to remove blackheads.

The honey will stick to the stuff in your pores, and pull it out as you remove your fingers. It will also offer gentle antibacterial and antioxidant support, so any small remnants that may be left in your pores won’t oxidize (and turn black) quite as quickly.
Continue doing this for 3 or so minutes, and then just rinse your face with water. treat your face naturally

Yeast Hydrolysate Powered Fat Loss 7 Reduction in Total Body Fat and 14 Reduction in Abdominal Fat W out Diet

Will the fat-burning magic of 1g/day of yeast hydrolysate dissolve the fat thats still covering the last 2 packs?

It sounds like a marketing scam and I must warn you, one of the authors of a soon-to-be-published paper on the basis of which I came up with this headline is actually with a company that specializes in food additives.

This obviously warrants a heightened degree of suspicion, but it does not mean that the study results could or even must be doctored. I would thus suggest, we take a look at what the Korean scientists from Jeonju University, the University of Seoul, the Korea University and the Neo Cremar Company Ltd. actually did and found before we jump to any premature conclusions about the validity or non-validity of the data.

What exactly is yeast hydrolysate?

I guess, the first thing we have to address is what exactly it was Jung et al. administered to their 24 male and 30 female participants  with body mass indices (BMI) of at least 25 kg/m² (the obesity cut off in the Asia-Pacific region is 25 kg/m²). To this end, its best to look at how this "supplement" was produced (if you want the short version fast forward to the first red box ;-)

1. 

   Youve read about the anti-Crohns effects of saccharomyces cerv. (bakers yeast) in the SuppVersity Facebook News, recently
   
   

   Saccharomyces cerevisiae (IFO 2346) is incubated in a growth medium containing 2% molasses, 0.6% (NH4)2SO4, 0.1% MgSO4$7H2O, 0.2% KH2PO4, 0.03% K2HPO4,  for 3 days at 30°C.
2. After incubation, the culture is centrifuged at 10,000g for 20 minutes.
3. Immediately after the cells are removed from the centrifuge, they are suspended in 20 mM phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) and hydrolyzed with 1000 units of bromelain at 30 C for 4 h.

The result of this third step actually is already a, but not yet the hydrolysate. To achieve the "good stuff", it is then centrifuged at 10,000g for 20 min. The small molecules which are then removed from the supernatant are then passed through a 10 kDa molecular-weight cutoff membrane and eventually lyophilized - et voilà!

"Hold on! So what do I need?" Before you hit the "too complicated button" at the bottom of this page, let me briefly point out that you dont need to understand or memorize the production process. The thing you have to look for, when you are shopping for corresponding products is a yeast hydrolysate with a maximal molecular weight (thats ~ the size of the indiv. peptides) of <10kDa that was produced from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

In the study at hand, the of this 3+1 step process was packed into 500 mg pouches before it was handed over to the subjects in the active arm of the study (the placebo contained dextrin).  

Figure 1: Inter-group baseline differences for weight + body composition for men and women (Young. 2014
)

Both the placebo and yeast supplements had to be taken twice a day 30 min before breakfast and dinner. So far that all sounds like standard procedure. If you take a look at the outcome of the randomization process, you will yet see that there are non-negligible inter-group differences in body composition (see Figure 1): In conjunction with the high fat mass, the low body weight and lean mass of the ladies in the control group, could have significant effects on the change in body weight. Unfortunately, the scientists did not test the significance of this difference, but a 39% gap in lean body mass that comes hand in hand with a 13% higher fat mass can be expected to have a very relevant effect on the outcome of any dietary intervention.

Speaking of dietary interventions! there was no dietary intervention.

I know, it sounds hilarious, but there was no dietary intervention. All the participants had to do was to consume the 1g of yeast hydrolysate or the 1g of dextrin in 2x500mg servings 30 min before breakfast and dinner. Thats at least what they were advised to do.

Figure 2: Changes in energy intake (% baseline) and body composition (Young. 2014)

The data in Figure 2 does yet tell you that what they actually did (voluntarily, though) was "dieting". This is particularly true for the female study participants, who reached caloric deficits of 26% by week 6-8 and 28% by week 8-10. Against that background its not that surprising that the statistical significant changes in body comp were only observed in the female study participants. 

There are no effects on resting metabolic rate! The notion that the reduced energy intake is the main, if not the only driving force of the fat loss Jung et al. observed in the study at hand is supported by observations the researchers made in a previous study from 2011 (Jung. 2011a). In the said study, the 20 obese females (body fat >28%) in the yeast group did experience a non-significantly improved fat loss compared to the control group. They did yet also suffer from a "higher" reduction in resting metabolic race (-9.69kcal/day vs. -4.35kcal/day) - similarly non-significant as the weight loss difference, obviously.

This does not mean that the yeast extract doesnt work - quite the contrary, for the average individual who is neither willing nor able to adhere to a caloric deficit without the help of tools like this, it could actually come very handy. For the average physical culturist, it would yet obviously be more interesting if yeast hydrolysates had spot reducing qualities (learn more about spot reduction). And if we take another look at the full text of the study, we could actually argue that this is basically what the authors suggest, when they refer to the results of previous studies and state:

"Yeast hydrolysate increases the reduction of body fat in obese individuals compared with placebo, which supports the hypothesized abdominal fat-lowering effects of yeast hydrolysate" (Young. 2014)

If you look at the study at hand, the question we would have to answer should thus read: Are the abdominal and total fat mass disproportionate. Or to say it differently: Did the subjects lose signifcantly more abdominal than total fat? And in view of the previously discussed problem: Did this vary between male and female participants? Unfortunately, the scientists didnt do us (or rather me) the favor of doing this for us, already. Therefore I had to do the calculations and plotting for Figure 3 myself:

Figure 3: Relative change in body fat mass and abdominal fat thickness (Jung. 2014)

As the text in the box in Figure 3 already tells you, the existing discrepancy between the reduction in total body fat and abdominal fat thickness does not necessarily "prove" the spot reducing prowess of yeast hydrolysate. We do after all know that in the chubbier folks the unhealthy fat in / on the midsection is usually the first to go.

Is the fat loss really localized? 

Furthermore, a previous study by the same researchers clearly refutes the abdominal specific fat loss effects. The corresponding paper was published in 2011 in the Journal of Food and Biochemistry (Jung. 2011a; same paper I referenced in the box above), and despite the fact that the researchers observed a trend for an increase in weight loss within only 4 weeks on the same <10kDa yeast hydrolysate, the fat loss results of the obese women who participated in the study were at best triceps (-2.15 vs. -1.05mm reduction in skinfold thickness in yeast vs. control) and not belly specific (-1.70 vs. -1.08mm reduction in skinfold thickness in yeast vs. control).

Unfortunately, I cannot tell you whether the same can be said of the 2009 paper by Suh et al., because the online archive of the Journal of Food Science and Nutrition, where it was published starts in March 2011. In view of the fact that it was not "ab-specific" in obese women, I really doubt that it will have has particularly pronounced effects on the waistline of female college students - a subject group of whom you would expect that they are at least somewhat closer to the fitness and leanness level of the average SuppVersity reader.

If you are looking for alternative, yet not necessarily more effective purported spot-reduction supp- lements / techniques, you may want to (re?)read the recent SuppVersity article about green tea, green clay & magnesium sulfate soaked "plaster body wraps" | read more

Is yeast hydrolysate an effective tool in your weight loss arsenal? A definitive answer to this question is yet still lacking. Personally, I would spend my money otherwise, because I have never had a problem with cutting back calories, when I decided that this is necessary to lose weight. If, on the other hand, you belong to those people who are constantly hungry, it may be worth trialling a once month supply of yeast hydrolysate caps (or sachets).

The only thing you should be prepared for is that it is not going to work if you dont diet. In all of the human studies Ive seen so far, the weight loss went hand in hand with a reduction in calorie intake; and despite the fact that there is good evidence that the His-Pro (=Cyclo) peptides in yeast hydrolysates have additional value as potent antioxidants (Jung. 2011b), their subsequent effect on glucose metabolism will depend on a baseline increase in inflammation. In other words: The bigger your belly, gluttony and baseline inflammation, the greater the benefits.

References:

• Jung, E. Y., Kim, S. Y., Bae, S. H., Chang, U. J., Choi, J. W., & Suh, H. J. (2011a). Weight reduction effects of yeast hydrolysate below 10 kDa on obese young women. Journal of Food Biochemistry, 35(2), 337-350.
• Jung, E. Y., Lee, H. S., Choi, J. W., Ra, K. S., Kim, M. R., & Suh, H. J. (2011b). Glucose Tolerance and Antioxidant Activity of Spent Brewers Yeast Hydrolysate with a High Content of Cyclo‐His‐Pro (CHP). Journal of food science, 76(2), C272-C278.
• Jung, E. Y., Hong, Y. H., Kim, J. H., Park, Y., Bae, S. H., Chang, U. J., & Suh, H. J. (2012). Effects of Yeast Hydrolysate on Hepatic Lipid Metabolism in High-Fat-Diet-Induced Obese Mice: Yeast Hydrolysate Suppresses Body Fat Accumulation by Attenuating Fatty Acid Synthesis. Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, 61(2), 89-94.  
• Jung, E. Y., Cho, M. K., Hong, Y. H., Kim, J. H., Park, Y., Chang, U. J., & Suh, H. J. (2014). Yeast hydrolysate can reduce body weight and abdominal fat accumulation in obese adults. Nutrition, 30(1), 25-32.
• Suh, H. J. (2009). The weight reduction effect of yeast hydrolysate-SR101 on female college students. Journal of Food Science and Nutrition, 14(2), 123-128.

5 Benefits of Noni Fruit

Guys, who does not know the noni fruit? Perhaps only a few people who love this fruit, because this morinda has an unpleasant smell at all. Although the smell is bad, the fruit of this onehas benefits for health you know.

As described on the site healthyeating.sfgate.com, as for some of the benefits of noni fruit are as follows:

1. Immunity

Noni has the perfect balance of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, peptides, and enzymes. All these nutrients are very good for boosting the immune system. Research shows that drinking morinda juice may help protect the body from the effects of free radicals. Because noni fruit is rich in natural antioxidants such as vitamin E and coenzyme Q10 are required by the body.

2. Analgesic

morinda fruit is known as a painkiller and leaves can be used to reduce headaches. That said, long ago a lot of people who use noni leaves as a natural remedy to relieve joint pain. Noni contains as much as 75% analgesic effective as morphine sulphate in relieving joint pain.

3. Anti-cancer

Research has declared the compound 2-methoxy-1,3,6-trihydroxyanthraquinone the noni fruit good to prevent DNA damage and cancer as well as good for maintaining healthy cells in the body.

4. Improve Endurance Body

Noni can increase endurance, because it contains work that can activate the thyroid gland and thymus gland.

5. Normalize Blood Pressure

Noni can also lower high blood pressure. This was due to the presence of substances that function Phytonutrients scopoletin dilate blood vessels. As a result, the heart can not work hard, so it can normalize blood pressure.

Recession Alert Ed Westwick

Fashionable Gossip Girl actor Ed Westwick is sporting a less than desirable accessory these days - a receding hairline. At 24, he is already showing some considerable recession in the temporal region.

Considering his young age, and his reputation as a stylish guy, Westick should probably start thinking about preventative care. Hell likely need the aid of an FDA-approved medication like Rogaine or Propecia to stop or slow down further recession. Low level laser therapy may also be beneficial in stimulating healthy hair growth.

Veggies Rule As an Adjunct to Your Starches Leafy Greens Reduce Postprandial Glycemia Insulin and Boost the Production of the Anti Obesogenic Satiety Hormone GLP 1

Dont worry, you dont have to eat veggies only for the rest of your life, but you should never eat a meal without them!

Ive been writing about the "add fat to your carbs to ameliorate the obesogenic insulin response" bullsh*t before (see "True or False? Adding Fat to A Carby Meal Lowers Insulin Response. Muscle Hypertrophy Impairs Oxygen Diffusion. Reducing Carb Intake Improve Muscular Insulin Sensitivity" | read more). What I have not been writing about before are better alternatives. Alternatives such as a huge bowl of veggies. A bowl like the one the participants in a recent study from the Graduate School of Human Sciences and Design at the Japan Women’s University in Tokyo consumed as an adjunct to a standardized white rice meal.

Add veggies to your rice!

Basically, the scientists tested four different conditions. In condition (S), the participants consumed only the staple food (boiled white rice weighing 200 g heated in a microwave oven for 2 min). In condition (SM), the participants consumed the staple food (rice) and a main dish, in this case a boiled egg and tofu (soyabean curd). The third condition (SMF) was the same staple bowl of rice and main dish, but this time "enhanced" with an extra serving of fat from delicious mayonnaise.

Table 1: Overview of the composition of the test meals (Kameyama. 2014)

On the last out of four testing occasions, the normal-weight male study participants with an age  between 30 and 49 years consumed the same high fat meal (SMF), but this time with an additional vegetable dish (SMFV) consistinf of boiled spinach and boiled broccoli.

Figure 1: Changes in plasma glucose, insulin, GIP and GLP-1 expressed relative to rice only (Kameyama. 2014)

In view of the fact that I already gave away the results, I dont think the data in Figure 1 requires further interpretation, so let me just tell you this: Your mother was - as always - right, when she told you to eat your veggies - if you still dont understand why, it may be time to read up on the fat burning effects of GLP-1 (spec. "Eat More, Burn More and Lose Fat Like on Crack with GLP-1!?" | read more) and the role of GIP in the production and effects of insulin, here at the SuppVersity.

You want more evidence that veggies are healthy - what about those?

Bottom line: The study at hand provides yet another indisputable argument in favor of having large serving of vegetables with every meal. Contrary to common health-junky believe, the latter must not necessarily be spinach or broccoli. Dark leafy veggies are good, and even if they may not reduce your diabetes risk to the same extend ad leafy green ones do, they wont increase it in the way French fries, pizza and the alibi-salad on an Big Mac do... and I bet, variety - which has AFAIK hitherto not been investigated as a factor in type II diabetes, heart disease or stroke, will figure, as well, anyway.

Reference:

• Carter, Patrice, et al. "Fruit and vegetable intake and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus: systematic review and meta-analysis." BMJ: British Medical Journal 341 (2010).
• Dauchet, Luc, et al. "Fruit and vegetable consumption and risk of coronary heart disease: a meta-analysis of cohort studies." The Journal of nutrition 136.10 (2006): 2588-2593.
• He, Feng J., Caryl A. Nowson, and Graham A. MacGregor. "Fruit and vegetable consumption and stroke: meta-analysis of cohort studies." The Lancet 367.9507 (2006): 320-326.
• Kameyama et al. "Effects of consumption of main and side dishes with white rice on
  postprandial glucose, insulin, glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide
  and glucagon-like peptide-1 responses in healthy Japanese men" British Journal of Nutrition (2014): Ahead of print.

How To Get Rid of Depression By Natural Way

Feeling depressed is often a feeling that we feel when faced with a problem. A person usually does not realize is experiencing depression, particularly mild to moderate depression because the symptoms are not too flashy. When depression has become severe, then most people see a doctor and prescribed antidepressants.

Beside a wide range of side effects, better depression is eliminated in a way that is more healthful without drugs. Here are tips on how to get rid of depression naturally:

1. Visiting counseling

Do not be afraid or ashamed! A counselor can tell you, if you really need more serious medical help.

2. Take a walk in a beautiful place

Nature gives us healing naturally with green mountain scenery and the air is so fresh. In effect, the body and mind become more relaxed and comfortable.

3. Exercise

You can enjoy a workout in the morning sun that warms. Exercise can indirectly kill the depression you are feeling. The body becomes more fit and healthy.

4. Read a book

By reading this book, you can overcome feelings of depression suddenly burst on your mind. Reading a book can change our perspective on the problems we face. So make sure you choose the correct reading.

5. Mood enhancing foods

There are some foods that are known potent in enhancing the mood, such as chocolate. Chocolate can restore your spirits and change a gloomy mood.

6. Laugh

Studies have shown that laugh can make you feel better. You might be able to pick a few that you like comedy movies and watch them when they feel depressed.

7. Have the courage to change

The only way to fight depression is to have the courage to change. You must have the courage to get through the darkness and into the light.

Feeling depressed is not a reason to judge your life today. Opponents fear and anxiety with courage from within of you. Dark will only give you fear.

Science Round Up Seconds Does the Paleo Diet Ruin Your Lipid Profile Plus Liver Health Hepatitis Milk Thistle Beyond Libido Boosters Real PDE 5 Inhibitors Fake Cinnamon Coumarin Bloodthinning Carcinogenic Cereals

Is the Paleo Diet unhealthy for healthy individuals? A recent thesis would suggest just that. Learn more about and make up your mind based on the last installment of the Science Round-Up and todays Seconds (img informedhealth.com.au)

I hope you did not miss that the SuppVersity Science Round-Up will as of now always be starting early(-ier) at 12PM EST. If so, dont worry, you can still download the show and listen to Carl and me talking about the things you may be missing, the ones you get extra and those you would rather not have in your supplements and foods. Lets take silymarin, for example, as you have learned on the show, not all "liver assist", "liver clense" or "liver health" products are created equal. Most intriguingly, their ability to scavenge free radicals, as measured by the trolox assay, is not singularly dependent on the actual silymarin content, but will - as the data from the study Anthony et al. conducted (Anthony. 2013) - vary largely, depending on where the milk thistle was grown, how it was processed and thus what else, aside from the purportedly active ingredient is in it.

There is more to natural products than a single active ingredient

If you will, the "there is more to it" was a golden thread that ran through the whole show, but before we follow it up to the next topic, I want to provide you at least an excerpt from the actual data Anthony et al. produced.

Table 1: Selected products tested in the study ordered by their anti-oxidant activity in the TROLOX essay; products with highest TROLOX and anti hepatitis C viral activity highlighted in green and violet, respectively (Anthony. 2013)

As you can see my selection of the 45 products, the scientists bought and tested, reflects what you have already heard on the show: The silymarin content varies largely. In essence, the actual silymarin content may yet not even be that important. If you focus solely on their TROLOX equivalents (TROLOX is a vitamin E like antioxidant and it is used to quantify the anti-oxidant activity in a standardized way - more or less like the meter is used to quantify the length of an object or seconds are used as a standard timespans are expressed in).

More about Liv-52: Actually, the Himalaya(R) product is one of the few OTC supplements with not just one, but more than 20 studies to back its hepatoproctective and antioxidant effects. One thing to keep in min about the research is though that it was - despite being mostly published in peer-reviewed journal - in large parts conducted by scientists who work either for or with the company. As Ive pointed out previously, this does not mean that the data is flawed, but it puts observations such as the improved glucose uptake (213%) , the 50% reduction in triglyceride content (anti-NAFLD effect), the 790% increase in glutathione, as well as the decreased TNF-α (-51%) and IL-8 (-550%) and concomitant -65% and -69% reductions of lipid oxidation and DNA fragmentation, respectively, Vidyashankar et al. observed in a recent in-vitro study somewhat into perspective (Vidyashankar. 2012).

If you are looking for the most potent among the readily available products in my selection the most potent "liver protectant" would actually be the PED users first choice Liv-52, which does not even contain silymarin but is based on an undisclosed amount of  capers (Capparis spinosa), wild chicory (Cichorium intybus), arjuna (Terminalia arjuna), negro coffee (Cassia occidentalis), yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and tamarisk (Tamarixgallica). Bio Silymarin by Advanced Beta Glucon Therapy, on the other hand, is a close second with an almost identical TROLOX value (9.4 vs. 9.5 for Liv-52), is based on silymarin; plus, it exerts 77% more pronounced hepatitis C virus (HCV) antiviral activity than the Himalaya product which lists "viral hepatitis" as the #1 indication on the corresponding website.

As far as these anti-HCV effects, which were standardized against the results the scientists observed in cultures that were treated with 100 U/mL interferon-α, are concerned another Source Naturals Silymarin Plus, emerged as the most potent product. With the "plus" signaling the addition of choline, inositol, vitamin C+E, this observation confirms that antioxidant activity and anti-viral activity are two pairs of shoes - even when the active ingredient (silymarin) is the same.

Apropos active ingredient

You are yet by no means at the mercy of milk thistle and silymarin, when you want to protect your liver from harm. Spices like

• Tumeric (curcumin)
• Coriander

• Garlic
• Red chili
• Black pepper

bust also coffee and green tea, and fruits and vegetables such as

• carrots
• ivy guard
• sweet corn
• soy (for the glycine in it)

• grapes
• custard apples
• Indian gooseberries
• pomegrenade
• sea buckthorn

have potent anti-oxidant and antiproliferative activities (Shukla. 2013)

OTC libido boosters - more than just an alternative

Now that we are talking about alternatives, lets get straight to the next one: The "alternative" to viagra, cialis & co. Honestly, I would hope that you will never have to use one of these (I suggest you take a peak at yesterdays post "The 20 / 30 Principle Sheds 15% Body Fat in 6 Months, Boosts Testosterone & Sexual Performance in Overweight Men. Plus: Six Signs Youre Doing Too Much, Already."; read more), but in the unfortunate case you do, you may be surprised how effective the majority of them actually is.

Figure 1: Categorial breakdown of the adulterated majority of the 91 products from the Campbell study (Campbell. 2013)

A brief glance at the data in figure 2 does yet suffice to see that this is not another case of the "nature knows best principle", but simply a consequence of the fact that the majority of these products do contain either sildenafil and/or taldalfil or some sort of molecular cousin ("analogs" in figure 2). Moreover, in 18 out of these products the dosage was >110% of what would be legit on a per serving base for the prescription varieties (I suspect this is 20mg).

Also mentioned in this context: Saw palmetto is a PDE-5 inhibitor (cf. Yang. 2013). Although the evidence is from a rabbit study, its pretty likely that there will be at least some discernible effects of saw palmetto on PDE-5 activity an iNOS activity in the human corpus cavernosum, as well.

Coumarin: Carcinogenic & blood thinning cereals

Table 2: Coumarin content in mg/100g of the samples from the Wang study

As unfortunate as it may seem, the chance that the cinnamon you consume with pre-packaged food is "real" (=verum) and from the inner bark of Cinnamomum verum are close to zero. Since this is however the only variety, where you can be almost 100% sure that you dont consume blood thinning and pro-carcinogenic coumarin, it does actually not come as a surprise that cinnamon apple sauce or a cinammon roll bought from the local supermarket contain 0.64 and 2.1mg of this agent on a per serving basis.

If you take a closer look at the rest of the data Wang et al. collected for their latest study (Table 2; cf. Wang. 2013), you may be surprised to see that regular bread, generally unsuspicious oats and purportedly healthy granola bars contain coumarin in amounts that will have you easily surpass the daily uptake limit of 0.1 mg/kg body weight, which was established by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) right after it became clear that coumarin is a potential carcinogen... *yamyoll*

Nedless to say that the consumption of respective supplements, which are currently heavily marketed as healthy anti-diabesity agents, could do more harm then good, when the producers play it cheap and put the next best "Cinnamomum XY" they can get their hands on into the caps.

Neither viagra nor cinnamon caps are "paleo", yet still...

E. Trexler titled his recently published thesis "Paleolithic Diet is Associated With Unfavorable Changes to Blood Lipids in Healthy Subjects", which would suggest that the paleo diet is similarly unhealthy as the consumption of "fake", coumarin-loaden cinnamon or high amounts of isolated cholorogenic acid (story is discussed in detail in the podcast; cf. Mubarak. 2013). 

Figure 2: Lipid profile (left; values expressed in % of reference levels), fitness and body fat level (right) before and after the Paleo + Crossfit interention (calculated based on Traxel. 2013)

If you take a closer look at the abstract and the actual "side effects" (figure 2), the 10-weeks of paleo dieting + CrossFit-based, high-intensity circuit training exercise program had on the body composition and fitness levels, I personally cannot but ask the following question:

 "What is the significance of the elevations in LDL and minor reductions in HDL in a scenario that produces exactly what has just been shown to be at the heart of the Obesity Paradox and lipid values that are still within the ever-narrowing normal or optimal range?"

Ill leave it up to you to answer this question and decide whether it can really be so bad to rid yourself of all modern, processed foods including any form of processed sugar, soft drinks, and coffees, while fueling your life and workout related energy by increasing your consumption of lean meat, fish, eggs, nuts, fruit, and vegetables. Have a nice weekend!

References:

• Anthony K, Subramanya G, Uprichard S, Hammouda F, Saleh M. Antioxidant and Anti-Hepatitis C Viral Activities of Commercial Milk Thistle Food Supplements. Antioxidants. 2013; 2(1):23-36.
• Campbell N, Clark JP, Stecher VJ, Thomas JW, Callanan AC, Donnelly BF, Goldstein I, Kaminetsky JC. Adulteration of Purported Herbal and Natural Sexual Performance Enhancement Dietary Supplements with Synthetic Phosphodiesterase Type 5 Inhibitors. J Sex Med. 2013 May 1. 
• Mubarak A, Hodgson JM, Considine MJ, Croft KD, Matthews VB. Supplementation of a high-fat diet with chlorogenic Acid is associated with insulin resistance and hepatic lipid accumulation in mice. J Agric Food Chem. 2013 May 8;61(18):4371-8. 
• Shukla SK, Kumar V. Bioactive Foods and Supplements for Protection against Liver Disease. In: Bioactive Food as Dietary Interventions for Liver and Gastrointestinal Disease. Elsevier. 2013. 
• Trexler, E. Paleolithic Diet is Associated With Unfavorable Changes to Blood Lipids in Healthy Subjects Honors Research Thesis. Ohio State Univeristy. May 2013.
• Vidyashankar S, Sharath Kumar LM, Barooah V, Sandeep Varma R, Nandakumar KS, Patki PS. Liv.52 up-regulates cellular antioxidants and increase glucose uptake to circumvent oleic acid induced hepatic steatosis in HepG2 cells. Phytomedicine. 2012 Oct 15;19(13):1156-65.
• Yang S, Chen C, Li Y, Ren Z, Zhang Y, Wu G, Wang H, Hu Z, Yao M. Saw Palmetto Extract Enhances Erectile Responses by Inhibition of Phosphodiesterase 5 Activity and Increase in Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase Messenger Ribonucleic Acid Expression in Rat and Rabbit Corpus Cavernosum. Urology. 2013 Apr 23. doi:pii: S0090-4295(13)00169-6.

Exercise Supplementation Quickie Optimal Protein Blend for Protein Synthesis Gout Drug for Muscle Protection Plus 3 Suggestions for Optimal Protein Blends

Dont obsess about "optimal" supplement regimen, start training, eating, sleeping and exercise the patience it takes to reverse years of sedentary pizza eating.

I thought it would be nice to take a closer look at some of the news I would otherwise "waste" in form of a three-liner in the SuppVersity Facebook News and decided that it was about time for yet another "news quickie" on exercise supplementation and exercise & supplementation ;-)

For todays installment of these "Short News", Ive selected a study that discusses the impressive effects of a "gout drug" on exercise induced muscle damage and a study that takes another look at the ever-so-popular issue of "optimal" protein supplementation - an issue some of you are investing so much energy in that it is no wonder that theyre not making the gains they would want to.

You can learn more about protein intake at the SuppVersity

Are You Protein Wheysting?

Cod protein for recovery

Protein requ. of athletes

High EAA protein for fat loss

Fast vs. slow protein

Too much ado about protein?

• Interesting observation: Xanthine oxidase inhibitor Allopurinol, which is usually used to treat conditions that are cause by increased uric acid levels (e.g. gout), dampens exercise induced muscle damage in trained individuals.
  
  The results of a recent study from the University of Valencia clearly demonstrate that the use of 300 mg of allopurinol 4h before a soccer match, lead to significant reductions in all measured markers of muscle damage in those six out of twelve professional soccer players who had been randomized to the active arm of the study (Sanshis Gomar. 2014).

  

  Figure 1: Changes in markers of muscle, heart and liver damage, as well as MDA levels, amarker of lipid oxidation due to soccer match with our without xanthine oxidase inhibitor (Sanshis Gomar. 2014)

  Now, unfortunately, a reduction in muscle damage that is facilitated by the inhibition of an enzyme that generates reactive oxygen species is - as you should by now have learnt from the dozens of posts on hormesis and the beneficial effects of exercise induced increases in reactive oxygen specie, not exactly desirable.
  
  The authors conclusion that their observation was a great thing and could be used by athletes all around the world is thus probably only valid with respect to in professional soccer players and other elite athletes who are trying to avoid overuse injuries... and even for their health blunting the ROS response to exercise permanently probably isnt going to be exactly conducive to their health.
• Further evidence for the superiority of protein blends (vs. single sources as whey) for muscle building
  
  Scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch, the Texas A&M University, the Arizona State University and the University of Utah found that a blend of soy and dairy protein slightly prolonged net amino acid balance across the leg as compared to whey protein alone, when it was ingested right after a workout.

Remember? Only recently youve learned here at the SuppVersity that Whey + Casein outperform Whey + BCAA + Glutamine and you bet that this combo will also outshadow the combination of whey, a fast digesting protein and soy, with an only minimally more sustained digestion pofile (for suggestions see bullet-points below).

• In the soon-to-be-published paper, to which I do unfortunately not have access, the scientists emphasize that it is not the fractional protein synthesis rate or the mRNA expression of selected amino acid transporters (LAT1/SLC7A5, CD98/SLC3A2 SNAT2/SLC38A2, PAT1/SLC36A1, CAT1/SLC7A1) which made the difference, but rather the fact hat "the ingestion of the protein blend resulted in a prolonged and positive net phenylalanine balance during post-exercise recovery as compared to whey protein" (Reidy. 2014).
  
  Now, eventually this is no news. I wrote about a similar phenomenon with whey protein only recently (learn more) and some of the researchers who were part of the study at hand have actually presented very similar results (albeit from a rodent study) in the August edition of Clinical Nutrition last year.
  

  

  Figure 2: Fractional protein synthesis 0-270min after the ingestion of pure whey or soy isolate of blends containing soy, whey and caseinate in the given ratios (Butteiger. 2013)

  In this study Butteiger et al. observed that a mixture of 1:1:2 of soy protein, whey protein and caseinate (="broken" micelar casein which has a significantly faster digestion rate than the original) produced the maximal increase in protein synthesis (dotted line in Figure 1), but with "fake casein" and soy, I am 100% sure that you can do better than that with whey hydrolysate, whey concentrate and micellar casein (1:1:1 would mean an identical ratio of the three). As far as the ratios goes, I would suggest the following combinations for specific purposes:
  
  • 5:5:1 - immediately post workout, if you have a meal within the next 1h
  • 1:1:1 - immediately post workout, if you have a meal within the next 2h
  • 1:3:5 - as a snack, of if you dont have a meal within 4h of the workout
  Please keep in mind, though that I have no scientific evidence to confirm that this would be "optimal" - its just what I would say appears logical based on the current evidence we have. Instead of whey hydrolysate you can also replace this and the whey concentrate by an isolate. So that you would end up at whey isolate : micellar casein ratios of 10:1, 2:1 and 4:5 - got that?

Bottom line: Eventually, there is just one practical conclusion to be drawn from todays news potpourri: There is no need to limit your net protein synthesis with "pure" whey proteins, because this is what most studies use and many of the bros recommend.

 +43% Muscle Glycogen With Whey vs. Amino Acid Mix | learn more

As far as the use of xanthine oxidase inhibitors are concerned, I have my doubts whether that is not going to produce more problems than solve. And as far as the "optimal" ratio of fast- to slow-digesting proteins for maximal protein anabolism is concerned, I can only tell you that it would require 100 studies to get a decently reliable idea of what the "real" optimum for a certain population and training style was.... but dont grudge. In the end those few %-ages of FSR certainly wont be the reason you are not making the gains you are aspiring - so keep looking for excuses and start removing the true obstacles that are standing between yourself and the physique of your dreams.

References:

• Butteiger, D. N., et al. "A soy, whey and caseinate blend extends postprandial skeletal muscle protein synthesis in rats." Clinical Nutrition 32.4 (2013): 585-591.
• Reidy, et al. "Soy-Dairy Protein Blend and Whey Protein Ingestion After Resistance Exercise Increases Amino Acid Transport and Transporter Expression in Human Skeletal Muscle." Journal of Applied Physiology April 3, 2014 jap.01093.2013 
• Sanchis‐Gomar, F., et al. "Allopurinol prevents cardiac and skeletal muscle damage in professional soccer players." Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports (2014).

Carbohydrate Mouth Rinses Activate Brain Areas Involved in Visual Perception Reward Are There Implication For Athletes Obese Individuals You Need to Know

CHO Mouth rinsing? Cyclist do it, but they do a lot of things ;-)

You know what a "mouth-rinse" is, right? Thats when you wash some sort of liquid "through" your mouth and spit it out without swallowing. Over the past years, I have probably read a dozen of papers on this topic and although I did not keep exact record, I am pretty sure that six of them presented positive results (meaning the carbohydrate mouth-rinse increased performance), while the other six reported a null-result (no performance increase).

The former is also the main reason I did not address this topic in any previous articles in detail. A couple of days ago, I hit on a study that made me reconsider my previous decision that the contemporary evidence would suggest its not really worth talking or rather writing about carbohydrate mouth rinses.

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The study is about to be published in the renowned pee-reviews scientific journal "Appetite" and it is the first study to replace the performance measures (physical or cognitive ones) with neuroimaging... with intriguing results, as I may say.

The good old mantra is that you ingest carbs, they are absorbed, your blood glucose levels increases and all sorts of good an bad things happen. In the course of the whole diabesity debate, here at the SuppVersity, you have already learned that this is not just an oversimplification - if its not seen in perspective, its simply false. Still, before the publication of the study at hand, we had only little experimental evidence of the impressive downstream effects of sweet taste receptors in the mouth.

The data Turner et al. present in their latest paper, appear to confirm that there is in fact a hitherto mostly overlooked energy signalling pathway capable of improving human performance thats triggered by the presence of carbohydrates in the mouth.

Figure 1: Performance increases (power output) observed in response to serial carbohydrate mouth rinsing during a cycle sprint - data from one of the most recent studies (Phillip. 2014)

The scientists from the University of Auckland believe that this pathway may form part of homeostatic energy systems that govern and promote feeding behaviour via the transduction of information specific to energetically-useful nutrients (Sclafani. 2004); and - as mentioned before - this pathway has already been shown to enhance corticomotor output (Gant. 2010) - the data in Figure 1 is only from one of the latest studies.

Table 1: Overview of the study results Jeukendrup et al. reviewed in their most recent overview of the literature (Jeukendrup. 2010)

Ok, the results may be inconclusive, and the dependence on exercise duration or other confounding parameters may be under-researcher, but the observed benefits are there. Being in the range of 2-4% they may seem "insignificant" (from a practical perspective, not a statistical one; see Table 1), but 4% more mileage during 1h cycling, thats worlds apart - at least in the in the world of the pro cycling. In short, The ameliorating effects CHO mouth rinses have had on the observed declines in motor function in previous studies was associated with reduced fatigue significant enough to provide a neural basis for enhancements in motor performance observed in many behavioural studies (Jeukendrup. 2010).

The protocol of the study at hand is complex, but in essence, it should suffice to know that the subjects, 10 healthy volunteers, had "mouth-rinse" with either carbohydrate (CHO) or - this is important! - a taste-matched placebo (PLA) solution in a double- blind, counterbalanced study. As the scientists point out, "[t]his protocol eliminates post-oral factors and controls for the perceptual qualities of solutions", and guarantees that the functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain  identifies only those cortical areas which are actually responsive to oral carbohydrate during rest and activity phases of a hand -grip motor task.

Figure 2: Effect of carbohydrate on brain activity. Group level contrast images displaying areas of activation from the contrast CHO > PLA (Turner. 2014)

In particular, the scientists measure that the mean blood-oxygen-level dependent signal change experienced in the contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex was larger for CHO compared to PLA during the motor task when contrasted with a control condition. Now whats interesting is that the differences were observed not just in those areas of which we know already that they belong to the primary taste cortex.

In fact, another region that was heavily involved in the CHO mouth-rinse response was the area of the brain thats usually responsible to process visual perception, as well as regions deep down in the the limbic system that have been previously associated with reward.

How is a performance enhancing mouth rinse done? Lets take a look at the study with the largest performance leap, i.e Pottier et al. (2008):

The total rinsed/ingested amount of the solution was set at 14 mL/kg body weight and the subjects were instructed to "rinse" equally distributed over the course of the time trial. The actual rinsing lasted for 5s, afterwards the liquid hat to be spit out. The drink that was used was standard Gatoratde with 5.4 g sucrose, 0.46 g glucose, 41.7 mg Na 1 , 12.5 mg K 1 , citric acid, salt, sodium citrate, natural flavor and the other "Gatorade-ish" additives that are in there though no-one wants or needs em.

Bottom line: The observation of difference in both, the areas that are responsible for visual perception and the reward center are relevant for both, athletes and gymrats who are increased in maximal performance (think of a tennis player who need maximal visual acuity and enough dopamine (reward) to perform!) and overweight individuals.

The latter usually dont need a heightened visual acuity, of course. The lack of reward ... or rather their constant struggle for food-rewards on the other hand is a massive problem. In this context the superiority of the CHO vs. the artificially sweetened mouth-rinse shines a whole new light on the "diet products for weight loss debate?" and could rekindle a discussion about the timing of the measurement the dopaminergic / brain / reward response to these foods - the latter could be "instant" and any study measuring the effects in the postprandial phase may miss the most important, immediate, taste-receptor-mediated effects completely.

Plus: You want to learn more about artificial sweeteners of food reward, click on the links (RSS compatible browser required)!

References:

• Gant, Nicholas, Cathy M. Stinear, and Winston D. Byblow. "Carbohydrate in the mouth immediately facilitates motor output." Brain research 1350 (2010): 151-158.
• Jeukendrup, Asker E., and Edward S. Chambers. "Oral carbohydrate sensing and exercise performance." Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care 13.4 (2010): 447-451.
• Phillips, Shaun M., et al. "The Influence of Serial Carbohydrate Mouth Rinsing on Power Output during a Cycle Sprint." Journal of sports science & medicine 13.2 (2014): 252.
• Pottier, Andries, et al. "Mouth rinse but not ingestion of a carbohydrate solution improves 1‐h cycle time trial performance." Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports 20.1 (2010): 105-111.
• Sclafani, Anthony. "The sixth taste?." Appetite 43.1 (2004): 1-3.
• Turner, Clare E., et al. "Carbohydrate in the mouth enhances activation of brain circuitry involved in motor performance and sensory perception." Appetite (2014).

Anti Oxidants Resistance Training In the Elderly We See Minimal Benefits In the Young and Fit Potential Detriments ➯ Could ROS Management Not Eradication Be the Key

Health, performance, longevity: Its all about ROS-management. The age-diffe- rence thats showing in the contemporary evidence pro/against the negative effects of vitamin C + E on exercise induced adapation actually confirms that.

I am pretty sure, the results of the Paulsen study I wrote about in " Study Confirms Antioxidants (C+E) Are Bad For Healthy People Who Train, But in Some Subjects C+E Increase the Fat Loss Effects of HIIT + HIT by a Whopping 60%" (read more) in February will still resonate in your ears. Impaired adaptation, but increased fat loss!? That sounds strange, but if you think of the inhibitory effects "bad inflammation" (see box below) will have on your body composition it is logical to assume that the provision of the simple ROS scavengers vitamin C & E would reduce the baseline inflammation and thus restore a persons sensitivity to the "good inflammation" - the same ROS signalling, Nobel laureate James D Watson recently labeled as "a positive force for life." (Watson in Tarr. 2014).

Illustration 1: Reactive oxygen specimen can become a problem at both high and low levels. But dont worry, you can use exercise, your diet and (if necessary!) dietary supplements to manage them.

Whats that all about "good and bad ROS": As Nobel Laureate Watson pointed out only recently, the often-heard claim that reactive oxygen species are dangerous terrorists that have to be exterminated at every cost is absolutely unwarranted. Their important role in apopotosis (=the controlled death of degenerate / old cells), for example, is of utmost importance in your bodies natural fight against cancer. As Radak et al. (2013) point out, ROS are also important exercise-induced modulators of muscle contraction, antioxidant protection, and oxidative damage repair, which trigger many of the health responses we associate with working out. Managing not extinguishing ROS is thus the key to ultimate health.

If we take a look at the results of pertinent studies, like the one researchers from the University of Sherbrooke (Bobeuf. 2011) presented in 2011, the corresponding findings clearly support my previously voiced hypothesis that its the baseline inflammation status which decides whether the addition of the notorious 1,000mg of vitamin C and 400IU of vitamin E almost the average subject of the corresponding studies ingested will or wont impair the beneficial effects on the outcome of his / her training.

Figure 1: Changes in body composition in response to resistance training (RT), anti-oxidant supplementation (C+E) and resistance training + anti-oxidant supplementation (RT+C+E); no sign. differences in strength gains (Bobeuf. 2011)

Apropos "beneficial effects", if we take a closer look at both the previously referenced study by Paulsen (young people, read more) and the 2011 study by Bobeuf (see Figure 1), in the course of which 57 subjects (27 men and 30 women) between the age of 59 and 73 (mean: 65.6  ±  3.8yrs) performed 1h resistance training sessions thrice a week (3 sets @ 80% 1RM, linear progression, full body workouts; eg press, bench press, leg extension, shoulder press, seated row, triceps extension and biceps curl) we do have to realize, though, that these effects are body composition specific.

Is fat loss the only benefit of soothing the fire?

In view of the fact that reactive oxygen specimen activate both, UCP1 and UCP2, which are the "switches" for mitochondrial energy wasting and thus powerful (up-)regulator fatty acid oxidation and energy expenditure, this seems strange.

Illustration 2: The fact that the "energy wasting" uncoupling proteins (UCP1 & 2) are controlled by ROS (Mailloux. 2011) and glutathione is a potential explanation for the beneficial effects of anti-oxidants on exercise induced fat loss.

This is at least the case if we dont take into account that the activation and deactivation of these uncoupling proteins is controlled by glutathione (Mailloux. 2011), the production / recycling of which is in turn promoted by vitamin C + E and would thus obviously be increased in a scenario where someone uses anti-oxidant supplements to restore normal glutathione levels.

Figure 2: Glucose infusion rates and adiponectin before (white) and after (grey) the exercise +/- vitamin C + E intervention in the Ristow study (Ristow. 2009).

It is still difficult to reconcile these results with Ristow et al.s 2009 study, which made it into the evening news and has been (officially) cited by more than 500 peer-reviewed papers, already (Ristow. 2009). With a combined cardio + circuit training regimen and sedentary, as well as previously trained subjects, there is little room to argue that the blunted increase in insulin sensitivity (see Figure 2) the researchers from the Universities of Jena and Leipzig measured in their 40 subjects were brought about by insufficient eu-stress or a result of a training status, where any additional ROS buffer would reduce the incentive to metabolic, mitochondrial or endocrine adaptations to zero.

Now increases in insulin sensitivity do not necessarily translate into fat loss. If you think about the PPAR-gamma activating diabetes drugs, there are actually several examples, where the exact opposite is the case. And with stimulants like caffeine the temporary increase in fatty acid oxidation is paid for by decreases in insulin sensitivity (more free fatty acids in the blood ➯ lower insulin sensitivity, but higher fatty acid oxidation). Its thus a real pity that Ristow et al. didnt measure (or report) the changes in body composition and/or rates of fatty acid oxidation at rest and during exercise.

Pro and contra - its all about cherry picking your "evidence"

But there is more evidence to support my "baseline inflammation hypothesis" and studies supporting the arguments of both, the advocates and opponents of anti-oxidant supplementation for active, inactive, young and old individuals. And what makes the whole issue even more complicated you can find a "pro" and a "contra" study for almost all claims you can make:

• Vitamin C supplementation impairs recovery in the days after a bout of eccentric exercise despite  / due to reduced ROS production (Close. 2006); and acute Vitamin C supplementation does not reduce muscle damage or soreness after prolonged intermittent shuttle-running (Thompson. 2001)
• The acute reduction in muscle performance is reduced after eccentric exercise with previous vitamin C & E supplementation (Shafat. 2004)

• Antioxidant supplementation prevents exercise-induced lipid peroxidation, but not inflammation, in ultramarathon runners (Childs. 2001)
• Antioxidants do not prevent postexercise peroxidation and may delay muscle recovery (Teixeira. 2009)

• Supplementation with CoQ10 (ubiquinone) causes cellular damage during intense exercise (Malm. 1996)
• Supplemental CoQ10 boost peak power increases in young elite athletes (Alf. 2013 | learn more)

• Supplementation with vitamin C and N-acetyl-cysteine increases oxidative stress in humans after an acute muscle injury induced by eccentric exercise (Childs. 2001)
• N-acetylcysteine enhances muscle cysteine and glutathione availability and attenuates fatigue during prolonged exercise in endurance-trained individuals (Medved. 2005)

I am pretty sure that I could go on for hours searching and finding study pairs like this, but in the end, I just want you to realize that the answer to the "anti-oxidants for athletes question" (if there even is one) is still out there.

Figure 3: The results of a recent study by Bouzid et al. suggest that age is one of the most important determinants of the width of the margin between "too little" and "too much" eu-stress: The same incremental cycle ergometer test to exhaustion thats a eu-stressor (=generate beneficial effects) in the young can only be compensated in the elderly, but does not induce a supercompensatory increases in anti-oxidant enzyme activity.

Overall it would appear as if it was a constant balancing act between too much and too little ROS - a process that may require well-timed temporary / acute vs. chronic (I am not talking about away from workouts, but rather about taking your anti-oxidants only in the days before a meet, for example) an above all minimimalist antioxidant supplementation according to your individual needs.

With age, training status, diet, psychological stress, sleep, acute vs. chronic supplementation, training volume, intensity and the other 500 potential parameters you would have to take into account to figure out, how much vitamin C, E, A, ... you have to consume every X, Y, or Z hours its unrealistic to assume that anything but some sort of yet not available physical test would be the only way to ensure that you are neither consuming to few, nor too many free radical scavengers. Against that background any general recommendation like "take 1g of vitamin C and 400IU of mixed tocopherols" appears to be over-simplistic - if you insist on supplementing, though, I would suggest not to take more than that ;-)

References:

• Alf, D., Schmidt, M. E., & Siebrecht, S. C. (2013). Ubiquinol supplementation enhances peak power production in trained athletes: a double-blind, placebo controlled study. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 10(1), 24.
• Bobeuf, F., et al. "Combined effect of antioxidant supplementation and resistance training on oxidative stress markers, muscle and body composition in an elderly population." The journal of nutrition, health & aging 15.10 (2011): 883-889. 
• Bouzid, Mohamed Amine, et al. "Changes in Oxidative Stress Markers and Biological Markers of Muscle Injury with Aging at Rest and in Response to an Exhaustive Exercise." PloS one 9.3 (2014): e90420.
• Childs, A., et al. "Supplementation with vitamin C and N-acetyl-cysteine increases oxidative stress in humans after an acute muscle injury induced by eccentric exercise." Free Radical Biology and Medicine 31.6 (2001): 745-753.
• Close, Graeme L., et al. "Ascorbic acid supplementation does not attenuate post-exercise muscle soreness following muscle-damaging exercise but may delay the recovery process." British journal of nutrition 95.05 (2006): 976-981.
• Gomez-Cabrera, Mari-Carmen, et al. "Oral administration of vitamin C decreases muscle mitochondrial biogenesis and hampers training-induced adaptations in endurance performance." The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 87.1 (2008): 142-149.
• Ji, Li Li. "Exercise‐induced modulation of antioxidant defense." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 959.1 (2002): 82-92.
• Mailloux, Ryan J., and Mary-Ellen Harper. "Uncoupling proteins and the control of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production." Free Radical Biology and Medicine 51.6 (2011): 1106-1115. 
• Paulsen, G, et al. "Vitamin C and E supplementation hampers cellular adaptation to endurance training in humans: a double-blind randomized control trial." Journal of Physiology (February 2014; accepted manuscript).
• Radak, Zsolt, et al. "Oxygen consumption and usage during physical exercise: the balance between oxidative stress and ROS-dependent adaptive signaling." Antioxidants & redox signaling 18.10 (2013): 1208-1246. 
• Ristow, Michael, et al. "Antioxidants prevent health-promoting effects of physical exercise in humans." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106.21 (2009): 8665-8670. 
• Shafat, A., et al. "Effects of dietary supplementation with vitamins C and E on muscle function during and after eccentric contractions in humans." European journal of applied physiology 93.1-2 (2004): 196-202.
• Tarr, Peter. "Nobel laureate James Watson publishes novel hypothesis on curing late-stage cancers." Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory - Press Release. Monday, 07 January 2013.
• Teixeira, VITOR H., et al. "Antioxidants do not prevent postexercise peroxidation and may delay muscle recovery." Med Sci Sports Exerc 41.9 (2009): 1752-1760.
• Thompson, D., et al. "Muscle soreness and damage parameters after prolonged intermittent shuttle-running following acute vitamin C supplementation." International journal of sports medicine 22.01 (2001): 68-75.

Fluoride Chlorhexidine Free Tooth Hygiene For You What Alternatives are There And How Effective are Natural and Not So Natural Fluoride Free Products

There are alternatives and adjuncts to fluoride you just have to know them.

To start off with the most important information not in, but about this article: This is not an anti-fluoride article.  I am not even going to mention the ongoing debate about the usefulness and safety of fluoride in toothpaste and co.

What I am offering is a concise list of natural agents with similar anti-bacterial properties as fluoride anyone of you can use to improve his tooth hygiene - this includes those of you who believe the whole fluoride scare is another overweight child of the hype generating online health community.

Various anti plaque agents, and other agents like enzymes have been effectively used as prevention of
dental caries. Ever since 1970‘s researchers started to search for non-fluoride agents for the  prevention of dental caries. And as Agarwal write in a recent article in Oral Hygiene & Health, "fluoride agents may serve as adjunctive therapeutics for preventing, arresting or even reversing dental caries" (my emphasis in Agarwal. 2014).

Against that background, the items in the following list should be understood as suggestions; agents I suggest you may want to try to improve your dental health, irrespective of whether you combine them with a fluoride containing toothpaste or not:

• Essential oils: Essential oils have been used for centuries. Only, recently however, has this practice caught scientific attention and scientists began to study the antimicrobial activity against caries-related bacteria.
  
  

  

  Thyme with its main active ingredient thymol is one of the essential oils you could use in an anti-bacterial mouth wash.

  Essential oils derived from plants are typically a complex mixture of approximately 20-60 compounds that are in solution at various concentrations. Overall, the main chemical group is primarily composed of terpenoids, followed by aromatic and aliphatic constituents. Thymol and eugenol are two of the better known agents from essential oils of thyme and clove oil or basil. They have been shown to inhibit the growth of a wide range of oral microorganisms including mutans streptococci, in vitro. Convincing data on their efficacy from in vivo studies, on the other hand is scarce (Agarwal. 2014).
• Ocimum sanctum aka "Tulsi": Tulsi, Ocimum sanctumis a plant of Indian origin and chances are youve already read its name. Its a time tested premier medicinal herb thats usually used diabetes mellitus, arthritis, bronchitis and skin diseases. Luckily tulsi does also have potent antimicrobial properties, against a whole variety of microorganisms like Staphylococus aureus, Klebsiella, candida albicans, E. coliandproteus sp.
  
  The antimicrobial activity of tulsi is attributed to its constituents namely ursolic acid and carvacrol. Agarwal et al. (Agarwal. 2010) in their study demonstrated an antimicrobial potential of tulsi extract at various concentrations and achieved maximum antimicrobial potential at 4% concentration level. Thats not much, but something we can work with... as only one ingredient of our toothpaste and mouth-wash, obviously ;-)

• 

  Figure 1: Prunis is not as potent as  0.2% chlor- hexidine (CHX) and phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), but inhibits the growth of human oral keratinocytes within 5 minutes (Seneviratne. 2011)

  Prunus mume: Prunus mumeis is like Tulsi a TCM staple, It is, just like Tulsi not usually used for tooth hygiene.
  
  In vitro data from studies such as the one the data of which you see in Figure 1, would yet suggest that it is rightly considered to be a candidate for develo- ping an oral antimicrobial agent to control or prevent dental diseases associated with oral pathogenic bacteria like Strepto- coccus mutans, S. sobrinus, S. mitis, S. Sanguinis, Lactobacillus acidophilus, P. gingivalis, Aggregatibacter actino- mycetem comitans (Seneviratne. 2011)
• Green and black tea (Camellia sinensi): No reason to tell you what these are, right? Well, various component in green and black tea (leaves of Camellia sinensis), notably the simple catechins, have anticariogenic activity.
  
  Among the pathogens that have been shown to suffer from the exposure to these tea catechins are also S mutans and S sobrinus. In addition, there is evidence that tea does not only plaster your teeth with black tar, but that this black tar inhibits the adherence of bacteria to your teeth (lucky you ;-) - this works by the inhibition glucosyl transferase and the consequent reduction in biosynthesis of sticky glucan. And above all, a recent paper in the Journal of the Indian Society of Peridontologyconfirm sthe "effectiveness of green tea catechin mouthwash as an antiplaque agent" in man (Kaur. 2014).

Listen up tea haters! In their 2004 paper, Taylor et al. do yet conclude that *surprise* tea shares its anticariogenic effects (this is anti-caries not anti-cancer, folks ;-) against alfa hemolytic streptococci with cocoa and coffee!

• Oleic acid, Linoleic acid and epicatechin polymer fom Cacao bean husk: Have all been shown to have anti-cariogenic activity. Just like green tea, coffee and cacao, they inhibit the adherence of the bacteria to your teeth and best of all, there is even evidence that this stuff works - in rodents, at least (Ooshima. 2000; Osawa. 2001)
• Proanthocyanidins, phenolic acids, flavonols from Cranberry: These shows antimicrobial activity against biofilm cells of mutans streptococci. They will disrupt the acidogenic/aciduric properties of planktonic and biofilm cells of S. mutans and have rodent studies to back up their efficacy as in vivo inhibitors of caries development in rats infected with S. mutansis (Koo. 2002)
• Meswak chewing sticks (Twigs of Salvadora persica): The name already gives it away. This is another tool from traditional medicine, which is supposed to have been used by the Babylonians some 7000 years ago (Al Sadhan. 1999).

  

  Table 1: Miswak is not the only type of chewing stick thats used world-wide (Sukkarwalla. 2013)

  In this case, however, one that is in fact use to prevent caries! And in fact, the sticks have strong antibacterial effects against all relevant bacteria (Almas. 2004) - no wonder they have been used for tooth hygiene after being embedded in agar forever.
  
  What should be said, though, is that you could also use other anti-microbial substances as "toothpaste" on a Miswak stick, after youve made it bacteria proof with agar (agar is a polysaccharides that cannot be metabolised by bacteria).

  

  Figure 2: Marked reduction in levels of Streptococcus mutans in Miswak as compared to toothbrush users (left) and overview of Antimicrobial effects of Miswak (right; both from Sukkarwalla. 2013)

  Its effects, and the illusration in Figure 2 makes this quite clear, does still go way beyond the one of a classic toothbrush (Sukkarwalla. 2013).
• Trace elements: Actually, the initially mentioned fluoride would belong into this category as well... what? Yeah, you are right: Its note exactly smart to replace it with zinc, tin, aluminium, copper, iron, strontium, barium, manganese and molybdenum, gold, or lead, all of which have been investigated as weapons in our never-ending battle against tooth decay (hard to believe, I know).
  
  Of these trace elements, aluminum, copper, and iron have been used most commonly as cariostatic agents. Unfortunately, these agents are about as unhealthy for its user, as they are for the bacteria, when they are used in oral care products as simple salts. Moreover, the toxicity of many metals like aluminum, copper, barium molybdenum, would restrict the concentration at which they could be safely used.
• Propolis, the resinous mixture that honey bees collect from tree buds, sap flows, or other botanical sources: Propolis is a natural beehive product that serves a double purpose. It is used to make honey, and it keeps the hive bacteria-free.
  
  Propolis shows potent anti-bacterial activity against S. mutans and/or S. sobrinus in vitro ad has been used successfully as part of a a mouthwash with in vivo antimicrobial activity against S. mutans (Duailibe. 2007). Moreove, topical applications of chemically characterized Propolis extracts have also been shown to be highly effective in reducing the incidence and severity of smooth surface and sulcal caries in rats (Koo. 1999). 

What you should know about propolis, thoug is that as with every natural product, though, propolis does not come "standardized" like a phamaceutical. Accordingly, its cariostatic effectsare highly variable depending on its chemical composition and geographical origin. In other words: It owes its antimicrobial potency to the plants - worst case scenario: The bees fly around in a GMO area and collect no natural antimicrobials at all ;-)

• There are many other reports in the literature concerning the antimicrobial activities that various plant extracts may have against cariogenic bacteria, although the majority of these studies provide limited or incomplete information due to the lack of chemical characterization of the extracts. However, there are a few exceptions. For example, Li et al. (1999) have identified gallotannins from Melaphis chinensis and triterpenes (ceanothic acid and ceanothetric acid) from Ceanothus americanus as antimicrobial agents that harbor activity against mutans streptococci.
  
  Furthermore, a chemically characterized extract of Galla chinensis(containing gallic acid and methyl gallate) has been demonstrated to impede the growth of S. mutans and other caries- related organisms, including Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Actinomyces naeslundii, within biofilms. Recently, established that naturally occurring phenolic compounds generally display antibacterial activity by disrupting the membrane lipid-protein interface as nonionic surface-active agents (Greenberg. 2008) and  Ramakrishna et al. (2011) studied various natural alternatives derived from plants and plant products and concluded that it can serve as a prevention and treatment option against cariogenic bacteria. 

• 

  They certainly dont look like it, but being filled with licorice extract, these lollipops are good for your teeth.

  Chinese Licorice Root: As a SuppVersity reader you know that it can help you lean out, by keeping your cortisol levels up(!). What you may have read as an aside, only, is that it will also help fight caries, if it is consumed as a "teeth hygiene lollipop" that contains a special herbal formula extracted from the Chinese licorice root.
  
  These orange flavoured herbal lollipops was discovered by microbiologist at the UCLA school of dentistry should be consumed twice a day- one in the morning after breakfast and another after professional teeth cleaning between two and four times a year (Agarwal. 2010). 
• Xylitol: Xylitol is last on the list, and probably an agent may of you know. Its - unlike most people think - 100% natural and was first used as a tooth-friendly sweetener in chewing gums, lollipops and other stuff more than 80 years after its discovery in 1891 by German chemist Emil Fischer.
  
  Dental benefits of xylitol were first recognized in Finland in 1970 using animal models. The first chewing gum developed with the aim of reducing caries and improving oral health was released in Finland in 1975 and in United States shortly after. Xylitol is not fermented by cariogenic plaque bacteria and thus does not lower the pH of the plaque. It reduces the accumulation of plaque on the surface of the tooth.
  
  In contrast to many other marketing claims the efficacy of xylitol based chewing gum is scientifically established (Isokangas. 1987) and its effect to inhibit enamel dissolution, another claim you may have heard already has in vitro data to back it up (Arends. 1990). In children reporting caries experience, consumption of xylitol containing lozenges or hard candy reduces incidence of coronal caries (Alanen. 2000).
  
  For children below age two, in addition to the study that evaluated xylitol tablets, the xylitolcontaining syrup among children in the Marshall Islands and reported a statistically significant difference in favor of xylitol syrup (Milgrom. 2009) - for children unde rthe age of 2, on the other hand, there is insufficient evidence that xylitol syrup prevents caries. The same lack of convincing evidence exists with respect to xylitol dentrifrice, of which we cannot tell if its the xylitol or another agent thats responsible for the inhibition of dental caries.

"Hardcore tooth hygiene" ;-)

Now that youve got a long list, all youd need is a plan of attack. The latter will certainly depend on the availability of the previously mentioned agents and your personal preferences, but in general it will probably look somewhat like this:

Assuming you have already abandoned regular, fluoride-containing toothpaste, I suspect that you will be using a different product for tooth hygiene. Aside from buying Meswak chewing stick and replacing your toothbrush your best chance to increase your tooth hygiene would thus be (a) the use of xylitol logenes and chewing gums or licorice lollipops and (b) using some cacao bean husk (extracts), in a thyme oil spiked green tea mouthwash after you brushed your teeth (you remember the "protective film" the tea will create on your teeth?).

And if you are really hard core you do both: Brush with meswak sticks first, flush with a green tea + thyme oil mixture, afterwards. But dont complain about "green tea colored teeth" ;-)

Reference:

• Agarwal, Pooja, and L. Nagesh. "Evaluation of the antimicrobial activity of various concentrations of Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) extract against Streptococcus mutans: An in vitro study." Indian Journal of Dental Research 21.3 (2010).
• Agarwal, R., et al. "Prevention of Dental Caries-Measures beyond Fluoride." Oral Hyg Health 2.122 (2014): 2332-0702.
• Al Sadhan, Raed I., and Khalid Almas. "Miswak (chewing stick): a cultural and scientific heritage." Saudi dental journal 11.2 (1999): 80-87. 
• Alanen, Pentti, Pauli Isokangas, and Kristjan Gutmann. "Xylitol candies in caries prevention: results of a field study in Estonian children." Community dentistry and oral epidemiology 28.3 (2000): 218-224.
• Arends, J., et al. "Combined effect of xylitol and fluoride on enamel demineralization in vitro." Caries Research 24.4 (1990): 256-257.
• Duailibe, Silvana Alves de Carvalho, Azizedite Guedes Gonçalves, and Fernando Jorge Mendes Ahid. "Effect of a propolis extract on Streptococcus mutans counts in vivo." Journal of Applied Oral Science 15.5 (2007): 420-423. 
• Greenberg, Michael, Michael Dodds, and Minmin Tian. "Naturally Occurring Phenolic Antibacterial Compounds Show Effectiveness against Oral Bacteria by a Quantitative Structure− Activity Relationship Study." Journal of agricultural and food chemistry 56.23 (2008): 11151-11156. 
• Isokangas, Pauli. "Xylitol chewing gum in caries prevention. A longitudinal study on Finnish school children." Proceedings of the Finnish Dental Society. Suomen Hammaslääkäriseuran toimituksia 83 (1987): 1.
• Kaur, H., S. Jain, and A. Kaur. "Comparative evaluation of the antiplaque effectiveness of green tea catechin mouthwash with chlorhexidine gluconate." Journal of Indian Society of Periodontology 18.2 (2014): 178.
• Koo, H., et al. "Effect of Apis mellifera propolis from two Brazilian regions on caries development in desalivated rats." Caries Research 33.5 (1999): 393-400. 
• Li, Xing-Cong, Linin Cai, and Christine D Wu. "Antimicrobial compounds from< i> Ceanothus americanus</i> against oral pathogens." Phytochemistry 46.1 (1997): 97-102.
• Ooshima, T., et al. "Caries inhibitory activity of cacao bean husk extract in in-vitro and animal experiments." Archives of Oral Biology 45.8 (2000): 639-645.
• Osawa, K., et al. "Identification of cariostatic substances in the cacao bean husk: their anti-glucosyltransferase and antibacterial activities." Journal of Dental Research 80.11 (2001): 2000-2004.
• Ramakrishna, Y., et al. "Decreasing cariogenic bacteria with a natural, alternative prevention therapy utilizing phytochemistry (plant extracts)." Journal of Clinical Pediatric Dentistry 36.1 (2011): 55-64.
• Seneviratne, Chamida J., et al. "Prunus mume extract exhibits antimicrobial activity against pathogenic oral bacteria." International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry 21.4 (2011): 299-305. 
• Sukkarwalla, Adnan, et al. "Efficacy of Miswak on Oral Pathogens." Dental research journal 10.3 (2013): 314.
• Taylor, Peter W., J. M. Hamilton-Miller, and Paul D. Stapleton. "Antimicrobial properties of green tea catechins." Food science and technology bulletin 2 (2004): 71-81.