SuppVersity Science Round-Up Seconds: Topical Stevia Ointment and Oral Stevia Both Speed Up Wound Healing & Fight Bacteria. + Kinesio Taping, Exercise vs. Parkinson's and Non-Permanent Infertility Due to Low Dose Finasteride

The SuppVersity Science Round-Up live on SHR Thursdays 1PM EST!

As expected, Carl and I did not get to all of the potential topics in yesterday's installment of the SuppVersity Science Round Up on Super Human Radio (download the podcast here). The topics we covered were awesome (the protein study that was in the news, yesterday; nitrate supplementation; breast cancer and health benefits of minimalist multi- or rather tri-vitamins), but even the promised stevia based wound ointment did not make it into the 68min show (yeah, we went longer, once again). Therefore, it seems only logical to give you a brief summary of what you have or have not been missing in yesterday's installment of the thursdaily SuppVersity Science Round Up.

Alright, why don't we just start with the wound ointment and finish up with a brief mash-up of selected pieces from the 2nd line?

Stevia wound ointment improves tissue regeneration after incision

In a recent study that was conducted the St Johns College of Pharmacy in Bangalore, India, Kuntal Das investigated the effect of an easily compounded stevia containing wound ointment on the wound healing process of a pretty hefty excision wound that was 2.5 cm in width (circular area = 4.90 cm²) and 0.2 cm deep on the back of male Swiss Albino mice  and compared the results to a longstanding standard treatment (in the developing world still the goto ointment to be applied) with povidone-iodine, a stable chemical complex of polyvinylpyrrolidone and elemental iodine.

Stevia: Drink it, eat it, rub it, ... !?

How to prepare your own wound ointment: (1) Go and buy some decolorized 80%+ stevia extract and a parafin wax carrier wherever you want (2)  Mix the stevia into the white parafin base so that you get a 5/95 ratio of stevia to parafin.

Upon examining the wounds of the rats after 14 days of topical application of the self-made stevia ointments with a 2.5% and 5% w/w stevia content, Da found that the overall healing rate was dose dependently increased in the stevia group (Da. 2013):

• the rate of wound closure was significantly higher
  
• there was a decrease in the period of epithelialization 
  
• the skin breaking strength increased,
  
• the weight of the granulation tissue was decreased,
  
• the hydroxyproline content was elevated, and
  
• the wound surface microbial load decreased
  

In view of the anti-inflammatory effects of stevia and the recent news on similar effects being observed with a likewise anti-inflammatory curcumin ointment on burns (see "Curcumin to treat burns"), these improvements in wound healing and the formation of new unscarred tisse probably don't come as a surprise. With more and more germs becoming resistant to standard antibiotics, another item on the "benefit list", namely the anti-microbial effects of the topically applied stevia ointment, could however turn out to be of greater importance, than a speedier wound closure, anyway.

Figure 1: Effects of stevia ointment containing 2.5% or 5% stevia extract on excision wound surface microbial load (in CFU/ml; left); effect of orally administered stevia on parameters of wound healing (data expressed relative to untreated group; middle) and on on excision wound surface microbial load (in CFU/ml; right)

And if you are not into rubbing anything on your wound, I guess you will be happy to hear that similar, yet obviously less pronounced effects can be achieved if you simply eat or drink ~1.5-3g of 80% pure stevia extract per day - I know that's plenty, but this is the human equivalent dose of the 250-500mg/kg the rodents in the Da study received... what? No, I don't know if stevia suppositories will work as well, but maybe you could ask Mr. Da, if he was interested in doing another study ;-)

Selected additional "news quickies" that did not make it into yesterday's show

• 

  Suggested read: "Stretching before a workout can make you weak"

  Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation versus Kinesio Taping Application. In a recent crossover study with male healthy, physically active subjects, both regimen provided similar beneficial results in terms of the first-felt and maximum tolerant-felt range of motioncompared to control.
  
  Contrary to the correctly applied kineseo tape (just bandaging yourself all over with packaging band won't cut it, guys ;-), the proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation protocol did yet not blunt the post exercise increase in hamstring muscle stiffness and the concomitant decrease in maximal knee flexion peak torque at 180 °/s that occured to similar extends in both the PNF and the no-stretch control condition (Chen. 2013).
• Treadmill running protects "Parkinson's mice" from neuronal loss. Listen up guys, even though you may not have been so concerned about the +117% and +236% increase in breast cancer risk in non-exercising and non-exercising women, who were also under psychological stress, Carl and I talked about on yesterday's show, you are by no means off the hook. After all, men may be (relatively) protected against breast cancer, but on the other hand more likely to develop Parkinson's. And as if that was not bad enough, the symptoms will also be more severe in men than in women (Haaxma. 2006).
  
  

  

  Just in case you forgot: Among tons of other health benefits, moderate daily caffeine intake in amounts similar to what you would get from 3 regular cups of coffee  (300-450mg) appears to exert protective effects against Parkinson's, as well (read more)

  Against that background, you are probably either relieved (if you are a physical culturist) or annoyed, when I am telling you that a recent rodent study clearly demonstrated how 30 min of aerobic exercise (as good as mice with existing MPTP/P induce "Parkinson's" can "exercise" on a treadmill) prevented further loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons, and ameliorated existing motor balance and coordination dysfunction (Sung. 2013).
  
  These results do by the way stand in line with recent findings from a human study by Abrantes et al. who found that "[c]ovarying for age and gender, higher levels of physical activity were associated with significantly less fatigue, as well as a trend for less apathy and depression and greater positive affect." (Abrantes. 2013) - regardless of the type of exercise the patient wanted / could still perform, by the way!
• Infertility due to finasteride usage: While it's real, it's rarely permanent As a recent case report that has been published ahead of print in the online edition of International Urology and Nephrology ealier this week shows, the "prolonged [8.5 years] use of low-dose [1 mg daily] finasteride for androgenetic alopecia" can induce DNA damage to sperm, which- in this particular case . rendered a 40-year old patient totally infertile (I don't want to think about what happened if the sperm was only "mildly damaged", though).
  
  With respect to the underlying mechanism, Ahmet Salvarci and Okan Istanbulluoglu, two researchers from the Rumi University in Meram, Konya  (Turkey) state:
  

  "It was reported in an in vitro study that dihydrotestosterone promoted the expression of claudin-11, the protein component in tight junctions between Sertoli cells. It has been shown that finasteride may cause a disruption of tight junctions and trigger a cascade of immunologic reactions, by causing germ cell atresia. Although the significance of dihydrotestosterone in spermatogenesis is not fully understood, the absence of this molecule may cause spermatogenic failure." (Salvaci. 2013)

  Now, the good news is, after the treatment was discontinued, the sperm recovered - slowly and from generation to generation, so to say, but it did- contrary to what dozens of horror stories on the Internet will make you believe,  eventually recover: 11 months after taking the last 1mg pill of the type II 5a-reductase inhibitor that blocks the conversion of testosterone to DHT (read more about 5-alpha reductase), his sperms DNA had recovered and his wife became pregnant. She gave birth to a healthy a baby boy and they lived happily... ah, wrong genre ;-)

So, that's it for today, but there are more news on Facebook and of course the official saturdaily installment of On Short Notice, tomorrow. So, stay tuned!

References:

• Abrantes AM, Friedman JH, Brown RA, Strong DR, Desaulniers J, Ing E, Saritelli J, Riebe D. Physical Activity and Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Parkinson Disease. J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol. 2013 Aug 20.
• Chen CH, Huang TS, Chai HM, Jan MH, Lin JJ. Two Stretching Treatments on Hamstring: Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation versus Kinesio Taping Application. J Sport Rehabil. 2013 Oct 11.
• Das K. Investigation of wound healing potential of aqueous crude extract and ointment of Stevia rebaudiana Bert. in mice. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine. 2013: 1-6.
• Haaxma CA, Bloem BR, Borm GF, Oyen WJ, Leenders KL, Eshuis S, Booij J, Dluzen DE, Horstink MW. Gender differences in Parkinson's disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2007 Aug;78(8):819-24.
• Salvarci A, Istanbulluoğlu O. Secondary infertility due to use of low-dose finasteride. Int Urol Nephrol. 2013 Oct 16.
• Sung YH, Kim SC, Hong HP, Park CY, Shin MS, Kim CJ, Seo JH, Kim DY, Kim DJ, Cho HJ. Treadmill exercise ameliorates dopaminergic neuronal loss through suppressing microglial activation in Parkinson's disease mice. Life Sci. 2013 Oct 12. pii: S0024-3205(12)00590-5.

Stevia - More Than Super Sweet: More Scientific Evidence, More Potential Implications for Weight Loss & -Maintenance, Anti-Diabetic & -Autoimmune and Even Pro-Anabolic Effects

Image 1: Stevia is sweeter than sugar, healthier than sugar and could even help reverse some of the damage sugar may already have done to your pancreas.

I know that a few of you were almost furious, when I had the audacity to mention the case-report on the pro-cortisol effects of stevia in the On Short Notice post on Saturday, August 18, 2013; and though I did emphasize that this was most likely something like an allergic reaction and/or an issue with solvents, heavy metals (click here for data on heavy metals in stevia leaves; based on Das. 2013), or whatever else may have been in the specific stevia product the lady used; I suspect that you will like today's blogpost which is basically an update on the beneficial effects stevia could have on your overall and metabolic health, much better.

So what's the latest about stevia, then?

Previous studies have already hinted at the fact that the benefits of the use of stevia go well beyond a mere reduction in energy intake and the overall glucose load the average sweet tooth is exposing her- / himself to. Against that background, the results of a recent publication from the School of Pharmacy in Madhya  Pradesh in India are actually not really surprising.

Figure 1: Blood glucose response (mg/ml) to oral glucose load (left) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels in mice treated with 250mg/kg (HED: 20mg/kg; ~1.4-2.0g) stevia extract/day (right; data based on Sharma. 2013)

With most previous studies being conducted on isolated pancreatic islet cells in the petri dish, this is however one of the few studies, which in which the scientists were able to observe a robust in-vivo effect from the administration of no more than 250mg/kg of stevia extract (Herbocal) to alloxan-diabetic (this is a model of type II diabetes that is induced by the injection of the drug Alloxan aka 2,4,5,6-pyrimidinetetrone, an oxygenated pyrimidine derivative) and healthy rodents for 28days - with benefits for both, the sick (normalization of blood glucose and restoration of endogenous antioxidants) and the healthy animals (no drop of blood glucose to hypoglycemic levels and increases in SOD above baseline!)

Could stevia not just ameliorate, but actually "heal" diabetes?

Figure 2: It takes it's time but stevia appears to (fully?) restore pancreatic function!

What's also intriguing are the time-course and general trend of the beneficial effects on blood glucose levels in the diabetic group. If you take a closer look at the data in figure 2 you could even speculate that another four weeks later the blood glucose levels would have totally normalized! And if that were the case, this would mean that the steviosides and rebaudiosides, the active molecules in stevia extracts, could actually have the ability to restore or repair the pancreatic beta cells that have been destroyed by either years of high blood glucose (normal type II diabetics) or the assault of the toxic sugar equivalent alloxan (in the study at hand). and protect healthy individuals against future damage by increasing the endogenous antioxidant system (as can be seen by the allegedly non-significant, but probably still physiologically relevant increase in SOD in figure 1, right)

"But this won't work in humans, will it?"

The above is certainly a good question, but in view of the fact that the short term benefits (e.g. +40% increase in insulin response in type II diabetic with -18% reduced postprandial glucose AUV with 1g of stevia in Gregersen et al. 2004), of which the Hermansen group at the Aarhus University Hospital in Aarhus, Denmark, argues that they are based on the interaction of rebaudioside A (cf. table 1) with the ATP-sensitive K-channels of the pancreatic cells in healthy and its glucagon (and thus gluconeogenesis) inihibiting effects in diabetic individual (Abdula 2004 & 2008; Jeppesen. 2007), have already been reproduced in human trials, I would say that it is more than likely that we will see similar effects in humans, as well, once the correct dosing has been established

Note: especially if you use those combination products of stevia + sugar alcohol you are very unlikely to get sufficient amounts of stevia to elicit those restorative effects; this does not mean that this is a better alternative than aspartame or cyclamate, but in those tiny amounts stevia is a sweetener, not a substance with almost drug-like effects.

Table 1: What's in stevia leaves?
(based on Yadav. 2013)

The latter is by the way all the more likely in view of the fact that Maryam Mohammadi-Sichani and her colleagues from the Falavarjan Branch-Islamic Azad University and the Esfahan University of Medical Sciences in Iran found that stevia extracts will also kill S. mutans, a common bacteria in your mouth that has its share in the development of dental caries and shows, irrespective of generally lower caries rates in type I diabetics, a hitherto not fully explained correlation with (poorly controlled) type I diabetes (Siudikiene. 2006).

Your gut starts in your mouth: The stevia - bacteria connection

These observations stand in line with previous results, of a whole host of peer-reviewed studies Yadav & Guleria summarize in a 2013 review that's about to be published in the November edition of Critical Revision of Food Science, as follows :

Image 2 (20th Century Fox): You better feed your gut bacteria right, otherwise they will disbehave just like the Alien in Ellen Ripley in Alien 3  - read more about the "Gut Type Diet" and how what you eat influences the bacterial composition of your gut on the SuppVersity

"[...] Different extracts showed differential inhibitory activity against various microbes. This experimentation confirmed the antibacterial as well as antifungal potential of Stevia leaf extract and documented that Stevia might be a source of new non-antibiotic antibacterial and antifungal agent. Its antifungal activity was estimated to be higher than the standard fungicide usually used against plant pathogens. Such extraordinary antimicrobial activity of Stevia has presented it as a potent non-antibiotic pharmaceutical and an efficient food preservative. Stevioside alone has been observed to significantly reduce the amount of inflammation mediators and activate cytotoxic cells of the host. These activities suggested that stevioside might play a synergistic role with the innate immunity of the host. Thus stevioside is antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumorous, and safe for use. While at the same time rebaudioside A has been reported to be clinically insignificant." (Yadav. 2013; my emphases)

In other words, stevia could exert part of it's beneficial effects via the immune-modulatory effects it exerts due to it's impact on the human gut microbiome, the contribution of which to the etiology of both diet-induced type II, but also auto-immune type I diabetes is getting more and more attention among researchers, as of late:

"[...] the autoimmune microbiome for T1D may be distinctly different from that found in healthy children. These data also suggest bacterial markers for the early diagnosis of T1D. In addition, bacteria that negatively correlated with the autoimmune state may prove to be useful in the prevention of autoimmunity development in high-risk children." (Giongo. 2011; my emphases)

And even if the whole "bacteria theory" of autoimmune disease and inflammation turns out to be yet another sidetrack - you will always have the

• beneficial effects on skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake that has been established by Lailerd et al. in insulin sensitive and resistant mice and the 
• hopefully physiologically relevant increase in satellite cell activity, Bunprajun et al. observed earlier this year in response to lower NF kappa-beta activity (=modulation of inflammation) in an in-vitro model (Lailerd. 2004; Bunprajun. 2013) 

as additional* arguments to satisfy your sweet tooth with stevia instead of sugar or artificial alternatives (*in addition to being able to avoid the "alternatives").

And as long as you keep an eye on the overall amount of food you consume, instead of simply stuffing yourself until you feel like there was no tomorrow, the previously discussed effects any sweetener - natural, artificial, or whatever else the future may hold - could have on your ability to sense the energy density of your foods should not be all too much of a problem problem (cf. "Sweeter Than Your Tongue Allows").

References:

• Abudula R, Jeppesen PB, Rolfsen SE, Xiao J, Hermansen K. Rebaudioside A potently stimulates insulin secretion from isolated mouse islets: studies on the dose-, glucose-, and calcium-dependency. Metabolism. 2004 Oct;53(10):1378-81.
• Abudula R, Matchkov VV, Jeppesen PB, Nilsson H, Aalkjaer C, Hermansen K. Rebaudioside A directly stimulates insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells: a glucose-dependent action via inhibition of ATP-sensitive K-channels. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2008 Nov;10(11):1074-85. Epub 2008 Apr 22.
• Das, K., R. Dang, L. Hegde and A.S. Tripathi. Assessment of heavy metals in dried stevia leaves by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer grown under various soil conditions. Middle–East J. Sci. Res. 2011; 8: 107-113.
• Giongo A, Gano KA, Crabb DB, Mukherjee N, Novelo LL, Casella G, Drew JC, Ilonen J, Knip M, Hyöty H, Veijola R, Simell T, Simell O, Neu J, Wasserfall CH, Schatz D, Atkinson MA, Triplett EW. Toward defining the autoimmune microbiome for type 1 diabetes. ISME J. 2011 Jan;5(1):82-91.
• Gregersen S, Jeppesen PB, Holst JJ, Hermansen K. Antihyperglycemic effects of stevioside in type 2 diabetic subjects. Metabolism. 2004 Jan;53(1):73-6.
• Jeppesen PB, Dyrskog SE, Agger A, Gregersen S, Colombo M, Xiao J, Hermansen K. Can stevioside in combination with a soy-based dietary supplement be a new useful treatment of type 2 diabetes? An in vivo study in the diabetic goto-kakizaki rat. Rev Diabet Stud. 2006 Winter;3(4):189-99. Epub 2007 Feb 10.
• Sharma R, Yadav R, Manivannan E. Study of effect of Stevia rebaudiana bertoni on oxidative stress in type-2 diabetic rat models Biomedicine & Aging Pathology. 2013 August 28.
• Siudikiene J, Machiulskiene V, Nyvad B, Tenovuo J, Nedzelskiene I. Dental caries and salivary status in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus, related to the metabolic control of the disease. Eur J Oral Sci. 2006 Feb;114(1):8-14.
• Yadav SK, Guleria P. Steviol Glycosides from Stevia: Biosynthesis Pathway Review and their Application in Foods and Medicine. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2013 Nov;52(11):988-98. 

Mercury, From Fish to Toenail; Less Testosterone Needed W/ TRT + Tongkat Ali; R,R-Monatin the Next Stevia From South Africa! Plus: Magnesium Protects Mitochondria from LPS & Caffeine Arteries from HIIT Induced Platelet Activity!

Image 1: Looks like the Terminator was concerned about "bone" health, maybe he should consider Tonkgat ali as an addition to his TRT... or whatever regimen;-)

If you want to, you can call today's news a special installment of "On Short Notice", I have already had a couple of interesting news and before I am piling up another truckload, I thought I could make at least some of you happy and put a handful of them out before the Super Human Radio & SuppVersity Science Round-Up on Thursday (you better make time to listen live, Thursday, 12PM/EST and download the first installment if you haven't done so, already ;-) and the "official" Saturdaily installment of "On Short Notice", here at the SuppVersity.

So let's see what we have here: Contrary to the order in the headline we will check out your toenails later, after all, I don't know what they look like and don't want to kill your appetite so that you cannot fully appreciate the findings of Fry et al. who discuss the potential application of an extract from the bark of Sclerochiton ilicifolius A.Meeuse as an all natural sweetener that's probably at least as, if not sweeter than stevia and - you guessed it - 100% calorie free! The same, i.e. being calorie free is obviously true for magnesium aspartate... whatever, in view of its potent protective effects against lipopolysaccharide induced mitochondrial damage and decay, you should not care about that, anyways.  And despite the fact that I would hope that the same goes for the minor pro-thrombotic effects of interval training, there may be one or another of the SuppVersity readers who's having issues with platelet activity already and will therefore be relieved to hear that a cup of coffee before your workout will not increase, but rather decrease the risk of thrombosis in response to the post-exercise increase in platelet activity.

You don't want to miss this week's installment of the joint Super Human Radio + SuppVersity
Science News Roundup - the show airs each Thursday, 12PM/EST (tune in live!)

The latter, i.e. the risk of thrombosis would by the way be even higher, if you were one of Xun et al.'s study participants who consumes one or more servings of fish per day. This would place you at greater risk of having high toenail mercury levels and with those being representative of whole body and tissue mercury levels you would already have higher baseline platelet activity than Mr. or Mrs. Healthy Average Joe, which would probably be a reason for your doctor to tell you that he cannot, by any means, put you on TRT (testosterone replacement therapy) - and that even if you were about as hypogonadal as the castrated rats in the Saadiah Abdul Razak study from the latest issue of Evidence Based Complementary Medicine. A study by the way you could print, show it to your doctor and say: "Look, I don't want to lose my muscle and break my bone, so let's do this you give me a script for low dose TRT and I get myself some quality Eurycoma longifolia extract and we will see how my values look like in 6 weeks from now." 

You see, as usual, even doctors can learn something, here at the SuppVersity so let's not put them on the rack for another paragraph or two and start right with our first item for today:

• 

  Image 2: Could the bark of these twigs from a spiny-leafed, hardwood shrub from South Africa hold a likewise natural stevia alternative?

  Is R,R-Monatin the new stevia? I know you all love your stevia, but there are people who simply hate the taste and still don't want to resort to any of the dubious sugar alcohols let alone the 100% artificial sweeteners, who may be interested that John C. Fry and a couple of other researchers published ad paper on a novel all natural sweetener from the bark of a South African spiny-leafed, hardwood shrub that goes by the name of  Sclerochiton ilicifolius A.Meeuse (Fry. 2013).
  According to the Fry et al., the compound has a potency above 3000 at 5% sucrose equivalent, which would make it (theoretically) even sweeter than stevia. Since the latter hit the market, we do yet all know how unrealiable these theoretical values are so that we will probably have to wait until the first monatin-based sweeteners become available - and you as a SuppVersity would be the first to know what's in there ;-)
  If we assume that there are no hitherto undisclosed health issues with monatin and it does in fact taste sweet and not disgusting, metallic or whatever, it is also likely that we are going to see new "proprietary" blends of stevia + monatin, similar to their artificial counterparts you still see in Coke Zero & Co - the quasi "natural" way to get as close as possible to the "true sugar taste", people are still craving, these days... if they don't hurry, I do yet doubt that there will be a market for products like that very long, as we are more or less trained to crave the "real sugar" taste, but this would be the topic for another blogpost ;-)

• 

  Figure 1: Effect of different doses of pre-supplementation with magnesium aspartate on markers of LPS induced mitochondrial decay, antioxidant activity and oxidative damage (data calculated based on Ahmed. 2013)

  250mg/day magnesium counter the metabolic derangements from lipopolysaccharide (LPS) intoxication When Lamiaa A. Ahmed added 20mg/kg or 40mg/kg (~125mg or 250mg in human equivalents) of magnesium aspartate to the chow mice that were pretreated with LPS injections, the researcher from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Cairo found that this regimen restored body temperature (low dose) and heart rate (high dose) of the profoundly inflamed to normal, restored the lowered glutathione levels (both doses) and reduced (low dose) and normalized (high dose) the elevated creatine kinase (marker of cell damage) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS; marker of oxidative damage) levels that had been elevated by the lipopolysaccharide treatment (Ahmed. 2013).
  The ATP:ADP ratio, the activity of the sodium potassium pumps and the creatine phosphate levels (CrPh protects the cell wall from damage as you remember from a previous installment, right?) were not completely restored to, but the pathological changes were minimized dose-dependently. In conjunction with the normalization of the lactate to pyruvate ratio, a sign of either exertional exercise or - if it occurs at rest, as it does here - mitochondrial failure, these observations indicate that Mg therapy could be a reliable protective agent in LPS-induced cardio- and general myotoxicity. In that it should be noted that higher, but not exorbitantly high (250mg is roughly 2/3 of what you should aim to get from our diet everyday, anyway) doses were more effective in reducing cell membrane damage as well as in improving the intracellular acidosis, energy production, oxidative stress and Na+,K+-ATPase activity and corresponded with a better perseverance of the mitochondrial ultrastructure.
  And while Ahmed sees the main application of Mg aspartate therapy in "critically ill" patients, I would say that the large group of patients (and non-patients) with other pathologies such as a leaky gut would benefit as well, since the defective gut barrier opens the door for the "excrements" of your gut bacteria, to induce all sorts of pathologies including mitochondrial damage and decay, but also depression, obesity, diabetes, etc. (Maes. 2008; Musso. 2010)... and before I forget to mention it is not unlikely that cheap magnesium citrate (if tolerated) would do the job just as well - maybe in a slightly higher dosage of say 300mg per day (best taken in divided doses with food).

• 

  Image 3: Coffee is full of wonders ;-)

  Antithrombotic effects of caffeine blunt platelet activity in response to interval training The use of 3mg/kg (equiv. to ~1 large cup of strong coffee or 2 smaller cups of regular coffee) of caffeine as an ergogenic aid during aerobic interval training cannot just improve your performance, it will also prevent the pro-thrombotic platelet function activation that occurs during exercise. That's the somewhat surprising finding of the one of the latest studies from the Health Innovations Research Institute at the School of Medical Sciences on the campus of the RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia (Whittaker. 2013).
  Whether this effect is of any importance to you certainly depends on your personal health. Personally, I would say that it is negligible for the vast majority of people who engage in strenuous athletic activities, if you belong to a risk group where platelet function is either high (risk of developing thromboses) or low (risk of bleeding) you may want to keep these results in mind.
  And if you don't care about platelet function, you may be considering to have another cup of coffee, when I tell you that ~3 cups per day appear to offer some protection against skin cancer, parkinson's and non-alcoholic-fatty-liver disease (click on the links to read the full stories on the SuppVersity Facebook Wall).

• 

  Image 4: Remember last week's post on the mercury in fish and how it's not simply excreted with the selenium, let alone the cysteine it's bound to? It looks like the toenails of young Americans would confirm those lab results.

  Something fishy about toenail mercury levels I guess all of you will remember my "shocking" post about the mercury toxicity from fish (cf. "Mercury in Fish NOT Harmless, Regardless of Cysteine, Selenium, EPA or DHA!"), this one could actually go as sort of a follow up post, as it deals with the real-world consequences of mercury exposure and the subsequent deposition of the heavy metal in the toe nails of the 4,344 American male and female participants (age 20–32y) in the CARDIA Trace Element Study researchers from the Gillings School of Global Public Health and School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina have recently examined (Xun. 2013).
  I know, it may sound gross, but toenails have, among the various biological specimens you could theoretically analyze, the advantage of providing a relatively reliable long-term measure of Hg exposure (from a few months to a year), are easily collected, transported,stored, and cleaned and are relatively sheltered from environmental contaminants and less likely to be contaminated by shampoo, hair treatments, and medication (Morris. 1983, He 2011).

  

  Image 5: Who would have thought that your toenails provide a way better measure of the toxic load you have accumulated than your hair, for example? Just looking at them is yet not enough for a thorough analysis

  Since the Hg levels in toenails also have relatively high correlation with both mercury intake (r = 0.54; Ohno. 2007) and the mercury deposition in critical organs (spec. in the brain - r = 0.65 ; Bjorkman. 2007), it should be obvious that the association between toe nail mercury levels and fish intake in all, but those participants who lived in Oakland and had the lowest (0.45 servings per day) fish intake per day could have a significant impact on the health of the subjects that consume more than one serving of fish per day and have a 76% higher beta coefficient of the natural logarithm of toenail Hg level than those who consume fish / seafood less than once per day (this mean that the mercury in the toenails of daily fish eaters increases 75% more rapidly towards that level than in those who eat 0.35 to 1.03 servings). Interestingly this was particularly true for the Caucasian men in the study, where the beta coefficient was another 45% higher (beta = 0.64 vs. beta = 0.44).
  Despite the fact that these results seem to confirm that eating one dose of untested canned tuna (which would probably go as way more than one serving in the eyes of the scientists) is not necessarily the best idea. It does however not mean that you cannot have you once or even twice a weak salmon steak or sushi - just keep your diet more versatile and don't make fish (or any other single foodstuff your only "allowed" source of protein or fat.

• 

  Figure 2: Weight of castrated rats on TRT, TRT (50% dose) + Eurycoma longifolia  (EL) or Eurycoma longifolia, alone, at the end of the 6-week supplementation phase, ratio of bone building osteocalcin to CRX a marker of bone resorption and actual bone strength, as measure by maximal tolerable load and Young's Modulus; all data expressed relative to sham operated (=intact) rats (data calculated based on Saadiah Abdul Razak. 2013)

  Low dose testosterone + long jack better than TRT alone? The results Saadiah Abdul Razak et al. present in the latest issue of Evidence Based Complementary Medicine don't actually look like they were interesting for muscle heads, I mean "androgen dependent osteoporosis", where are the word hypertrophy, skeletal muscle, or at least ripped & jacked? And I have to admit that of these only "skeletal muscle" makes its appearance somewhere in the introductory remarks of the discussion and only in the context of the "auxiliary functions" of testosterone as a growth hormone and IGF-1 booster and muscle builder. I do still believe that the data in the figure 2 on the right is going to get your attention - after all, the combination treatment of testosterone + Eurycoma longifolia did not "just" restore the balance of the "bone builder" osteocalcin to the "bone eater" ORX (actually it's just a marker of bone resorption) to normal (=sham levels), it did also effectively build the strongest bones, with the highest maximal load in Newton and the greatest elastic stability, as measured by the Young's Modulus.
  What's interesting, as well, is that all treatments were equally effective in restoring normal body weight - who knows maybe 15mg/kg/day (HED: 2.4mg/kg; ~170-250mg/day) of Eurycoma longifolia (EL) extract would even make a valuable stand alone (no pun intended ;-) testosterone booster for mild cases of real hypogonadism (not the one where your diet is shitty, your training sucks and it's your "low T" that you believe is to to blame that you make no gains), or an adjunct to HRT that would allow you to use only half the regular dose (this was done in the study at hand) and see similar results!? That it's good for sperm quality and testosterone, when it's administered in ~13x higher dosages in rodents (Chan. 2009) and for sperm health in men (at about the dosage used here; cf. Tambi. 2010) has already been established.
  And still, the "major gap" of which Bhat et al. postulated that it existed "in [sic!] providing scientific base for commercial utilization and clearance of the Tongkat Ali products with regard to consumer's safety" is still in existence. Moreover, the same could be said about our knowledge with respect to the individual effects of the potentially biologically active component(s) in the plant and respective extracts. Before those issues are not solved, the "extract" you may buy could be anything from uberpotent to simply toxic... although I suspect that it is still most likely that it will simply be ineffective.

What? That went too fast? Don't worry, it's just two days to the Thursdaily Science News Roundup on SHR, four days to the next official installment of "On Short Notice" and just one click away from a handful of additional up-to-the-minute news on the SuppVersity Facebook Wall such as

• the correlation of low growth hormone levels with NAFLD (= non-alcoholic fatty liver disease), 
• a study on how digestion potentates the antimicrobial activity of coconut oil,
• a potential successor to metformin that triples muscular glucose uptake in the absence of insulin 

and all the other interesting tidbits I have already and am still going to post there even before the next SuppVersity news is going to be published right here, tomorrow! Ah,... and by the way it's not prohibited to share articles you like on Facebook and other social media outlets ;-)

References:

• Ahmed, L.A., Protective effects of magnesium supplementation on metabolic energy derangements in
  lipopolysaccharide-induced cardiotoxicity in mice. Eur J Pharmacol. 2013.
• Bhat R, Karim AA. Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma longifolia Jack): a review on its ethnobotany and pharmacological importance. Fitoterapia. 2010 Oct;81(7):669-79. Epub 2010 Apr 29. 
• Bjorkman L, Lundekvam BF, Laegreid T, Bertelsen BI, Morild I, Lilleng P, Lind B, Palm B, Vahter M. Mercury in human brain, blood, muscle and toenails in relation to exposure: an
  autopsy study. Environ Health. 2007; 6:30 
• Chan KL, Low BS, Teh CH, Das PK. The effect of Eurycoma longifolia on sperm quality of male rats. Nat Prod Commun. 2009 Oct;4(10):1331-6. 
• Fry JC, Yurttas N, Biermann KL, Lindley MG, Goulson MJ. The Sweetness Concentration-Response of R,R-Monatin, a Naturally Occurring High-Potency Sweetener. J Food Sci. 2013 Aug 27.  
• He K. Trace elements in nails as biomarkers in clinical research. Eur J Clin Invest. 2011;  41(1):98–102.
• Maes M, Kubera M, Leunis JC. The gut-brain barrier in major depression: intestinal mucosal dysfunction with an increased translocation of LPS from gram negative enterobacteria (leaky gut) plays a role in the inflammatory pathophysiology of depression. Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2008 Feb;29(1):117-24.
• Morris JS, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC Dietary selenium in humans: toenails as an indicator. Biol Trace Elem Res. 1983; 5:529–537.
• Ohno T, Sakamoto M, Kurosawa T, Dakeishi M, Iwata T, Murata K. Total mercury levels in hair, toenail, and urine among women free from occupational exposure and their relations to renal tubular function. Environ Res. 2007;103(2):191–1.
• Saadiah Abdul Razak H, Shuid AN, Naina Mohamed I. Combined Effects of Eurycoma
  longifolia and Testosterone on Androgen-Deficient Osteoporosis in a Male Rat Model. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013:872406. Epub 2013 Aug 9.
• Whittaker JP, Linden MD, Coffey VG. Effect of Aerobic Interval Training and Caffeine on Blood Platelet Function. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2013 Aug 29.
• Xun P, Liu K, Morris JS, Jordan JM, He K. Distributions and determinants of mercury concentrations in toenails among American young adults: the CARDIA Trace Element Study. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2013 Aug 25.

On Short Notice: Teas & Prostate, Metformin & Amenorrhea, Stevia & High, Omega-3 & Low Cortisol, Aminos & Weight Control, Nordic Hamstring Exercise & 20% More Power!

Image 1: This would be a case where metformin probably won't help you to get your menses back - unless this is just one of your "yous" and you are taking high doses of anti-psychotics, of course.

In view of the fact that I have piled up way more "On Short Notice" items than I can possibly squeeze into one installment, today's news on the right tea (green or black) for prostate cancer, the purported anti-obesity effects of leucine and alanine, which turn out to be inferior to those of whole protein, the anti-amenorrhea and weight loss effects of metformin in women on anti-schizophrenic drug and how this relates to PCOS, the surprising N=1 cortisol-raising, high blood pressure and water retaining effects of stevia, the stress and weight loss reducing effects of omega-3s and high DHA levels in the brain, and an effective yet rarely used hamstring exercise, the "Nordic hamstring exercise", will be complemented by another installment of "On Short Notice" either tomorrow (in case I don't find the time to write the next installment of the Circadian Rhythm Series) or earlier next week... but enough of these organizational matters, let's see what we have in stock, here:

• Differential effects of green and black tea on prostate cancer risk While we are, yet again, only dealing with epidemiological shenanigan in a population living in a, if not the juggernaut of the far east, the >50% increase in hazard risk in the 27,293 men from the Singapore Chinese Health Study Julia A. Montague and her colleagues report for men who drink 1 cup of black tea per day is somewhat alarming (Montague. 2013). The fact that the hazard risk decreases to +17% with more than 2 cups of black tea does yet suggest that this is nothing but a statistic outlier. That said, black tea is (at least based on the results of this study) overall probably as benign as green tea, which is totally devoid of statistical beneficial or detrimental effects on prostate cancer risk in this cohort of normal-weight men in their middle to late 50s.
  This result does by the way not conflict with previous research, which did - if anything - only suggest a "borderline significant" beneficial effect of green tea and absolutely no effect of black tea on prostate cancer risk (Zheng. 2013). Apropos prostate cancer, just in case you missed it I highly suggest you take a look at my brief write-up on the recently published "red meat will give you prostate cancer study" before you decide on whether or not you got to stop eating meat for the sake of your prostate.

• 

  Figure 1: If  ~50g of leucine and alanine /kg chow are good, then 500g of whey are magic; makes you wonder, why you would want to add just one amino acid, instead of more protein, no?

  "Dietary L-leucine and L-alanine supplementation have similar acute effects in the prevention of high-fat diet-induced obesity",  that's the somewhat ill-chose title of a recently published paper by Anne Freudenberg, Klaus J. Petzke, Susanne Klaus from the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbruecke which does not show that the ingestion of l-leucine or alanine, but rather an isocaloric high protein diet version of the high-fat diets the researchers fed their 10-week-old male C57BL/6 mice, prevented them from getting obese (Freudenberg. 2013).
  While the high fat + complete protein mice hardly gained any body fat, the high fat + leucine and high fat + alanine (both diets were "adequate" in protein and contained 100g whey + 60g leucine and 100g whey + 45g alanine, respectively)  got only significantly less fat compared to their peirs on the 100g whey only diet control HFD diet. Now, the high protein mice (500g of whey per kg chow; =5x over baseline) simply consumed less energy, but so did the mice on the leucine and alanine enhanced diets, so that the title of the study is not just misleading, it also disguises the most important result of the study, which is high protein diets keep mice lean.
• "Cure-it-all-drug" metformin helps with anti-psychotic induced amenorrhea and weight gain, as well. If metformin was not (a) no longer protected by patent rights and (b) would not basically work via similar mechanisms as exercise I would really begin to smell fraud over the ever-extending list of pathologies this 1920s medication is good for (this is when it was originally discovered, it took however until 1958 before researchers realized the potentials and a pharma company introduced it to the UK market). New to the list are the negative side-effects women experience in response to anti-psychotic treatments. In a recently documented experiment, 48 women (ages 18-40 years) with amenorrhea and weight gain in response to clozapine, olanzapine, risperidone, or sulpiride (all anti-psychotic drugs administered to treat schizophrenia) received a dose of 1,000mg of the wonder-molecule per day (Wu. 2013). After 2 months 25% of the women had resumed menstruation, after another 2 weeks it were 80% and after 3 months all women were eumenorrheic, again (of the placebo group only 2 resumed menstruating). Instead of gaining another 2kg of body weight, they had lost 2kg and the previously thwarted prolactin, LH, and testosterone levels, as well as the LH/FSH ratio had normalized.
  Probably, some of you may now ask themselves: Will this work for me as well - though I am not taking anti-psychotics? I would love I could answer this question, but aside from polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), where we have a couple of trials in which metformin was used with success (cf. Velazquez. 1998; Bela. 2009; Palomba. 2009), the scientific evidence is scarce and in view of the fact that we know even less about the underlying mechanisms by which risperidone & co cause amenorrhea and weight gain than about the almost magical omnipotence of metformin I honestly can't tell. One thing that comes mind, where metformin is yet very unlikely to of any use is diet or exercise induced amenorrhea (overtraining and undereating), because this form of amenorrhea presents with a totally different hormonal profile, with low levels of basically all reproductive hormones.
• Stevia as cortisol promoter? Case study: Bloating, high blood pressure and malaise in a young previously healthy woman. Before I go on, let me briefly remind you that the events that are described in a recent case report from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics may should be regarded with the degree of caution that is indicated whenever we are talking about case reports, specifically because stevia does actually have a pretty decent safety profile (aside from the occasional allergic reactions you will see with almost every foreign molecule you put into your body, obviously).

  

  Figure 2: If you block the 11bHSD2 enzyme that will convert cortisol into inactive cortisone, you are in trouble and a bloated tummy is certainly your least problem, not because "cortisol is bad", as common sense would dictate, but because not being able to manage it is bad (img. Michael. 2008)

  When a 32 year old Caucasian woman presented with generalized edema (feet, hands and face) that had persisted for over six months at her Dr office and was found to to suffer from pre-hypertension (138/88 mmHg) and hypokalemia (3.4 mM/l) that was brought about by a decline in serum aldosterone and plasma renin activity and corroborated by a concomitant  increase in the plasma cortisol/cortisone ratio, most Dr.'s would probably have thought of licorice intoxication. As it turned out, it were neither the glycyrrizinic acid, not the glycyrrhetinic acid from licorice which brought about these problem, but rather the stevia the lady had been using for over 9 months, now. Obviously, the sweetener (from an undisclosed brand) had blocked the 11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase Type 2 (11-beta-HSD 2, see figure 2) enzyme that's responsible for the conversion (="deactivation") of cortisol to cortisone - with all the negative side effects of the subsequent 12x elevation of the ratio of active to inactive corticosteroids (Esmail. 2013).
  Now, I am certainly not suggesting that this is going to happen to everyone, but it could well be that the frequent reports of headaches people are developing after a couple of days "on stevia", could also be related to the effects the sweetener has on people with a certain genetic disposition. So, if you get a headache or start holding water like crazy, when you use stevia / stevia sweetened products, first try using a different brand (there have been issues with toxins in some products), make sure you have a pure stevia sweetener and not one with other sweeteners added (thx. to Amit for the reminder about erythritol that's in many products), switch to another preparation, e.g. from pure stevisoids to a a more "natural" extract and if all that does not help, just turn your back on it - you can live without it, I guarantee ;-)
• Omega-3's modulate adrenal activity What many people know from going overboard on fish oil has now been established in a recently published rodent study by Marie Hennebelle and her French (resident) colleagues (Hennebelle. 2013). The researchers fed a group of rodents a totally ALA free energetically restricted diet to produce male rats with brain phospholipid DHA levels that were 50% lower than those of the normal control. The 6 month-old rodents were then subjected to chronic restraint stress (6 h/d) for 21 days. As expected the rodents on the alpha linolic acid deficient diets had a much harder time coping with the torture they were exposed to and showed higher corticosterone levels, more pronounced behavioral abnomalies and slightly more pronounced weight loss in the 3-4 week of the 1-month experimental period. What's intriguing though is the the remarkable stress resistance (one could also say adrenal hypofunction ;-) in the rodents in a third experimental group, who had received an omega-3 enriched diet that boosted their brain DHA levels to 10% above normal: Compared to both the normal, as well as the omega-3 deprived rodents they had ~30% lower cortisol levels during week two and three of the experiment and lost only 50% of the weight their normal and ALA deprived peers did.
  That this is not necessarily a good thing for everyone is probably nothing I have to tell you. After all, the number of people who are hardly functioning due to over-supplementation with fish oil and (as this study would suggest) below normal stress responses is ever increasing. As with so many nutrients and supplements, it thus comes down to specificity and hitting the right ratios for you as an individual, again. And what's most important: Before you even start thinking about "fixing your adrenals" you should first take a look at the various stressors in your life. After all, the aforementioned fatigue is not simply a result of two much fish oil, but of its combination with a lifestyle which simply requires a robust and healthy cortisol response. You would not smoke weed to calm yourself down minutes before running away from a saber-toothed tiger, either, would you?

• 

  Video 1: These young ladies show you how it's done - well almost, you better go a little slower (click image to watch.

  Scientists confirm efficacy of nordic hamstring exercise - up to +20% increase in peak torque! What? You don't know the nordic hamstring exercise - I bet you do, but probably not by this name. Check out video 1 to the right and you will know what the 18 male players from a club in the English professional soccer leagues (mean±SD; age, 22.9±3.6 years; stature, 1.81±0.08 m; body mass 78.0±9.7 kg) did for 1x 2x5, 2x 2x6, 3x 3x6 and 3x 3x8 (sessions per week x sets x reps) during week 1-4 of the study period to improve their peak torque by up to 21% in all assessment conditions (90-61°, 60-31° and 30-0° of knee extension; cf. Iga. 2013).
  What is yet important is that you stick to an adequate temp and don't mess around and hurt yourself. In the study at hand, the velocity of the movement was standardized to 30°/s. If we assume that you go over the full ROM it must therefore take you 3s until your nose hits the ground (if you are afraid to hurt your nose, you may be interested in the SuppVersity EMG Series and the Best Leg + Hamstring Exercises ;-)

I hope you enjoy this more digestible format, having 20 of these items in one installment is - at least in my view - somewhat beside the point. Not that this would not be possible, but if I go by the average attention span of my real-life students, multiply it by 2x to accommodate for your superior cognitive abilities and personal interest in the topic, it appears prudent to call it a day for today. And if can't stand the 24h for the next SuppVersity news to be released, I suggest you simply like the SuppVersity Facebook Wall, where you will find another seven allegedly shorter news-items... about the wheat-allergens in soap (+ scary pic of what can happen, when you use those), for example or the news photo-based cholesterol test (a photo of your hands is all it takes), which is probably going to give the sales of statins another boost.

References:

• Billa E, Kapolla N, Nicopoulou SC, Koukkou E, Venaki E, Milingos S, Antsaklis A, Adamopoulos DA. Metformin administration was associated with a modification of LH, prolactin, and insulin secretion dynamics in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome. Gynecol Endocrinol 2009; 25:427–434
• Esmail S, Kabadi UM. Edema, Enigma: 11 B-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase Type 2 Inhibition by Sweetener “Stevia”. Open Journal of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, 2013, 2, 49-52.
• Freudenberg A, Petzke KJ, Klaus S. Dietary L-leucine and L-alanine supplementation have similar acute effects in the prevention of high-fat diet-induced obesity. Amino Acids. 2013 Jul 31.
• Hennebelle M, Balasse L, Latour A, Champeil-Potokar G, Denis S, Lavialle M, Gisquet-Verrier P, Denis I, Vancassel S. Influence of omega-3 Fatty Acid status on the way rats adapt to chronic restraint stress. PLoS One. 2013;7(7):e42142.
• Montague JA, Butler LM, Wu AH, Genkinger JM, Koh WP, Wong AS, Wang R, Yuan JM, Yu MC. Green and black tea intake in relation to prostate cancer risk among Singapore Chinese. Cancer Causes Control. 2013 Aug 3.
• Palomba S, Falbo A, Zullo F, Orio F Jr. Evidence-based and potential benefits of metformin in the polycystic ovary syndrome: a comprehensive review. Endocr Rev 2009; 30:1–50
• Wu RR, Jin H, Gao K, Twamley EW, Ou JJ, Shao P, Wang J, Guo XF, Davis JM, Chan PK, Zhao JP. Metformin for treatment of antipsychotic-induced amenorrhea and weight gain in women with first-episode schizophrenia: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Am J Psychiatry. 2013 Aug 1;169(8):813-21. 
• Velazquez EM, Mendoza S, Hamer T, Sosa F, Glueck CJ. Metformin therapy in polycystic ovary syndrome reduces hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, hyperandrogenemia, and systolic blood pressure while facilitating normal menses and pregnancy. Metabolism 1994; 43:647–654
• Zheng J, Yang B, Huang T, Yu Y, Yang J, Li D. Green tea and black tea consumption and prostate cancer risk: an exploratory meta-analysis of observational studies. Nutr Cancer. 2011;63(5):663-72.

Science Round-Up Seconds: Stevia, Cancer & Fertility. What is the Verdict? Exercise, Hunger & GLP-1. Can a Workout Fill You Up? Postactivation Potentiation & Personal Bests. 8% More Maximal Power After 5s Max. Voluntary Contraction?

Other news: Classic cardio ramps up GLP-1 and "posing" increases your maxes by up to 8%.

If you have already downloaded and listened to yesterday's installment of the SuppVersity Science Round-Up, you will probably be aware that the first thing I am going to do in today's Seconds is to (re-)address the stevia issue (read up on previous stories about Stevia here at the SuppVersity).

If I recall that correctly, I did in fact forget to mention something that's actually important if you want to get the whole picture - the gut microbiome! But before we tackle this one, let's not forget that there are a couple of other news stories which did not make it into the 60min show, news on the effects of LISS on GLP-1 and the potentiation of the post-activation potentiation effect. Sounds interesting, then let''s go for it!

Is stevia toxic, does it cause cancer and infertility? 

Let me start with the bottom line first. The currently available scientific evidence clearly suggest that stevia is safe to consume. Or, as "real" scientists (not that I would not consider myself a scientist, but without a single published paper in this domain of science, I am certainly not an authority ;-) write in their papers:

What was that about the microbiome? I forgot to mention that the "bad" aglycol aka "steviol" is also produced from the benign and usually not even absorbed pure steviosides and is thus not something you'll find only in "natural" stevia products. That being said, Wingard et al. observed in 1980 already that steviol is readily excreted via the billary pathway in the feces (Wingard. 1980; confirmed by Nakayama. 1986). You may thus be exposed to small amounts of steviol no matter what, but that's nothing your body cannot dispose of.

"The recent suggestions that steviol glycosides present a muta-genic – and therefore carcinogenic – risk to consumers are not sup-ported by actual test results. The paper making this claim by Matsui et al. (1996a) was published prior to most of the papers assessing the genotoxic risk of steviol glycosides as well as several expert panel reports and a review by Brusick in 2008. The database of genotoxicity studies for steviol glycosides and steviol as it currently stands, combined with a lack of evidence for neoplasm development in rat bioassays (Aze et al., 1991; Xili et al., 1992; Toyoda et al., 1997; reviewed by Carakostas et al., 2008, 2013; EFSA, 2010), is adequate to establish the safety of these food ingredients with respect to their genetic/carcinogenic potential." (Urban. 2013)

And with respect to the infertility claim, Geuns et al. write in their very detailed review from 2003:

"The results of a decrease of live birth rate in rats (Planas and Kuæ, 1968) by Stevia decoctions were refuted by Shiotsu (1996) who did more reliable experiments with many more animals using methods as similar as possible to the methods used by Planas and Kuc. No effect on general condition, body weight, water consumption, live birth rate or litter size was found. No effects of stevioside were found on fertility or reproduction in mice (Akashi and Yokoyama, 1975), rats ( Mori et al., 1981, Xili et al., 1992 and Sinchomi and Marcorities, 1989) or hamsters (Yodyingyuad and Bunyawong, 1991).

No significant effect was found on spermatogenesis, nor on the interstitial cell proliferation and tumor formation in the testes of F344 rats fed a ration containing up to 1% stevioside (95.2% purity) for 22 months (Yamada et al., 1985).

If you are either a newcomer to the SuppVersity or simply cannot remember the summary of selected stevia research from September last year, I suggest you go back in the archives and read up on "More Than Super Sweet: More Scientific Evidence, More Potential Implications for Weight Loss & -Maintenance, Anti-Diabetic & -Autoimmune and Even Pro-Anabolic Effects" (learn more) Some of the benefits are btw. mediated by the same stuff that's toxic in in-vitro studies...hormesis, you know ;-)

Whereas Melis (1999) suggested a possible decrease of the fertility of male rats by a very high dose of Stevia extract, Oliveira-Filho et al. (1989) who administered extracts with similar stevioside content stated that there is certainly not an effect on male fertility. It is not sure that the observed effects were due to the stevioside present in the extract. It should also be mentioned that the used extract concentrations were extremely high, at the start of the experiments even 5.34% of the body weight (or around 5.3 g stevioside/kg bw). For an adult person of 65 kg this means 3.47 kg of dry Stevia leaves or about 34.7 kg fresh leaves/day, i.e. more than 50% of the body weight! The significance of such experiments where only one extremely high concentration was tested, should be questioned. Melis' results are also in contradiction with the above and below cited studies that could not reveal any effect on fertility of male or female animals." (Geuns. 2003; my emphases)

Much ado about nothing? Well, in the end it may seem so and the preponderance about freakin' out over every potential and 0.5% marginal possibility that something you do or eat could be wrong or toxic certainly ain't healthy. On the other hand, it's always good to exhibit a certain degree  of suspiciousness - just do me favor: Do that towards both the good and the bad news!

Scheduled news that did not make it into the live show

The fat burning benefits of hydroxypropyl-distarch phosphate from waxy maize starch  (WMHDP) are - at least in part - also mediated by increases in GLP-1 production (read more)

Short and long-term effects of exercise on appetite and metabolism regulating hormones -- (Ueda. 2013) As a SuppVersity reader and SHR listener, you are no stranger to the acronym GLP-1 and the effects the "satiety hormone" it stands for has on your desire to eat and, more importantly, your metabolisms willingness to use not store the energy from the food you consume (learn more).

In a soon to be published paper, Shin-ya Ueda and colleagues report that chronic exercise, in this case 3x/week 60min of light intensit (65% of VO2max) cardio on a treadmill and/or cycle ergometer results in a statistically highly significant increase in GLP-1 in response to exercise.

Usually I don't like to repeat myself, but I would probably have missed the main important message here, if I were just skimming the above: The 20 healthy middle-aged women who participated in the 12-week experiment did not simply have higher GLP-1 levels after a meal. No, the post-exercise levels of GLP-1 and the other satiety hormone PYY increased hours before the ladies even got their next meal.

Figure 1: GLP-1 (pmol/ml; left) and PYY (pmol/ml; right) response to exercise before and after (0, 30, 60 min) a 80min (60 min effective training + 20min warm-up, cool-down etc.) supervised workout before (untrained) the 12-week exercise intervention and after (trained) the 12-week exercise intervention (Ueda. 2013)

In conjunction with the significant correlation of GLP-1 with the reduction in body weight the study participants achieved over the course of the course of the 12x3 = 36 supervised exercise session, this was reason enough for the scientists to hypothesize that...

"[...] that the ability of exercise training to create a negative energy balance relies not only directly on its impact on energy expenditure, but also indirectly on its potential to modulate energy intake." (Ueda. 2013)

So, does exercise "just make you hungry". No, it turns you into a satisfied fat burning machine - and that even if it's just 3x60min of LISS per week.

---

Training increases the efficacy of 5-6s maximal contractions to before a maximal voluntary effort (Miyamoto. 2013) I guess you will be aware that Superman usually does a 5-6s maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) while checking out if everybody is watching before he eventually does the deed and lifts the car that has just overrun the beautiful blond bombshell with a "single-armed deadlift", right? Good, because if you know that, I don't have to explain why the scientists from the Waseda University in Japan 21 healthy male subjects perform a 5s MVC before they did their maximal voluntary concentric knee extensions 1, 3 and 5 minutes, thereafter.

Figure 2: Voluntary concentric torque on knee extensions after previous peak contractions before (left) and after (right) in the trained and untrained study participants.

What I probably still have to tell you though is that the "after" values you see in figure 2 were taken after 12-weeks of doing 5x 8 reps with 80% of the one-repetition max in a standard knee extension machine. Ok, I have to admit that the actual training effect is not really impressive, but since most of you have it already built in (after all, you probably train for more than 12-weeks already, right?) doing a single 5s maximal voluntary contraction before a max-effort trial is an easy and time-efficient (1 min!) way to increase your performance by superman-like 8%! What this funky technique is called like? Postactivation Potentiation - nice alliteration, isn't it?

---

That is it, for the day - at least for the Seconds. If you don't know what to do before the weekend begins, browse over to the SuppVersity Facebook Wall and check out news on

• 

  If you have not done so, already, click here and teach yourself "How to Make the Correct Fish choices"? There is luckily way more swimming around in our oceans than farmed salmon with it's more than 4x elevated n6:n3 ratio (compared to wild salmon, learn more)

  Salmon in the vicious cycle of soy supplementation - Scientists try to come up with a certain bacteria that could protect farmed salmon from the junk, ah... soy it's fed (read more)

• Alpha lipoic acid (ALA) helps otherwise healthy schizophrenics on heavy anti-histamine regimen to lose weight - 2x 1gram of regular ALA does the trick (read more) 

• People who were breastfed as kids have healthier eating habits in their adulthood - Interestingly, this effect did not depend on social class at birth or later in life and occurred irrespective of smoking status, alcohol intake or reported physical activity.

Once you've done that, you first make sure that you did not miss part three of my interview with Sean Casey and then get off the screen and into the night, family or whatever real life, I'd hope you did not give up on after you bought your latest iPhone ;-)


References:

• Akashi H, Yokoyama Y. Security of dried-leaf extracts of Stevia. Toxicological tests. Food Industry. 1975; 18:34–43.
• Aze Y, Toyoda K, Imaida K, Hayashi S, Imazawa T, Hayashi Y, Takahashi M. [Subchronic oral toxicity study of stevioside in F344 rats]. Eisei Shikenjo Hokoku. 1991;(109):48-54.
• Carakostas MC, Curry LL, Boileau AC, Brusick DJ. Overview: the history, technical function and safety of rebaudioside A, a naturally occurring steviol glycoside, for use in food and beverages. Food Chem Toxicol. 2008 Jul;46 Suppl 7:S1-S10.
• Geuns JM. Stevioside. Phytochemistry. 2003 Nov;64(5):913-21. Review.
• Matsui M, Matsui K, Kawasaki Y, Oda Y, Noguchi T, Kitagawa Y, Sawada M, Hayashi M, Nohmi T, Yoshihira K, Ishidate M Jr, Sofuni T. Evaluation of the genotoxicity of stevioside and steviol using six in vitro and one in vivo mutagenicity assays. Mutagenesis. 1996 Nov;11(6):573-9.
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