Tribulus Boosts Testosterone (+12%), IGF-1 (+20%), Sheds 2kg (7%) Body Fat and Maintains Lean Mass in 12 Wk RCT

Tribulus Boosts Testosterone (+12%), IGF-1 (+20%), Sheds 2kg (7%) Body Fat and Maintains Lean Mass in 12 Wk RCT

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Could a high dose of purified saponin tribulus extract as it was obviously used in the study at hand actually be a valid TRT alternative or even option? 

No, this is not the 2015 study in trained boxers that found similarly surprising, because impressive benefits from tribulus terrestris (TT) supplementation (read it). It's a new study from the Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, Poland (Wilk. 2016) that has no direct link to the previously discussed study from the  Shanghai University of Sport Affiliated School of Sports in China.

And even though, the aim, i.e. to determine the effects of steriodal saponins from tribulus terrestris on the blood concentration of testosterone (T), GH and IGF-1 was similar, the overall design of the study was significantly different.

Don't forget to work out - Without exercise you're not going to get lean and jacked, bro!

Tri- or Multi-Set Training for Body Recomp.?

Aug '15 Ex.Res. Upd.: Nitrate, Glycogen, and ...

Pre-Exhaustion Exhausts Your Growth Potential

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Study Indicates Cut the Volume Make the Gains!

While the previously discussed study by Ma et al. (2015) was conducted with young athletic individuals, Wilk et al. deliberately chose 14 men between the age of 45 and 60 years, i.e. exactly those years in a man's life over the course of which the natural hormone production starts to decline significantly.

Table 1: How to recognize your T-levels are declining (from Matsumoto. 2002).

Over twelve weeks, the subjects who were normal-to-overweight with a body mass index of 25–33, and body fat content between 23–30%, received either...

• experimental group: steroidal saponins (TT) - for the first six weeks three capsules (900 mg) per day in split doses (2x capsules were ingested in the morning on an empty stomach, 600 mg, and one at bedtime, 300 mg) and twice the dose, i.e. 6 capsules (1,800 mg) were ingested per day in split doses (4x capsules in the morning on an empty stomach, 1,200 mg, and 2x capsules at bedtime, 600 mg), or 

What's the use of the "front load", i.e. taking more in the AM vs. PM? That's a question I just received from Peter via Facebook. Good question, but one the scientists do not answer. So I'd have to speculate that they may have intended to mirror the natural 24h (=circadian) rhythm of testosterone which peaks in the AM and declines over the day to re-increase over night and peak again in the AM. What is particularly interesting about this rhythm, by the way, is that it - or rather the peaks in the AM, are lost as you age (see Figure on the left | Bremner. 1983).

• control group: placebo (CON) - in the form of gelatin capsules using the same supplementation protocol as it was prescribed in the experimental group 

And even though all subjects participated in a physical activity program over the 12 week study period, the workouts the scientists describe as follows,...

"Get leaner, more muscular and hornier than ever before" - That's probably the promise on the T-booster someone will release after reading this SuppVersity Classic article and sourcing an inferior Shilajit extract on Alibaba. Is that going to be a waste of time - just as the majority of the tribulus products on the market, which are lightyears away from providing grams of pure saponines on a multiple serving per day basis | learn more.

"4 training sessions per week, with 2 sessions directed at the improvemnt of anaerobic power (resistance exercise), while 2 consisted of aerobic endurance exercise. Aerobic training was performed on a stationary cycle ergometer, starting with 30 minutes of continuous exercise at an intensity of 70–75% of maximum heart rate (HR max). Every two weeks, the work volume was increased by 5 minutes in order to reach 60 minutes in the last two weeks of the experiment. Strength training had a holistic aproach, involving all major muscle groups (the back, chest, abdomen, arms and lower limbs). For the first four weeks, exercises were performed in 3 sets of 8–12 reps with the resistance equal to 60–70% of 1RM and 2 min rest periods between sets. During the experiment, the number of sets of each exercise increased from 3 to 4 sets in weeks 5–8, and respectively to 5 sets in weeks 9–12 for each exercise," (Wilk. 2016)

was of course not the same as the one in the previously discussed Chinese study. In conjunction with the standardized isocaloric (same energy content) mixed diet containing 55% carbohydrate, 20% protein, 25% fat, the workouts are still an important means of standardizing / reducing inter-group differences that could otherwise arise due to personal exercise and / or diet preferences.

Figure 1: Relative changes in blood lipids, GH, IGF-1 and testosterone (Wilk. 2016).

The results of the scientists' two series of laboratory tests (independent tests were conducted at the beginning and after 12 weeks of the intervention), revealed a statistically significant effect of the intervention on the following variables: T-Ch (η2 = 0.542), HDL-Ch (η2 = 0.522), LDL-Ch (η2 = 0.587), T (η2 = 0.603), IGF-1 (η2 = 0.512) and GH (η2 = 0.621).

Figure 2: Relative changes in body composition; effect sizes and p-values (Wilk. 2016).

Effects of which you will probably pleased to hear that they went hand in hand with significant decreases in total body fat (TBF) total body mass (BM) and borderline significant effects on the fat-free mass (muscle, organ and bone mass) of the subjects - an observation of which the scientists say that it "indicate[s] that treatment or supplementation of individual hormone deficiencies can be a successful form of counteracting the aging process" - an aging process that is evidenced by increasing body fat levels, decreasing amounts of fat-free mass and concomitant deterioration of blood lipids and blood glucose (the latter was unfortunately not measured in the study at hand).

Wtf!? What kind of tribulus was that? I wish I could tell you that, but a brand name or other specifics are not mentioned in the publicly financed study from Poland.

Make no mistake about it, the impressive increases in free T in Brown's often miscited 2001 study from which I took this figure were due to a combination of the prohormone androstenediol with tribulus and other herbs. To ascribe the T-increase to TT is idiotic.

What I can tell you is that the results are in line with a 2009 study by Milasius, et al. who used food a commercial supplement Tribulus from Optimum Nutrition, USA, and observed positive effects on the acid-base equilibrium after short-term, high intensity anaerobic exercise in competitive athletes. The study at hand apparently used a more pruified steroidal saponin supplement, however, and observed similar effects as Brown et al. (2001), who supplemented tribulus alongside 300mg of the prohormone androstenediol and found - not to anyone's surprise, probably a significant effect on serum testosterone concentration in both young and older men (see Figure to the right).

Since no such effects were observed in the often cited study by Neychev, et al.  (2005) in allegedly much younger subjects, the question future studies will have to answer is whether that's due to an (subject-)age- or dosage / otherwise supplement-related difference between the high dose of (probably) pure saponins used in the study at hand and the relatively low dose of Bulgaria TT (200mg/day) with 60% saponins that was used by Neychev, et al. in 2005 | Comment!

References:

• Bremner, William J., Michael V. Vitiello, and Patricia N. Prinz. "Loss of Circadian Rhythmicity in Blood Testosterone Levels with Aging in Normal Men*." The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 56.6 (1983): 1278-1281.
• Brown, Gregory A., et al. "Endocrine and lipid responses to chronic androstenediol-herbal supplementation in 30 to 58 year old men." Journal of the American College of Nutrition 20.5 (2001): 520-528.
• Matsumoto, Alvin M. "Andropause clinical implications of the decline in serum testosterone levels with aging in men." The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences 57.2 (2002): M76-M99.
• Milasius, K., R. Dadeliene, and Ju Skernevicius. "The influence of the Tribulus terrestris extract on the parameters of the functional preparedness and athletes’ organism homeostasis." Fiziol Zh 55.5 (2009): 89-96.
• Neychev, Vladimir Kostadinov, and Vanyo Ivano Mitev. "The aphrodisiac herb Tribulus terrestris does not influence the androgen production in young men." Journal of ethnopharmacology 101.1 (2005): 319-323.
• Wilk, Michał, et al. "Endocrine Responses to Physical Training and Tribulus Terrestris Supplememtation in Middle-Age Men." Central European Journal of Sport Sciences and Medicine 13.1 (2016): 65-71.

Shilajit: Ayurvedic Testosterone Booster that Works in Men, not Rats: ~20% Increase in Free T + Higher Total T & DHEA

Shilajit: Ayurvedic Testosterone Booster that Works in Men, not Rats: ~20% Increase in Free T + Higher Total T & DHEA

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"Get leaner, more muscular and hornier than ever before" - That's probably the promise on the T-booster someone will release after reading this SuppVersity article and sourcing an inferior Shilajit extract on Alibaba.

No, I hadn't heard of Purified Shilajit (PS), either, before I read about it in a very recent study in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Andrologia (Pandit. 2015). Actually, the study was first published in online (ahead or print), in late 2015. It took several months for it to be finally available in print and to appear on my "study radar", though.

Shilajit is traditionally used in Ayurveda, an indigenous system of Indian medicine, as a remedy for several diseases, particularly chronic diseases. It is a pale-brown to blackish-brown exudate that oozes from sedimentary rocks worldwide, largely in the Himalayas. The natives describe it as pahar-ki-pasina (sweat of mountains), paharki-khoon (mountain blood), shilaras (rock juice), asphalt, bitumen, etc.

Don't forget to work out - Without exercise you're not going to get lean and jacked, bro!

Tri- or Multi-Set Training for Body Recomp.?

Aug '15 Ex.Res. Upd.: Nitrate, Glycogen, and ...

Pre-Exhaustion Exhausts Your Growth Potential

Full ROM ➯ Full Gains - Form Counts!

BFR-Preconditio- ning Useless for Weights?

Study Indicates Cut the Volume Make the Gains!

Shilajit is said to carry the healing power of these great mountains (Frawley. 1986) and is one of the "important drug[s] of the ancient Ayurvedic materia medica and [... ] to this day used extensively by Ayurvedic physicians for a variety of diseases (Pandit. 2015). As Pandit et al. point out, ...

"[e]arly Ayurvedic writings from the Charaka Samhita (Sharma, 1998) describe Shilajit as a cure for all diseases as well as a Rasayana (rejuvenator) that promises to increase longevity. It is composed of rock humus, rock minerals and organic substances that have been compressed by layers of rock mixed with marine organisms and microbial metabolites" (Pandit. 2015).

That this is probably not exactly accurate must not hide the fact that it has in fact been used successfully to treat diabetes and diseases of the urinary tract, oedema, tumours, muscle wasting, epilepsy and even insanity in practice and that clinical research confirms many of the properties for which Shilajit has been used (Talbert. 2004).

Figure 1: A study by Biswas 2009 in infertile men is the first to show the potent effects of Shilajt in a randomized controlled human trial involving a total of 60 (active treatment + placebo) oligospermic men (Biswas. 2009).

Needless to say that, in Ayurveda, Shilajit is also used for the management of male reproductive disorders, and in particular, under the parlance of Vrisya (an aphrodisiac with special reference to spermatogenesis). In that, it has been shown to pose no toxicity issues with several studies reporting an LD50 of  >2000 mg/kg, acutely (Acharya et al., 1988; Ghosal et al., 1989), and doses of 0.2–1.0 g per kg body weight when used chronically (Kelginbaev et al., 1973; Anisimov & Shakirzyanova, 1982; Fortan & Acharya, 1984; Al-Hamaidi & Umar, 2003).

And the data from Biswas 2009 study (Figure 1) demonstrates that Shilajit is not just safe (no alterations in serum urea, uric acid, serum bilirubin, total protein, serum globulin, SGPT, SGOT and alkaline phosphatase were observed), but also effective in improving the total sperm count (+61.4%), motility (12.4–17.4% after different time intervals), normal sperm count (+18.9%) and total testosterone (+23.5%) levels with concomitant decrease in 28 patients with oligospermia and infertility when it was administered at a dosage of only 100 mg twice daily for 90 days.

Sponsored study warning: The study used a product that goes by the name PrimaVie™. It is a a patented (US 6,440,436, 6,969,612, 6,558,712, EP 1 387 614) standardized extract of native Shilajit from Natreon, Inc. of which the scientists confirmed in HPLC analysis that it contains >60% w/w of total bioactives, which include not less than 50% w/w of fulvic acids (FAs), not less than 0.3% w/w of dibenzo α-pyrones (DBPs) and not less than 10% w/w of dibenzo-α-pyrone chromoproteins (DCPs). Unfortunately, the producers didn't just sponsor the product but also supported the study. This does not mean that the results are not reliable, but we must still treat the scientists conclusions more carefully than those of independent researchers. Furthermore, the scientists recorded 21 dropouts (total from both groups) who were not included in the calculations of testosterone and co.

According to Pandit et al. the data from Biswas study is supported by their own unpublished human safety study of purified Shilajit from Natreon, Inc., New Brunswick, NJ, USA, and an unpublished animal study in rats with 100 mg/kg b.w. (equivalent to human dose of 850 mg) by Natreon showed a significant increase in testosterone levels. Based on the three studies, Pandit et al. chose a dose of 250 mg twice daily for their study.

Figure 2: Schematics of study design (Pandit. 2015).

"A schematic of the study design is shown in Fig. 2. Healthy volunteers aged between 45 and 55 years, irrelevant of religion, income status and occupation, were selected for the present purpose, and the distribution of patients was done by the method of double-blind randomised techniques. Initially, 145 volunteers were selected on the basis of primary assessment eligibility and 49 among them were excluded for various reasons (Fig. 2). A total of 96 volunteers were enrolled in the present trial and randomly divided into two equal groups as PS treated and placebo treated, each with 48 subjects. In the course of the study, 21 subjects discontinued for various reasons and 38 subjects in PS-treated group and 37 subjects in the placebo group completed the study (Fig. 2). Mean age of the volunteers was 49.44 years in the test drug group and 48.89 years in the placebo group, and thus, there is no bias due to the difference in mean ages" (Pandit. 2015).

Subjects in both groups received respective drugs in the dose of 250 mg/capsule orally, twice daily after major meals, for a total duration of 90 days. In that...

• Group – I received the active treatment PS 250 mg BID (38 subjects), while 
• Group – II was supplied w/ a Placebo 250 mg (microcrystalline cellulose 124 mg + lactose 124 mg + magnesium stearate 2 mg) BID (37 subjects)

Both the PS and placebo capsules were white opaque, Size 1, and looked identical. The same cannot be said of the study results in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Effect of PS on testosterone & its mediators w/ respect to placebo control; rel. changes over bars (Pandit. 2015).

More specifically, Pandit et al. observed that in the "PS-treated group, there was an increase in testosterone levels (ng/ml) on days 30 (6.82%), 60 (3.09%) and 90 (20.45%) with respect to day ‘0’" (Pandit. 2015). Furthermore, ...

• testosterone levels on day ‘90’ rose significantly (P < 0.05) vs. baseline in PS,
• testosterone levels decreased sign. (P < 0.05) vs. baseline in placebo,
• testosterone in PS-treated group on day 90 was sign. higher (P < 0.05) than placebo, 
• free testosterone in PS-treated group on day 90 increased sign. (19.14%), and 
• free testosterone level of PS-treated group on day 90 was also sign. higher than placebo.

In addition, the researchers recorded no difference in LH levels (which is good, because this means the testes worked more efficient, not overtime) and a significantly increased FSH level (P < 0.004) in the PS-treated group on days 30, 60 and 90 with respect to baseline. Thus, the result of FSH was significantly better in PS-treated group than placebo group on day 90.

The same goes for DHEAs, the adrenal hormone and potential (!) precursor of testosterone, which showed "interesting results" (Pandit. 2015) with PS, where the level of DHEAs gradually increased on day 30 (9.14%), 60 (9.59%) and 90 (31.35%) with respect to values on day ‘0’. The change of DHEAs in placebo group, on the other hand was "irregular" (Pandit. 2015). Eventually, the level of increase in DHEA in PS-treated group on day 90 was found to be significantly higher (P < 0.05) than baseline value of PS-treated group and 90-day value of placebo.

T-Boosters Revisited: Maca & Garcinia Cola Boost Testosterone by More Than 125% and 300% While Increasing Libido | more!

Bottom line: So what's going on, here? 20% increase in testosterone? That's huge! No? Well, it is a significant difference, but the 20% decrease in testosterone 'due to' a placebo, of which the researchers say that it "has neither stimulation nor inhibiting role on testosterone secretion or synthesis" (Pundit. 2015), should be evidence enough that a 20% change in testosterone levels can occur "randomly".

Against that background and in view of the fact that the scientists don't discuss the regular circadian variety in testosterone levels, I have to repeat my "watch out: sponsored research!"-warning | Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Biswas, Tuhin Kanti, et al. "Clinical evaluation of spermatogenic activity of processed Shilajit in oligospermia." Andrologia 42.1 (2010): 48-56.
• Frawley, David, and Vasant Lad. "The yoga of herbs." Santa Fe (NM): Lotus (1986).
• Pandit, S., et al. "Clinical evaluation of purified Shilajit on testosterone levels in healthy volunteers." Andrologia (2015).
• Talbert, Robert. "Shilajit: a materia medica monograph." California College of Ayurveda A 1117 (2004).

T-Boosters Revisited: Maca & G. Cola Boost Testosterone by More Than 125% and 300% While Increasing Libido

T-Boosters Revisited: Maca & G. Cola Boost Testosterone by More Than 125% and 300% While Increasing Libido

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We still need human studies to confirm the results of the studies to call maca and garcinia cola "proven T-boosters"!

Before you get all-too-excited; let's be clear about this: An increase in natural testosterone production will not produce the same increase in muscle mass and reduction in body fat as injectable testosterone. As I've explained in two previous articles ("Understanding the Big T", "Quantifying the Big T"), the difference lies in small constant (T-booster) vs. extreme and slowly declining increases in testosterone (T-injection | see Figure 1). If you take a look at the dose-response graph I created for the former article, you will yet realize that this does not mean that a significant boost of low-ish T-levels wouldn't have benefits - especially on your body composition.

With that being said, there's a second thing I must say right away: both studies I will discuss in today's article are rodent studies (rats to be specific) and need confirmation in humans - follow up studies that confirm the >100% increase in testosterone with really high doses of MACA extracts and >300% increase in response to high dose garcinia cola supplementation.

Don't forget to work out - Without exercise you're not going to get lean and jacked, bro!

Tri- or Multi-Set Training for Body Recomp.?

Aug '15 Ex.Res. Upd.: Nitrate, Glycogen, and ...

Pre-Exhaustion Exhausts Your Growth Potential

Full ROM ➯ Full Gains - Form Counts!

BFR-Preconditio- ning Useless for Weights?

Study Indicates Cut the Volume Make the Gains!

Whut? No, those are no typos. The treatments did in fact more than double the total testosterone concentrations of the rodents in the studies from the Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences of the Osaka Prefecture University (Ohta. 2016) and Walter Sisulu University in South Africa (Sewani-Rusike. 2016).

• MACA - Lepidium meyenii (maca) is a plant growing in Peru’s central Andes, of which you've certainly heard that it has traditionally been used for enhancing fertility and reproductive performance in domestic animals and human beings.
  
  In their latest study, scientists from the Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences of the Osaka Prefecture University (Ohta. 2016) examined whether feeding a hydroalcoholic extract powder of maca for 6 weeks would affect the weight of the reproductive organs, serum concentrations of testosterone and luteinising hormone (LH), number and cytoplasmic area of immunohistochemically stained Leydig cells, and steroidogenesis of cultured Leydig cells in 8-week-old male rats.

  

  Figure 1: Effects of feeding maca extract on serum testosterone and LH concentrations in male rats (Ohta. 2016).

  As you already know, the scientists observed highly significant improvements of the testosterone levels (see Figure 1). In addition, feeding the extract powder increased weight of seminal vesicles and cytoplasmic area of Leydig cells when compared with controls.
  
  The best news is that this happened in the absence of increases of prostate gland weight, and without increases in serum LH concentration that would suggest that the leading cells, the number of which didn't increase either, wouldn't produce T as effectively, any longer. This also implies that the provision of what would be ~12g of MACA per day (2% of the diet were a proprietary MACA extract called MACAXS™ | no sponsorship or support declared) increased the testosterone production by Leydig cells significantly - a result and mechanism the scientists were able to confirm in vitro.

But isn't there human data, already, which refutes these results? To my knowledge the answer to this question is "NO". Not because there were no studies on the effects of maca, for example, on libido and testosterone, but rather because these studies used, just like a study by Gonzales, et al. from 2002 doses that were not just >5x lower than the human equivalent in the study at hand, but also based on regular gelatinized maca powder, instead of an extract, as it was used by Ohta, et al. Against that background it is, by the way, even more surprising that Gonzales et al. still observed a beneficial effect on the libido of their 21–56 year-old male subjects.

• Garcinia cola - Commonly known as bitter kola due to its bitter taste, the garcinia cola nut is traditionally served as refreshment. Medicinally, however, it has been used for centuries to treat abdominal pain, cough, laryngitis, liver disease infections and erectile problems (Irvine, 1961; Odebunmi et al., 2009). In previous studies, these effects have been ascribed to phytochemicals like biflavonoids, xanthones, triterpenes, cycloartenols and benzophenones (Terashima. 2002; Adaramoye. 2005 & 2006), agents of which scientists have found only recently that they can increase testosterone and male reproductive function, as well (Farombi. 2013). Sewani-Rusike et al. were inspired by the results Farombi et al. published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacol and investigated the effects of different doses of a crude extract of G. kola on male sexual function after subchronic and chronic treatment periods at different sublethal doses (the lethal dose is 5000mg/kg in rats and 30g/kg in humans).
  

  

  Figure 2: Testosterone, LH and FSH levels (left) as well as markers of sexual function, i.e. mount latency (ML), intromission latency (IL), the number of mounts and intro-missions (Sewani-Rusike. 2016). 

  As you can see in Figure 2 there's an initially surprising disconnect between the effects on testosterone and the markers of sexual function (lower mount and intromission latency indicate more horny). Since previous studies (also in humans) have already shown that there's this disconnect between normal-high and high testosterone levels and their effect on libido, the results are eventually not as surprising as you would expect. Therefore, the observation that lower doses were eventually the most effective when it comes to increasing the components of libido, erection and ejaculation, is not really surprising. Neither is the fact that the scientists observed increases in testicular weights, and sperm count, with no change in motility and gonadotropin levels.
  
  Since the gross testicular histology was not affected by the 70% ethanolic extract of garcinia cola the scientists used in this study, the only thing that's missing to call garcinia cola a "proven T-booster" is the lack of human studies investigating its effects and safety at human equivalent doses of 16, 32, and 64 mg/kg body weight.

Tribulus is Good for Something: 1.25 g/day Modulate IGF-1 Availability and Alleviate Muscle Damage While Promoting Anaerobic Performance of Intensely Trained Male Boxers | more.

Bottom  line: Even though I may sound like a broken record, I want to repeat that doubling and even quadrupling your testosterone levels will not double, let alone quadruple your strength and size gains. And still, if you're looking for a T-booster to get your suboptimal T-levels back in range, the studies by Ohta et al. (2016) and Sewani-Rusike et al. (2016) provide two new reference points with respect to potentially effective ingredients - ingredients of which only one, namely MACA, has already been used extensively, but at far too low doses (remember, the HED in the study at hand was ~12g of an extract, which is not the "normal" MACA powder you can buy everywhere) in currently and previously available T-boosters | Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Adaramoye, O. A., et al. "Comparative study on the antioxidant properties of flavonoids of Garcinia kola seeds." Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences 21.3 (2005): 331.
• Adaramoye, O. A., and E. O. Adeyemi. "Hypoglycaemic and hypolipidaemic effects of fractions from kolaviron, a biflavonoid complex from Garcinia Kola in streptozotocin‐induced diabetes mellitus rats." Journal of pharmacy and pharmacology 58.1 (2006): 121-128.
• Farombi, Ebenezer O., et al. "Hepatic, testicular and spermatozoa antioxidant status in rats chronically treated with Garcinia kolaseed." Journal of ethnopharmacology 146.2 (2013): 536-542.
• Gonzales, G. F., et al. "Effect of Lepidium meyenii (MACA) on sexual desire and its absent relationship with serum testosterone levels in adult healthy men." andrologia 34.6 (2002): 367-372.
• Ohta, Y., et al. "Feeding hydroalcoholic extract powder of Lepidium meyenii (maca) increases serum testosterone concentration and enhances steroidogenic ability of Leydig cells in male rats." Andrologia (2015).
• Sewani‐Rusike, C. R., N. Ralebona, and B. N. Nkeh‐Chungag. "Dose‐and time‐dependent effects of Garcinia kola seed extract on sexual behaviour and reproductive parameters in male Wistar rats." Andrologia (2015).

Tribulus is Good for Something: 1.25 g/day Modulate IGF-1 Availability and Alleviate Muscle Damage While Promoting Anaerobic Performance of Intensely Trained Male Boxers

Tribulus is Good for Something: 1.25 g/day Modulate IGF-1 Availability and Alleviate Muscle Damage While Promoting Anaerobic Performance of Intensely Trained Male Boxers

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Tribulus terrestris extracts - While the boxing gloved protect a boxers fists from damage, the TT extracts may protect his muscle. Recent study yields surprising results and insights into the performance enhancing effects of TT and why it may have failed to work in previous studies.

Yes, it's (a) not a rodent study, (b) published in a peer-reviewed journal, (c) not sponsored by a supplement company (but the Chinese government), and was (d) conducted not just with untrained and mostly sedentary or "recreational trained" human beings, but even with fifteen highly trained male boxers (national second-level athletes, 2–3 years of training) who were recruited from the boxing team of Shanghai University of Sport Affiliated School of Sports in China. This alone makes the latest study from the Shanghai University of Sport newsworthy. The fact that the scientists actually observed significant and practically effects when they 'fed' their subjects 1.25g of a standardized tribulus terrestis (TT) extract (bought on the free market from Pronova Biocare, Sweden) with a saponin content of >40% per day, however, makes the study even more interesting.

If you want to build muscle forget T-booster and optimize your protein intake 

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In contrast to previous studies that focused exclusively on testosterone and (sometimes) DHT, when it comes to identifying mechanisms for potential performance increases, the study at hand was designed to investigate the effects of Tribulus terrestris (TT) extracts on muscle mass, muscle damage, and anaerobic performances of trained male boxers and whether those may be brought about by androgen, IGF-1, and/or changes in IGF-1 or the concentration of its binding protein (IGFBP-3). To this ends, the previously mentioned fifteen male boxers were divided into an exercise group (E, n = 7) and an exercise plus TT group (E + TT, n = 8). The two groups both undertook 3-weeks of high intensity and 3-weeks of high volume training. The latter were separated by a 4-week rest period.

Table 1: Training protocol of the boxers with high intensity and high volume training (Ma. 2015) | Abbreviations: HR, heart rate; RM, repetition maximum.

"All athletes received similar 3-week high intensity training and 3-week high volume training separated by a 4-week rest. Besides special technical training, the main part of the high intensity training was strength training including maximum strength training (twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday) and speed strength training (twice a week, on Monday and Thurs day). For high volume training [see Table 1], the boxers undertook endurance training (10,000 m race every day and low to moderate intensity rope skipping twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday), and special technical training and speed strength training similar to high intensity training" (Ma. 2015).

The supplement, the aforementioned TT extracts (1,250 mg/day), was orally administered only in the E + TT group, obviously. Before the pills were handed out to the subjects, their exact compositions had been analyzed and their saponin content had been confirmed by UHPLC–Q-TOF/MS.

Not all TT extracts are created equal! If you've previously taken tribulus supplements and have seen no results, the reason could well be that they did not contain the right amount or type of saponins. As Ma et al highlight, the content of 25(R)-Spirostan-3,6,12-trione/25(R)-Spirostan-4-ene-3,12-dione and TT saponin A varies "depending on geographical region, climate23 and part of herb, which may partly explain the divergent results of TT extracts from different studies" (Ma. 2015).

The results of the pre- and post assessments of muscle mass, anaerobic performance, and blood indicators revealed no inter-group differences for testosterone, DHT, muscle mass or total IGF-1. Creatine kinase (CK), the IGF binding protein IGFBP-3 and the subjects' absolute and relative muscle power, on the other hand, increased significantly more in the supplement (E + TT) vs. control (E) group (Figure 1 shows the relative difference of the change from baseline, i.e. ΔE+TT - ΔE).

Figure 1: Differences in relative changes of IGF-BP3, the ratio of IGF/IGF-BP3, mean power, relative mean power and creatine kinase (CK) - higher values denote significant increases compared to control (E), lower values decreases in (E+TT) vs. (E) (all p < 0.05) | data calculated based on Ma. 2015

Against that background it is only logical that the scientists speculate that the performance increase and reduction in muscle damage they observed could be a result of the increased availability of IGF-1 (the total IGF-1 to IGF1BP-3 ratio is an indicator of the amount of insulin growth factor 1 that's actually floating around unbound in the blood).

Figure 2: Overview of the general role of IGF-1; focus on what is missing when it declines as we age (Berryman. 2013).

If you look at the far-reaching effects of IGF-1 on muscle (Frystyk. 2010) and its general effects on human metabolism as depicted in Figure 2 from Berryman, et al (2013), it certainly appears reasonable to assume that the significant increase in IGF-1 availability could explain the decreased muscle damage in the study at hand as well as similar results from a human study by Milasius, et al (2009) and studies in overtrained and intensely trained rodents by Zhang, et al (2010), Wang et al (2010) and Yin et al (2013), respectively.

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What's the verdict, then? In view of the large influence the exact ratio and concentration of saponins will probably have on the effect of a given TT extract and its variability according to region, harvest and the part(s) of the plant that was/were used to prepare the extract (see red box) it is not impossible that previous studies by Antonio et al (2000) and Rogerson et al (2007) simply didn't find performance benefits in resistance-trained men and rugby players, because they used the 'wrong' extracts (or the training was not intense enough, some of the benefits in the study at hand were after all blunted performance decreases during intense training).

While it is hard to determine whether or not this hypothesis is true, there's no reason to debate the conclusion Ma et al draw based on their more recent results in trained boxers - a conclusion that reads: "Taking 1,250 mg capsules containing TT [...] alleviated muscle damage and promoted anaerobic performance of trained male boxers, which may be related to the decrease of plasma IGFBP-3 rather than androgen in plasma" (Ma. 2015) | Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Antonio, et al. "The effects of Tribulus terrestris on body composition and exercise performance in resistance-trained males." International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 10 (2000): 208–215.
• Berryman, Darlene E., et al. "The GH/IGF-1 axis in obesity: pathophysiology and therapeutic considerations." Nature Reviews Endocrinology 9.6 (2013): 346-356.
• Frystyk, Jan. "Exercise and the growth hormone-insulin-like growth factor axis." Medicine and science in sports and exercise 42.1 (2010): 58-66.
• Ma, Yiming, Zhicheng Guo, and Xiaohui Wang. "Tribulus Terrestris extracts alleviate muscle damage and promote anaerobic performance of trained male boxers and its mechanisms: Roles of androgen, IGF-1 and IGF binding protein-3." Journal of Sport and Health Science (2015).
• Milasius, K., R. Dadeliene, and Ju Skernevicius. "The influence of the Tribulus terrestris extract on the parameters of the functional preparedness and athletes’ organism homeostasis." Fiziol Zh 55.5 (2009): 89-96.
• Rogerson, Shane, et al. "The effect of five weeks of Tribulus terrestris supplementation on muscle strength and body composition during preseason training in elite rugby league players." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 21.2 (2007): 348-353.
• Wang et al. "Effects of Tribulus terrestris on exercise ability, endocrine and immune functions of over-trained rats." Journal of Shanghai University of Sport 46 (2010).
• Yin, Liang, et al. "The Effects of Tribulus Terrestris on the Time of Exhaustion in Rats with High Intensity Training and Its Mechanism." Journal of Shanghai University of Sport 5 (2013).
• Zhang, Shuang, et al. "[Effect of gross saponins of Tribulus terrestris on cardiocytes impaired by adriamycin]." Yao xue xue bao= Acta pharmaceutica Sinica 45.1 (2010): 31-36.