Lazy people all over the world have long awaited the invention of a pill that allows them to enjoy the benefits of diet and exercise without actually having to do any dieting or exercising. Sure. Give them a pill like that, perfect the whole virtual sex thing, and they’ll never have to leave the house except for when the bug man comes to tent the place. Well, we’re not there yet – on either of those scientific milestones – but there is a substance that comes closer to that no-diet/no exercise goal than practically anything else in the supplement world and it’s derived from the herb, coleus forskohlii. The active ingredient is called forskolin and it can do a variety of things for the body that you normally can’t get without dieting and exercising. It does this primarily by stimulating production of an enzyme named adenylate cyclase, which in turn increases levels of a cellular messenger called cyclic AMP, or cAMP for short. In turn, elevated levels of cAMP can have the following physiological effects: Increased thyroid secretion of T4 (increased fat burning). Increased testosterone levels (increased muscle, sex drive, fat burning). Increased production of protein kinase (which leads to increased levels of hormone-sensitive lipases (HSL), which helps break down triglycerides). Increased protein synthesis in skeletal muscles. Increased activation of brown adipose tissue (more fat burning, although through a different mechanism). Lowered blood pressure (healthier cardiovascular system). Inhibited platelet aggregation (less clotting). Increased vasodilation (more blood flow). Increased bronchodilation (more air flow through the lungs). Now if you were to take one of those lazy people I mentioned, put him or her on forskolin for a few weeks, and then give them a physical, he or she might well show improvement on a number of medical parameters, just by taking a couple of capsules a day. But imagine what could happen if somebody combined exercise with forskolin. You might really have something then. Lots of Studies The effects I listed above aren’t just hearsay or conjecture. Much of it’s been tested and validated through various studies, the highlights of which follow: Male subjects in a 12-week trial experienced a 16.77 +/-33.77% increase in total testosterone compared with a 1.08 +/- 18.35% decrease in the placebo group. Female subjects in an 8-week study lost a mean of 9.17 pounds weight, while experiencing gains in lean body mass (without weight training). The total body weight of a mixed group of men and women in a 12-week study decreased from 74.7 kilograms to 73.5 kilograms while experiencing increases in lean body mass (without weight training). The forskolin users in a mixed-sex group of 50 test subjects experienced a 1.78 percent increase in lean body mass (compared with a 0.20 decrease in the placebo group) and a decrease in mean body fat from 35.8 to 34.0 percent (while the placebo group showed an increase in body fat from 38.8 to 39.0 percent). Why Haven’t I Heard of This Stuff Before? That’s an excellent question, Leroy. Even though forskolin’s been around for a few years, it’s never really caught on, either in the bodybuilding world or the health/life extension world. I’m pretty sure that it’s because most companies that decided to produce it didn’t bother to isolate and purify the main ingredient – forskolin. They just collected up the dried leaves of the coleus forskohlii plant, ground them up, and put them in capsules, with or without Italian salad dressing. As lame as that approach is, it mighta/coulda worked in some situations, like maybe they lucked out and found a crop that was particularly rich in forskolin, the same way that one harvest of oranges might be richer in vitamin C than another. Otherwise, they’d be left with a completely ineffective product, thus tainting and damaging the reputation of the product with a whole generation of users. The only way to manufacture a potent forskolin product is by isolating the active ingredient (forskolin). Better yet, you could purify it and esterify it (bind it with a carbonate ester). The end product, forskolin 1,9 carbonate, would then be much more bioavailable and its efficacy in the body would extend from about 4 hours to about 12. That’s exactly what Biotest did in producing Carbolin 19®. Do I Need to Cycle Carbolin 19®? Many supplements and drugs initiate a biochemical reaction by binding to receptors – chemical groups of molecules that receive signals from other chemicals or other stimuli to initiate a chemical reaction. The trouble is, these receptors eventually get desensitized to the original signal. After a while, you need a stronger and stronger dose to initiate the same response, until, ultimately, no dose is large enough to get the chemical ball rolling. This is what docs and scientists mean when they say someone is “insulin resistant.” However, at least as far as fat burning goes, forskolin is what’s known as a
Origin: Take 4 Capsules for Muscle Gain and Fat Loss
Tag: Capsules
3 Capsules for Perfect Sleep
The Eggo Incident Want to gain weight and lose control of your appetite? Want to become forgetful, hypersensitive, unmotivated, cynical, and generally unpleasant to be around? Well, just lose sleep on a consistent basis. As a 24-year old, I remember feeling those feelings and watching myself expand. My circadian rhythm and appetite were so out of whack that I binged on a box of semi-frozen Eggo waffles between naps one afternoon. I didn’t own a toaster and didn’t want to take the time to put them in the microwave. With my first job straight out of college, I hadn’t figured out how to get adequate sleep. As a TV news producer, my alarm went off at 2AM. And ironically, in the evenings I was too stressed-out and anxious to fall asleep or stay asleep. If Z-12™ had been around back then, things would’ve been different. Yeah, this is a supplement article, but don’t freak out because it’s one you should consider using. And it’s not just for muscleheads. Your dad, mom, and next door neighbor could benefit from it. Bad Sleep = Fat Gain The fat you gain from losing sleep can be imperceptibly slow. It creeps up. And that’s the problem with it. Since you don’t see it immediately after one night of poor sleep, you likely won’t connect the dots after many poor nights of sleep. You might try dieting, skipping breakfast, and eating salads for lunch. And that’s fine. But when your sleep is subpar, you’re going to be swimming against the current. It’ll hurt your ability to comply with any diet. Don’t believe me? Then believe the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which published a meta analysis showing that after a poor night of sleep, people ate about 385 more calories the following day (1). This is likely caused by a disruption of leptin (the satiety hormone) and ghrelin (the hunger hormone), which ultimately leads to cravings. So if just one bad night can cause you to eat a few hundred extra calories the next day, you can imagine what weeks or months will do. And it’s worse for those with high-stress jobs. Researchers examined the eating and sleeping patterns of workers who had to deal with the public over the phone. They found that work stress was linked to unhealthy food choices at night. On the flip side, a good night of sleep had a “buffering effect” which led to better dietary choices (2) the next day. Sleep doesn’t just affect your appetite; it also affects the way your body stores fat. Researchers at the University of Chicago Research Center found that restricting the sleep of study participants caused their fat cells to become more insulin resistant (3). In short, sleep is an important regulator of energy metabolism. The Testosterone Thief Poor sleep is also tied to low testosterone, and those who don’t make enough are often depressed, tired, and overweight. So how badly does poor sleep affect testosterone? Well, in one study, after just a week of sleep restriction, healthy young men experienced a 10-15 percent decrease in testosterone (4). Researchers had them restrict their sleep to five hours per night. Sure, in the confines of an experiment, getting only five hours of sleep might seem severe. It is. But you have to wonder, what if their sleep was just restricted to six or even seven hours per night for several months? That would give them a little more sleep every night, but over a longer period of time. It’s not as severe as five hours, but it’s not an optimal amount either. Yet that’s the about how much sleep a lot of adults get. And they believe it’s normal. Would their testosterone be low as well? It’s possible. Perhaps “dad bod” is really just a low-T, sleep-deprived bod. The Sleep Strategy You Haven’t Tried You’ve already heard all the stuff about turning off the TV early, avoiding caffeine late in the day, and making your bedroom dark. If you haven’t read about these “innovative” sleep tips, just open a Reader’s Digest from 1999. The truth is, sometimes the obvious stuff doesn’t work. And to be completely honest, I want to punch anyone who tells me to stop watching Netflix at night. Especially since I can watch it and still get a full 8.5 hours of sleep. But maybe that’s because my main sleep strategy is taking Z-12™. It actually allows me to “turn off” the anxious part of my brain at night. It makes sleep so restful that I pop out of bed without an alarm. No grogginess in the morning. No racing thoughts in the middle of the night. Just rest. Feels Like Magic, But It’s Actually Just Science The body’s “chemical messengers” are neurotransmitters. When you’re working or working out, you want to produce neurotransmitters that stimulate or motivate. And when you’re winding down in the evening, you want to produce inhibitory ones. As their name implies, they inhibit excitatory neurotransmitters and help you relax. But if you’re still amped up after a stressful day of work (or arguing on the internet) your brain will continue to produce a flood of the stimulatory neurotransmitters. This
Origin: 3 Capsules for Perfect Sleep