C3G (cyanidin 3-glucoside), the main ingredient in Biotest’s Indigo-3G®, is both a marketer’s dream and a marketer’s nightmare. It’s a dream in that it’s a naturally-occurring substance (an anthocyanin) found in blueberries, blackberries, acai berries and all kinds of other dark-colored fruits and vegetables under God’s sun. There’s absolutely nothing scary about it. You can’t take too much of it, it doesn’t have any negative side effects, it won’t cause anyone to fail a drug test, and mothers won’t panic when they see it in a medicine cabinet or gym bag. But like I said, it’s also a marketer’s nightmare. That’s because C3G represents an embarrassment of nutritional and physique-enhancing riches. It has so many beneficial effects on the human condition that it’s hard to know which one(s) to focus on. You risk confusing people, or worse yet, causing a certain degree of skepticism. Take a look at the following list of research-backed C3G benefits. Which ones would you choose to highlight if you had to choose? C3G enhances the uptake of glucose by myotubes, causing calories to be preferentially used by muscle fibers instead of being stored as fat. C3G raises levels of adipokinectin, which regulates glucose levels and increases fatty acid breakdown. C3G decreases levels of leptin, a hormone directly connected to body fat and obesity. C3G improves endurance by increasing the production of chemical intermediates involved in the production of ATP, the cell’s energy currency. C3G increases insulin sensitivity. C3G limits fat gain. C3G, taken before a workout, helps shuttle energy from pre-workout nutrition directly to muscle cells. C3G enhances the activity of brown adipose tissue (which is metabolically active and calorie-burning). C3G induces the transformation of white adipose tissue to brown adipose tissue. C3G increases mitochondrial number and function. C3G prevents mitochondrial dysfunction. C3G limits abdominal obesity. C3G reduces systemic inflammation. C3G reduces triglycerides. C3G lowers blood sugar. C3G reduces cholesterol. C3G reduces chances of developing cancer. C3G improves survival rates of cancer. C3G improves skeletal muscle endurance by increasing levels of ATP. C3G improves night vision and helps prevent eye fatigue. C3G promotes liver health and fortifies it against damage from alcohol. C3G reduces risk of heart attack. C3G mimics the life-extending benefits seen in calorie restriction diets. C3G reduces inflammation in fat cells, causing them to shrink. C3G compares favorably in laboratory experiments with acarbose, a prescription glucose-disposal drug. C3G sews and makes all its own clothes, speaks fluent Latvian, and took second prize in the tango division of the ballroom dancing championships. Okay, not so much with the last one, but see what I mean by an embarrassment of riches? The list of C3G’s actual biochemical pathways that allow it to do all the things that it does is also diverse, but each has broad health implications – hence the long list of benefits. C3G and the Cellular Master Switch First and perhaps foremost, C3G has profound effects on a chemical called adenosine monophosphate kinase, or AMPK. It’s found in every cell in the body and serves as the body’s master regulating switch, determining in large part how fat you are, how muscular you are, and even how long you’ll live. According to at least one study involving human types, ingesting C3G increases the production of AMPK by a factor of 2.88. In turn, these increased levels of AMPK cause a huge up-regulation of a “transcriptional activator” known as PGC-1 alpha, which then increases exercise capacity, fatigue resistance, and oxygen uptake, which all contribute to additional muscle mass (assuming all other factors are copacetic). Oh yeah, in addition to being a metabolic switch, AMPK can make cancer cells stop sucking on the energy teat. Once it’s activated, cancer cells end up starving themselves because the energy lifeline’s been cut. C3G Mimics the Actions of the Most Powerful Hormone Insulin is the most powerful hormone we make. C3G has insulin-like properties in that it activates insulin receptor substrates, which in turn activate insulin-signaling proteins. These signaling proteins then stimulate glucose uptake by skeletal muscle tissue. The take-home point here is that you could – assuming you’ve got your exercise and lifestyle ducks in order – actually eat more food than what’s required for maintenance and have any weight gain go to muscle instead of fat. But C3G’s insulin-like properties don’t stop there. One of several laboratory experiments involving C3G showed two dosage-related drops in blood sugar of 33% and 51%, prompting the authors of the study to remark how favorably it compared with Acarbose, a powerful pharmaceutical glucose-disposal agent. C3G Sends Fat Cells to Fat Camp As mentioned above in the list of C3G’s effects, it also activates adipokinectin, which acts directly on fat cells.
Origin: The Ultimate Body Transformation Agent