It amazes me how some of these supplements ever gain steam on the market such as Colloidal Silver. I guess the saying goes, “There is a sucker born every minute”. This product has come and gone in popularity over the years. Colloidal silver is the metal silver finely ground up and suspended in water. Why would they do this? They claim research that silver helps against flu and infections. They know that bodybuilders are keen on consistent training, so it is now targeted towards them.

What they don’t tell you is that the Colloidal Silver from this product builds up under your skin. It will cause a permanent greyish color to your skin. When the sun hits your skin it causes a silverized effect, the same chemical reaction process as developing photographs. This disease is called Argyria and has happened in people who ate or breathed silver for months. There is no evidence that silver really does what these companies claim and there is plenty of other ways to boost the immune system without looking like an Alien!

You always see bodybuilders practically forming a line on the leg press. They always claim they can’t do squats cause of “bad knees”. I’m pretty cynical of most people who claim “bad knees” as an excuse at the gym, but accupuncture may help for those actual genuine cases. Recent research has shown, that when acupuncture and arthritic drugs were used together, it helped the knee pain better than arthritic drugs by themselves.

According to researchers at the University of Florida, your personality plays a big role in excercise. They found that certain personalities were more likely to stick to a excercise program. The type of excercises they chose also correlated with personality.

We as bodybuilders, often try to push a active lifestyle on others, but this study shows some people naturally don’t have the will. This is NOT an excuse, but it means don’t be surprised if some have a very hard time sticking to long term excercise goals. Another interesting thing to note, is that the results weren’t based on weight or body image, but on personality.

Many veteran bodybuilders see just bad form with overly heavy weights. This research by Dr. Stephen Glass of Grande Valley State University may come as a shock. He found that beginner athletes(which can include bodybuilders in this study) often lifted too lightly to see a result. If your weight is not within about 2/3 of your 1 rep max then your weight is too light to see real significant muscle gains.

Many appetite suppressant supplements are touted for curbing your appetite. But is it really possible to do that? Researchers at Columbia University did a study on the nucleus incumbens and it’s role in binge eating. The Nucleus incumbens is in the limbic system and it controls mood and feelings of satiation, including feeling “full”. In the research they injected opioids into rats. The ones who had opioids injected ate 3 times as much fatty foods.

The result of the study showed that nucleus incumbens only controlled appetite AFTER they were full. This means that appetite suppressing supplements, should only work for preventing overeating, only after you first have become full. But is this really true? Everyone who has tried stimulants such as ephedrine have noticed a appetite suppressing effect. Some possible theories of mine on why this may be the case is that perhaps this study is faulty, or it only works in rats, or Ephedrine works in some other part of the brain or body to suppress appetite.

Muscle Relaxants are prescribed commonly for treatment of injury or pain. However are muscle relaxants really anything special? Once again doctors have been proven to not know what they are doing. A study was done in North Carolina on the effects of Muscle Relaxants on injured areas. They found it did not help recovery or even with the functionality of the muscle area. The study shows that muscle relaxants help with pain, but they are not a treatment or help in recovery in any way.

Many people believe in the power of excercise to help overcome chronic depression. Often it helps aid people to make serious changes in their life and break addictions. What does science really say on the issue though?

A few years ago a study was done by Belgian researchers. They found that excercise itself does not have a direct result on curing depression. Excercise is considered a aversive activity to a degree. Webster defines aversive as “causing avoidance of a thing, situation, or behavior by using an unpleasant or punishing stimulus, as in techniques of behavior modification”. The aversion of excercise causes a coping mechanism in depressed individuals. These coping mechanisms as a result, become helpful for those in depressed states.

Taurine is a amino acid and may have implications for bodybuilders. A group of researchers in Japan did a double blind study on 30 college aged people. TC, HDL-C and plasma glucose were measured before the study and everyone had similiar results. They then had one group take 3 grams of Taurine per day for 7 weeks. Not only did they have health benefits such as total cholesterol and triglycerides, but they also lost significant fat.

Now this may appear like a pretty clear cut case for Taurine to be used while cutting. However this study is obviously done on people not following a high protein diet already or even working out. There is studies that suggest taurine supplementation may actually be a bad thing for fat loss.

For bodybuilders suffering from depression, 5-HTP may be a miracle supplement. But it also has even more benefits than that.

What is 5-HTP?

5-HTP stands for 5-Hydroxytryptophan. 5-HTP was first a supplement in 1994 in the U.S, but was used as a medicine in Europe dating back as far as the 70’s. It is the direct pre-cursor in the body to the powerful neurotransmitter serotonin. The amino acid tryptophan is the precursor to 5-HTP. Serotonin is the chemical involved in addiction and involved in feeling “satisfied”. It also effects your overall mood, sleep, and appetite. Anti-depressant drugs deal with interactions with Serotonin in the brain. Serotonin also is involved in the gastrointestinal tract and blood cells.

Benefits of 5-HTP:

Your energy and mood will feel better overall when taking 5-HTP. If you suffer from depression it will dramatically help you. You will feel more refreshed and have better sleep on 5-HTP. This will lead to better gains as a bodybuilder. 5-HTP also helps reduce appetite. Due to it’s action on serotonin, it can make a person feel satisfied with less food. While cutting this supplement could do wonders for curbing your appetite.

Side Effects:

Despite it being on the market for so many years, it’s long term usage is still unclear. People do seem to build a tolerance also. For this reason, it is recommended to only stay on it for short brief periods (cycle it), until more research is done. However, 5-HTP certainly can’t be any more unsafe, than current anti-depressants on the pharmaceutical market, since 5-HTP is naturally found in the body and in nature.

Does 5-HTP Really work?

Yes, bodybuilders report a definite improvement after taking 5-HTP. As a direct pre-cursor to serotonin, there is no doubt it works directly on serotonin.

Woman and men respond to supplements differently than men. While this pretty obvious to most bodybuilders the reasons go way beyond just testosterone levels. According to researchers in a study I came across, the following differences were factors in the differences:

- plasma protein levels
- plasma volume
- cytochrome P450 activity
- drug transporter function
- body mass
- hormone profile
- gastric emptying time
- excretion activity

A supplement might work for women very well, but not so well for guys. The opposite could be try. This makes it important that supplements be tested on both males and females because nutritional companies often neglect females during their testing of supplements.