Muscle-Loss Study Sheds New Light On Ways to Prevent Muscle Loss, O...

A research study from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has yielded important breakthroughs on how the body loses muscle, paving the way for new treatments for aging, obesity and diabetes.

... a protein called Myostatin, which controls muscle cell growth, is responsible for initiating muscle loss.

When excess levels of Myostatin is bound to a muscle cell, it induces heavy loss of mitochondria (the part of the cell responsible for energy production that keeps a cell alive), which in turn causes the muscle cell to waste or lose muscle tissue (atrophy) due to the 'lack of energy'.

Apart from regulating the growth and loss of muscle, myostatin also regulates whether the body will burn fat or carbohydrates during fasting and meal times.

Blocking myostatin keeps the body in "fat-burning mode" and promotes muscle growth at the same time -- which could potentially make obesity a thing of the past.

... people who exercise regularly have been found to have lower levels of myostatin as compared to those who do not. Studies have also found that older people have more myostatin and this can explain why when one ages, muscles become weaker.

Don't rush out and buy a supplement touted as a myostatin blocker, though.

.... there is not a single shred of testable, empirical scientific evidence that the brown seaweed (aka. "cystoseira canariensis") found in these over-priced “myostatin blockers” has even the slightest impact on the inhibition of the myostatin gene or that it contributes to any measureable increase in lean muscle mass or strength.

Myostatin Inhibitor: Do Myostatin Blockers Work?