Among the most beneficial and effective supplements in any sports nutrition program are BCAA (Branch Chain Amino Acids). These are the essential amino acids: Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine, which make up BCAA™.

Benefits of BCAA™:

• Stimulates Protein Synthesis.


• Reduces Muscle Breakdown.


• Improves Both Mental & Physical Performance.


• Prolongs Moderate Exercise Performance in Heat.

Features of BCAA™:

BCAA™'s, the core ingredients of Muscle Guard™, features many advantages to conserve muscle mass and to reduce muscle breakdown.

BCAA™ supplementation, before and after exercise, has beneficial effects for decreasing exercise-induced muscle damage and promoting muscle-protein synthasis.¹

BCAA™'s are not only substrate for protein synthesis, but also modulate several components to the synthetic machinery and help to conserve muscle mass.²

BCAA™ supplementation may prevent muscle loss during chronic hypobaric hypoxia.³ Intake of BCAA™ during exercise can prevent or decrease the net rate of protein degradation caused by intense exercise.⁴ BCAA™ supplementation can reverse the reduction in serum glutamine concentration observed after prolonged intense exercise such as an Olympic triathlon.⁵

Consumption of BCAA™ before or during endurance exercise may improve both mental and physical performance.⁶.

Support Studies

The result of studies suggest that an intake of BCAA™ has an anabolic effect on protein metabolism during the recovery period after exercise rather than during the actual exercise.⁷

An experimental result indicated that ingestion of BCAA™ reduces the perceived exertion and mental fatigue during exercise and improves cognitive performance after the exercise.⁸

The data suggests that increased BCAA™ availability before exercise, when initial muscle glycogen is normal, results in significantly greater plasma NH3 response during exercise than placebo administration.⁹

No toxic effects of BCAA™'s were observed in human at a dose of 2.5 g/kg/day for 3 months or 1.25 g/kg/day for 1 year. There are no reports concerning BCAA toxicity in relation to exercise and sports.¹⁰

A variety of regimen has been studied in human clinical trial. No adverse reaction was reported with the consumption of 14, 30, 22 and 40 g / day.¹¹.

References

1. Shimomura Y, Murakami T, Nakai N, Nagasaki M, Harris RA." Exercise promotes BCAA catabolism: effects of BCAA supplementation on skeletal muscle during exercise." J Nutr. 2004 Jun;134(6 Suppl):1583S-1587S.)
2. ( Update on nutritional supplementation with branched-chain amino acids. "Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2005 Jan;8(1):83-87.)
3. Schena F, Guerrini F, Tregnaghi P, Kayser B." Branched-chain amino acid supplementation during trekking at high altitude. The effects on loss of body mass, body composition, and muscle power." Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1992;65(5):394-8
4. Blomstrand E, Newsholme EA." Effect of branched-chain amino acid supplementation on the exercise-induced change in aromatic amino acid concentration in human muscle." Acta Physiol Scand. 1992 Nov;146(3):293-8
5. Bassit RA, Sawada LA, Bacurau RF, Navarro F, Costa Rosa LF." The effect of BCAA supplementation upon the immune response of triathletes." Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2000 Jul;32(7):1214-9.
6. Mero A." Leucine supplementation and intensive training." Sports Med. 1999 Jun;27(6):347-58.
7. Blomstrand E, Saltin B." BCAA intake affects protein metabolism in muscle after but not during exercise in humans." Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2001 Aug;281(2):E365-74.
8. Blomstrand E." Amino acids and central fatigue." Amino Acids. 2001;20(1):25-34.
9. MacLean DA, Graham TE." Branched-chain amino acid supplementation augments plasma ammonia responses during exercise in humans.? J Appl Physiol. 1993 Jun;74(6):2711-7.
10. Shimomura Y, Murakami T, Nakai N, Nagasaki M, Harris RA." Exercise promotes BCAA catabolism: effects of BCAA supplementation on skeletal muscle during exercise." J Nutr. 2004 Jun;134(6 Suppl):1583S-1587S. Review
11. Anura V Kurpad, Tony Raj, Antoine El-Khoury, Rebecca Kuriyan, Kalburgi Maruthy, Sudhir Borgonha, Deepak Chandukudlu, Meredith M Regan and Vernon R Young "Daily requirement for and splanchnic uptake of leucine in healthy adult Indians" American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 74, No. 6, 747-755, Dec. 2001.