Sun, Aug-15-04, 06:45
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Mad Scientist
Posts: 4,402
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Plan: Healthy eating/lifestyle
Stats: 156/115/115
BF:
Progress: 100%
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Hi Jimsbride:
It's touted as helping with fat loss, which I'm not really convinced. But it helps maintain energy (control hunger) between meals.
From http://www.wellnessresources.com/catalog/CLA.htm
CLA is in the omega-6 family of fatty acids. It naturally occurs in dairy products and red meat because cows convert omega-6 oil in grass to CLA during digestion. However, because cows don’t eat much grass anymore, there is not as much in the food supply.
CLA and Body Weight
CLA has multiple effects on body fat and muscle. Many individuals will be interested because it is a very safe and effective weight loss nutrient. However, it can also help individuals preserve muscle, including individuals in weakened physical states (such as those going through cancer treatment or who have chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia). This exciting story is just now unfolding, with new studies every month.
Let us first discuss the weight loss aspects. CLA reduces the amount of an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase, the enzyme responsible for transporting fat out of the blood and into storage. With less of this enzyme fat is more likely to be burned for fuel or excreted, instead of stored. It also increases lipase activity inside of fat cells, the key enzyme that triggers stored fat to be broken down and used. This has the effect of actually using up the stored fat and then shrinking the fat cell. Mice supplemented with CLA lost 60% of their body fat and gained a 14% increase in lean muscle.2 A pilot study on humans using only 1 gram of CLA per day (2 capsules of our product) for three months found an average 5 lb weight reduction and a 15-20% reduction in body fat.3 The interesting part about these studies is that they do not involve dietary changes (like calorie restriction) in order to produce results.
Very recent research on CLA indicates that it actually prevents fat cells from forming and multiplying.4 This means CLA is an excellent nutrient for anyone wishing to help prevent the age-associated onset of increased fat deposition. And while it helps burn fat from any area of the body, it is especially helpful at burning fat from the abdominal area (a 43%-88% reduction in fat storage in this animal study),5 thus reducing those love-handles that are so hard to lose. This study also demonstrates increased metabolic rate, confirming the observations of many that CLA warms their cold hands or feet (great for someone with sluggish thyroid).
Recent research has shown that CLA can help prevent hypoglycemia by helping to correct insulin sensitivity (making it so that blood sugar can enter cells correctly). This will help individuals have better energy between meals. The scientists were so excited about the ability of CLA to fix impaired glucose tolerance that they concluded "CLA may prove to be an important therapy for the prevention and treatment of diabetes."6
Unlike the herbal stimulants in most quick fix weight loss products (which pose significant cardiovascular risk), CLA is a truly safe weight loss product (offering its own cardiovascular protection). It can be used synergistically, as desired, with other safe and effective weight loss nutrients like pantethine, chromium, lipoic acid, Q10, and Acetyl-L-Carnitine.
Cardiovascular & Cholesterol
In animal studies CLA has demonstrated impressive cardiovascular protective effects. Diets enriched in CLA show lowered cholesterol and significantly reduced signs of the beginnings of atherosclerosis.7 This study confirmed an earlier study showing significant cholesterol reduction and less hardening of the arteries when CLA dietary enrichment was used.8
Preserves Muscle, Boosts Metabolism & Helps Immunity
CLA acts by a unique method to preserve and enhance muscle. It is known from the studies on body fat composition that CLA increases the ability of muscles to use fat for fuel, thereby enhancing metabolism.2,5 This, of course, is good news for anyone who wants to lose weight and/or build muscle.
However, CLA will not cause a person to lose weight who does not need to lose weight. In fact, it very well may enhance the preservation of muscle in someone in a weakened condition. Anyone who has been sick for longer than a week with a flu bug knows that the muscles get very weak. This is because the immune system uses muscle proteins to make antibodies to fight infection. Individuals with cancer or chronic infections all tend to muscle waste as time goes by due to the immune system’s demands. The research on CLA and the immune system is truly amazing, because it does two things:
1) It stops the muscle wasting,
2) In the process it helps restore immune efficiency so that the immune response works better.
It does this by regulating the immune system’s inflammatory response in a healthy way.9,10,11,12, 13, 14 This is great news for anybody in a weakened physical state, as CLA may open the door to increased strength. It is the only substance known that will build muscle and burn fat without exercise. This is very helpful for individuals with fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue.
Summary
Research on CLA is overwhelmingly favorable. It is appealing to anyone seeking to maintain a better body composition (less fat and more muscle) and it clearly takes its place as part of the nutritional arsenal against the two main health-related killers in our society, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Last edited by wcollier : Sun, Aug-15-04 at 07:40.
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