Understanding Research Claims for Supplements

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 3.

What about supplement claims? If you are reading an article that sounds too good to be true - it probably is too good to be true.

What about supplement claims? If you are reading an article that sounds too good to be true – it probably is too good to be true.

Today’s Topic:  Understanding Research Claims for Supplements

Today John speaks with Dr. Julie Conquer:

Dr. Conquer’s Educational background:

University of Toronto
PhD, Molecular Pathology
1990 – 1994

University of Guelph
MSc, Nutritional Sciences
1988 – 1990

University of Waterloo
BSc, Biology
1983 – 1987

Dr. Conquer has 10 years of experience on clinical trials on dietary supplements.  Now she is working on putting the research together.

What you will learn in the podcast:

  • What is the structure of research claims?
  • What is really supporting the research claims?
  • What is a review compared to a systematic review?
  • What is a clinical trial?
  • What are clinical good practice trials?
  • What is double blind?
  • What are the standards for double blind?
  • What is pre-trial disclosure?
  • What are the recent improvements in quality in clinical trials?
  • What is the Jadad scale?
  • What is randomization?
  • What is required for randomization?
  • What about weight loss studies?
  • How do the behaviors of people in the study effect the outcome?
  • What about people who drop out of a study?
  • Is safety an end point in studies?
  • What is the difference between the media stories vs. the actual studies?
  • Why is the gap between media stories and the actual studies so great?
  • Why we should never just look at just the latest study?
  • Should you rely on mainstream media for the truth about clinical trials?
  • Why you should look at only at the results section in the study.
  • Are there some places where people can find the truth about supplement studies?
  • What is peer review?

If you are reading an article that sounds too good to be true – it probably is too good to be true.

The National Standards Supplement Database is available for immersion customers as a service we provide to help fill the gap.  It is updated regularly. It is available in your Venus Cockpit.


IMMERSION Clients May Login and Download Podcast Here

Not an Adonis Index IMMERSION client? Click here to find out more… and hear a weird story too

Muscle Is Forever

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic:  Muscle is Forever

Muscle Is Forever!

Muscle Is Forever!

 

The term “building muscle” is the most common term we hear when referring to an increase in muscle size. This however is not the most accurate way of imagining how a muscle actually increases it’s size. A better way to think of it is inflating and deflating a balloon, and increasing the ‘rubber’ of the balloon.

From there it gets a little more complex with the incorporation of muscle specific stem cells called “satellite cells”.

In todays podcast we review the claims of an interesting self experiment done by Nate Green who gained 20lbs of lean mass in only 28 days. We determine that it’s more correct to say that he actually ‘re-inflated’ the same 20lbs of muscle mass he used to have…and that it’s perfectly normal to expect to do this for anyone who has previously been 20lbs larger.

Fact is that once you’ve built the muscle you can always get it back even after years of taking time off. And it comes back FAST!

IMMERSION Clients May Login and Download Podcast Here

Not an Adonis Index IMMERSION client? Click here to find out more… and hear a weird story too

Are We Natural Cyborgs?

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic:  Are We Natural Cyborgs?

Are We Natural Cyborgs?

Are We Natural Cyborgs?

 

Are We Natural Cyborgs?

Diet and fitness marketing tends to refer to what is ‘natural’. Many diets promote a way of eating that is ‘natural’ and the way we evolved to eat.

But are we natural beings anymore?

It’s not uncommon for people to have many artificial, prosthetic or unnatural ‘parts’ to their body.

We can have surgically reconstructed joints, bones, eyes, ears (hearing aids), artificial hearts, mesh plating (stents), balloons, sensors (pacemakers), artificial valves, and many other artificial parts to replace or enhance our ‘naturally’ failing parts.

We also have drugs that mimic or replace the functioning of ‘natural’ systems of the body that just aren’t working well anymore.

It then becomes a question of what is natural. Does it even make sense to strive for what is ‘natural’ with our diet and fitness if our bodies are becoming less natural themselves.

In this new era of modern medicine and devices you could argue that we’re becoming ‘natural cyborgs’.

 

IMMERSION Clients May Login and Download Podcast Here

Not an Adonis Index IMMERSION client? Click here to find out more… and hear a weird story too

 

Phi-Life Series: The Real Story Behind Supplement Packaging

What Supplements Should You Take to Help You Achieve Your Health & Fitness Goals?

Here’s the second part of this month’s UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

The topic?

Supplements.

Here’s what you discovered in the first part (link to the 1st part here):

  • What a supplement is, how the industry got started, and what it has evolved into
  • What is the definition of supplements in various countries and why it matters
  • How important supplements are
  • What’s the lifecycle of a supplement product
  • How the process of putting new supplements on the market works
  • How come government regulators have no control of what’s on the market
  • What ingredients are added into supplements are useless and serve just as marketing

“Will These Supplements Help Me?”

Often times guys on the Internet and in our community ask us “What supplements should I take?” or “Will this supplement help me?”.

Should you take those? Are they worth the money? How will you track the results? Or will you just go by the “feeling”?

The issue is that it’s impossible to answer those type of questions.

If you want an accurate answer that can actually help you (not the generic crap found on the web) with your fitness goals, you need to get clear on what is it you really want and what do you expect out of the supplements.

Another thing that will determine what supplements to use and how much of it we will recommend you taking is your budget, how much money can you spend on supplements? 50 bucks? Or 1000 bucks? That’s a pretty big difference. Somebody who is a sponsored athlete or works in a supplement lab will have different options than a college student.

For example a question “Will this product give me the body I want?”or “Can this product do what I want it to do?” is way better and gets to the point of what you really expect from it.

But even those two questions aren’t perfect, when you start thinking about it, you’ll soon find out that it’s not that easy to figure out the right question (after you listen to the podcast, try to come up with a good one and share it in the community so others can comment on it).

This is just one way of looking at it, another way would be to take a different approach and actually set your goals first and then try to match the right product to that desired outcome.

However, in this case you will find a pretty nasty barrier.

And that’s the fact that supplements contain a lot of ingredient that will have absolutely zero effect on your body.

When you look into each product you will see a bunch of stuff you have never heard about, but almost always there will be one big ingredient that’s usually responsible for all the results. In many cases it will be creatine, or caffeine, depends on the supplement.

Why is that?

Well, the top selling supplements are exactly the same as ten years ago and they will most likely be same as the best selling supplements ten years from now.

There is just a couple of items that are packaged in a thousand different ways.

The product isn’t what’s different, they are roughly the same, it’s the marketing around it that makes all the difference.

Supplement companies fight a difficult challenge and that’s pointing out the ingredient.

Nobody gets excited about plain Creatine monohydrate anymore, simply because it’s been around a while. So, they have to sell some “enhanced version” of creatine to pump up the sales.

It has nothing to do with finding some new amazing and proven ingredient that nobody has ever heard about and adding it to the current product, it’s just a simple desire to sell more products.

Today John Barban and Brad Pilon will reveal more information about the supplement industry and also coach you on how to ask the right question and how to find supplements that will help you with:

a) Building Muscle

b) Losing Fat

c) Improving Health

d) Boosting Energy

In today’s UNCENSORED training, you will also discover:
  • How to approach weight loss supplements and what do they really help with (hint: they are not burning your belly fat)
  • What are the realistic expectations for using the supplements that are on the market
  • What supplements companies are should be trustworthy (bigger or smaller? Why??)
  • How the Natural Standards Database (you have access to it in the immersion account through cockpit) can help you pick supplements
  • Step by step how to intelligently choose and test supplements
  • What side effects really are and how it applies to you when you take supplements (or drugs)
  • Pilon’s sneaky techniques he used to sell supplements in the past

IMMERSION Clients May Login and Download Podcast Here

Not an Adonis Index IMMERSION client? Click here to find out more… and hear a weird story too

All About Supplements Part 1

Getting in shape and staying in shape can be viewed as having a two pronged approach.

What should you take?

1. Diet

2. Workouts

However if you’ve got the budget it can also have a third prong – Supplements

In the order of importance I would say diet and exercise are 1 and 1A. You can certainly get in great shape without every using a supplement, but if budget allows there are some interesting supplements that can likely help you along the way.

To be clear, they are called ‘supplements’ for a reason…and that is because they’re not meant to replace diet, or replace exercise, but only to supplement the work you are already doing in the kitchen and the gym.

So what is a supplement anyway? Do you even know? The definition of a supplement changes from country to country as does the requirement for scientific proof of the efficacy and safety. The concept of ‘supplement’ is a legal definition based on the governing bodies of your given region. A supplement can be legal for sale in one country and illegal in the very next country over (United States vs Canada for example).

The legal definition and status of a supplement can change throughout it’s lifecycle as well. In some cases a supplement can be in a grey area where it does not have government approval for sale, but it’s not quite illegal yet either. In these cases the supplement in question is being sold while it’s legal definition is ‘pending approval’. In some cases a product can be determined a drug and thus illegal for sale as a supplement.

If you’ve been a regular consumer of sports/bodybuilding supplements over the past decade then it’s likely you have taken a product that has been re-categorized as a drug and thus illegal. In some sense you could even say that you’ve been taking a ‘banned’ substance that would definitely have you failing a drug test in any organized sport!

Supplement manufacturers move fast getting new products onto the market. So fast that in some cases regulatory bodies cannot keep up with the pre-market regulatory review process to determine if a product is safe and effective for sale. Some products can gain a significant market share while regulators scramble to figure out what is being sold and if it should be classified as a supplement or drug.

This is a dynamic struggle between supplement manufacturers and regulators, and it’s been going on since supplements hit the market. As long as supplement manufacturers can find new ingredients and new derivatives if existing ingredients there will always be this grey area between what is known and studied, and what is new and not fully understood yet.

In this first part we discuss the definition of what a supplement is, how the industry got started, and what it has evolved into.

John

IMMERSION Clients May Login and Download Podcast Here

Not an Adonis Index IMMERSION client? Click here to find out more… and hear a weird story too

Support