Makes sense. I generally don't discount what people say here unless it's absolutely ridiculous. And I learned a long time ago electrofeedback BF measurements are useless.
What's in the Heracles profile?
Meet The Enemy...and The Hero
Myostatin is produced primarily in skeletal muscle cells, circulates in the bloodstream and exerts its effects on muscle tissue. It inhibits muscle differentiation and development in a process known as Myogenesis.
This protein normally restrains muscle growth, ensuring that muscles do not grow too large. Mutations that reduce the production of functional myostatin lead to an overgrowth of muscle tissue. Mutations of human myostatin gene result in individuals having significantly more muscle bulk and hence are considerably
stronger than normal (sorry, it's not contagious...).
Now of course, we're NOT saying that using Heracles will make you a ripped 300 pounds freak. We're talking about a moderate gene expression modulation, not a total gene ablation like in the pictures that flood the net (you know, those showing comics-like unreal, chimeric hypermuscled dogs, mice and bulls) .
Still, it should give you an idea of the utmost importance of Myostatin in muscle growth and fat loss.
On a good note, modulating Myostatin won't turn you into a cow either.
So how do I keep in check that bad, bad Myostatin? I won't tell you to lift and follow a high protein diet. If you're reading these lines, I guess that's a given.
Some of you maybe remember the great excitement, a decade or so ago, caused by an alleged Myostatin inhibitor found in an algae (Cystoseira canariensis).
You likely also remember countless of furious users who fired their money on those (also very expensive) products.
No surprise. After ingestion, it gets totally degraded and nothing reaches the systemic circulation...hence, zero effect.
Now the amazing news.
There IS a naturally occurring Myostatin inhibitor. One with very good oral bioavailability.
A completely safe and healthy compound. Something that most of us have already (unknowingly) ingested in tiny amounts.
A compound, finally, proven to significantly inhibit Myostation and improve the Myostatin/Follistation ratio when administered orally to healthy men!
This marvellous ingredient is EPICATECHIN(do NOT confuse it with other Cocoa flavanols, ours it's a specialized custom-made extract containing 95% Epicatechin and no, no product on the market can
ever remotely come close to this).
Its effects were so striking that now Epicatechin is getting evaluated for the treatment of progressive muscle loss and impaired skeletal muscle function in Muscular Dystrophy patients.
The subjects of a very recent study were given a total of 1 mg (-)-epicatechin per kg bodyweight per day (N.B.: our product is meant for bodybuilders...hence VERY generously dosed) . The researchers then looked at the effects that the supplement had on the subjects’ hand grip strength (in case you're wondering why a handgrip test, it's a simple and commonly used test of general strength level, also very well researched) and at the concentrations of myostatin and follistatin in their blood.
Treatment for 7 days with (-)-epicatechin yielded a bilateral increase in hand strength of 7%, which was accompanied by a significant increase (49.2%) in the ratio of plasma follistatin/myostatin levels.
A 49.2% increase in the Myostatin/Follistatin ratio is astonishing. Even more so in a mere week.
So YES, we can state out loud that Heracles increases muscle anabolism through an extremely effective yet safe and legal mechanism of action.
Just a brief note: Epicatechin also stimulates LH and Testosterone synthesis and promotes a substantial increase in endothelial Nitric Oxide.
Now, as if this wasn't groundbreaking enough, we went one further step forward.
Heracles features Hesperidin Methyl Chalcone
Hsperidin is a bioflavinoid naturally found in small concentrations in the peel and pulp of citrus fruit.
While hesperidin itself is very poorly water-soluble, hesperidin methyl chalcone is highly water-soluble, allowing for greater absorption of the molecule in the gastrointestinal tract.
Getting enough Hesperidin through food to exert the effects we're going to elucidate, would be basically impossble. For example, 100 gr of grapefruit flesh contains about 3 mg hesperidin, and it's not even the methyl chalcone(more bioavailable) form.
So what does it do?
Hesperedin promotes osteoblast differentiation in human mesenchymal stem cells, indicating an anabolic effect of hesperedin on bone metabolism. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells undergo myogenic differentiation as well as osteogenic differentiation. The researchers therefore explored whether hesperedin modulates muscle cell differentiation.
Hesperedin promoted myogenic differentiation, in a dose-dependent manner, by increasing myogenin gene expression. MyoD-induced myogenin gene transcription was enhanced by hesperedin, as this bioflavonoid augmented the nuclear localization and myogenin promoter-binding of MyoD. In addition, hesperedin
accelerated muscle regeneration induced by muscle injury. These results got confirmed both in vitro and in vivo.
Myogenin expression was considerably augmented in the presence of hesperedin during differentiation. Myogenin expression was prominent in the nucleus, indicating that hesperedin promotes myogenic gene expression and terminal differentiation. Skeletal muscle development involves an initial period of
myoblast replication, followed by a phase in which some myoblasts continue to proliferate while others undergo terminal differentiation. The latter process involves activation of muscle-specific gene expression, and the fusion of single cells into multinucleated muscle fibers.
These results strongly demonstrate that hesperedin has a potent pro-myogenic activity via regulation of MyoD activity in the myogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells. During myoblast differentiation or regeneration, MyoD is essential for skeletal muscle repair .
If there's a perfect supporting character for Epicatechin, that's Hesperidin Methyl Chalcone.
HERACLES
Coming in May 2014.