1st of all, citing an article from a site designed to sell supplements isn’t the most solid foundation from which to build an argument. Secondly, the University of Texas study did not look at arginine supplementation or NO production at all. The researchers merely demonstrated that the transit of amino acids from blood through interstitial fluid could play a major role in controlling the rate of muscle amino acid uptake. They measured the transport rates of phenylalanine, leucine, lysine, and alanine. Nowhere in the study did they test NO precursors on gains in strength or lean mass.
Also a link directly off that shows that users that have taken no2 have seen greater results.
“The obvious conclusion reached is that nitric oxide supplementation does prove effective for eliciting gains in lean body mass”
This was an rinky-dink in-house experiment (with 3 subjects per treatment arm, lol) designed to sell Pinnacle NOX2. This was not a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial published in a reputable journal. It’s sort of like a student project that’s grossly underpowered (in the statistical sense) & uncontrolled. Again, this article you cite was posted on a site designed to sell supps. It wasn’t even a legit scientific design; it was a quasi-experiment, but at least they admitted it. Let me quote the article: “It should be noted, however, that this is NOT in meant to be a strict scientific study, as the term science is meant.”
But for something like no2 it can go back and forth… link is supplied below
Is NO2 The Real Deal?
All this article does is talk about possible mechanisms of how NO precursors might have clinical applications. There’s nothing in there that’s compelling enough for bodybuilding or fitness goals. But more than that, he cites no direct evidence of its effectiveness for the said pursuits.As for the claims on CEE, when was that article written? The website I noticed was created in 2007… I was taken CEE at the end of 06, beginning of 07. If there was research done BEFORE that, I was unaware, but if the research came after that, then there was nothing there to support your claims, so I ask, could you really blame someone for taking CEE? Now that I’ve read studies pertaining to CEE, if I ever get back into a regular workout routine I’ll have to try a different route.
Can you blame people for being victims of marketing, and jumping the gun despite a lack of evidence of effectiveness? Can you blame the lay public for not having the skills to sniff out the bullshit from the truth? I guess not.
Let me quote one of the references in Layne’s article:
“Under normal conditions sufficient arginine is produced
endogenously to enable the exogenous ingestion of a
mixture of essential amino acids (excluding arginine) to effectively
stimulate muscle protein synthesis. In a recent study, a
balanced mixture of all the amino acids in the same proportions
as they appear in muscle protein was given to normal
volunteers and muscle protein synthesis was determined by
means of tracer methodology and arteriovenous sampling (23).
The exact protocol was then repeated in the same subjects,
except that only the essential amino acids (EAAs) were given
(leucine, isoleucine, valine, methionine, lysine, phenylalanine,
threonine, histadine). The amount of amino-N deleted
from the mixture as a result of dropping the nonessential
amino acids (NEAAs) was not made up by changing the
amount of the essential amino acids given. Deletion of all
nonessential amino acids, including arginine, did not diminish
the anabolic response to the EAAs (23). Thus, under normal
conditions arginine ingestion is not necessary for the stimulation
of muscle protein synthesis by ingestion of EAAs. Conversely,
ingestion of all the NEAAs that were deleted in this
experiment, including arginine, had no effect on muscle protein
synthesis.”
Bottom line: are you willing to make the same mistake on NO precursors that you made on buying CEE? Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure your NO products are working fine via the power of expectation bias (placebo effect).
