NutraCast Podcast: Dr. Keith Baar on Muscle Mass Gains
Doing all the heavy lifting in this research is Keith Baar, PhD, a UC Davis professor who has spent over two decades researching the mechanisms behind muscle building.
Baar claims to have found a new and more effective pathway to build lean muscle mass. He was able to activate this newly discovered pathway using molecules extracted from all natural sources, commonly found in foods we already eat.
“The natural products that we focused on were epicatechin, which is a natural product that you would find in chocolate, epigallocatechin gallate which is ECGC which you would find in green tea.”
The professor and scientist explained that by manipulating certain molecules within muscles, his formula can release a metabolic brake that significantly hinders muscle growth. He made the analogy of driving a car with the parking brake on. Staple muscle supplements, such as creatine and amino acids, work to give your car more gas to speed to the final destination. To Baar's surprise, releasing the brakes turned out to be much more effective than applying more gas.
Baar said despite the pandemic delaying human studies, he is very confident in the results from animal studies.
“We've done a series of now it's up to five different animal studies from the knockouts, to the initial drug studies, to the validation studies of the natural products and all of them are consistent that when we block that molecular break we get this bigger increase in muscle mass than if we just trained alone. So we're really, really confident in the data that we have to date. The biggest thing that we need to do is we need to do this in people to give you an exact number as to as to what the effect size is going to be in people,” explained Baar. “As you can imagine, getting people into a laboratory at close contact when they're strenuously trying to lift weights, it's not something that we're really able to do right now given the pandemic situation.”
To hear more about this exciting new research, listen to the NutraCast.
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NutraCast is a podcast that focuses on insights from inside the nutrition industry. It is a production by NutraIngredients-USA. Music by Kevin Macleod.
