New Brunswick, NJ—Shilajit has long been thought to support muscle growth, and new research published in theJournal of Medicinal Foodhelps explain why.
During the trial, 16 obese/overweight but otherwise healthy individuals started by using oral supplementation of a branded shilajit ingredient (250 mg PrimaVie from Natreon, twice daily) for eight weeks. Then, everyone exercised 30 minutes/day for three days/week for a month while continuing supplementation.
Analysis of muscle biopsies found enhanced expression of genes related to muscle development before exercise began, compared with baseline. Genes that were highly expressed included tenaxcin XB (TNXB), decorin (DCN), myoferlin (MYOF), elastin (ELN), fibrillin 1 (FBN1) and fibronectin 1 (FN1); several collagen-related genes increased 4–5-fold.
When supplementation was combined with exercise, the expression of these genes increased even more.
Published in WholeFoods Magazine, October 2016, online 9/1/16
