Study Soluble Keratin May Increase Muscle Mass

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Not sure who's been reading about keratin supplements before, but it appears supplementation may actually enhance LBM.

They gave endurance athletes 800mg/kg/day of their supplement over a month (so for a 100kg bodybuilder that would be 80g). The average gain in LBM was 1kg. You might think that 80g of extra protein would be expected to be helpful, but this is compared to giving the athletes the same amount of casein (control), and the casein athletes didn't gain any LBM.

The suspected mechanism of action is as a thiol donor whereby hydrolysed keratin can potentially enhance endogenous GSH and taurine antioxidant systems.

However, make of this what you will given that it was sponsored by the supplement company in question (this is obviously not ideal, but there's really not a lot of money in researching supps so we aren't blessed to have many options).


The effect of chronic soluble keratin supplementation in physically active individuals on body composition, blood parameters and cycling performance (2018)


Background

Keratins are structural, thiol-rich proteins, which comprise 90% of total poultry feather weight. Their favourable amino acid profile suggests the potential for use as a protein source and ergogenic aid for endurance athletes, following treatment to increase digestibility. This study investigated whether 4 weeks of soluble keratin (KER) consumption (0.8 g/kg bodyweight/day) by 15 endurance-trained males would have favourable effects on body composition, blood and cardiorespiratory variables, and cycling performance, compared to casein protein (CAS).

Methods

Supplementation was randomized, blinded and balanced, with a minimum eight-week washout period between trials. An exercise test to measure oxygen consumption during submaximal and maximal cycling exercise was completed at the start at and end of each intervention. Anthropometric (DEXA) and blood measures were made prior to and following each intervention period.

Results

Total body mass and percentage body fat did not change significantly (p > 0.05). However, a significantly greater increase in bone-free lean mass (LM) occurred with KER compared to CAS (0.88 kg vs 0.07 kg; p < 0.05). While no change in LM was evident for the trunk and arms, leg LM increased (0.45 ? 0.54 kg; p = 0.006) from baseline with KER. KER was not associated with changes in blood parameters, oxygen consumption, or exercise performance (p > 0.05).

Conclusions

These data suggest that KER is not useful as an ergogenic aid for endurance athletes but may be a suitable protein supplement for maximizing increases in lean body mass.



https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-018-0251-x
 
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