Magnus Performance

Continuing from diet pills that are effective but illegal (for a good reason), we are now on the second part in which the diet pills are legal, but are they effective? The multi billion US dollar industry behind it surely are trying to convince you that they are effective.

The Ambiguously Effective Drugs

Beta Alanine

Other Name: 3-aminopropanoic acid, CarnoSyn

Naturally occurring substance. If you look at the science behind it, sounds reasonable, it should work as the manufacturers claimed that it will increase the amount of work the user can do at high intensity. More work done at high intensity = more fat burned during your training session. Bodybuilding.com highly recommend this. So what’s not to like about it?

In 2007, an industry funded study published in Journal of Applied Physiology with 15 male athlete test subject over 4 weeks of supplementation basically failed to show any effect on the athlete’s isometric endurance and actual 400 m race time. Another 2012 meta study done in UK also basically showed that “β-alanine supplementation has no benefit on measures of exercise performance”. Last, in 2014, a US Department of Defense study also failed to show any justification for Beta Alanine consumption.

Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA)

This is another naturally occurring chemical that is basically found in abundance on herbivores. Hence if you eat and drink meat and milk from grass fed cows and goats, you should be getting plenty of CLA in your diet. The metabolic pathway that shows CLA consumption can lead to fat loss also seems credible in theory. The nutrition industry continued with saying that the problem is that most of our beef consumption are now from grain fed cows which has far lower CLA, hence we need this supplement to put our body back in Balance. Interesting since from what I know, grain feeding cows are only wide spread in USA. Most of the cows I saw in Ireland and Indonesia are being fed with grass.

A 2007 meta study done by University of Wisconsin over the previous 18 qualified studies simply found that for fat loss purposes, the CLA consumption efficiency is only 0.05 ± 0.05 kg/wk. I.e. your fat loss can be anywhere from 0 to 0.1 kg per week. That’s far lower than what a good diet, rest and exercise can give you. As for other improved athletic performance, colon, lung, prostate and breast cancer prevention, and multiple sclerosis treatment, University of Michigan simply concluded that the evidence is sketchy at best.

Garcinia cambogia

Other name: Hydroxycitric acid (the active ingredient)

Just like the great green coffee extract placebo that has never been clinically proven to be effective, Garcinia cambogia was popularized by the great snake oil salesman Dr. Mehmet Oz. The scientific claim of its effectiveness is from the fact that animal studies show that it can inhibit a fat-producing enzyme in the body and increase levels of serotonin, potentially helping to reduce cravings.

Of course how animals react to certain chemical can be very different with how human body react to it. and in this case, a 1998 study by Columbia University already concluded that this product is no more effective than sugar pills.

Raspbery Ketone

Other name: 4-(4-hydroxyphenyl) butan-2-one; RK

It is a major aromatic compound of red raspberry (Rubus idaeus). And despite the promotion you have been hearing at many “health” outlets, there has only been exactly one publicized research by Ehime University in 2005 regarding its effectiveness on rats. So it could be effective or just like Garcinia cambogia, it could only be effective on rats.

Conclusion

Of course there are many other “diet pills” on the market that are priced sky high and claimed to be effective. Listing all of them here will probably bore the readers. I am not claiming that they are all ineffective. I’m just saying that the most popular ones apparently that are proven to be save are not. Are there exceptions, stay tuned for part 3.

First and foremost, I’m neither a doctor nor a surgeon.

Having said that, I was blessed to had training encounter with Dr. Stuart McGill, the man that has successfully rehabilitated the backs of many Olympic gold medal winning athletes and salvaged their careers again. I also used to have spine injury in the form of L5/S1 disc bulge that pinches my sciatic nerve and caused sciatica. Basically if I cycle for too long, then I would feel incredible pain along my right buttock, to my right hamstring and my right calf. I was lucky to met Dr. McGill and through his training, regained my athleticism and became stronger than I was prior to my injury. I’m 36 by the way, so I’m no spring chicken.

110 Kg paused squats after my back recovered using McGill Method, no surgery, painkiller, belt or wraps. 100% natural

Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, low back pain is a rather common problem especially among the 25 – 55 year old crowd. That is because the spine, just like any other organ you have, requires “optimal loading” for it to be healthy. And the modern sedentary lifestyle simply increase the risk of people having low back pain.

So what happen if you already have low back pain? Does this mean that you are stuck with it? Do you need a surgery to fix it?

If the pinched nerve is on L5/S1 or L4/L5, then congrats! you got sciatica!

Basically it depends on your injury. Not all low back pain are caused by disc bulge. And it also depends on the severity of the injury. Back Mechanics does an excellent job at describing the types of back injuries that could happen. As I have mentioned previously, most of the times surgery is not the answer. Problem is, most people wanted instant solution and surgery seems like the fastest solution. What most people do not understand is that lumbar surgery is not instant. Dr. McGill already showed that based on his 30 years of research and clinical practice that not only would lumbar surgery risk damaging your nerve and fascia tissues, without change in the patient’s movement pattern, the patient run the risk of developing future problems in 5 years (which means good business for the surgeons themselves).

Take the case of Tiger Woods, the most successful young golfer of the previous decade that had his back damaged by wrong training method and repeated back surgery. During my training years ago, Dr. McGill foretell that Tiger Woods will never play professional golf again. And his most recent DUI arrest pretty much showed that even though he had the resources to pay the words best surgeons, these surgeons simply made him dependent on pain killers.

Of course, having said all of these, there are legitimate cases where spine surgery is warranted. And most of those cases are due to high impact trauma.

Conclusion

If you or anybody you know is struggling with low back pain, I highly recommend reading Dr. McGill’s book back mechanics to learn more on your particular injury and if surgery is really for you.

Keep in mind, to successfully implement McGill Method and regain a pain free life, the patient need to be disciplined in doing “Spine Hygine” on their daily life. The healing process might take months if not years. But I find it to be totally worth it, especially if world’s best surgeons could ended up making you dependent on opoids like Tiger Woods. Last but not least, should you experience spine disk bulge and implement all of McGill’s Methods, then over time, your injured spine disk will harden and stiffen your back. You will loose some spine mobility (something spine surgery will also get you) but in return, you will be pain free, this is why Dr. McGill emphasized on hip mobility instead, so you will not loose your athleticism.