Something Fishy: Leucine-Rich Protein + Fish Oil Supplement Boosts White Blood Cell EPA Content and Immune Response

Regular readers of the SuppVersity, as well as people who religiously follow Carl Lenore's Super Human Radio and happened to listen to my 1st appearance on the show, will know that I am generally skeptic about the usefulness of unwarranted high dose (>1-2g of combined EPA + DHA) fish oil supplementation. This is not because I think fish oil is poison, but rather out of my awareness that its pharmacological effects have more similarity to those of a drug than to those of a "common food" (including possible side effects).

Now, a group of scientists from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom published the results of a study (Faber. 2011) which found another interesting stone from the fragmented mosaic our current understanding of the effects and nutritional interactions of fish oil, in general, and EPA, in particular, resembles. While the aim of the study, which was to quantify the incorporation of EPA and DHA into white blood cells, was nothing new, the nutritional supplement they used for this purpose, a mixture of 2.4 g EPA, 1.2 g DHA, 39.7 g protein (including 4.4 g L-leucine), and 5.6 g oligosaccharides was innovative and the results were astounding. After 1 week of 2x200ml of what the scientists label a "medical food" (beware there is probably somebody patenting the formula already ;-), ...

[... from 0.5% at baseline] the percentage of EPA [in white blood cell phospholipids] rose to 2.8% (P < 0.001). Additionally, the production of proinflammatory cytokines in LPS-stimulated whole blood cultures was significantly increased within 1 wk.

It appears that the addition of protein has a positive influence on the incorporation of EPA into white blood cells, which, in turn, boosts the natural immune response to lipopolysaccharides stimulation. This, however, brings me back to my initial comment about "pharmacological" effects of fish oil: While for a cancer patient with lowered immunity, the consumption of the "medical food" or, what I would consider equivalent, a combination of whey + fish oil, would unquestionably be beneficial - but what about someone with allergies or even auto-immune issues? I assume you would agree that to further boost an immune system that is already running havoc does not seem to be a good idea!? In the end, and here I do not mind repeating myself, it again all comes back to considering who you are and what your current medical and nutritional condition is, before you start taking a supplement of which the whole Internet community seems to believe that its the healthiest (if not the only healthy) fat on earth...

Protein Supplementation in Heavy Resistance Training: "A case for whey protein"

"Protein builds muscle!" < this is a sentence you will read pretty often in the advertisements - sorry, I meant "scientific explanations" supplement producers print onto their product labels to make you buy their newest "invention". In the end, however, it mostly comes down to a blend of different forms of whey protein with added vitamins minerals and digestive enzymes. But do you really need all that? Do you even need whey?

Table 1: Approximate Essential Amino Acid Profile of Various Protein Sources

A group of scientists from Finland (Hulmi. 2010) would probably say "YES!". In a very recent review they come to conclusions which sound pretty similar to what you can read all over the web:

Most, but not all studies have shown that supplementation of whey alone or with carbohydrates immediately after and possibly before and during resistance exercise can enhance the muscle hypertrophy response to resistance training in healthy adults. Such a response seems to at least be the case when comparing the effects of whey versus a non-energetic, or carbohydrate or soy protein alternative. Some studies also suggest that whey may enhance recovery from heavy exercise and possibly decrease muscle damage and soreness. This could, over time, enhance training adaptations by way of increasing training volume or reducing the potential for over-reaching/over-training.

There is another point, where Hulmi et al. reasoning is pretty much in line with main-stream "bro-science" and this is the extraordinary role of leucine in terms of muscle protein synthesis and hypertrophy:

[Leucine] is probable that the most important component in whey, for increasing protein synthesis and skeletal muscle size, is its high concentration of the BCAA, leucine (see
Table 1). Leucine, acting as a signaling molecule in the mTOR cascade, has been shown to be a critical amino acid for increasing skeletal muscle protein synthesis, both in vitro and in vivo in humans and rats. Leucine may also be involved in suppressing muscle protein degradation.

Their perspective is yet a little more differentiated:

However, if recent data involving rodents can be duplicated in humans, leucine concentrations from whey may only affect peak activation of skeletal MPS but not the duration of MPS or duration of mTOR signaling. Similarly, despite the positive effects of leucine per se, it likely is not the sole factor responsible for whey-induced adaptations to resistance training. For example, adding leucine to intact protein has been shown to offer little, if any, effect on protein synthesis and protein balance when consumed after resistance exercise.

Bottom line: If you go for muscle, go for whey and get drag yourself to the gym ;-)

15-30% Increase in Protein Synthesis if Protein is Ingested After Exercise

What common sense already told us has now been proven again in a scientific study published by the American Society for Nutrition (Pennings. 2010). Protein synthesis is greater if protein is consumed after exercise. And these results hold true for both, young and old.

As a marker of protein synthethis, the scientists investigated the response of exogenous phenylalanine on a 20-g bolus of intrinsically l-[1-¹³C]phenylalanine-labeled protein which was administered either at rest or after exercise:

[...] Muscle protein synthesis rates calculated from the oral tracer were 0.0620 ± 0.0065%/h and 0.0560 ± 0.0039%/h for the rest condition and 0.0719 ± 0.0057%/h and 0.0727 ± 0.0040%/h for the exercise condition in young and elderly men, respectively (age effect: P = 0.62; exercise effect: P < 0.05; interaction of age and exercise: P = 0.52).

So overall, this is a non-negligible increase in the calculated protein synthesis rate by 15% and 28% in the young and old subjects, respectively. It does however not answer the question, whether administration of the same 20g of marked protein right before exercise would not have increased protein synthesis to an even greater extent. Personally, I feel that for people on an everyday exercise regimen keeping protein intake high 24/7 will certainly be the best solution, even if it is just via an occasional protein shake at work (and thus probably "before workout).