| In March of 1996 while attending a National
Nutritional Convention , I was introduced to a new supplement by a most
impressive gentleman. He was fighting an uphill battle , since he was
trying single-handed to introduce a product that nobody, at that time,
had heard of: Calcium Pyruvate. I stopped and listened to him,
and confess this was partly because of a "competition" he was running to
spark interest in his product. He had been a competitive body builder ,
and was still a fine figure of a man though obviously no longer in his
prime: what he had was a picture of himself and his wife in bathing
suits: the object was to try and guess the combined age of the two
individuals in the photo and win some of the product. I guessed 125
years (not because they looked that old, but because obviously they HAD
to be older than they looked, or where was the point of the contest?)
and was off by 22 years! The answer was 147. I realize this is beside
the point, and I know they weren't JUST using Calcium Pyruvate - but I
was still lastingly impressed, and recently when articles began to
appear about Pyruvate, I read them with great interest.
Pyruvate is part of the glucose molecule, a product of
the breakdown of sugar for the production of energy: many studies have
been done on its influence on weight loss, and rebound weight gain,
mostly at Pittsburgh University. Pyruvate can be bound to a number of
different carriers, and caution needs to be used to make sure you are
not getting SODIUM Pyruvate, which could throw off the sodium ratio in
your diet. While it is also possible to get too high a level of calcium,
most people actually do not get enough: therefore the calcium form of
Pyruvate is currently the one to look for. The studies show definite
benefits for dieters who add Pyruvate to their regimen, both in terms of
weight and fat loss, (almost double the weight loss over those study
participants taking the placebo) and also appeared to raise the basic
metabolic rate of the women using it in the study, which is extremely
helpful for sustained weight loss.
The interesting thing to me, though, is that there
were many accompanying health benefits: increased oxygenation of the
heart, lowering of cholesterol and blood pressure, and some positive
effects for diabetics. Being part of the glucose molecule, it appears to
have an effect on insulin resistance, a term used when the cells of the
body will not allow sugar to enter, thereby upsetting the balance of
sugar in the bloodstream. There are other nutrients that enable the
entry of sugar into the cells, notably chromium and vanadium - we may
have to add Pyruvate to their number.
The only thing that takes the edge off this rosy
picture is the high amounts of Calcium Pyruvate that were taken to achieve the
results: doses used ranged from 30 to 50 grams - remember, there are
1000 milligrams in a gram: so one would be looking at 60 x 500 mg
capsules, or 30 of the 1000 mg strength. One would have to be both rich
and determined to carry out that schedule!
Some of the companies marketing the supplement are
suggesting that results can in fact be obtained on much lower levels of
the Calcium Pyruvate, they suggest between 3 and 5 grams daily, which is a far
more reasonable amount both financially and physically to swallow: I
have had anecdotal reports that it works at even lower levels, and my
feeling is that if the overweight is a result of faulty carbohydrate
metabolism (as it often is) then Calcium Pyruvate may indeed be a
helpful adjunct to the dieter.
Apart from its use in weight loss, some studies have
been done on its use by athletes, and have definitely suggested it may
improve endurance both because of its sparing effect on muscle glycogen
( also known as "muscle sugar" ), and its ability to increase the
efficiency of oxygen use.
I know I give the impression of praising with faint
damns here: my main reservation is because of the levels of the
supplement needed to achieve the test results: once I see some
convincing studies using the lower levels, I will be able to be much
more enthusiastic - in the meantime, my verdict is - Maybe!
| Keywords: calcium pyruvate research,
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lady writes about calcium pyruvate |
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