LIVER BLINDNESS

LIVER BLINDNESS IN SPORT “Liver blindness” is universal in modern sport, and tragically athletes pay a heavy price for this in exercise training, performance, recovery, and long term health. The liver is the key organ of exercise and recovery, although you would find it hard to understand this from reading any book on nutrition and fuelling for sport. As the liver depletes from the moment of exercise initiation, a stress protein, IGFBP-1 is released from the liver to warn the brain of diminishing liver glycogen. This protein inhibits IGF-1 the key insulinic factor driving glucose into muscle, and therefore fuelling the liver allows for free IGF-1, allowing for increased glucose delivery into muscle, increased glucose oxidation, and therefore increased power output. Release of this protein is the signal for increased release of stress hormones and degradation of muscle protein, to refuel the liver, and maintain fuel supply to the brain, which is always at risk during exercise. Chronic release of these stress hormones during exercise and overnight results in long term ill health in athletes, such as Italian footballers who suffer 5 times the national average for motor neurone disease. Fructose in the correct ratio with glucose is the key to liver fuelling for exercise and recovery The benefits of fructose based fuels during exercise and performance, such as IsoTorque+, and ingestion of 2 ounces of natural honey prior to recovery are: 1. Improved Training Gains. 2. Improved Power Output. 3. Improved Psychology. 4. Improved Performance. 5. Improved Recovery 6. Improved Long Term Health (c) Mike McInnes Aug 5th 08