Aging with Muscle

I often recommend phosphatidylserine to bodybuilders, especially aging ones. Studies have shown that this soy lipid helps control the body’s output of the stress hormone cortisol.

Cortisol can trigger your body to burn muscle tissue for energy—and we all know how hard it is to hang onto muscle as we age. By reducing your cortisol up to 30 percent with PS, you can derail a lot of muscle cannibalism. But there’s more.

Robin Harkin, D.C., based in Oxnard, California, says the high cortisol interferes with melatonin, so your sleep can be restless, which is damaging to muscle gains as well and also your immune system.

So taking PS can improve your sleep, your muscle growth and even your brain. According to the March ’13 Better Nutrition, “A number of clinical trials have validated the ability of supplemental plant-derived PS to improve memory, learning, word recall, concentration and mood in middle-aged and elderly subjects suffering from age-related cognitive dysfunction.”

In one of those studies, 15 elderly subjects were given 100 milligrams of PS three times a day for 12 weeks. Thirteen of the subjects “experienced significant improvement six weeks into the trial—an effect that was still going strong by the end of the study.”

PS is definitely a must-use supplement for the aging population, and bodybuilders, young or old, will benefit with more muscle gain and a lot less going down the drain.

—Steve Holman

www.OldSchoolNewBody.com