Study supports sports nutrition potential of Nutrition 21’s arginine silicate

Consumption of products containing Nutrition 21’s Nitrosigine inositol-stabilized arginine silicate ingredient can boost nitric oxide levels in the body, which in turn can increase blood flow and improve cardiovascular and muscular health, says a new study.

Data presented at the Experimental Biology 2014 conference indicated that a single dose of Nitrosigine could significantly increase arginine and silicon levels, while also significantly increasing NO levels after 14 days of product consumption.

“Nitrosigine, a new FDA-approved arginine-based molecule, has early and preliminary research that is deserving of further development,” said Douglas Kalman, PhD, RD, Director BD, Nutrition & Applied Clinical Trials at Miami Research Associates and primary author of the study.

The US Food and Drug Administration accepted the ingredient as a New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) last year

Jim Kahn, Executive Director of National Sales at Nutrition 21, added: “Nutrition 21 is thrilled to have the human clinical study available as support for our NDI-accepted, Nitrosigine.

“Based on clinical and pre-clinical results, Nitrosigine demonstrates superiority over arginine as shown by increases in blood flow markers and silicon absorption.

“Nitrosigine is currently available in the retail channel in products such as, SuperPump 3.0 and Razor8 and is in development in other finished goods. We anticipate continued high market interest with robust customer sales.”

Pre-clinical work

The new data adds to earlier preclinical data about the ingredient, including a 2007 animal study by Dr James Russell from the Alberta Institute for Human Nutrition at the University of Alberta, Canada published in Metabolism – Clinical and Experimental (2007, Vol. 56, pp. 1318-1325). That study concluded: “The arginine silicate inositol complex is absorbed efficiently, raising plasma arginine levels, and is more biologically effective than the free amino acid hydrochloride.”

“The clinical study confirms our pre-clinical work, and supports Nitrosigine’s ability to optimize the benefits of rigorous workouts by significantly increasing nitric oxide levels,” said James Komorowski, VP of scientific & regulatory affairs of Nutrition 21.

“Fitness-focused customers who want to get the most out of their training regimen, will appreciate that Nitrosigine is quickly absorbed by the body, taking effect in 30 minutes and lasting up to three hours. Nitrosigine has also been shown to significantly raise arginine and silicon levels - both important nutrients for cardiovascular performance.”

Study details

According to the presentation abstract published in FASEB Journal, Dr Kalman and his co-workers recruited 10 healthy men with an average age of 27 and assigned them to receive Nitrosigine for two weeks. Data recorded on the first day showed that a single dose was able to raise arginine and silicon levels.

“Although not a significant difference, NO increased in four subjects and stayed the same in six subjects at 0.5 hours after the first dose (p=0.125),” they wrote. “After 14 days of use, baseline NO levels increased in six subjects and stayed the same in four subjects (p=0.031).”

Source: FASEB Journal

April 2014 28:LB418

“A clinical evaluation to determine the safety, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of an inositol-stabilized arginine silicate dietary supplement in healthy adult males. (LB418)”

Authors: D. Kalman, S. Feldman, A. Samson, D. Krieger