We are proud to announce that Lus Health Ingredients is partnering with one of the key producers in the world of Natural Astaxanthin: Atacama Bio.
Lus Health Ingredients now exclusively represents Atacama Bio Natural in Europe, with the brand NatAxtin™. The privileged location of the company in the Atacama Desert enables a low cost, sustainable, environmentally friendly, and most-close-to-natural technology to produce Astaxanthin as nature intended.
Needles to say, we share the values of Atacama Bio and that is one of the reasons why we think this partnership wille be a great succes. When you share values and beliefs with your partners good things will happen!
José Luis Arenas, CEO of Atacama Bio:
"We have received an enormous energy boost thanks to this partnership. Teaming up with a company that shares our core values with such enthusiasm reaffirms our commitment to people's health and sustainability."
This deal brings together Atacama Bio's strength in producing high-quality natural astaxanthin and our market and product development skills.
Would you like to know more about NatAxtin Astaxanthin? Check our product page, or have a look at the series of articles we wrote on Astaxanthin.
PR newswire & Yahoo Finance
Nutraingredients
Astaxanthin firm joins forces with Dutch ingredients expert to boost sales in Europe
Today the third and last part of my series on Astaxanthin & Sports. In the last 2 parts I discussed the basics of both
& of exercise as well as some recent studies on sports nutrition and mitochondrial function.
In this part I will try and put the learnings from all studies in chapter 2 (and more) together the look at potential underlying mechanism. After all, it is the question that drives us… what is the matrix? why would an antioxidant, like Astaxanthin, improve power, speed and endurance levels?
Let’s get started!
As was mentioned in the beginning of this blog exercise creates reactive oxygen species (ROS). And, as could be expected from a strong antioxidant like astaxanthin, it decreases oxidation parameters, as can be shown in the figure below. Young dogs were repeatably trained over the course of 8 and supplemented with Astaxanthin. The protein oxidation level after the first training was set as 100%. Now, as can be expected from a well built up training the body starts to cope better with ROS and after 8 weeks protein oxidation is at 87% of the first training, but insignificant. Astaxanthin, however, did significantly reduce protein oxidation which might be a hint upon faster ROS recovery after training.
This is important for athletes: Faster recovery helps increase training frequency and this will lead to a more effective increase in fitness & muscle building. More interesting than the antioxidant effect is something that blew my mind…….
In the same study with the dogs the Astaxanthin group was shown to have a significant increase of nearly 10% ATP. Yes ATP! Energy!! This is critically important and confirmed also by other studies in rats and humans. NOW the impact shown in the randomized clinical trials with humans make more sense. With 10% more energy AND more training capacity (quicker recovery) astaxanthin gives a basis for a real UPGRADE in the metabolic process that is the foundation of our energy management. That should be interesting to all of us and of particulars interest in sports.
So what could be the mechanism behind the ATP increase?
Due to the molecular nature of astaxanthin, it can easily integrate into cellular membranes, also that of mitochondria. Studies have shown that inn mitochondria, astaxanthin has been shown to positively influence the electron transport chain, responsible for the ATP production specifically, complex III. It seems to function as an accelerator, a catalyst almost of the electron transport chain.
Next to this, the presence of the antioxidant directly at the site of free radical / electron production gives immediate protection. This thinking is summarized in the figure below.
Exercise creates the need for more energy output, driving mitochondrial ATP production. With Astaxanthin uploaded in the mitochondrial membrane (takes 4-6 weeks of supplementation with 4-8mg), the electron transport chain produces 10% more energy - in all 3700 mitochondria - in every muscle cell. With the increased energy output, mitochondria will normally also have a higher ROS production leading to more stress to the body and longer recovery periods. With Astaxanthin at the site of ROS production it will work in coherency with the bodies own free radical defense mechanism and recover quicker.
From a biological perspective this absolutely makes sense, at least to me. It mimics perfectly how leaves produce their energy and how they protect their chlorophyll. In leaves chlorophyll is accompanied with (keto) carotenoids as violaxanthin to optimize photosynthesis. Could it just be that Astaxanthin & Mitochondria are the mammal equivalent to the system as seen in leaves? I believe so and it will not be a surprise to most readers that I personally and many around me take astaxanthin on a daily basis.
This ingredient has also been shown to enhance eye health, decrease (joint) inflammation and to be beneficial to the skin. I personally hope you enjoyed reading this report, know that any feedback is welcome!
Want to download the full report as a PDF? click here
It wasn’t so long ago that I hadn’t heard of the astaxanthin. I, like so many, responded with Asta-what? Hardly being able to pronounce the entire word, let alone remember it. A huge challenge to popularize any ingredient, I’d say. This was until I starting reading all the science available on it. Well, nearly all, I probably missed a few. I don’t mean the “science” proclaiming it is 300x stronger antioxidant than vitamin C in some model system or chemical assay. That has no value. Real effects, in real people, that is what we are looking for, isn’t it?
In this series of three post I’d like to address impact of Astaxanthin on performance in sports.
To understand the impact of astaxanthin on improved sports performance we first need to understand how exercise impacts us. There are plenty of good reviews on this topic but let’s stick with the most relevant area for astaxanthin: the role of mitochondria. Mitochondria are vital intracellular structures present in each of our cells and are our engines, i.e. they create ATP, also known as energy. They do so by a complex biochemical process that involves beta oxidation of fatty acid through the electron transport chain (ETC) and consequent TCA cycle. During this process mitochondria tend to “leak” a small percentage of electrons from the ETC, but who about cares electrons, right?
Well, these electrons actually create local free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS). The healthy body is fully capable to deal with these free radicals and employs a variety of strategies to neutralize them including glutathione, superoxide dismutase and catalase. That is the simplified human biochemistry going on in each of our cells just reading this paper.
Let’s now imagine your Sunday morning run, your Tuesday evening gym visit or the sunny bike ride you just took. Your muscles require to perform and so the energy need is highly increased. This also means the mitochondria are working “overtime” creating lots more free radicals than while in rest. What is lot’s more you wonder?
Think about what I said before, every cell has mitochondria. I just did not tell you yet how many. In human skin there are roughly 300-500 mitochondria per cell. In muscle cells 3500. That is right 3500! Imagine the amount of muscle cells we have and now they are all working full speed, creating free radicals 10 or 100-fold to whilst in rest. The body need will try and cope with these but often does not manage. The consequence of the excess ROS can be measured in our blood in the form of protein & lipid oxidation.
Regular, and well built-up, training actually trains our complete metabolic systems and leading to:
- Elevated steady state levels of glutathione, superoxide dismutase and catalase
- Increased responsiveness to free radical formation during (intense) exercise
Most of you that have ever heard of the antioxidant capacity of astaxanthin have by this time a good feeling that I will mention that it will reduce free radicals. But is does so much more as it turns out.
It is helpful to understand some of the basics of the molecular structure and the role of astaxanthin has had in biology & evolution even. Astaxanthin, part of the carotenoid family is a keto-carotenoid. This means it has two more hydrophilic group on each side with a highly saturated and lipophilic carbon chain in the middle (see figure 1). This structure, other than most carotenoids, allows for quick incorporation into membranes, which we will see is quite important.
This keto carotenoid has been present in nature for millions of years, produced by bacteria, fungi and plants (like algae) to protect these organisms against ROS. During the evolutionary period in which fish and mammals came into the world many of the microorganisms were became of their food chain, think of krill, shrimp, salmons and flamingos. Humans, currently, on top of the food chain have always had settlement near the sea and been exposed to Astaxanthin in their diets. Just like omega 3 fatty acids by the way. When you think of Astaxanthin in biology and evolution, an important role in the human body only makes sense. And of course, we are talking about NATURAL astaxanthin, and not the synthetic stuff thrown in the diets of farmed salmon these days as that does not get into the muscles (30x less than natural) and is nearly functionless. If you’d like to learn more about the bioavailability of astaxanthin get in touch with us info@lusingredients.com.
Not many people know how effective palms are in converting CO2 to vegetation and oil. A palm plantation delivers 5000-9000 kg of oil per hectare. Eat that sunflower! (1000 kg). The problem with the palm plantations is that they are so profitable in their use (over the entire supply chain) that the demand for more plantations is growing. More plantations in a geographical region that has little open land, means cutting down rainforest, a fragile ecosystem providing huge diversity. Profit over Planet.
The oily fruit actually delivers two products. One is Palm oil, which is made from the fleshy part of the fruit. It finds is use in… well nearly every processed food product on the planet. Just ask the big multinational food players
The other product is Palm Kernel Oil. The kernel is around 1/3 of the total fruit, is dried, pressed and (hexane) extracted to give palm kernel oil. The palm kernel oil is very different from palm oil, as it contains a high amount of lauric acid, a favorite fatty acid in the production of soaps. The remaining non-lauric acid fraction contains medium chain triglycerides (MCT) and is popular in the Ketogenic diet.
The alternative is clear. Coconut oil is richer in MCT’s than Palm Kernel. Coconut plantation are more sustainable. The plantations can actively produce coconuts for more than 50 years and are actually local biodiversity areas, with many other bushes and plant growing on the same lot. If you want to reap the benefits of energy giving MCT’s, choose palm free. Choose Coconut based oil, every time.
Astaxanthin. Not sure who came up with the name, but most of us have a hard time pronouncing and/or remembering it. The red antioxidant best known for the (pinkish) color of Salmon, Krill and Flamingoes has seen explosive market growth and rightfully so.
Salmon without its typical pink color is less appealing to most consumers. Additions of astaxanthin to the diets of farmed salmon is, therefore, pure logic. Price is the main motivator as so often. The synthetic product is cheaper. The synthetic product gives the color. Everybody happy, right?
‘No’ says Human Biology.
Astaxanthin has been in our diets for many generations and might be as essential as are omega 3 fatty acids. Humans are ready to digest the natural product, that finds origin Algae, as the start of the food chain. The natural astaxanthin bioavailability is approximately 20x better than the synthetic version. When Biology and Chemistry go head to head, Biology usually comes out on top. So don’t waste your time eating salmon to enjoy the benefits astaxanthin provides, don’t choose synthetics, choose Natural, choose our Algae based Astaxanthin.
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