HMB is an innovative muscle health ingredient that can benefit people of all ages and activity levels.
Scientifically known as HMB or beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate – is one of the most efficient nutritional aids for maintaining muscle mass. While many ingredients simply work to increase muscle protein synthesis, HMB is unique in its dual mechanism of simultaneously increasing muscle protein synthesis while also reducing muscle protein breakdown.
HMB is produced naturally in our bodies during the metabolism of the essential amino acid leucine. While many of HMB’s beneficial effects are shared with leucine, HMB offers more potent muscle retention and recovery benefits because of the additional effect it has on decreasing protein breakdown. These effects have been shown to produce increases in strength, improvement in endurance, and aid in recovery from exercise/activity.
Benefits of HMB
As an effective supplement for improving muscle health under a variety of external stressors, athletes, aging adults, dieters, active individuals and persons recovering from illness or injury have used HMB for decades. In fact, the beauty of HMB is that it performs best when stressors — such as strenuous exercise or injury — are introduced to the body.
Not only can this nutritional supplement be used for muscle recovery and building muscle, it can also maintain age-related muscle loss.
HMB has also been clinically shown to:
- Boost protein synthesis (Wilkinson et al., 2018)
- Reduce protein breakdown (Wilkinson et al., 2018)
- Reduce muscle damage (Nissen et al., 1996)
- Improve body composition (Wilson et al., 2014)
- Improve strength gains from resistance training (Nissen and Sharp, 2003)
Key Mechanisms of HMB
Muscle mass is the sum of muscle protein breakdown and muscle protein synthesis. HMB simultaneously decreases muscle protein breakdown and increases muscle protein synthesis. The beauty of HMB is that it performs best when stressors are introduced to the body.
HMB decreases protein breakdown by disrupting proteolysis through the ubiquitin-proteasome proteolytic pathway (a major enzymatic pathway for protein breakdown in muscle). This results in less muscle damage.
HMB stimulates muscle protein synthesis through multiple mechanisms, including the mTOR/p70S6k pathway. While the initiation of myofibrillar protein synthesis is influenced by multiple factors, mTOR is a key regulatory factor that results in a direct increase in myofibrillar protein synthesis. Myofibrillar proteins cause muscles to contract and are responsible for the strength of the muscle contraction. HMB has been shown to increase the phosphorylation of mTOR, thus activating the mTOR signaling pathway in muscle. The mTOR then stimulates the initiation of protein synthesis in the muscle.
While many of these effects are shared with leucine, HMB is more potent than leucine in promoting strength gains. A study found that conversion of leucine to HMB is necessary for this increase in protein synthesis, making this performance supplement ideal for building and maintaining muscle mass and strength.
Clinical Research
HMB separates itself from other supplements with a growing body of research. Findings not only show that it works to improve the results of an exercise science program, but they also show that it is safe, with no known side effects.
In fact, the study of HMB safety has been just as extensive as the study of itsit’s effect on improving strength and performance. In the last two decades, over 50 human studies, 40 review articles, and four meta-analyses have been published as peer-reviewed papers, the scientific gold standard.
Why we us myHMB
At Protect Wellness, we are proud to use the branded ingredient myHMB in our products. myHMB is a specialized form of HMB (beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate) that has been extensively researched and clinically proven to support muscle growth, strength, and recovery. As a high-quality, pure, and bioavailable form of HMB, myHMB is an ideal choice for anyone looking to enhance their athletic performance or improve their muscle health. We are committed to helping our customers improve their quality of life, and by utilizing the benefits of myHMB.