INTRODUCTION TO IGF-1
This growth factor is just as anabolic or even more than testosterone. Our body makes it naturally and it causes muscle growth, improves recovery and improves your fat metabolism. Some elite athletes even inject this stuff because of its benefits. I will explain how IGF-1 works and how to optimize it naturally.
NOTE: I am aware about all the hate to the softmaxxing community lately, but its worth the reading for a better understanding and your looksmaxxing path.
HOW IGF-1 WORKS
IGF-1 its a growth factor that is made up mostly in your liver in response to growth hormone. Basically growth hormone is released by the brain in response on things like intense exercise, sleep, hunger and low blood sugar. The growth hormone travels through the blood and it binds to receptors in the liver cells and some signaling within those cells, the result is the prodcution of IGF-1 from the liver.
IGF-1 binds to some binding proteins that stabilize it so it can stick around the blood longer rather than getting cleared away immediately. IGF-1 can be made outside the liver to, it´s made directly in the muscles in response to mechanical stress like lifting weights. In the muscles this version of IGF-1 is called mechano growth factor, it´s not exactly the same it is called splice variant of IGF-1 (but has similar effects). An imporant thing to know is since mechanic growth factor or IGF-1 can be made locally in tissues like muscles, this means the IGF-1 blood levels don´t tell the full story about it, because you could have low IGF-1 in your blood but high IGF-1 in your muscles.
IGF-1 is also regulated by the thyroid hormones nutrition status which we´ll get into it later.
IGF-1 FUNCTIONS
Let´s talk about what IGF-1 can actually do. First, it binds to receptros in muscle cells, and this binding activates the mTOR (mTORC 1) signaling pathway, which is one of the main anabolic signaling pathways in the human body. This increases muscle protein synthesis and reduces muscle protein breakdown (autopaghy).
Explanation detailed
IGF-1 also seems to inhibit myostatin, myostatin is a protein that limits muscle growth. You might have seen that people or animals with a myostatin deficiency have much more muscle mass than is normally possible. For example the Belgian blue breed of cows.
So, by inhibiting myostatin IGF-1 kind of pulls back the limiter of muscle mass growth.
IGF-1 also stimulates satellite cells to proliferate and differentiate. Satellite cells are stem cells in the muscle tissue and they add nuclei to the muscle fibers and more nucleai means more potential to muscle protein synthesis, since the nuclei are what gives the instructions to the ribosomes to make muscle proteins.
IGF-1 reduces muscle protein breakdown by inhibiting tha pathway called the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, you don´t need to know what that means, but basically you experience less muscle loss during intense training or caloric deficits.
That´s why IGF-1 is basically banned from competition, taking it would give you an unfair advantage. But in this post we´re interested in natural optimization of IGF-1.
IGF-1 also grows your bones by promoting proliferation and bone elongation in the growth plates. So it´s crucial throughout the growth spurts during puberty, very important for getting taller and general frame-growth of your skeleton. Specially in adults it promotes bone remoleing and bone density. IGF-1 also enhances insulin sensitivity and increases fat metabolism. So more glucose gets sucked up into the muscles, that´s what insulin does. And the body switches more towards burning fat for energy instead of carbs. It is important to note altough IGF-1 promotes fat metabolism it´s mostly growth hormone that does that.
Beyond all the beneficts talked, also has another buncho of beneficts as improving the tymus function, which is an inmune organ in your chest that makes the white cells used to fight infections. Improves your skin health and appearance like having less wrinkles and seems to protect the mitochondria.
HOW DO WE OPTIMIZE IGF-1
IGF-1 is influenced by lots of factors.
INSULIN enhances growth hormone receptor sensitivity in the liver and it increases the free ammount of IGF-1 circulating, by reducing the ammount of IGF-binding protein. SO, I am not reccomending maxxing out insuline levels all the time, best time to do it is after a workout, so that the carbs and the amino acids that you eat get taken up into the muscles. Insulin and IGF-1 are both very anabolic, in fact many bodybuilders inject insulin to promote muscle growth.
RESISTANCE TRAINING is something that boosts growth hormone and IGF-1, but basically is high intensity-high volume-fatigue training. Something like training five sets of x6-10 reps of squats with a quite heavy weight. So it´s one of the best ways to boost IGF-1. Here is some evidence: Ressistance training on IGF-1
DEEP SLEEP is very important for growth hormone and IGF-1. Growth hormone is released during the early phases of sleep where there is more deep sleep. To get the best deep sleep quality make sure you´re keeping a regular sleeping schedule aligned with the circadian rhythm, so if you are getting into bed at 3:00 AM and waking up at 13:00 PM you are wasting a lot of potential. Watch the sunrise and the sunset everyday, eat your meals at pretty much the same time every day and not too close to bedtime because that fucks up your sleep. Block bright and blue lights after sunset, these lights tell your brain that it´s still time to stay awake so it supresses melatonin production. You want darkness after sunset. Before bed chillout, but please that doesn´t mean scrolling if you´re still doing it no wonder why you want to improve your life, start with that. That stuff is going to stress you out or make you active. You need to de-stimulate and relax before bed. That works with a bath, reading a book or anything like that. Keep your beedroom cold, dark and silent. High cortisol inhibits growth hormone and IGF-1 production reducing anabolic signals, so you need to keep stress fairly low. Do some things to manage your stress like meditation, breath work, relaxation, those have been all shown in studies to work pretty well for lowering stress and cortisol.
THYROID HEALTH. I have talked about it earlier, it is a big topic but some basics are having a nutrient dense diet, especially iodine and selenium, you can get those from eggs, milk and fish. You neen to sleep well which I´ve just discussed, low-stress so don´t be overtraining in the gym, mantain good gut health and avoid all possible endocrine disruptors.
LIVER HEALTH, that basically involves reducing your exposure to toxins, alcohols, endocrine disruptors, xenoestrogens, having a nutrient-dense diet and potentially having some liver supportive tools like milk thistle.
FOOD AND SUPPLEMENTS. Amino acids like arginine and leucine are well known to boost growth hormones secretion and that will boost IGF-1 in turn. So make sure you´re getting a variety of amino acids in your diet from things like eggs, meat on the bone which will give you more quality collagen and amino acids that make up that. Fish, dairy, bone broth.
People who eat a lot of higher quality protein (animal) as children they often end up being taller. In fact protein intake is one of the strongest correlates with height after genetics. One of the reasons for that is protein effect on IGF-1. You also don´t want to be in a chronic caloric deficit or do a lot of long-term fasting, because that could lower you IGF-1 levels. If you´re going to do caloric deficit and fasting use them strategically don´t over do them.
Some other foods are milk and eggs. Zinc is an important mineral you should get from food like beef and ocasional oysters, I try to have them like once a week. Also you don´t need an excessive amount of zinc. Another mineral is magnesium, this is one that I do reccomend supplementing, because it can be hard to get from the diet. Creatine and branch chain amino acids or BCAAs booth improve your training output and your recovery, so they can indirectly influence on IGF-1 production by optimizing the anabolic environment. Vitamin D is another imporant nutrient and ideally you get it from midday sunlight, but if it´s winter or you live in a cloudy location and you don´t have UVV sunlight to make enough vitamin D, you get it from fatty fish and vitamin D supplement. Some other foods includes blueberries, vitamin C and edysterone. Thge last one is a steroid found in some inscets and plants and you can get it in quinoa and spinach.
RISKS OF HAVING HIGH IGF-1 LEVELS
Generically high levels of IGF-1 aren´t dangerous unless they stay for a long time like that. But, in most of the cases it is produced by a genetic condition. For example hyperthyroidism, chronically overfed or taking exogenous IGF-1 or analoges. The body thightly regulates the IGF-1 production. If it gets too high production will be decreased to bring it back down. The risks of having excesive IGF-1 are mostly low blood sugar, acne, organ growth and increased risks of some cancers which is the one most of the people are concerned about. On the other hand, LOW IGF-1 levels are linked to frailty, poor recovery and INCREASED MORATILITY. So with natural optimization there´s an ideal middle ground.
SUMMARY
Deep sleep
Resistance training
Animal protein
Low stress
Insuline spike after workout
Foods: Milk, eggs, fish, meat
Supplements: Creatine, vitamin D, zinc+magnesium
Deep sleep
Resistance training
Animal protein
Low stress
Insuline spike after workout
Foods: Milk, eggs, fish, meat
Supplements: Creatine, vitamin D, zinc+magnesium
Any tags are appreciated.
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