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High Quality CLA for Support of Healthy Glucose Metabolism

60 Capsules

Ultra CLA™ features 500 mg of high quality conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), in the triglyceride, rather than free fatty acid, form for enhanced stability and tolerance. The stability of the CLA is further enhanced by the addition of a standardized extract of rosemary leaf, which has potent antioxidant properties.

CLA is a naturally occurring fatty acid that may support healthy glucose and insulin metabolism through its activation of nuclear receptors that are glucose uptake sensitizers, CLA may help to promote healthy glucose tolerance and glucose homeostasis. In addition, ongoing research is exploring many new potential applications of CLA, including promotion of lean body mass.

Two Capsules Supply:
Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) 1,000 mg
Rosemary Leaf Extract (as RoseOx®) (rosmarinus officinalis) (standardized to 6% (2.4 mg) carnosic acid) 40 mg

Recommendations: 1-2 capsules three times daily

Suitable for vegetarians if removed from capsule

Patent Pending

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a component of beef and milk that has been shown to reduce body fat in both animals and humans. CLA is essential for the transport of dietary fat into cells, where it is used to build muscle and produce energy. Fat that is not used for anabolic energy production is converted into newly stored fat cells. There are published research findings about how dietary CLA reduces body fat, but first let's take a look at why many Americans are now deficient in CLA compared with their parents.

The primary dietary sources of CLA are beef and milk, and Americans are eating less beef and drinking less whole milk in order to reduce their dietary intake of saturated fat. People often drink nonfat milk, but it's the fat content of the milk that contains CLA. Since skim milk contains virtually no CLA, those seeking to lose weight, those who use skim milk, are depriving themselves of a potential source of this fat-reducing nutrient.

Now, here's where the real problem occurs. In 1963, the CLA percentage in milk was as high as 2.81%. By 1992, the percentage of CLA in dairy products seldom exceeded 1%. The reason for the sharp reduction in milk CLA was because of changing feeding patterns.

Cows that eat natural grass produce lots of CLA. Today's "efficient" feeding methods rely far less on natural grass. For example, grass-fed Australian cows have 3 to 4 times as much CLA in their meat as do American cows.

Researchers reported in June of 1999 in Biosciences, Biotechnology, Biochemistry Journal that animal studies demonstrated that "CLA has an obesity-preventing action."

Another study reported that CLA effects on glucose tolerance and glucose homeostasis indicate that dietary CLA may prove to be an important therapy for the prevention and treatment of obesity (Biochem.Biophys. Res. Commun., 1998 [March]).

So health-conscious Americans are avoiding beef and whole milk because these foods are high in fat, and, when people do consume beef or milk, they are consuming very little CLA because of CLA-deficiency in today's cows. Thus, most Americans have inadequate amounts of CLA in their diet, and this CLA deficit may be at least partially responsible for the epidemic of overweight people of all ages that now exists.

Encouraging Results with CLA

How significant is CLA in preventing excess accumulation of body at? The results to date are preliminary, but extremely encouraging. Athletes are taking CLA to push glucose into their muscle cells and connective tissues instead of letting it turn into fat. CLA has been shown to reduce protein degradation in both humans and animals.

CLA is required to maintain optimal function of the phospholipid membranes of cells. Healthy cell membranes will allow fat, protein, and carbohydrates to flow into active cells such as muscle, connective tissue, and organ cells, instead of being stored passively in fat cells. A deficiency of CLA can inhibit fat from entering muscle cells, which can result in excessive accumulation of body fat.

CLA has been studied in different species of animals, and the results consistently show that CLA reduces the percentage of body fat. An abstract from the 1996 Environmental Biology Conference showed that rats, after 28 days of being supplemented with CLA, showed a 58% reduction in body fat, compared with the control animals which did not receive CLA. In addition, the percentage of muscle was greater in the CLA group; CLA did not induce weight loss, since muscle weighs more than fat.

In July 1997, the results of the first human study on CLA were released by the Medstat Research Ltd. group of Lillesterom, Norway. This 3-month preliminary study involved 20 healthy volunteers. Half the group was given six 500-mg CLA capsules a day, and the other half received identical-looking placebo capsules. The subjects were asked not to alter their diet or lifestyle; 18 of the 20 subjects completed the study protocol. The results showed that the people in the CLA group experienced a 15 to 20% reduction of average body fat, compared with the placebo group. In the CLA group, the initial body fat percentage was 21.3% at the beginning of the study, and only 17% body fat after 3 months on CLA capsules. In contrast, the placebo group started with an average of 22% body fat, and 3 months later recorded an average of 22.4% body fat

CLA received widespread media attention in the early 1990s when it was identified as a component of red meat that helps prevent cancer. Further research showed that CLA is a potent anticancer agent, an anticatabolic agent and, through a unique mechanism, a fat metabolizing agent. CLA is one of the substances the FDA is investigating for disease prevention. New studies are appearing about the ability of CLA to prevent cancer, and possibly function as an adjuvant (assisting) cancer therapy. CLA appears to be especially effective in preventing breast cancer.

Using CLA to reduce body fat may reduce your risk of getting cancer. Compare this to FDA-approved diet drugs that were removed from the market after being linked to heart-valve degeneration. A deficiency of CLA in our diet may be a major factor in causing Americans to gain so many fat pounds. CLA is a potent antioxidant, but appears to prevent cancer via other mechanisms of action. A dose of three 1000-mg capsules of 70% CLA, taken in the morning on an empty stomach, may be an effective part of an overall weight-loss program. The studies indicate that it usually takes about 3 weeks before body fat loss occurs in response to CLA supplementation.

CLA inhibits fat storage by enhancing the ability of cell membranes (other than fat cells) to open up and allow the absorption of fats and other nutrients. CLA promotes the growth of muscles by letting nutrients into active muscle cells. That's why CLA has become such a popular supplement among body builders. The fat-reducing mechanism of CLA involves the rejuvenation of cell membranes in the muscles and connective tissues to allow fats to enter freely in order to generate energy and growth. This anabolic effect could provide anti-aging benefits in the elderly, but there have been no studies to date to investigate this.

Recent Findings on CLA

Several years ago, the discovery of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) caused a scientific sensation. Here was a fatty acid found in red meat and cheese that showed strong anticancer properties, being particularly effective in inhibiting breast and prostate tumors, as well as colorectal, stomach, and skin cancer, including melanoma. On the whole, scientists found CLA to be more strongly anticarcinogenic than other fatty acids. What made CLA especially unique is that even low concentrations significantly inhibited cancer cell growth.

CLA supplementation was also shown to improve the ratio of lean mass to body fat, decreasing fat deposition, especially on the abdomen, and enhancing muscle growth. One way in which CLA reduces body fat is to enhance insulin sensitivity so that fatty acids and glucose can pass through muscle cell membranes and away from fat tissue. This results in an improved muscle-to-fat ratio.

CLA was also shown to have antioxidant properties and to prevent muscle wasting (an anticatabolic effect). It became popular with muscle builders because of its ability to improve the transport of glucose, fatty acids, and protein to the muscle tissue.

It is interesting that while it is chemically related to linolenic acid conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) appears to have opposite effects in certain important areas. For instance, linolenic acid stimulates fat formation (lipogenesis) in adipose tissue, while CLA inhibits fat formation; linolenic acid tends to promote tumor growth, while CLA is
an excellent inhibitor of tumor growth; linolenic acid makes cholesterol more susceptible to oxidation, while CLA makes cholesterol more stable.

One of the greatest problems with the Western diet during the last 50 years has been excessive consumption of linoleic acid, due to the introduction of margarine, seed oils, such as corn oil and safflower oil, nd the modern artificial livestock feeding methods that have raised the linoleic-acid content of meat. At the same time, the consumption of beneficial fatty acids such as omega-3 fats (fish, flax,) and CLA has gone down. Because of the enormous impact that fatty acids have on our physiology, an excess of linoleic acid combined with a deficiency of CLA could have far-reaching effects on health and longevity. Let us now take a closer look at the current research findings about CLA.

CLA Reduces Body Fat in Mice by up to 88%

A study at Louisiana State University confirmed that feeding male mice CLA-enriched diet (at 1% of the diet by weight, or 10 g/kg) for 6 weeks resulted in 43 to 88% lower body fat, especially in regard to abdominal fat. This occurred even if the mice were fed a high-fat diet. The effect was partly due to reduced calorie intake by CLA-supplemented mice, and partly to a shift in their metabolism, including a higher metabolic rate. In another study, performed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, mice supplemented with only 0.5% of CLA showed up to 60% lower ody fat and up to 14% increased lean body mass compared tocontrols. The researchers discovered that CLA-fed animals showed greater activity of enzymes involved in the delivery of fatty acids to the muscle cells and the utilization of fat for energy, while the enzymes facilitating fat deposition were inhibited.

CLA Improves Insulin Sensitivity

A study using diabetic Zucker rats indicates that part of CLA's effectiveness in preventing obesity may lie in its ability to act as a potent insulin sensitizer, thus lowering insulin resistance and consequently insulin levels. Since elevated insulin is the chief pro-obesity agent, it is enormously important to keep insulin within the normal range. By activating certain enzymes and enhancing glucose transport into the cells, CLA acts to lower blood sugar levels and normalize insulin levels.

Thus, besides being antiatherogenic and anti-carcinogenic, CLA is also antidiabetogenic: it helps prevent adult-onset diabetes, characterized by insulin resistance. If the current animal results are corroborated, CLA may prove to be important not only in the prevention of diabetes, but also as a new therapy for adult-onset diabetics, aimed at lowering insulin resistance.