Next-Level Forskolin
Forskolin improves body composition in two ways. Make it work even better by using the carbonate ester. Here's how.
Forskolin raises thyroid hormone levels and testosterone, naturally leading to increased fat-burning and lean body mass. Here’s a quick collection of results from just a few studies:
- Male subjects in a 12-week trial experienced a 17% increase in total testosterone compared with a 1% decrease in the placebo group.
- Female subjects in an 8-week study lost an average of 9 pounds of body weight while experiencing gains in lean body mass (without weight training).
- A group of men and women in a 12-week study lost 3 pounds of fat while experiencing increases in lean body mass (without weight training).
- The forskolin users in a mixed-sex group of 50 test subjects experienced a 2% increase in lean body mass and a decrease in mean body fat from 36 to 34%.
- Along with the hormone and body composition-boosting effects, other forskolin studies show that it may improve heart health by increasing the strength of heart muscle contractions and may help reduce blood pressure. Additionally, forskolin can act as a bronchodilator, making it potentially useful for treating asthma by helping to widen the airways in the lungs.
Some of those body-composition numbers above aren't mind-blowingly impressive until you realize that none of these test subjects were lifting weights or changing their diets.
Also, in most of these studies, the researchers only supplied their subjects with small doses of plain forskolin: the cheap stuff. Had they used the more bioavailable, longer-lasting form (forskolin carbonate), the results might have been even better.
Forskolin 1,9-carbonate is the full chemical name of the compound, and it’s found in Carbolin 19 (Buy at Amazon).
How Fat Gets Broken Down
Forskolin stimulates an enzyme called adenylate cyclase, which increases cellular concentrations of a cellular messenger called cyclic AMP, or cAMP, which interacts with a host of different types of cells.
When you raise levels of cAMP, you lower blood pressure, inhibit platelet aggregations (clotting), promote vasodilation (opening up of blood vessels), increase bronchodilation (improved breathing), and, most importantly to us, increase thyroid hormone secretion and speed up lipolysis (fat burning). Forskolin’s thyroid-stimulating strength has even been compared to thyrotropin or TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone).
Not only does this increased thyroid hormone production increase fat loss, but increased levels of cAMP activate protein kinase, shown to activate hormone-sensitive lipases, which are involved in the breakdown of the building blocks of fatty tissue known as triglycerides.
Fat Goes Down, Lean Body Mass Goes Up
Forskolin increases levels of cAMP, which means you end up mimicking the effects of mild calorie restriction and exercise, without actually reducing calories or even exercising. Of course, if you add exercise to the picture, you naturally get much more impressive results.
In addition to breaking down and burning fat, forskolin increases lean body mass. A higher level of intra-testicular cAMP mimics the action of luteinizing hormone and that translates to an increase in testosterone production.
This increase in testosterone levels contributes to additional lean body mass, but higher levels of cAMP in skeletal muscle also lead to an increase in protein synthesis (which is amplified by the complementary increase in testosterone), so you get a nice two-pronged mode of action.
How You Get the Most Benefits
Conventional forskolin supplements, i.e., those made with ground-up parts of the plant, suffer from the same triad of problems affecting most herbal supplements: standardization, potency, and absorption. Levels and potency of different plant chemicals vary from crop to crop and even plant to plant. One bottle of an herbal supplement might work well while the next may not.
To get an effective product, you have to extract and purify the active ingredient, in this case, forskolin 1,9-carbonate (the "carbonate ester" of forskolin). Then you’ll get a highly pure compound that gives consistent results. By extracting the active ingredients, you also extend forskolin’s duration of action from 4 hours to 12 hours.
Lastly, you need to improve the bioavailability (make it absorbable/usable to the human body) by combining forskolin 1,9-carbonate with a nutrient delivery system, so that your body can actually get the benefits.
In a nutshell, that's how we make Carbolin 19 (Buy at Amazon).
With Carbolin 19, you absorb more, and it lasts longer, providing even greater fat-burning/muscle-building effects.
Reference
- Godard MP et al. "Body composition and hormonal adaptations associated with forskolin consumption in overweight and obese men." Obes Res. 2005 Aug;13(8):1335-43. PubMed: 16129715.