Is insulin anabolic in itself or because it helps to effectively shuttle amino acids and sugars into muscles? i was going to ask this question in the r-ala post but i figured it would be better answered on it’s own. it also would be nice to get a decisive answer in the r-ala thread. laters pk
JB talked about the role of insulin in ‘Solving the Post Workout Puzzle Part II’.
insulin is mainly considered anabolics because it shuttles nutrients into your muscle cells. But it also has a strong synergistic effect with other hormones like GH. Together they help produce IGF-1.
Insulin is anabolic because it stimulates protein synthesis in the presence of adequate serum amino acid levels. While it also stimulates amino acid transport into muscles, this is not by definition “anabolic”.
Cheers
Something interesting:
I met a PhD named Greg Ellis who did most of his research on the effects of insulin on the body. A quote that really stuck out in my mind was, “Insulin is not a double-edged sword. It’s only one bad one.” He was an advocate of a low carb lifestyle and wrote a book called Ultimate Diet Secrets detailing it.
The link didn’t work, let me try again.
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=462147
Regarding its effects PWO, insulin has shown to be anti-catabolic, not anabolic.
Well fuck, since JB wrote it, it MUST be true! 
Our real-life situation is slightly different from that presented in the referenced study.
As an important note, nothing by itself is anabolic. You need substrate from which to synthesize protein.
From this, the actual practice of using carbs/insulin with amino acids/protein is shown to be anabolic without being anticatabolic (much to my surprise).
Hope this helps clear things up!
Cheers
[quote]super saiyan wrote:
The link didn’t work, let me try again.
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=462147
Regarding its effects PWO, insulin has shown to be anti-catabolic, not anabolic.[/quote]