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Protein before bed

This looks interesting

Protein Ingestion Prior To Sleep Improves Post-Exercise Overnight Recovery

INTRODUCTION:
The role of nutrition in modulating post-exercise overnight recovery remains to be elucidated. We assessed the impact of protein ingestion immediately prior to sleep on digestion and absorption kinetics and protein metabolism during overnight recovery from a single bout of resistance type exercise.
METHODS:
16 healthy young males performed a single bout of resistance type exercise in the evening (20:00) after a full day of dietary standardisation. All subjects were provided with appropriate recovery nutrition (20 g protein, 60 g carbohydrate) immediately after exercise (21:00). Thereafter, 30 min prior to sleep (23:30 h) subjects ingested a beverage with (PRO) or without (PLA) 40 g specifically produced intrinsically [1-C]phenylalanine labeled casein protein. Continuous intravenous infusions with [ring-H5]phenylalanine and [ring-H2]tyrosine were applied with blood and muscle samples collected to assess protein digestion and absorption kinetics, whole-body protein balance and mixed muscle protein synthesis rates throughout the night (7.5 h).
RESULTS:
During sleep casein protein was effectively digested and absorbed resulting in a rapid rise in circulating amino acid levels which were sustained throughout the remainder of the night. Protein ingestion prior to sleep increased whole-body protein synthesis rates (311±8 vs 246±9 ∼mol·kg·7.5 h ) and improved net protein balance (61±5 vs -11±6 μmol·kg·7.5 h ) in the PRO vs PLA experiment, respectively; P<0.01). Mixed muscle protein synthesis rates were ∼22% higher in the PRO vs PLA experiment, which reached borderline significance (0.059±0.005 vs 0.048±0.004 %·h; P=0.05).
CONCLUSION:
This is the first study to show that protein ingested immediately prior to sleep is effectively digested and absorbed, thereby stimulating muscle protein synthesis and improving whole-body protein balance during post-exercise, overnight recovery.

Comments

Mike said…
Nice find, Chris. Pretty sure I'll be stealing this (but giving props your way!) for my seemingly-stale blog!
Simon Whyatt said…
As far as I'm aware, isn't there still little to no evidence that measures such as up-regulated protein synthesis etc actually translate to real world gains in muscle/performance?

This smacks of all the "window of opportunity studies", and has a whiff of being funded by a protein powder company.

Perhaps I'm just becoming cynical in my old age though...
Sol Orwell said…
Really need fulltext on this eh? While diet was standardized, no clue how much protein there was. And what exactly did PLA ingest before zzz?

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