Apple ingredient keeps muscles strong

Everyone who reads an article in the press about health and nutrition should be required to watch this video, Science for Smart People -- a presentation by Tom Naughton, who wrote and directed the movie "Fat Head". It is a brilliant deconstruction of bad science and the bad journalists that report the bad science, in the context of health and nutrition.

One of many points he makes is the ridiculousness of reporting on miraculous health claims that have only been shown to work on rodents.

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1RXvBveht0

And, I just submitted it to HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2635326

>> If so, they don't yet know whether ursolic acid at levels that might be consumed as part of a normal diet might or might not be enough.

That last sentence may be the most important one for now. Resveratrol has had some interesting health benefit data published, but positive results were correlated to much larger quantities than one could get by just drinking red wine. But if ursolic acid can be cheaply synthesized and proven safe in clinically beneficial quantities, this could be huge. Note that the article focused on muscle wasting and only mentioned in passing that it lowered blood glucose and triglyceride levels and boosted insulin signaling. Talk about burying the lede.

The presence of "Apple" in the title caught my eye... then the realization set in. I'd love to argue that this is linkbait, even though there's no reasonable reason it should be. WWDC fever.

Why is the focus on apple peels, specifically? Ursolic acid is also in rosemary and oregano, which have been available as dietary supplements for quite a while.

What about strength training, which is already proven to work in humans?

That's great, but you can prevent nearly all of the degeneration of ageing - especially muscle wastage - by regular exercise and strength training.