The Effects of Multiple Acute Turkesterone Doses on Indirect Measures of Hypertrophy and Metabolic Measures: A Preliminary Investigation

Abstract

Turkesterone is a naturally occurring plant steroid touted for its medicinal, pharmacological, and biological properties with no reported adverse side effects compared with traditional anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS). However, this ostensible enhancement to increase muscle protein synthesis and facilitate augmented thermogenesis remains undescribed despite uninformed and potentially haphazard consumption. To investigate whether turkesterone enhances insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and resting metabolic rate (RMR), eleven apparently healthy males (23.3 ± 2.2) volunteered to participate in the present study with samples collected pre-, 3H post-, and 24H post-ingestion. Subsequent analyses failed to reveal any significant main condition, time, or interaction main effects for serum IGF-1, RMR, lipid, and carbohydrate metabolism (p > 0.05). However, non-significant serum IGF-1 concentrations increased with both turkesterone conditions and remained elevated when compared with placebo. Similarly, RMR remained elevated above baseline across the 3 h assessed. Although these data fail to fully support turkesterone as a potent anabolic supplement, nevertheless, our findings are foundational to persistently tease apart this supplement’s purported ergogenic effects and underscore its favorable hemodynamic and gastrointestinal tolerability profile. Future investigations should, therein, aim to assess turkesterone-mediated IGF-1 increases on long-term whole-muscle growth across several training sessions to further substantiate its efficacy on anabolism.