Research

Hormonal

Dietary leucine supplementation improves muscle protein synthesis in elderly men independently of hyperaminoacidaemia.

Elderly men can potentially improve their muscle protein synthesis by consuming meals supplemented with leucine. This should be done as part of a balanced diet, not just as a standalone supplement. The study used a dose of 0.052 g/kg body weight, spread out over 5 hours. This suggests that incorporating leucine-rich foods or supplements into regular meals might be beneficial for maintaining muscle mass in old age.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
We conclude that leucine supplementation during feeding improves muscle protein synthesis in the elderly independently of an overall increase of other amino acids.
Isabelle Rieu et al. · The Journal of Physiology · 2006

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with a small sample size (n=20) but rigorous methodology (isotope tracer techniques).

Source

Leucine supplementation improves muscle protein synthesis in elderly men independently of hyperaminoacidaemia

Isabelle Rieu et al. · The Journal of Physiology · 2006

DOI 10.1113/jphysiol.2006.110742

rct · n=20Cited 405×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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