Review: Labrada Nutrition Recharge!

Posted By elissa on Mar 12, 2009 | 0 comments

“Unlike other NO (Nitric Oxide) or creatine products, you will notice the effects of ReCharge! within just a few days of use. ReCharge! will give you longer lasting muscle pumps, more vascularity, and more strength than you have experienced with any other supplement. For Maximized Pumps, Stack with SuperCharge!”

Labrada Nutrition uses the subtitle “Anabolic Primer” to describe Recharge!. Unlike most other nitric oxide (NO) products, it’s not a pre-workout supplement…rather, it’s to be taken throughout the day, every day.

Like Labrada’s other NO product, SuperCharge Xtreme N.O., Recharge! has a relatively simple formula.

Amount Per Serving:

Anabolic Primer Proprietary Blend: 4,000mg
Arginine Ethyl Ester HCl
Nitrous Malate (Di-Arginine Malate)
Creatine Ethyl Ester HCl
Nicotinic Acid

Recovery Complex:
Humanofort embryonic peptide matrix yielding naturally occurring IGF-1, IGF-2, FGF (fibroblast growth factors), NGF (nerve growth factors), EGF (epidermal growth factors), CTGF (connective tissue growth factors)]

All told, there are only 5 ingredients: 2 arginine compounds, a creatine source, a B-vitamin and “Humanofort”—an Eastern European growth factor complex. Let’s take a closer look at each one.

Arginine Ethyl Ester HCl/Di-Arginine Malate: As most people know, the amino acid l-arginine is used to synthesize NO in the body. Di-arginine malate and arginine ethyl ester hydrochloride (AEE) are simply arginine delivery forms. Di-arginine malate is an arginine salt and alternative to arginine alpha-ketoglutarate, the form most commonly used in NO supplements.

AEE is a horse of a (somewhat) different color, however. Labrada also sells it as a separate supplement, ArgiLean™. According to the company…

“ArgiLean™ is an esterified form of arginine (C15H22N4O3HCl) designed to penetrate the lipid membranes of muscle cells where its unique molecular structure increases nitric oxide production resulting in full, hard, pumped muscles. ArgiLean™ works at only a fraction of the dosage required with other forms of arginine.”

This suggests that AEE is a more bioavailable form of arginine. But is it? It’s an open question. There are in-vitro studies that suggest AEE can induce vasorelaxation in lower amounts than arginine; but whether there’s a significant difference in-vivo following oral consumption is unknown.

Creatine Ethyl Ester HCl: Needless to state, there are a large number of studies validating the effectiveness of creatine monohydrate for gaining mass and strength. Unfortunately, it’s not very soluble and can occasionally cause some (minor) side effects. Some users are also non-responders. Thus, many “alternative” forms of creatine have been introduced—all claiming to be superior to the original. None of them really caught fire, however, until creatine ethyl ester (CEE) hit the market.

CEE took the bodybuilding world by storm: it was immediately hailed as the latest and greatest creatine ever, thanks to its alleged stability, higher solubility and improved absorption. It’s clear now, however, that the claims for CEE were pretty hollow. For example, tests by Dr. Mark Tallon demonstrated that it’s actually LESS stable than creatine monohydrate, and that substantial conversion to creatinine occurs during digestion. In addition, a comparative test performed by the Ohio Research Group found CEE was less effective than a different creatine product (Gaspari Size On).

The final nail in the coffin was a recent study supervised by Dr. Darryn Willoughby and Dr. Richard Kreider.

“Since creatine ethyl ester supplementation showed a large increase in serum creatinine levels throughout the study with no significant increase in serum and total muscle creatine content, it can be concluded that a large portion of the creatine ethyl ester was being degraded within the GI tract after ingestion. Furthermore, it appears that the skeletal muscle uptake of creatine ethyl ester uptake was not significant enough to increase skeletal muscle creatine levels without significant degradation to creatinine occurring.”

In short, you can stick a fork into CEE…it’s done. And—as for claims that “ethyl ester” compounds (such as AEE, above) are superior to their non-esterified counterparts—well, let’s just say that the burden of proof rests with the manufacturers. I’ll be happy to join the cheerleading squad when said proof is offered.

Nicotinic Acid: This is the B-vitamin niacin, which—in therapeutic amounts—has beneficial effects on HDL cholesterol and nitric oxide-induced vasodilation. Since Recharge! supplies only 15% of the RDA per serving, however, it’s unlikely to have any significant effects.

Humanofort: This is another ingredient, which—like AEE—is sold as a separate supplement. The product ad states:

“Humanofort is a cutting-edge embryonic peptide matrix developed in Eastern Europe, designed to help the body increase testosterone production and decrease recovery time. Also contains naturally occurring IGF-1 and IGF-2 (insulin like growth factors 1 and 2), FGF (fibroblast growth factors), NGF (nerve growth factors), EGF (epidermal growth factors), and CTGF (connective tissue growth factors).”

Humanofort’s inventor is Dr. Gheorghe Mihaescu, M.D., who is allegedly the author of “32 published scientific papers” in the fields of “Experimental Immunology in Oncology, Steroid Biochemistry, Radio-assay Methodologies, and Geriatric Nutrition.” Very few of these papers, however, appear in the PubMed database, which raises questions—at least in my mind—about the types of journals they were published in. What little I could find appeared in small, obscure publications like the Romanian Journal of Internal Medicine.

In other words, the evidence in favor of Humanofort is a lot “softer” than I would like. There is one, unreferenced “clinical trial” described on the Labrada web site, touting Humanofort’s ability to increase free testosterone, DHEA-S and androstenedione in rugby players… but at a dose of 600 mg/day.

Is there that much Humanofort in Recharge!? The label doesn’t say, although I tend to doubt it. Labrada also sells Humanofort “straight” in caps, but there’s only 100 mg per serving.

I have a difficult time believing that there would be more Humanofort in a blended product vs. a “straight” one.

So: does Humanofort really add anything to Recharge!? Your guess is as good as mine (and mine is “probably not”).

At this point, you could be forgiven for thinking I’m not too thrilled with Recharge!

In truth, I think the formula needs some work: as noted above, I think CEE’s a dud, the niacin’s underdosed and I’m skeptical about Humanofort.

BUT…I expect these ingredients are minor players in the formula. Most of it’s arginine, and arginine is pretty interesting stuff. Beyond the nitric oxide/pump aspect, arginine is a growth hormone secretagogue and substrate for creatine production; it has protective effects in various disease states, is important for ammonia detoxification and may act as an anti-obesity/nutrient-partitioning agent.

To put it another way, arginine supplementation could be a good thing, and Recharge! is primarily an arginine supplement. While the jury is still out on the benefits of arginine for healthy people, many trainees (including myself) feel it’s useful.

Which is why I decided to give Recharge! a shot…stacked with Super Charge Xtreme N.O. (which I used on workout days only).

How’d it go? Well, as I wrote in the Super Charge review:

“Oh—and I’ve added 15 pounds to my bench so far, too. I’m not going to claim “cause and effect” here, as I was making good progress before the trial period began, but I have no doubt that Super Charge Xtreme helped with my stamina and focus. Good stuff.”

I can’t say beyond the shadow of a doubt that Recharge! contributed to my strength gains, but I can say that it certainly didn’t hurt. I liked the sensation of muscle fullness it provided, even on my “off” days.

Overall, I had good results while taking Recharge! While it could be improved on, it strikes me as a decent supp…Not a “must have” perhaps, but potentially worth experimenting with.