@NeuroRN I’ve been doing some research on metformin and have found that it inhibits muscle growth. I have also found that all Non steroidal anti inflammatories will inhibit muscle growth to an extent. So taking metformin during a bulking phase would not be a good idea or ibuprofen either.
older adults (age 65 and up) who have lost significant muscle mass and function over prior decades, we thought metformin might combat muscle inflammation and thereby boost the muscle regrowth response to resistance training," said Marcas Bamman, Ph.D., professor in the UAB Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology and director of the UAB Center for Exercise Medicine. “Instead, metformin impaired blunted the adaptations such that the placebo group experienced greater increases in muscle mass and muscle quality than the metformin group.”
However taking metformin during a cutting phase is ideal. Or if your just maintaining. Because it has so many positives for health.
When used in overweight diabetic patients, metformin also causes a decrease in the
complications of diabetes and its use has been associated with stabilization and, albeit modest,
loss of body weight.In type 2 diabetes mellitus (called also DM2 and in the past ‘adult diabetes’
or ‘food’) the insulin produced by the pancreas is unable to fully exert its action so that the body
even produces it in excess, with the result on the one hand of making increasing weight and on
the other hand progressively depleting the pancreas, is unable to meet the body’s needs. It is as
if the body were resisting the action of insulin. Metformin reduces insulin resistance. It is taken
by mouth and is the only drug useful in all stages of type 2 diabetes. It also helps improve the
balance of fats and, to a limited extent, blood pressure.
Metformin alone has important effects on blood sugar. Accompanied by physical exercise,
weight loss and possibly other medications, it is often an effective therapy. It does not cause
hypoglycemia, helps not to gain weight or even reduces it.
The main feature of Metformin is to interact strongly with AMPK by regulating its expression. In fact, its down regulation leads to consuming ATP, synthesizing cholesterol and fatty acids and consuming glucose: a situation in which insulin levels are quite high (therefore energy abundance).On the contrary, its up regulation leads to the creation of ATP, consuming more fatty acids for energy purposes and it is a metabolic situation similar to caloric restriction in which insulin levels are kept low (therefore
energy scarcity).
Metformin by upregulating AMPK has therefore shown to have a somewhat transversal therapeutic use in the treatment of metabolic dysfunctions.
Your thoughts brother