A few months ago there was discussion on the possible benefits of HMB. I have been using it at about 3 grams per day, and I believe I have noticed some beneficial effects for this 83yo, mostly as increased energy. However, too many variables in my life to definitely tie down one change in supplements as a cause. Anyone else have any definable results?

I'm the OP on the original HBM thread. "Definable"? As in numerical? No. But as in noticeable? Yes. If I take a gram about 30' before and after every workout, I experience muscular recovery at about the same rate as 10-15 years ago. IOW, I use the same workout volume on the bike and in the gym that I used then. That's huge. Muscularly, I'm actually stronger that I was back then. Aerobically, not the same good results. Age has continued to cut into my aerobic ability. That's a lot more complicated than muscle recovery. Still, it's really nice that the pedals feel light and I can ride as often as I want.

I also take 1 gram with breakfast and dinner, just for good measure, but I don't think those grams have the same effect at those close to workouts.

I've been having some most uncommon prostate problems. I just don't have those. A little research shows that hmb is associated with an increase in the prostate. I'm going to stop my trial usage and see what happens. I'm a one man guinea pig..

Where'd you see that?

https://www.intjmorphol.com/wp-conten...art_13_361.pdf

Efecto del Entrenamiento Concomitante y Suplementación con β-Hidroxi-β-Metilbutirato (HMB) en la Próstata: Alteraciones en el Receptor de Andrógenos y la Inflamación Danilo Bianchini Baptista1 ; Luis Felipe Dutra de Santana1 ; Allice Santos Cruz Veras1 ; Verônica Alves de Menezes1 ; Nilton José dos Santos2 ; Marcelo Papoti3 ; José Carlos Silva Camargo Filho4 & Giovana Rampazzo Teixeira1 BAPTISTA, D. B.; DUTRA DE SANTANA, L. F.; VERAS, C. A. S. ; ALVES DE MENEZES, V.; DOS SANTOS, N. J.; PAPOTI, M.; CAMARGO FILHO, J. C. S. & TEIXEIRA, G. R. Effect of concurrent training and supplementation with β-hydroxy-βmethylbutyirate (HMB) on the prostate: alterations in the androgen receptor and inflammation. Int. J. Morphol., 36(1):74-79, 2018. SUMMARY: Supplementation is a strategy to potentiate physical training through hypertrophy of skeletal muscles, but other tissues such as the prostate may also be affected. Changes in prostate size and function are associated with the behavior of individuals, but evidence for an association with supplementation is scarce. Therefore, the aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of b-hydroxy bmethylbutyrate (HMB) supplementation and concurrent training on the prostate. Wistar rats were divided randomly into four groups with 10 animals each: control group (C), supplemented group (S), training group (T), and supplemented plus training group (TS). The supplemented groups (S and TS) received 76 mg·kg/day of HMB and the concurrent training groups (T and TS) performed exercise three times per week for eight weeks. HMB increased body composition, total weight of the prostate, and altered the histology of prostatic compartments. The lateral prostate of animals in the supplemented group had an increase in mast cells per mm2 (28.0 ± 3.9) compared to the control and exercise group (6.1 ± 3.0; 2.3 ± 0.9) There was also an increase in inflammation in the stroma and lumen of the prostate, and increased expression of androgen receptor (AR) in the supplemented and trained supplemented group (79.8 ± 2.1; 76.8 ± 11.4) in relation to the trained group (61.5 ± 7.0). We concluded that HMB alters hormone receptors that induce morphological changes and inflammation, and animals in the concurrent training group had normal inflammatory and hormonal profiles, and favorable prostatic histology.

That study was of Wistar rats:
https://janvier-labs.com/en/fiche_produit/wistar_rat/
and hence it is frequently used for studies of prostate cancer:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1289678/

OTOH, HMB is used in the treatment of men with prostate cancer who are on androgen deprivation therapy:
https://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10.1200...36.6_suppl.258

I couldn't find any human studies of the effect of HMB on a healthy prostate, though there are many websites which discuss the use of HMB by humans:
https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/in...cine/herbs/hmb
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/hmb#benefits

I've been using HMB daily since. November of '21 and haven't noticed any increase in nocturnal pee frequency or anything else other than much improved muscle recovery.

I couldn’t download the HMB paper, but it had no discernible mechanistic hypothesis, leading the journal editor in me to suspect an incidental finding reported with a post-hoc motivating question, and it was published in a small, regional journal. All in all, not worried at this point.

Well I stopped the HMB for several days and my prostate has much improved. Chance? Coincidence? Who knows. The benefit I possibly received is not worth the chance I might be taking. I lived for 83 years without supplementing hmb, I'll make it a few more.

It’s not a coincidence at all. I too suffer (too strong a word) um…. Experience… an enlarged prostate and noted with adding just two grams of HMB daily increased my difficulty in urination. After reading gobi’s post I decided to see if it was me or the HMB, so I gave up HMB three days ago and my increased difficulty has pretty much resolved. I do take a daily medication Tamusolin, to help but didn’t want to up the dosage to have one drug combatting the other, since Tamusolin already lowers my blood pressure and sometimes makes me light headed when I get up too quickly. So a sad farewell to HMB and we shall see about muscle soreness and energy.

Thanks gobi for posting.

I had posted my experience in the original thread and stand by my N = 1 experience.

It did not improve my aerobic capacity (as expected) but had a measurable increase in 5-10 second power levels and also in so-called functional reserve capacity or what is called W' in Goldencheetah.

Interestingly, I ran out of HMB but also got Covid with some challenges in recovery. All my numbers are lower. It seems about time to buy some more HMB.

From memory (too lazy to go find the old power files on my old laptop), peak power increased from 950 ish watts to 1150 ish watts. My 1 minute power increased from very roughly 500 to 600 watts (maybe a touch lower...I forget exactly but something like that) and 5 minute power from 340 to 375 watts. Of course, some of this is training. The peak power came up very quickly (several weeks). My aerobic or LT1 power saw no change.

Am so impressed by some of our members power numbers. I don’t have a power meter but use Zwift’s Watts/Kg and found my FTP using the 20 minute ramp test (230) Using this calculator, I fall at 27% of the cycling population, meaning 73% have a higher FTP: https://www.cyclinganalytics.com/blo...output-compare. But then I am far from 50 and a couple of years away from knocking on 70. There’s my consolation.

Me too! Just noticed this thread.

Im 55, all good health wise, no medications, but have mild bph. I was taking HMB for a year and over that time, had a little more night frequency/difficulty but didn’t make any connection,it seemed very gradual

Then, in January, I had a stomach bug that lasted 2 days. I decided to stop taking HMB just arbitrarily then, I don’t think it caused any stomach issues.

But ever since, the bph symptoms have gone down nearly completely.

Not suggesting this is any “clinical” study, lol, just sharing this and it’s interesting others have had similar experiences

Without a doubt HMB affected my prostate. Stopped taking it and things quickly got better.

Sorry to wake up this old thread, but I also may have had some problems with HMB and stopped taking it a year or two ago. My problems were with afib. I never was sure it was a factor but I had enough data from various starting/stoping taking HMB that I was concerned enough to stop. (Note that my BPH kept getting worse even when I was not taking it and I finally had a PAE procedure several months ago .. problem completely solved, highly recommended if you have severe BPH!)

Recently I got to thinking it might in fact be the calcium in HMB supplements, not the HMB itself that was the problem. Doing a little chemistry calculation, each gram of HMB has about one Tums worth of calcium so I was supplementing the full RDA of calcium every day. Excess calcium is not good for afib in some people, it can throw off the magnesium-calcium balance. And, a little searching showed a similar potential issue with BPH in some studies: too much calcium there can also throw off the Mg/Ca balance. Anyway, something to consider. There are relatively new forms of “HMB free acid” which are the acid and not the salt form and they have no calcium, I have been on one of them for a week now and have noticed no heart or prostate issues so far. Clear Muscle is one brand.

My original post about HMB was a little over 5 years ago (Discovered HMB about 10 days ago - Bike Forums). I was having some bladder problems, talked to my doctor about it, she prescribed an ultrasound exam which showed what my bladder issue is (no biggie) and also that my prostate is still its normal size. IOW, zero effect with respect to prostate size from taking 3 grams of HMB every day for 5 years. We aren't rats.

No afib either.

(Bump)

Taking a combo creatine/HMB here. Started middle of last year. No problems with urination, prostate or afib.

https://www.amazon.com/CoreSeries-Cr...1zcF9hdGY&th=1

Please list the supplements you regularly take and the dosage. I am taking beta-alanine and creatine whose combination works for me. I also have a sports recovery drink after long hard efforts (40+ miles and 2,500’ or yesterday’s 55 miles and 3,400’). Had prostate issues with HMB and kidney stones with beet root extract.