Multilevel marketing (MLM) is rampant in the fitness and health fields. It’s everywhere from promotion of supplements to exercise programs and more. While some of them are excellent as our reviews here reflect many if not most of them are dubious at best. That’s why it’s always a present surprise to find a study that affirms that an existing MLM product not only works but does so much more than the marketing people thought to mention.

In testing the effects of amino acid supplementation, researchers publishing in Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition used an off the shelf L-arginine supplement that is routinely marketed via MLM. The results not only showed beneficial effect but quantified a surprising improvement in the performance of test subjects.

While the study was small, the researchers found that supplementing older cyclists (aged 50-73) with L-arginine as supplied by Niteworks, a supplement marketed by Herbalife in the US, that the cyclists developed a much higher anaerobic threshold. This means that the amount of work the cyclists could do before waste products began accumulating in their blood was much higher. And that in turn meant the cyclists could push harder for longer than they could without the supplement.

Prior to this study, Herbalife had managed to accumulate more than a few skeptics about Niteworks and their marketing of the product. It seems that much of the marketing has targeted prevention of heart disease. There’s not a lot of evidence to support that, but arginine definitely has it’s uses.

In addition to increasing exercise performance, L-arginine has been show to cause release of growth hormone. Studies have been done with diabetes that suggest that L-arginine supplementation improves blood sugar. L-arginine has been implicated in both male and female sexual function as well.

His Take: L-arginine is a powerful protein that the body uses to make nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is a signaling molecule that greatly enhances vascular function. Between this function, the growth hormone angle and the sexual functioning I have for a long time recommended that patients supplement with arginine. How much? That’s always a hard question. In the the study at the heart of this article researchers used 5.2 grams daily of arginine. I take 3 grams per day. What’s ideal? The jury is out but it’s clear that a lot is the right answer.