Myostatin is a protein that is naturally produced by the body. It normally acts to inhibit muscle growth (hypertrophy). It is like a glass ceiling for muscle growth.
Animals deficient in myostatin display unchecked muscle growth even without doing any rigorous physical activity. Without myostatin around to put a limit on hypertrophy, animals lacking myostatin protein get big.
Myostatin in humans, functions just like it does in mice and cattle. This understanding led to hopes of manipulating myostatin, as treatment for individuals with muscular dystrophies. This hope was bolstered when a human boy was born with a double mutation for myostatin. He makes no myostatin, and he was born that way. Figuring out a way to disable myostatin protein could be valuable in patients with degenerative muscular disorders, possibly increasing life expectancy or improving quality of life. One strategy was to introduce altered antibodies which stick to and disable the protein. That compound was called MYO-029 and the results were not inspiring.
In January of this year the leading researchers in myostatin announced that they have found a compound (ACVR2B) that disables myostatin, and it is not an antibody. It is an allosteric inhibitor that removes the normal function of myostatin. The rub is that ACVR2B could also unintentionally inhibit other proteins that are similar to myostatin. Nevertheless, it's big progress but they're still working on it.
Knowledge of myostatin function also led to a boom in "myostatin blocker" products from unscrupulous supplementeers for the bodybuilding market. It would seem highly unlikely that top researchers in search of a potential therapy, are lagging behind the supplement industry? What their ads appear to claim is that anyone can waltz right into the vitamin store and pick up a $50+ dollar container of "myostatin blocker" product! Imagine that! A potential cure for devastating illness, and all along it was sitting right under our noses; sitting on the shelves of the local supplement store at the mall. Will wonders never cease? I guess they won't need to have Jerry's Kids telethons anymore. Thanks supplement companies! Tell the patients to plan on getting "freaky" and "ripped" like the ads say! Is it likely that the scientists are running trials on these myostatin products to see if they alleviate muscular disease?
Their marketing tactic is basically "myostatin = "very bad! Bad bad bad myostatin!" What a sham. I can save you time and money. Any search result that involves a trademark (TM) or pending application for a trademark and that claims to have any consequence whatsoever on myostatin....is pure bullsh*t. Take the results of that internet search and add all those companies to a black-list of firms that you won't do business with.
If you read the ad copy for any particular product, it is basically a shabbily written description of what myostatin is and what it does. This information however, has nothing to do with their product. They will never even attempt to explain how their product does anything besides amount to terrible tasting mystery hash going in and expensive poop going out.
There is a magical leap between what they claim and what their concoction actually does (sits in your gut doing nothing).
In fact, creatine, supposedly touted as the supplement with proof of clinical effectiveness, is not a magical muscle builder. It fills muscles with more water and makes them look bigger (temporarily bigger). There is no strong evidence that taking creatine leads to any improvement in real-life muscle growth, hypertrophy.
Do a Google search for "myostatin blocker" and almost all the links come from sources that profit from misinformation and sales of sham products. The technique is called "bait and switch." First they lure you in with a claim that is intensely appealing and powerful (if it were truly possible) but then end up giving you worthless crap enveloped in sly marketing; snakeoil that was hatched up in their dimestore laboratories.
Here is the algorithm for picking out their bullsh*t:
1. Type in "myostatin" into Google search
2. Click on "IMAGES" to convert the search results
3. Any labeled container with any product name resembling "myostatin" is manufactured by dishonest people.
4. Repeat.
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