MX 7
90 capsules / 150 mg
Methoxyflavone (5-Methyl 7-methoxyisoflavone) is a non-hormonal anabolic / anti-catabolic isoflavone. This powerful flavone has been shown to increase protein synthesis, decrease cortisol levels and improve recovery from exercise.

+ Increased protein synthesis
+ Anticatabolic
+ Antiestrogenic
+ Non-hormonal anabolic
+ Increased lean tissue
+ Improved recovery

Supplement Facts Serving Size: 1 Capsule Servings Per Container: 90 Amount Per Serving % Daily Value 5-Methyl 7-methoxyisoflavone 150  mg **       **Daily Value not established.

Other Ingredients: In a base of Liposorb™ (lecithin and vital phospholipids, and cellulose). Suggested Use: For adults only, as a dietary supplement, take 1 capsule 3 times daily. Warnings: Keep out of reach of children.

Is this powerful anabolic flavone the real deal?
by Brain Batcheldor

Steroid replacement, steroid substitute, legal steroid, -how often do you open a bodybuilding magazine and read these claims? Those of us who choose to reside on planet earth know full well that no such thing exists, not if we're talking about something that does exactly the same job. The problem is that this marketing approach has created both skepticism and, perhaps worse still, steroid awareness amongst beginners. In truth, the industry would prosper better by telling it as it is, i.e.:

• Nothing (zilch, nada) can do what steroids do as effectively.
• An ideal approach to steroid replacement would involve a holistic system of nutritional programming, cyclic training and restoration techniques. An acceptance of the truth and realistic goal setting allow an athlete to get the maximum from this strategy, whether they are clean or just simply taking a break from steroids.
• Creating an anabolic state within the body isn't simply limited to anabolic hormones.

When you consider the leaps in technology that have occurred within sports nutrition in the last 3-4 years, point number three becomes a viable one to tackle. It is a factual statement, read it again carefully and think about it. What do we actually mean by an anabolic state? An anabolic state would be as follows:

• A state where the delicate balance between the bodys' anabolic processes and its catabolic ones continuously swings in favor of the anabolic side.
• A state where the body deals very efficiently with protein, with good net utilization.
• A state of continuous positive nitrogen balance i.e. where nitrogen taken in exceeds the amount excreted, so that some is obviously being retained. Although an expansion of the previous state, it is not exactly the same thing.
• A state where the bodys' adaptive responses effectively deal with your training regimen and, if the other factors are in place, continues to overcompensate.

When we scrutinize the above requirements, one common denominator leaps out at you almost every time, -PROTEIN! Increased protein synthesis is only one of the mechanisms by which anabolic steroids work, but this can be achieved by non-hormonal methods. In fact, even athletes that take steroids should strive to achieve this non-hormonally.

Ready for some more honest good news? One of the other mechanisms by which steroids work is keeping the catabolic side in check. You know, dealing with the old Dark Angel, cortisol, who lingers on the sidelines, waiting for you to do that one set too many, to fall short by just those few grams of protein or to skip that hour of sleep. Well guess what, -the blunting of cortisols' effects can also be achieved through non-hormonal means.

By now, some of you may be wondering if the non-hormonal route should also mean without prohormones. In my opinion, some of the prohormones carry pretty anabolic activity even without converting to their more recognizable counterparts. Others carry the same pitfalls, maybe to an even greater degree e.g. conversion to estrogen. Coming up with improved methods of delivery like cyclodextrins, for example, simply magnifies this situation. This being the case, do we honestly believe that prohormones are anything other than a poor legal way round the steroid situation? I am 100% pro steroid but for whatever reasons many of you decide not to take them, you can probably apply them to prohormones as well, -especially when you consider that many users are taking huge dosages of them.

To be honest, we don't fully understand the processes involved in gaining muscle, there have been whole conferences held by the scientific community on just this subject. What we do understand perhaps a little better are the mechanisms involved in muscle loss or wasting, AIDS and cancer research having provided us with much information here. If we dig deep enough, we will see that once again the eastern bloc has provided some interesting alternatives with which to approach this conundrum.

A few years ago, I was interested in finding a company who could commercially manufacture Chrysin for me at a viable price. A Company in Lithuania, Endokrinin, who manufacture the absolute finest cadaver-sourced GH you could ever wish to sell to your enemies, put me onto Chinoin in Hungary. This immediately made sense to me, as I had previously dealt with Chinoin and knew that flavones and isoflavones was definitely their area of expertise. I used to buy loads of Osteochin from them and sell it to athletes. This was a popular osteoporosis treatment that many swore by for its anabolic effects, its active ingredient being ipriflavone (7-isopropoxyisoflavone). I traveled to Budapest to discuss the Chrysin project and over the next few months they intimated to me about the development of ipriflavone. They told me how they had experimented with various isoflavones for use as anabolic agents with patients suffering from wasting conditions and livestock. One of the deciding criteria they implemented was that the isoflavones had to be devoid of estrogenic effects. This immediately excluded the following from their list:

• Genistein (sorry soy fans).
• Daidzin (ditto).
• Biochanin.
• Formomonetin.
• Pratensin.
• Prunetin.

Although Ipriflavone proved to be anabolic and anti-estrogenic, it was also excluded from this list, its forte being prevention of calcium loss. Therefore, Chinoin saw this as a specialist product to be marketed for use with osteoporosis. After extensive research, they came up with a short list of just four synthetic isoflavones. All proved effective at what they were looking for, but one in particular stood out, 5-methyl-7-methoxy-isoflavone or Methoxyflavone for short.

Clinical trials were run and patents were applied for in the U.S. and in Europe (late seventies) for its use as "an anabolically effective compound for use as a pharmaceutical or a feed additive". The necessary research results were convincing enough and the patents were granted.

So what did the trials reveal about methoxy-7 that warranted the granting of a patent? In the standard rat levator ani test, used with anabolic steroids to determine their anabolic: androgenic ratio, it was determined that methoxyflavone was indeed highly anabolic, yet totally free of any androgenic effects.

With livestock, after 30 days on the compounds, the following body weight increases were recorded:

• 8-15% in calves
• 7-10% in cattle.
• 7-10% in hogs.
• 8-20% in poultry.
• 10-20% in rabbits.
• 8-12% in guinea pigs.

All gains were mainly lean tissue and were accompanied by an increase in vitality. After detailed investigation, no alteration of endocrine function was found, clearly indicating that gains were non-hormonal in origin.

In humans, these compounds demonstrated increased and faster protein utilization, via labeled albumin. With severely wasted patients suffering from pathological thinness, after a few weeks of use, a gain of 2-3 kg was noted. Not only did methoxyflavone halt the muscle wasting it increased lean tissue growth.

Another characteristic feature of the anabolic effect was increases in calcium phosphorous, potassium and nitrogen retention to a significant degree. In other experiments, the catabolic effects of cortisone were partially suppressed and it was concluded that "identical doses of anabolic steroids do not exert anabolic effects stronger than those of these compounds!"

Chinoin pointed out in their trials the important advantage of methoxyflavone over anabolic agents belonging to the sterane group (steroids) in that it does not exhibit androgenic or liver damaging effects. It also decreases oxygen consumption of tissues and lowers cholesterol.

Ironically, the only thing that Chinoin could not determine is how these compounds work. They describe the weight gains as "a very interesting novel biological effect". They then proceed to state "these compounds show weight-yield increasing effects exceeding all effects of this type known and are at the same time practically in other respects innocuous to the living organism". Significantly, it was also pointed out that the effects were entirely independent of the composition of the feeds used in the trials.

Unfortunately, Chinoin never did anything with these compounds. I tried to interest them in commercial manufacture of methoxyisoflavone but it was like banging my head against a wall. Their poor business attitude (i.e. "I get the same wage whether I do this or not") and mountains of red tape pushed me in another direction. After nearly a year, I finally got a company in Estonia to produce methoxyflavone.

The preliminary results have been as impressive as the Hungarians indicated, with all of my athletes making quality lean gains. Every lifter I had in this years World Powerlifting Championships struggled harder than ever to squeeze into his weight class. Recuperation also seemed to improve, with subsequent gains in strength. Dosages averaged 600 mg per day but admittedly I would have liked to try more, the price being the limiting factor here.

Although it is early days yet, this compound looks very exciting. A highly anabolic agent that is non-hormonal and therefore does not interfere with normal endocrine function, -ideal for both clean athletes and the chemically assisted, as there is no feedback inhibition of endogenous hormones. With the debate over prohormones still raging and their future looking unsure, I predict that the future of ergogenic nutrition will be in isoflavones and plant steroids.