Anabolism
The metabolic building of larger molecules and tissue, which costs energy.
Anabolism covers the constructive side of metabolism: building proteins from amino acids, storing glucose as glycogen, laying down bone and connective tissue. These reactions consume energy rather than releasing it.
It matters because muscle growth, bone remodelling and wound healing are all anabolic processes, and all of them require both a signal — mechanical loading, hormones such as testosterone, insulin and IGF-1 — and the raw materials to build from.
In practice the word has been thoroughly borrowed by supplement marketing, where 'anabolic' is attached to products with no demonstrated effect on any anabolic process. The underlying physiology is real; most claims made in its name are not.
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Written and reviewed by Mathew Beale, MSc Biotechnology, University of Reading.
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