Testosterone and cardiac risk factors

Testosterone is responsible for men's deep voices, increased muscle mass, and strong bones. It also has crucial effects on male behavior, contributing to aggressiveness, and it is essential for the sex drive and normal sexual performance. Although testosterone acts directly on many tissues, some of its least desirable effects don’t occur until it is converted into another male hormone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT acts on the skin, sometimes producing acne, and putting hair on the chest but often taking it off the scalp. DHT also stimulates the growth of prostate cells, producing normal growth in adolescence but contributing to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). But while testosterone’s effects on many organs are well established, research is challenging old assumptions about how the hormone affects a man’s heart, circulation, and metabolism.
A direct association between testosterone and heart disease has never been established, but for many years, doctors have suspected that a link exists. The reasoning goes like this: men have much more testosterone than women, and they develop heart disease about 10 years before their female counterparts. Like other muscle cells, cardiac muscle cells have receptors that bind male hormones. Animals that are given testosterone develop enlarged hearts. Athletes who abuse testosterone and other androgenic steroids have a sharply increased risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke. And in high doses, testosterone can have a negative effect on cardiac risk factors, including HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels.
The fact that large amounts of testosterone harm the heart and metabolism doesn’t necessarily mean that physiological amounts are also harmful. In fact, research is challenging these old dogmas. It’s hard for scientists to study possible new risk factors for heart disease. One reason is that there are so many cardiac risk factors, including family history, age, gender, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, obesity, smoking, exercise, and personality.

It’s also hard for scientists to study testosterone. There is an exceptionally wide range of normal values. Healthy men can have testosterone levels between 270 and 1,070 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dL). Heart disease and testosterone are mighty complex on their own, and studies that evaluate the two together are more complex still. Scientists who undertake these daunting investigations must account for all the things that influence heart disease and all the variables that affect testosterone.

With all these pitfalls, it’s not surprising that more research is needed to fill in all the blanks. Still, even if current information can’t tell us if testosterone can protect a man’s heart, it can dispel fear that physiologic levels of the hormone are toxic.
In high doses, androgens tend to raise LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels and lower HDL cholesterol levels. That’s one of the things that gave testosterone its bad reputation. But in other circumstances, the situation is very different. Men who receive androgen-deprivation therapy for prostate cancer drop their testosterone levels nearly to zero, and when that happens, their cholesterol levels rise. Even within the normal range, men with the lowest testosterone levels tend to have the highest cholesterol levels.

Diabetes is another important cardiac risk factor. Prostate cancer treatments that lower levels of testosterone produce insulin resistance and increase the risk of diabetes. Obesity increases the risk of both diabetes and heart disease. Men with low testosterone have more body fat and more of the abdominal fat that’s most harmful than men with higher hormone levels, but since obesity itself reduces testosterone, it’s not clear which is the cause and which the effect.

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is an important form of atherosclerosis in its own right and it also signals an increased risk for heart disease. A Swedish study of over 3,000 men with an average age of 75 linked low testosterone levels to an increased risk of PAD. At present, the hormone does not appear linked to hypertension or inflammatory markers.

Effect of Anadrol

Anadrol has been also used in individuals suffering from disorders that result in faster loss of body weight and muscles. This muscle building effect of Anadrol has led to its abuse by body builders and athletes.
Anadrol (Oxymetholone) is a synthetic steroid which belongs to the class of anabolic steroids. The anabolic steroids are synthetic derivatives of the male hormone known as testosterone. Anadrol is available in tablet, liquid and paper forms. Anadrol was developed to improve the health status of individuals affected with anaemia. The drug has numerous side-effects which makes it dangerous to consume in large quantities for a prolonged period of time.

Oxymetholone has been advised mainly for individuals suffering from anaemia. Anaemia is a disorder characterized by decreased production of red blood cells (RBCs) that mainly carry oxygen necessary for the various cells and tissues in the body. The production of RBCs is mainly dependent on a hormone known as erythropoietin. The administration of Anadrol increases the production of this hormone and is therefore considered as beneficial in anaemic individuals. It is also associated with increased excretion of erythropoietin which may be a beneficial factor while treating blood cancers associated with abnormal production of blood cells owing to increased levels of erythropoietin in the body. However, other regular treatments for correction of anemia need to be considered before switching to Anadrol.

Other purposes for which Anadrol has been used include: treatment of excessive weight loss associated with certain disorders and an allergic condition characterised by non-pitting swelling of the skin which is neither associated with pain nor itching known as hereditary angioedema. However, these uses have not been approved in large scale studies. Anadrol has been used to prevent loss of muscle tissues in chronic disorders such as AIDS and other disorders. It was noted that the use of Anadrol resulted in decrease in the muscle loss in individuals suffering from such disorders. However, the side-effects associated with prolonged use of Anadrol have restricted its use for severe cases.

An increase in the abuse of anabolic androgenic steroids such as Anadrol by bodybuilders has been reported in Western Europe and the USA since the 1990s. Body builders and other sports athletes’ overuse (abuse) this drug for its ability to build lean muscle mass and reduction in body fat. The steroids are commonly used as faster way of losing fat and gaining muscle mass across various sports. Some of the bodybuilders even increase the dosage at abnormal levels to gain muscles at a much rapid rate. The dosage generally prescribed for medicinal purposes is about 1-5 mg/kg body weight per day which amounts to about 100-150mg per day in a normal adult individual. However, bodybuilders have been reported to consume about 400-600mg/day which increases the risk of side-effects to a large extent.

Abuse of Anadrol is associated with a wide range of side-effects that affects the functioning of organs such as liver and heart along with other effects. The adverse effects on the liver due to increased use of Anadrol are sometimes considered life-threatening. Anadrol cycle refers to the use of anadrol in a regular manner by bodybuilders to build muscle mass. The bodybuilders usually consume Anadrol tablets once to thrice daily for a certain period of time while building the muscle mass in their body. Although Anadrol increases lean muscle mass initially, the effects do not keep increasing after a certain limit. Increasing the dosage of Anadrol subsequently increases its side-effects that have harmful effects on the body. Abuse of Anadrol is associated with a long list of side-effects. The increased incidence of side-effects associated with its use has restricted the use of Anadrol in the medical field. Anadrol is usually considered as the last line of treatment wherein it is advised only if the regular treatment modalities have failed to resolve the condition being treated. Abusers of Anadrol have an increased risk of being affected by the side-effects owing to the fact that they consume Anadrol at very high doses.

Bodybuilding Boys Often Try Drugs and Alcohol

Teenaged boys who pump iron and pop steroids in hopes of improving their appearance may be at risk for binge drinking and drug abuse, a new study suggests. This kind of behavior is really a type of eating disorder, said lead researcher Alison Field, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. Many people are just familiar with anorexia and bulimia as eating disorders, and they typically believe young women are the only ones who struggle with body image, she added. Our findings show that there are males out there who are extremely concerned with their weight and shape, and they may be doing really unhealthy behaviors to achieve their ideal physique. But they are not trying to get thinner, they’re using products to help them be bigger.
Unfortunately, the dangers don’t end there. Boys who are “super concerned” with their physique and use steroids or growth hormone are twice as likely to begin binge drinking and start using drugs, Field said. Field’s study of more than 5,000 teen boys found that about 2.4 percent were very worried about their masculinity and also used supplements. These boys, like girls who starve or purge to lose weight, are susceptible to other risky behaviors, such as binge drinking and drug use. Doctors and parents need to be aware that body image can be a problem among young men, Field said. They need to tell them that changing their physique is not going to change their world. They need to help them evaluate themselves on things other than their weight and shape. This area, Field said, hasn’t been studied, so whether the problem is growing isn’t known. Because the issue hasn’t been recognized, doctors and parents don’t look for it or make the connection between body image concerns and risky behaviors, she said. We live in a society where we are constantly bombarded with messages about weight. If your son or your daughter evaluate themselves by their image in the mirror, that’s a problem and you need to talk to them. One indication the problem may be increasing is the current obsession with the sculpted body promoted to young men by clothing manufacturers and the media, Field said. A lot of photographs young people see are completely altered, airbrushed and retouched, so what they see as an ideal can’t be achieved, she said. And males are just as influenced as females. Dr. James Garbutt, a professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said one of the most intriguing aspects of the study is the idea of using males’ preoccupation with muscularity as a parallel marker to females’ preoccupation with thinness. Failure to acknowledge this in males may lead to an underestimate of disordered eating and mental distortions in young men. We know there is a complex interplay between eating problems, self-image and use of substances including alcohol, drugs and supplements.
We need to better understand the underpinnings of these connections from a genetic/biological, family/peer and cultural perspective, and we need to understand the long-term health implications in order to determine who may need treatment and what treatment should be given. For the study, Field’s team collected data on more than 5,550 teen males who were between 12 and 18 years old in 1999. They followed these adolescents until 2011. During that time, 9.2 percent said they were very concerned with their muscularity but didn’t show any bulimic behavior (binging and vomiting). However, 2.4 percent said they were concerned about muscularity and used supplements such as growth hormones or steroids to enhance their build.
In addition, 2.5 percent were very concerned about being thin but didn’t show any bulimic behavior, and 6.3 percent were also concerned about being thin and their muscularity, the researchers found. According to Field, boys concerned with thinness but not muscularity were more likely to develop symptoms of depression, while boys concerned with muscularity and being thin were more likely to use drugs. Boys concerned about muscularity who used steroids or growth hormones were more likely to start binge drinking and use drugs, the researchers found. What we are seeing in boys is more rampant than what we have seen in the past,” he added. “There is a push by society for young men to look a certain way, and some feel that by using drugs they can get that appearance and, in turn, that’s how they feel better about themselves. Parents need to be aware of how their kids feel about themselves.

Anti-Estrogen Use to Protect Your Physique

Anti-estrogens can be crucial to safe and effective anabolic steroid usage. There are a few key purposes to use them, and a few nontraditional yet valuable alternative usages as well. We will go over both. Most of the uses vary due to the different mechanism of action for each drug, the way they work. Depending on the mechanism of action, a given anti-estrogen drug may be more or less suited to your unique need.

As a side note, in some of these explanations, the chemical and medical literature will not be the same as you will find in genuine text books on the dry topics. We are using these terms with strict purpose of understanding the physiology and biochemistry of anabolic steroids for our purposes. Please keep this in mind.

Anti-estrogens work in a few basic ways. The first is to block the estrogen receptor itself. This is known as a second line inhibitor because estrogen is allowed to be produced, it is just blocked at the receptor. This occurs by the anti-estrogenic drug fitting into the estrogen receptor, and “taking its parking space”. When the original estrogen comes along, it can no longer fit into the receptor. Examples of second line inhibitor drugs would be Clomid or Nolvadex. Both of these drugs are actually estrogens, they are just so weak that they do not elicit any of the negative effects of the true estrogen, and thereby, block the negative estrogenic effects. These are also two of the most known drugs since the athletic usage of anabolic steroids began.

First line inhibitors are drugs such as Arimidex and Proviron. Although these two drugs are from different chemical classes, they are both first line inhibitors. Proviron is actually a steroid with zero direct anabolic activity. As we will soon describe, Proviron has other benefits aside from it's anti-estrogenic activity. It is used clinically to replace androgens in the male for the purpose of sex drive and virility. Arimidex is a drug which is a chemical antagonist. For the purpose of estrogen talk, we can consider first line inhibitors and chemical antagonists to be the same. What is meant by this, is, the estrogen is inhibited at site of production, not at the receptor. Both Arimidex and Proviron will bind to the aromatase enzyme and render it inactive. Without the aromatase enzyme the body cannot convert various anabolics into estrogen. Estrogen is essentially blocked at its root, where it is originally produced. Nolvadex is one of the most well known anti-estrogens. It is also one of the oldest and most popular medications for breast cancer victims, which is the text book clinical use for this drug. Nolvadex is actually a weak estrogen and will bind to the estrogen receptor. The receptor is then occupied and when the normal and stronger estrogen floats by the receptor, it has no where to “park”. This is what we have defined as the classic second line inhibitor. Second line, because we are allowing estrogen to be produced, we are just blocking it at the receptor. For male usage, Nolvadex is a good drug of choice to use for ant-bloating and to control gyno if you are not particularly susceptible to these estrogenic side effects. If you are not and just need minor control, 20mg per day is probably enough to keep the majority of water off and your nips from being sensitive. If you are susceptible, you may need a stronger ant-estrogen, or may need to combine Nolvadex with another anti-estrogenic drug, or may need a much higher dosage of Nolvadex (probably closer to 40mg/day). Arimidex is called a chemical inhibitor of estrogen. Actually, it is a chemical inhibitor of the enzyme aromatase. Arimidex has a high affinity (liking for) for the aromatase enzyme. As we’ve said before, it is aromatase that converts various drugs into their estrogenic metabolite that can bind to the estrogen receptor and bring about side effects. Arimidex is an effective anti-estrogen and had a great deal of popularity when physique athletes began to get a hold of it. The only problem was the cost. To top it off, not many underground companies were making legitimate arimidex so you didn’t have much choice as a buyer. Now the price has dropped considerably with the availability of other anti-estrogens such as Femara (a much stronger and often unnecessary anti-estrogen).

Steroids And How to use GP Exemestane

Estrogen is an unwanted by-product of steroid use. In some tissues of the male body, there is a nasty little enzyme called the aromatase enzyme. This enzyme is responsible for turning testosterone and other male hormones into female ones like estrogen, and estradiol or other girly-like hormones. An abundance of female hormones in the male body can cause a whole list of bad side-effects, like male breast tissue growth and water retention. Bodybuilders use a lot of different drugs and compounds to combat these bad side effects. The best way to keep estrogen from causing problems is to make sure it is never created in high amounts in the first place. Using a compound that inhibits the aromatase enzyme is a sure way to make sure testosterone and other steroids are never converted into side-effect causing estrogen by enzymatic conversion.

A compound that inhibit the aromatase enzyme from creating estrogen is called an aromatase inhibitor or AI for short. There are a lot of options out there when it comes to AI's (aromatase inhibitors) and GP Exemestane is certainly one of the most popular options for bodybuilders that cycle steroids for a number of reasons.Aromasin is a suicidal aromatase inhibitor, which makes it a better choice than other AIs. GP Exemestane  binds with aromatase enzymes and then subsequently permanently disables the enzyme by destroying it.

GP Exemestane  is a steroidal AI which keeps it from negatively affecting your lipids like other non-steroidal AIs. It is also not liver toxic, and can be ran for longer lengths of time without negative effect. This makes it a better option to run on cycle from a pure health standpoint. GP Exemestane  will not hurt your gains on cycle like other aromatase inhibitors, but may actually help them. Another benefit on cycle is that steroidal AIs lower SHBG which increases the ratio of free to bound testosterone. What that means during your cycle is a very positive impact on your gains. This (in a sense) makes your anabolic androgenic steroids more bio-available.

The half-life of GP Exemestane  is only about 9 hours, and clears quickly. However, because of how effective GP Exemestane  is at eliminating aromatase enzymes (80-90% after administration), estrogen levels will remain low up to 72 hours after a single dose of 25mg. This is why GP Exemestane  is very effectively dosed every other day. In one study, users were still 40% below baseline estrogen values 72 hours after their dose. This makes GP Exemestane  very versatile for dosing and not require more frequency.

Now, the place where GP Exemestane  really shines is in post cycle therapy (PCT). There is simply no other aromatase inhibitor that can compare in terms of its effects on recovery. We already mentioned how Aromasin lowers SHBG, which increases free testosterone. What does that mean? In a study, Aromasin dosed at 25mg per day increased total testosterone by 60% in only 10 days. Even better than that, is the fact that free (useable) testosterone increased over 100% in the same time frame! In addition, GP Exemestane  also increases IGF-1 levels. There is no estrogen rebound from GP Exemestane , and it is also a very powerful and effective treatment for gynecomastia. All of this makes GP Exemestane  a no-brainer for post cycle therapy as well as on cycle estrogen control.