Hormone Supplementation

[MCWTRAINER]

We all talk about prohormones/prosteroids, steroids, etc... So I figured I would make a thread just on hormone supplementation. Info includes, the good, bad, and the ugly...


Media Campaign Cautions Consumers About "Anti-aging" Hormone Supplements

The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, is launching an education effort urging consumers to use caution when it comes to "anti-aging" hormone supplements that have become popular recently. Consumers can call 1-800-222-2225 to order a free NIA fact sheet about hormone supplements. The NIA also is releasing television announcements encouraging consumers to call the toll-free number.

Contrary to popular claims, none of the supplements described in the fact sheet, including melatonin, DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone), human growth hormone (hGH), testosterone, and estrogen, has been shown to prevent or reverse aging. Research ultimately may reveal important health benefits from some of the supplements, in addition to those already confirmed. But, in the meantime, scientists are concerned about the dangerous side effects associated with some of the supplements, and about the possibility of undiscovered health risks.

Consumers can buy DHEA and melatonin over the counter, resulting in widespread use unsupervised by physicians. Part of the scientists' concern stems from the fact that research on melatonin and DHEA, and of unconventional "anti-aging" uses of other, more well-established hormone supplements, is relatively new. With the exception of testosterone and estrogen, researchers have not had time to complete the carefully controlled, long-term studies that are needed to show how these hormone supplements affect people over time.

Testosterone, estrogen, and hGH are available by prescription only, and in cases of genuine deficiency, have been shown to confer important health benefits when taken under a doctor's supervision. However, unsupervised use of any hormone supplement can lead to health problems.

DHEA supplements may affect the body in some of the same ways as testosterone and estrogen. Research has demonstrated that melatonin supplements can, under certain circumstances, affect the body's sleep/wake cycle to enhance sleep.

Hormones are powerful chemicals produced by glands. Whether made internally by glands or taken externally as supplements, hormones enter the bloodstream and travel throughout the body. Tiny amounts of hormones may have far-reaching effects. Several NIA-funded studies of hormone supplements are under way.

In addition to the new fact sheet, other NIA publications on aging-related topics are available through the same toll-free number, 1-800-222-2225, and on the NIA home page (http://nih.gov/nia).

The NIA leads the Federal effort supporting medical and social research on aging and the special needs of older people.

[MCWTRAINER]

Over 50 and wishing you felt and looked younger? Perhaps you're even thinking of taking a hormone to stop the effects of aging. Think again.
The NIH's National Institute on Aging (NIA) urges consumers to be cautious when considering so-called "anti-aging" hormones. None of the currently available hormone supplements, including human growth hormone, has been proven to prevent or reverse aging.

Unproven claims in the media that hormones can make people feel and look younger have led many consumers to try hormone supplements, such as DHEA and melatonin, which are available without a doctor's prescription. But the NIA warns that not enough information has been obtained on the "anti-aging" effects of these and other, more well-known supplements to justify their use.

Hormones are powerful substances that may have far-reaching effects throughout the body. Researchers supported by NIA are attempting to find out what effects hormone supplements have on people over time, including any "anti-aging" effects.

In certain conditions, taking hormones has been shown to provide benefits. For instance, your doctor may prescribe a hormone, such as testosterone, if your body fails to produce enough. However, unsupervised use of any hormone can result in health problems.

Further research may show that hormone supplements provide important health benefits, in addition to those already known. In the meantime, taking hormones on your own could result in dangerous side effects and unknown health risks. --an NIH HEALTHWise report, January 1998

[MCWTRAINER]

Part II: Do human growth hormone supplements work?
In the first part of this two-part series, you learned what growth hormone is, and how it affects your body. In part two, we'll take a close look at the research on growth hormone secretagogues, found in products such as PRO hGH™, and Pro-Endorphin™.

Because growth hormone therapy is so expensive, these secretagogues — supplements that promote the release of your body's own growth hormone — have become extremely popular.

Secretagogues
Hormones in your body that cause the release of growth hormone include growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH), growth hormone releasing peptide-2 (GHRP-2) and growth hormone releasing peptide-6 (GHRP-6). Some growth hormone peptides can also be injected.

Studies show that GHRP-6 is an effective way to raise growth hormone levels, even in the obese, who often produce very little growth hormone [45, 46]. A combination of exercise and GHRP-2 is also more effective than exercise alone at boosting growth hormone levels [26].

A growth hormone secretagogue called MK-677, taken in the form of a small pill, can boost both IGF-I and growth hormone levels and accelerate gains in lean body mass (some of which is water) [47].

However, many of these compounds have been patented by drug companies. They're not available as dietary supplements. Instead, many supplement companies sell supplements containing amino acids such as arginine, ornithine, glutamine, lysine and the branched chain amino acids.

Because growth hormone is made up of 191 amino acids, it makes sense to some people that additional amino acids might stimulate the synthesis and release of growth hormone.

Amino acids are relatively safe, inexpensive, and widely available at any health food store. And there are a number of studies to show that various combinations of amino acids can result in a measurable and lasting increase in growth hormone levels.

[MCWTRAINER]

Nutritional Supplements to Help Build Muscle Mass

Hormone Supplements
This group of hormones is believed to increase testosterone. They should only be used if they are prescribed by a qualified health professional, as the long term effects of these hormone supplements are not known.

Androstenedione
Androstenedione is a hormone that is produced naturally by the adrenal glands, ovaries, and testes. Androstenedione is converted from DHEA. It goes on to become the hormones testosterone and estrogen.

People use androstenedione to build muscle and increase strength because it is believed to increase testosterone levels. However, being a hormone, they affect the body’s hormonal balance, which can cause unpredictable side effects. In addition, one study found that androstenedione increases estrogen levels.

The FDA recently issued a warning about androstenedione.

DHEA
Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a hormone that is made naturally by the adrenal glands. It is used to make the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen.

People use DHEA for osteoporosis prevention, failure of the adrenal glands, and for the autoimmune disease lupus. It may also improve sexual function in men and women and help with depression. Athlete’s use DHEA because they believe that like phosphatidylserine, DHEA will suppress cortisol. Cortisol is the hormone that naturally increases with heavy exercise and causes muscle breakdown.

The body makes its own DHEA. DHEA production in the body peaks early in life and then begins to decline in adulthood. By the age of 60, we are producing as little as 5% of the DHEA we produced when we were 20.

The DHEA supplements you buy in the store are not natural. They are manufactured synthetically from soybeans.

Although DHEA appears to be safe when taken short-term in therapeutic doses, the long term effects are not known. There is some concern that DHEA may decrease the levels of HDL (the “good” cholesterol), and cause acne and male pattern hair growth in women. Although more research studies are needed, the possiblility that DHEA may increase the risk of breast cancer exists.

[MCWTRAINER]

DHEA: Hype, hope not matched by facts
Food supplement makers and their allies have been promoting the hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) as a virtual fountain of youth--the answer to everything from osteoporosis and diabetes to cancer and depression. DHEA's popular reputation, however, seems to bear little resemblance to the current scientific record.

The evidence for human benefits from DHEA is preliminary and inconclusive, and researchers who are studying the substance discourage its use because of adverse side effects and uncertainty about long-term risks.

What Is DHEA?
DHEA is secreted by the adrenal glands and is converted into testosterone and estrogen. DHEA levels are high at birth but plunge during childhood, rise sharply during puberty, and peak during young adulthood. In most people, DHEA gradually wanes to negligible levels through older adulthood. Only humans and apes have this characteristic DHEA cycle (1). The function of DHEA is unclear, despite years of research (2).

Supplement manufacturers are using their own interpretations of research reports, along with the fact that DHEA levels drop during aging, to promote their products. They claim that DHEA supplements boost immunity, promote weight loss, build muscle, reduce the effects of aging, and improve mood, memory, and sex drive. The usual recommended dose on the product label is 50 mg per day. Some companies that market DHEA to bodybuilders recommend daily doses of up to 400 mg for an anabolic effect.

DHEA supplements first hit the market in 1985 as a weight-loss aid but were banned by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because they lacked safety and effectiveness reviews (1,3). The ban ended 9 years later with the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. The law requires the FDA to prove that a nutrition supplement is harmful before the agency can regulate it.

Most DHEA supplements contain DHEA that has been converted in the lab from diosgenin found in wild yams. Some companies market unprocessed wild yam extracts as "natural DHEA" or "DHEA precursors," but unprocessed yam extracts do not convert to DHEA in the body (3). Dietary supplements are not required to meet any government requirements for quality or purity.

Though DHEA has not been shown to increase muscle mass or strength or decrease body fat in young, healthy adults (4), it is banned for athletes by the International Olympic Committee and the National Collegiate Athletic Association as an anabolic agent.

The Search for Benefits
Though there is a large body of research on DHEA, much of the study has been on animal subjects, says Arthur Schwartz, PhD, professor of microbiology at the Fels Institute for Cancer Research at Temple University Medical School in Philadelphia. In rodents, for example, high doses of DHEA prevented obesity, type II diabetes, and tumor development (2). It also reduced anxiety and improved performance on cognitive tasks. Animal studies, however, may have limited value because animals do not mimic human DHEA life-cycle patterns and have negligible levels of endogenous adrenal androgens (2).

Studies in humans have produced some contradictory results. For example, a 1986 study (5) suggested that increased serum levels of DHEA reduce heart disease risk by 50%. But follow-up studies suggested that higher serum DHEA levels increase heart disease risk in women (6) or confer modest protection in men but not in women (7). Other human studies suggest that that DHEA treatment may improve immunity and insulin sensitivity, and may promote antiviral activity in human immunodeficiency virus infection (2), but the studies were small and short-term.

"Many people who take DHEA say it makes them feel well," says Gary I. Wadler, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine at New York University School of Medicine in Manhasset, New York. So far, the most promising effect of DHEA treatment pertains to lupus erythematosus, Schwartz says. He and his colleagues have studied DHEA's role in cancer prevention and treatment of diabetes and lupus. "Clinical trials in California have shown that DHEA does appear to have a benefit in the treatment of lupus: Patients require less prednisone," Schwartz says.

Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, MD, chair of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, says that DHEA also looks promising as a treatment to prevent osteoporosis and depression. Barrett-Connor and her colleagues have studied the relationship between natural DHEA levels in the body and heart disease and osteoporosis.

Schwartz says researchers are working on a form of DHEA that would not break down into estrogen and testosterone, thus minimizing side effects. The compound would be classified as a drug, he says, "and might someday have applications in the treatment of type II diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and colon cancer."

Concerns About Side Effects
Side effects of DHEA use may include androgenic effects (acne, oily skin, excessive facial hair growth, voice deepening, hair loss, and mood changes) in women (8). In theory, DHEA, because of its hormonal effects, could stimulate preexisting prostate, breast, and endometrial cancer. DHEA supplements may lead to liver damage, even when taken briefly (9). An additional concern is an increased risk of heart disease in women, says Barrett-Connor.

A few reports in the medical literature document adverse reactions to DHEA. In one report (10), a patient who had advanced prostate cancer was treated with DHEA after other treatments failed. Many of his symptoms improved during DHEA therapy, but his cancer flared dramatically.

Federal policy on DHEA has been inconsistent because the government has classified testosterone as a controlled substance, but not its precursor, DHEA, says Wadler, an internist and sports medicine physician who was the principal author of a book on drugs and sport (11). "It's the supplement du jour, but this one causes me special concern because it's a hormone," he says. "We know a number of serious consequences from increased testosterone and estrogen." Further, side effects of hormone drugs may take months, years, or decades to develop, Wadler says. Examples include osteoporosis from corticosteroid treatment and uterine cancer from estrogen used without progesterone. If DHEA proves problematic in the future, "It will be too late" to protect people who used the supplement, says Wadler.

Last year the National Institute on Aging (NIA), based in Bethesda, Maryland, launched an educational campaign to urge consumers to approach "antiaging" hormone supplements with caution. The agency's concern is based on unsupervised use of DHEA and other hormone supplements, according to a press release from the NIA. The agency says that none of the hormone supplements on the market have been shown to prevent or reverse aging, and that carefully controlled, long-term studies are needed to determine how hormone supplements affect people. (Consumers can call the NIA at 1-800-222-2225 to order a free fact sheet on hormone supplements.) Meanwhile, the NIA is sponsoring several studies on hormone supplements.

What to Tell Patients
Schwartz advises people to avoid DHEA supplements for two reasons. First, compared with higher doses used in animal studies, the recommended supplement dose of 50 mg per day for humans has a remote chance of delivering on manufacturer promises. Second, 50 mg per day still carries a small risk of an androgenic effect in women, he says. "At greater doses, you would definitely have to worry about androgenizing effects."

If patients insist on taking DHEA supplements, physicians should advise them to limit their dosage to 50 mg per day, says Barrett-Connor. Physicians should also inform patients that DHEA supplements have no proven benefits and have side effects, she says. Patients also should know that DHEA products carry no quality guarantees because dietary supplements are not regulated. "For example, one product labeled as DHEA 500 mg--10 times the recommended dose--could have been dangerous," she says. "But it contained no DHEA when tested in the laboratory."

Wadler says male patients who take DHEA supplements should have a prostate exam and have their prostate-specific antigen levels determined; women should have a comprehensive breast exam. Ideally, patients should have their DHEA level determined before starting DHEA treatment to help define a safe baseline. But Wadler says most patients aren't likely to undergo such a test for clearance to take a supplement that is inexpensive and easy to obtain.

[MCWTRAINER]

References
Skolnick AA: Scientific verdict still out on DHEA. JAMA 1996;276(17):1365-1367
Casson PR, Buster JE: DHEA replacement after menopause? Too early to tell. Patient Care 1997;31(11):147-155
Fontenot B: The hyping of DHEA: long on claims, short on evidence. Nutrition Forum 1998;15(1):3-7
Welle S, Jozefowicz R, Statt M: Failure of dehydroepiandrosterone to influence energy and protein metabolism in humans. J Clin Endocrinol 1990;71(5):1259-1264
Barrett-Connor E, Khaw KT, Yen SS: A prospective study of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, mortality, and cardiovascular disease. N Engl J Med 1986;315(24):1519-1524
Barrett-Connor E, Goodman-Gruen D: Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate does not predict cardiovascular death in postmenopausal women: the Rancho Bernardo Study. Circulation 1995;91(6):1757-1760
Barret-Connor E, Goodman-Gruen D: The epidemiology of DHEAS and cardiovascular disease. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1995;774:259-270
Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Med Lett Drug Ther 1996;38(985):91-92
National Institute on Aging: Pills, Patches, and Shots: Can Hormones Prevent Aging? Bethesda, MD, April 1997
Jones JA, Nguyen A, Straub M, et al: Use of DHEA in a patient with advanced prostate cancer: a case report and review. Urology 1997;50(5):784-788
Wadler GI, Hainline B: Drugs and the Athlete, Philadelphia, Davis Co, 1989

[MCWTRAINER]

DHEA Information


DHEA is an androgenic hormone produced by your body's adrenal glands. This substance is two steps up the hormonal metabolic pathway from testosterone production compared to Androstene which is only one step away. DHEA production starts in the body at age 7 and peaks at about age 24. After that, DHEA production will decline by 20% per decade. As you can see, the older you get, the more likely the benefits from DHEA supplementation. DHEA will increase testosterone production in both men and women whose bodies don't produce that much DHEA naturally.

There have been studies to substantiate this increase as well. One study examined the effects of a 50 mg. daily dose on both men and women who were over the age of 50. This dosage was enough to increase DHEA levels to that of a 24 year old in only 2 weeks of supplementation. A follow-up study was done where participants consumed 100 mg. of DHEA before sleep. This not only raised DHEA levels but boosted immune function, increased gains in lean body mass, increased strength, and decreased bodyfat.

As far as real world results go, I have tried this supplement. I do no fall in the low DHEA category though. I did notice an increase in strength as well as a slight increase in acne (DHEA side effects). I also felt as though my body tempeture increased slightly while on the supplement as well since I sweated more indicating that I might be burning bodyfat as well. My hormone level would still be considered raging by most peoples standards so increasing DHEA for those under 25 might be questioned. I would definitely recommend this supplement to anyone over 30. These people could obviously benefit from supplementation of DHEA.

[MCWTRAINER]

Great read on Acute Thyroid Hormone Supplement Overdosage...
http://www.aspca.org/site/DocServer/....pdf?docID=117

[pu12en12g]

I'd be very careful cutting and pasting... unlike most of your other threads, some of THIS ONE so far is phrased pretty badly...

[MCWTRAINER]

Q. Can hormones prevent aging?

A. A lot of people think so. Touted in term of "The Fountain of Youth," and "The Superhormone Promice," anti-aging hormones are the drugs of choice among aging baby-boomers. Topping the list are DHEA, melatonin, growth hormone, and testosterone. Unfortunately, none of these supplements, according to the National Institute of Aging, has yet been shown to prevent or reverse aging. Some folks who have bought into advertising claims for these drugs will be tempted to stop here, but read on a little further. This is an interesting topic.

Glands in our bodies produce hormones which are part of a delicately balanced system that influences the way our organs and tissues work. Minute amounts of these powerful chemicals, whether made by the body or taken as supplements, have widespread effects. For example, they control metabolism (chemical activities) of cells, growth, sexual development, and the body’s response to stress and illness.

The general problem with hormals supplements is that they may not have exactly the same effects on us as our naturally produced chemicals. The body may process supplements differently. And high doses may result in higher amounts of the hormone in the blood than are healthy. Another concern is that some supplements, such as DHEA and melatonin, are not regulated as a drug. Manufacturers, therefore, are not required to include important health information on the lable. So, what is listed on the lable may be different than the dose or even the substances inside the bottle. Finally, for most hormone supplements, no one knows how much is too much or too little, and aside for specific medical disorders, or whether the hormone supplement should be taken at all. Perhaps, sometime in the future more will be known about minuplating body chemestry, hormone, and other drug theraphy, will add vigor to our years and extend our life span. In the meantime, serious caution is advised. Keep the following in mind:

DHEA: "Dehydroepiandrosterone", produce by our adrenal glands, is not actually a hormone. It is a chemical that breaks down into two hormones -- testosterone and estroagen -- for use by the body tissues. After about age 30, we start making less DHEA. Supplements, which you can get without a prescription, are supposed to remedy this and improve energy, strength, and immunity -- in effect slowing the aging process. But there is simply no scientific evidence that DHEA supplements are effective. There are signs, however, that they may lead to liver damage and by super elevating testosterone and estrogen may increase the risk of prostate and breast cancer.

Growth Hormone. hGH is produced by our pitutary glands. It important for norman growth and healthy body tissue. hGH shots may be prescribed by physicians for people who do not produce unough of the hormone or have no pituitary gland. Production often decrease with age. Taking advantage of this fact, hGH supplements are marketed to increase muscle, decrease fat, elevate ones feeling of well-being and energy, and otherwise reduce signs of aging. There is no proof yet to backup these claims although carfully controlled studies are being conducted to determine if hGH can make older people stronger by building muscle and decreasing fat. The empahsis here is on carefully controlled studies, since side effects of hGH treatments can range from joint pain and carpal tunnel syndrome to diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart failure. hGH shots for health individuals are difficult to get in the U.S., but some people get them at clinics in Mexico at a cost of about $15,000 a year.

[MCWTRAINER]

Hormone May Move Fat Around
DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) is a natural hormone in the body secreted by the adrenal gland. As a person gets older, their DHEA levels drop. A 70-year old has only about 20% of the DHEA they had when they were younger. Does this mean that older persons should take DHEA as a nutritional supplement?

What's New: In a study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, approximately half of a group of seniors took DHEA for 6 months. Those taking DHEA lost an average of 2.2 lbs (less than a kg) per person, primarily in visceral and subcutaneous abdominal fat. Their insulin sensitivity also improved.

Concerns: In spite of the findings in this study, we are not going to rush out and buy some DHEA so we can lose a little weight. First, because DHEA is sold as a dietary supplement without a prescription, the consumer has no guarantee about the quality of DHEA. Secondly, because DHEA is a hormone, it could be harmful for persons with a history of hormone-sensitive cancers. We will wait for more data.

[MCWTRAINER]

Originally Posted by pu12en12g

I'd be very careful cutting and pasting... unlike most of your other threads, some of THIS ONE so far is phrased pretty badly...

Correct, some of this stuff you have to take with a grain of salt because it is a compilation of different resources online. If anyone has more hormone information feel free to post it on here...

[MCWTRAINER]

Alternative treatment
Hormone supplement may help with depression
By Elizabeth Querna

Tired of Prozac? Zoloft and Paxil not working? If you're not keen on traditional antidepressant medicines, new research shows that an over-the-counter therapy could work for you. Doctors and nurses from the National Institutes of Health tested the hormone supplement DHEA, a dietary supplement that may prevent degenerative disorders, to see if it could help depression.

What they did: The researchers treated 23 men and 23 women between the ages of 40 and 65 who had depression that had come on within the previous five years and who were not currently taking other antidepressants. Half the sample received DHEA (Its full name is dehydroepiandrosterone.), and half received a placebo pill for six weeks. Then, after taking no pills for two weeks, the groups switched therapies. The researchers used several common questionnaires to measure depression symptoms, including sexual interest before, during, and after the therapy.

What they found: For about half the sample (12 women and 11 men), DHEA improved their depression significantly during the six weeks of treatment. However, the researchers could not find anything to predict what would make some people respond to the treatment and not others—age, prior depression, gender, depression severity, and hormone levels all did not correlate with the response to DHEA. When participants took the placebo, about one third improved; that's pretty average for depression studies, according to the lead researcher.

What it means to you: Because only half the participants responded to DHEA, the researchers suggest that DHEA should be used only if other therapies do not work or if a person does not want to take traditional medicines. DHEA can be effective and is relatively free of side effects—oily skin was the worst in this study—but since there is no way to predict whether or not it will treat depression in one person versus another, this hormone won't be the magic pill. In addition, DHEA is sold over the counter as a dietary supplement, a relatively unregulated corner of the world. Some products that say they contain DHEA may not actually include it—in one study less than half of the products that were marketed as having DHEA contained the dose they claimed.

Caveats: The researchers restricted their study to exclude people with severe depression. Though the treatment had the same effect on those with mild and major depression, the researchers say that DHEA may not be effective for people whose depression is severe enough to warrant inpatient treatment, including people who are suicidal. In addition, there are much fewer studies on the effects of DHEA on depression than on traditional therapies—so this drug should be considered only after other options have been explored.

Find out more: The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance has resources for people with mood disorders, including depression, and information about the disease and its treatments.

DHEA is a controversial hormone. For one side, take a look at DrugDigest, which explains some of the potential benefits of the hormone.

Quackwatch.org has the opposing perspective.

Read the article: Schmidt, P.J. et al. "Dehydroepiandrosterone Monotherapy in Midlife-Onset Major and Minor Depression." Archives of General Psychiatry. February 2005, Vol. 62, No. 2, pp. 154–162.

Abstract online: http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org

[MCWTRAINER]

March 2004

University of Southern California

USC study finds hormone supplement used by athletes may not increase testosterone
DHEA, available over the counter, appears to elevate levels of harmful hormone instead
LOS ANGELES (March 10)-Athletes who take the popular supplement DHEA to increase their testosterone levels and improve their performance may actually be raising levels of a hormone that could potentially harm the prostate, according to researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

DHEA, shorthand for dehydroepiandrosterone, is a hormone that breaks down into various sex hormones, including testosterone, which helps build muscle. Researchers report in the March issue of Fertility and Sterility, however, that the testosterone created from DHEA does not stay long in the blood, but instead, quickly breaks down into other hormones associated with prostate gland growth.

"Our study showed that taking DHEA did not increase testosterone levels, but it did increase byproduct hormones-hormones that are potentially bad for the prostate," says Rebecca Z. Sokol, M.D., M.P.H., professor of obstetrics and gynecology and medicine at the Keck School and the paper's senior author. "Not only are users not getting the testosterone, but they may be getting something harmful in the process."

Sokol notes that interest in over-the-counter steroid supplement DHEA rose after baseball's former slugger Mark McGwire said he used androstenedione or "andro," a similar muscle-pumping pill to help achieve his record-setting home-run tally in 1998. Young athletes can easily obtain DHEA at health food stores and nutrition centers in 25-milligram (mg) and 50-mg doses, though many take 200 mg or more at a time.

Sokol and colleagues tested DHEA in a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study of 12 healthy men ages 18-42. It was the first such study to compare an intermediate dosage of DHEA and a relatively high dosage of DHEA in non-elderly men.

Every day for six months, each man took either 50 mg DHEA, 200 mg DHEA or a sugar pill. Researchers tested blood for levels of various hormones (DHEA, DHEA sulfate, androstenedione, testosterone, estradiol, dihydrotestosterone, and 5-alpha-androstane-3-alpha-17beta-diol glucoronide, or ADG for short). They also performed numerous medical tests and monitored men's prostate size through digital exams.

The team found that over six months, taking DHEA regularly —whatever the dose—increased the circulating level of DHEA, DHEA sulfate and ADG circulating in the men's blood. Sokol and her colleagues had expected to see levels of testosterone rise, but they stayed the same. Levels of androstenedione, estradiol and dihydrotestosterone circulating in the blood also did not change significantly.

"When the body gets an excess of DHEA, it appears to preferentially turn the DHEA into testosterone, then DHT and then ADG," Sokol explains. Testosterone may quickly break down into DHT, which quickly breaks down into the more stable hormone ADG. Elevated levels of that hormone then remain circulating in the blood.

Other studies have indicated that ADG is a growth factor for the prostate, and may prompt benign prostatic hypertrophy, the prostate enlargement commonly seen as men age, she says. When they conducted digital exams, the Keck School researchers did not find signs of enlarged prostate glands, Sokol says, but the time-span of the study may have been too brief to detect enlargement. Digital examination also may not detect changes in size as well as other techniques such as ultrasound.

Researchers are unsure about potential effects of elevated DHEA and DHEA sulfate in the blood. "It is possible that DHEA itself enhances muscle development, but that's not been documented," Sokol says. DHEA is normally produced by the adrenal gland.

Sokol notes that further study is needed on the specific effects of DHEA and similar hormones, which are classified as nutritional supplements and unregulated by the United States Food and Drug Administration. "Young kids of high school and college age are taking this drug because they think it's going to enhance their athletic performance," she says. "But little is known about what the drug really does."

Brian D. Acacio, Frank Z. Stanczyk, Patrick Mullin, Payam Seadat, Neda Jafarian and Rebecca Z. Sokol, "Pharmacokinetics of dehydroepiandrosterone and its metabolites after long-term daily oral administration to healthy young men," Fertility and Sterility. Vol. 81, No. 5, March 2004.

[MCWTRAINER]

DHEA is Both Steroid & Neurosteroid
Dehydroepiandrosterone, commonly abbreviated as DHEA, is the most abundant steroid in the bloodstream and is present at even higher levels in brain tissue as a neurosteroid. However, DHEA levels are known to fall precipitously with age, falling 90% from age 20 to age 90!

DHEA is known to be a precursor to the numerous steroid sex hormones (including estrogen and testosterone) which serve well-known functions, but the specific biological role of DHEA itself is not so well understood.

Interestingly, DHEA seems to change the circulating androgen/estrogen ratio in a gender-specific manner. For men, estrogens increase more. For women, androgens increase more. DHEA's effects in postmenopausal women women are sometimes considered similar to hormone replacement therapy

Although the specific mechanisms of action for DHEA are only partially understood, supplemental DHEA has been shown to have anti-aging, anti-obesity and anti-cancer influences. In addition, it is known to stabilize nerve-cell growth and is being tested in Alzheimer's patients.

Assessing Needs & Dosages
DHEA deficiency can be assessed by measuring either serum DHEA or DHEA-S, which is cheaper (about $50) and may be more sensitive. A normal range is given for each age range. No lab test is perfect and so called normal levels may vary considerably, clinical condition should also be taken into account in deciding whether to take DHEA.

In postmenopausal women and in elderly men, doses of 25 mg daily are commonly used.

It is important to assess the need for DHEA supplementation within the context of a thorough medical examination. Your doctor may also want to check levels of other hormones like cortisone and thyroid hormone, to assure that the proper balance of hormones is achieved.

Notes:
1. DHEA is considered a drug by some researchers and is banned in the United Kingdom and Canada. Experts advise using with medical supervision.
2. DHEA supplementation is contraindicated in those with prostate, breast, uterine, and other hormone-sensitive cancers and when liver dysfunction exists.

[MCWTRAINER]

Andro...
http://www.bodybuildingforyou.com/pr...e-research.htm

[MCWTRAINER]

FDA begins crackdown on supplement andro
Friday, March 19, 2004 Posted: 4:00 PM EST (2100 GMT)

Andro has been marketed as a dietary supplement, selling over the counter.

(CNN) -- Federal officials announced Thursday a crackdown on the supplement andro, which gained fame after baseball player Mark McGwire used the product in his record-setting 1998 season.

The Food and Drug Administration said that manufacturers of andro products will have to cease production unless the makers can prove it is safe. Although andro is not a steroid and is marketed as a dietary supplement, the FDA said the health risks are the same.

The agency sent letters Thursday to 23 companies that distribute andro products, warning they could face government action if they didn't follow the recommendations.

"While andro products may seem to have short-term benefits, the science shows that these same properties create real and significant health risks," said FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan.

"Anyone who takes these products in sufficient quantities to build muscle or improve performance is putting himself or herself at risk for serious long-term and potentially irreversible health consequences."

Andro, or androstenedione, is a hormone that is made naturally in the human body during the production of testosterone and estrogen. Some advocates say higher levels of testosterone will enable athletes to train harder, build bigger muscles and get results faster. Concentrated levels of andro are in the pills and supplements on the market.

But medical studies have shown it can have serious side effects. According to the Mayo Clinic, andro supplement use by males has been responsible for diminished sperm production, shrunken testicles, enlarged breasts, acne and decreased levels of the heart-friendly kind of cholesterol.

Officials said the move against andro also was prompted by concerns that children have been influenced by professional athletes' use of performance-enhancing supplements and the ease with which young people can buy them. Studies have shown such supplements can stunt children's physical and sexual growth.

About one out of 40 high school seniors reported that they had used andro in the past year, according to a 2002 Department of Health and Human Services survey.

"Young people, athletes and other consumers should steer clear of andro because there are serious, substantial concerns about its safety," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said in a statement Thursday.

"Young people should understand that there are no short cuts to a stronger body and that the best way to get faster and stronger is through good diet, nutrition and exercise."

Unlike drugs, supplements do not have to be proven safe before going on the market, but federal authorities can act to take them off the shelves if the product's safety is called into question. The FDA blocked the sale of ephedra last year, the first time U.S. officials had taken such action against a nutritional supplement.

The FDA's McClellan has said that his agency is stepping up its scrutiny of the health effects of supplements and that new manufacturing and labeling regulations are in the works.

Meanwhile, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Delaware, has sponsored legislation that would ban the newly discovered steroid THG and andro, which baseball's McGwire admits he used the season he broke the long-standing single season home run record.

"[Drug companies] have these precursors to steroids that have the same properties and also diminish health," Biden said Thursday on CNN's "American Morning." "I have had a bill for the past two years with Sen. [Orrin] Hatch that says human hormone supplements, andro and all these things should be treated like steroids."

The FDA's action comes a day after a congressional hearing in which Republicans and Democrats alike sharply criticized Major League Baseball's lax steroid testing of athletes.

At the hearing, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig conceded that his sport has not done enough to curb use of steroids and other enhancement drugs. Selig told lawmakers he would be willing to reconsider current policy.

[MCWTRAINER]

Common Supplements and How They Affect the Body

Whether you hear about sports supplements from your teammates in the locker room or the sales clerk at your local vitamin store, chances are you're not getting the whole story about how supplements work and the risks you take by using them.

Anabolic steroids are hormones that help the body build muscle tissue and increase muscle mass. Steroids, also known as roids or juice, are similar to the male hormone testosterone, which is produced naturally in larger amounts in guys' bodies and smaller amounts in girls' bodies. When a person takes steroids, the body's muscle tissue is stimulated to grow, producing larger and stronger muscles.

But steroids can have some unwelcome, serious side effects - such as high blood pressure and heart disease, liver damage and cancer, urinary and bowel problems, strokes and blood clots, and sleep problems. A person who takes steroids may develop bigger muscles, but he or she is also at risk for baldness and severe acne. Guys who take juice can suffer from infertility, breast and nipple enlargement, and problems having an erection. Girls may find themselves with deeper voices, smaller breasts, menstrual problems, and an increase in facial and body hair.

Steroids can also have emotional effects on the user, such as severe mood swings, aggressive behavior, irritability, and depressive or suicidal thoughts. Teens who inject steroids with infected needles are also at risk for HIV or hepatitis.

Androstenedione, more commonly known as andro, is another popular nutritional supplement. When a person takes andro, the body may convert it to testosterone, which is necessary for muscle development. When it's taken in large doses, andro is said to increase muscle mass, although studies haven't shown that andro is particularly effective. Scientists don't know exactly how much andro the body absorbs, and the long-term effects of andro use haven't been determined. What is known is that andro can cause hormone imbalances in people who use it. Andro use may have the same effects as taking anabolic steroids and may lead to such dangerous side effects as testicular cancer, infertility, stroke, and an increased risk of heart disease.

Another sports supplement you may have heard about is human growth hormone (hGH). Doctors may prescribe growth hormone for some teens who have certain hormone or growth problems to help them develop normally. But growth hormone can also be abused by athletes who want to build muscle mass. Many athletes still use growth hormone even though several sports organizations (such as the NCAA) have banned it. Teen athletes who abuse growth hormone may have impaired development and altered hormone levels.

[MCWTRAINER]

Many athletes take 'andro' supplements in a bid to boost testosterone production without falling foul of doping tests. But they could be deluding themselves - on all fronts.

The average Joe begins to lose his testosterone - and his muscle mass - at about age 30. At the same age, the average runner also starts to experience a testosterone drop-off. Although his running and associated strength training may preserve his muscle mass, he begins to notice an appreciable increase in muscle soreness and tightness following strenuous workouts - and a decreased ability to recover quickly from hard-edged training sessions and races.

For different reasons, both 'Joe' and the runner might consider taking 'andro' - supplements which contain the allegedly anabolic testosterone precursors androstenediol and/or androstenedione.

The man on the street wants to keep his muscles, lose his flab and preserve his sexual potency. Forget about baldness and an increased risk of prostate cancer - he looks to andro to keep him hard!

The 30-plus runner looks back with longing to the days when four quality workouts per week were not just a possibility but standard practice. He (or she) is down to two quality weekly sessions (during good weeks!) and 10k time is down, too - or rather up! Could andro add a little muscle to legs scarred from years of training? Could it trim recovery time so that those wonderful weeks of long runs, track workouts, hill runs, and tempo efforts could be restored? And might andro even make those delts and traps look a little less scrawny?

Although supplement promoters and US baseball star Mark McGwire might well say yes (but did andro weaken Mark's knee?), where's the scientific evidence? Are androstenedione and androstenediol really 'prohormones' (compounds which boost production of another hormone, in this case testosterone)? Do impartial exercise scientists believe that andro supplements are worth buying?

Real research: the Andro Project
Researchers at East Tennessee State University can probably answer these questions more authoritatively than anyone else in the world right now. They have been working on 'The Andro Project', a study which has carefully explored the physiological ramifications of andro supplementation during training. Naturally, they chose men over 30 for their investigations. Few women are receptive to the idea of testosterone-like compounds coursing through their blood vessels - and indeed one study did find that 100 mg of oral androstenedione significantly increased blood testosterone levels in women (1). Men under 30 already have enough of the stuff to make them dangerous; there's no need to give them more! In a recent Andro-Project exercise, 50 men aged 35-65 took part in a 12-week strengthening programme which involved training three times a week for 75 minutes per session. The subjects began by working at an intensity of 60-70% of 1-RM but gradually moved up to about 80-95%: 1-RM ('one-repetition max') refers to the amount of resistance against which a movement can be completed successfully one - and only one - time.

In each workout 2-3 sets of 3-15 reps of each exercise were completed; the exercises included bench presses, front military seated presses, front lat pull-downs, standing arm curls, cable triceps extensions, leg extensions, leg presses, standing calf raises, abdominal exercises, inclined dumbbell bench presses, hammer-behind-the-neck shoulder presses, low cable rows, lying French presses, machine squats, seated calf raises, lunges, and step-ups. All training days also included five minutes of Swiss-ball stabilising exercises for the abs and low back.

using the 12 weeks of strength training, the men were divided into three groups, each taking a different supplement, as follows (2):

* 17 took androstenediol (200mg per day)
* 15 took androstenedione (200mg per day)
* 18 took inactive tablets (placebo)

So what happened? After one month, total blood-testosterone levels were up by about 16 percent in the androstenedione group, but then the subjects' pituitary glands got wise to what was happening. Those important little masses of tissue at the base of the brain noticed the rise in testosterone and curtailed their release of LH, a pituitary hormone which stimulates testosterone production in the testes. In effect, the pituitary was saying: 'Hey, we've got enough testosterone around here - there's no need to keep pumping it out at such high rates.' As a result, testosterone levels began to fall and had returned to baseline levels by the end of the study, despite continued supplementation with andro.

The men did get stronger as a result of their rigorous strength-training programme, but the 'andro men' had no more power than the poor fellows who had to limp along without testosterone precursors. In other words, andro supplementation did nothing at all to enhance strength! Basically, upper-body strength advanced by about 16% and lower-body strength went up by 29% - in all three groups of men.

Were these men perhaps taking insufficient andro to boost muscle mass in a dramatic way? The dosage used in the study - 200mg per day - is a commonly-recommended intake, and it did increase blood levels of andro by 62-183%, which should have constituted 'adequate testosterone-precursor stimulation'. In a prior study using dosages 50% higher, there was also no observed effect on body composition and strength (3).

It's not that the andro wasn't physiologically active: it did indeed alter physiological activity - but in the wrong direction. Blood concentrations of the key female sex hormones estrone and estradiol rose by 47-92% for the andro-users over the course of the 12-week study! In effect, instead of emphasising their male characteristics, they were feminising themselves. And, incidentally, there is no scientific support whatsoever for the theory that the 'stacking formulas' popularly used by weightlifters and bodybuilders help to arrest this female sex hormone upswing. Worse still, blood-fat profiles headed south as a result of andro use. The 'cardiac lipid risk profiles' of the men in the placebo group improved by 12% during the study, while those of the andro subjects declined by 5-11%. This was primarily because placebo subjects increased - and andro subjects reduced - their levels of HDL-cholesterol (the protective or 'good' cholesterol where heart disease is concerned).

Andro-users could have tested positive for steroid use
But hold on - the story gets even worse! In more recent research carried out by Don Catlin and his colleagues at the University of California in Los Angeles, 24 men who took andro for just seven days ended up with the steroid marker 19-norandrostenedione in their urine, which could have caused them to 'test positive' for steroid use. Andro itself does not normally produce 19-norandrostenedione, so the highly-respected researchers realised that the supplements must have been contaminated. In fact, they found that each andro capsule they analysed contained 19-androstenedione. In addition, when they tested nine different commercial brands of andro, they found that five didn't actually contain the amount of andro claimed on the label (this is called fraud!), while one actually contained testosterone (4).

[MCWTRAINER]

Androstenedione, DHEA,
And Other Steroid Supplements
1999

Popularized by high profile athletes, such as Mark McGwire, legal steroid supplements are rapidly becoming some of the most popular products in the dietary supplement and herbal medicine market. They have been touted to rejuvenate, improve energy, and improve strength and muscle size. They have been popular for several years, however after the revelation that McGwire used them in his homerun record season, sales have boomed.

The most popular of the steroid supplements are dehydroepiandosterone (DHEA), androstenedione, and androstenediol. In the body, these are converted into testosterone, the body’s own anabolic steroid. Androstenedione, the one McGwire reportedly uses, is the closest to testosterone and is the strongest anabolic steroid of the three. Anabolic steroids have long been used as performance enhancing drugs to increase strength and size for competitive sports. Most anabolic steroids are available only prescription and are tightly controlled. They are intended for legitimate medical uses, such as for people who have a hormone deficiency or who have muscle wasting due to cancer or HIV. However, these steroid supplements are over the counter and are not regulated.

Because they are not regulated by the FDA, much is not known about their usefulness, quality, and possible side effects. Research on them is limited. They do not have to undergo the rigorous clinical trials to determine effectiveness, appropriate dosage, side effects, and safety that pharmaceuticals must submit to. Also, quality control is not always good in the supplement industry. Some brands may not have the stated amount of ingredient, may not be well absorbed, or may even be contaminated.

It is not clear how effective these supplements are. Androstenedione is the strongest, but appears to be weaker than the prescription steroids. Some may not be effective at all. The better products when coupled with vigorous workouts will probably yield increased strength and muscle size. However, these gains are usually lost within a few weeks to months after stopping the supplement. Appropriate dosages are not known.

Natural does not mean safe. These "natural" anabolic steroids would be expected to have the same risks as their prescription counterparts. These risks include acne, increased body hair, increased cholesterol and heart disease, irritability, aggressiveness, liver problems, kidney problems, and dependency. Additionally, in men they can cause balding, shrinkage of the testicles, breast enlargement, and prostate problems. They can increase the growth of prostate cancer. In women they can cause deepening of the voice, increased facial hair, clitoral enlargement, and menstrual problems. They are very dangerous in teenagers, because they can stop further growth by closing bone growth plates.

For college, professional, Olympic, and other competitive athletes that undergo steroid drug testing, these supplements will cause positive tests. They are banned by the IOC, NCAA, and NFL.

Like many Americans, gays, lesbians, and bisexuals are into working out. There seems to be a heavy emphasis on a muscular physique in many segments of our community. Therefore weight training and bodybuilding are particularly popular. With this comes a desire for easier and more rapid gains, such as those promised by steroid supplements. These supplements have risks and side effects. Obviously, the healthiest approach to working out is to do it naturally, without any supplements. If you do decide to use these supplements, buy only a reputable brand from a reputable dealer. Use them for the shortest length of time possible. Be alert for possible side effects. Hopefully, you can comfortably talk with your physician about your supplement use, and he or she can advise you about your particular risks or benefits.

[tonutzda2@veriz]

things that make you say "hmmmmmmm".lol

[MCWTRAINER]

Kids dream of being professional athletes and why not? It's fun to think about being the very best in your favorite sport, not to mention earning a big salary. But in recent years, people have been looking more closely at the way some athletes get their bodies into super shape - tough enough to break records.

Some athletes have admitted using steroids, which are artificial hormones that can improve strength and muscle mass. Steroids are illegal and they can cause serious health problems, but studies still show some kids, teens, and adults are willing to try them. Let's talk about what steroids are, how they can affect your body, and why it's a good idea to avoid them.

What Are Steroids?
"Steroids" has more than one meaning. Your body naturally produces some steroids, to help you fight stress and grow bigger during puberty. (But your body knows just the right amount that you need, so there's no need to take any extra.) There's also a type of medicine called steroids that people might take if they have pain, asthma, or a skin problem. But these aren't the kind of steroids getting attention in sports.

When people say steroids (say: stare-oydz), they often mean illegal anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids are artificially produced hormones that are the same as, or similar to, androgens, the male-type sex hormones in the body. The most powerful of these is testosterone (say: tes-tos-tuh-rone). Anabolic steroids can be taken in the form of pills, powders, or injections. Anabolic steroids are always illegal, meaning that you could get arrested for buying, selling, or taking them.

Some athletes take anabolic steroids because of their testosterone-like effects, such as increasing muscle mass and strength. This might sound like just a guy thing, but girls also have used steroids to get stronger and change the way they look. And it's not only professional athletes who have taken these illegal drugs. Investigations and studies have shown that teens, college athletes, and others have taken steroids.

There are supplements available that contain anabolic steroids. You might see ads for these on the Internet or in the back of sports or body building magazines. Some have been banned in the United States while others are still legal. Legal or illegal, these supplements can cause health problems. Kids should not take any steroid supplement, even those that are still on the market.

Dangers of Steroids
Anabolic steroids cause many different types of problems. Less serious side effects include acne, oily hair, purple or red spots on the body, swelling of the legs and feet, and persistent bad breath. A kid or teen who takes steroids might not grow as tall as he or she was supposed to grow. Some other serious and long-lasting side effects are:

premature balding
dizziness
mood swings, including anger and sadness
seeing or hearing things that aren't there (hallucinations)
extreme feelings of mistrust or fear (paranoia)
problems sleeping
nausea
vomiting
trembling
high blood pressure that can damage the heart or blood vessels over time
aching joints
greater chance of injuring muscles and tendons
jaundice or yellowing of the skin; liver damage
trouble peeing
increased risk of developing heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer
These risks affect girls:

increased facial hair growth
deeper voice, like a man's
shrinking of the breasts
period changes
Specific risks for boys include:

shrinkage of the testicles and penis problems
pain when urinating (peeing)
breast development
Because steroids can be injected (given in a shot), users run the risk of getting illnesses that can be passed through needles that are dirty, or shared. These include HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, a serious liver disease. Though some problems may show up right away, others may not appear for years. One former Oakland Raiders lineman who died of brain cancer believed that steroid use during his football career was one reason he got the disease.

Using Steroids Isn't Playing Fair
Your health is the No. 1 reason not to use steroids or a steroid supplement. But there's another very important reason: It's just not fair. When people use steroids, it gives them an unfair advantage against others who trained and practiced without using illegal steroids.

And because all levels of sports - from high school to the pros - are testing athletes for steroid use, there's a growing chance the person will get caught. If caught, he or she will face a lot of embarrassment and could be banned from the sport.

But maybe worst of all, any achievements the athlete made while on steroids could be questioned. Someone might say, "He didn't really deserve to be on the All-Star team, he was on steroids." Or, "She shouldn't have that trophy, she was cheating." So win on your own power - without steroids. Then, you can hang on to all your honors - and your health!

Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD
Date reviewed: June 2005

[MCWTRAINER]

Study: Some teens willing to risk health with steroids

By Peggy O'Farrell / Enquirer staff writer

A study in last week's journal "Pediatrics" found that one in eight male adolescents and one in 12 female adolescents reported using hormones or supplements in the past year to build muscle or improve their appearance.

The study raises troubling questions about body images and the lengths to which teens will go to achieve what's portrayed in the media as an "ideal" body image - usually unrealistically thin for girls and unrealistically muscular for boys, say the study's authors.

Most of teens surveyed reported using protein shakes or powders, but supplements such as creatine, amino acids and related metabolites - HMB, growth hormone, steroids and the hormone DHEA - also were mentioned.

Most steroid supplements, including andro, were made controlled substances in 2004, but they can be ordered internationally on the Internet or purchased on the street.

Dr. Cathy Creger Rosenbaum, a pharmacologist and clinical safety and effectiveness officer for TriHealth, answered questions about the potential risks of the supplements cited in the study.

Question: Are any of the supplements cited in the study steroids?

Answer: Not all of them. Most of the steroid supplements like andro (the supplement popularized by baseball player Mark McGwire) were made controlled substances by Congress in 2004, but DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) is exempt from that law.

Creatine is used as a body enhancer or muscle enhancer. It's a protein. It's also a stimulant, like ephedra. But neither one is a steroid.

HMB (beta Hydroxy-Methyl-Butyrate) isn't a steroid. It's an amino acid metabolite that's used to build muscle mass. DHEA is an androgenic steroid. It's a cousin to andro.

Q: What effects do steroids such as DHEA and andro have on men's bodies?

A: In males, steroids can cause too much testosterone to be produced in the body. They can decrease the size of the testicles and reduce the sperm count and make the hair fall out. They can cause men to develop breasts. They kind of mess up a man's testosterone balance.

Q: What are the effects for women?

A: In females, steroids cause masculinization of the sex characteristics: The uterine walls atrophy and the menstrual cycle is disrupted. Body hair increases. The voice deepens and the breasts shrink. If she's pregnant, steroids could masculinize a female fetus in utero.

For all adolescents, bone growth is affected and it can be irreversible. Steroids can cause the long bones to fuse prematurely and stunt their growth. Steroids can also cause increased aggression and depression. If somebody uses them and stops, there is a physical dependency issue and their could be withdrawal, which could lead to suicidal thoughts.

Q: What signs should parents look for if they suspect their kids might be using steroids?

A: Moms and dads want to look at the outstanding physical symptoms: Hair loss on the head, a woman's voice deepening, changes in chest size. Maybe there will be complaints of a rapid heartbeat or their son will develop bad acne when he didn't have it before. Women might develop facial hair. A sudden personality change would be a tip-off, if they're suddenly very paranoid or anxious or hostile. They might complain about stiffness or joint pain because of the bone issue.

Q: What can parents do to reduce the risk of their children using steroids?

A: If you think your child feels compelled to be the best athletically, you should be questioning what they're doing to get there and work out a plan for that together.

Work with the coaches. Know who they are and understand their philosophy. And ask the hard questions. There are too many times when minors are in the sports world and we as parents take it for granted that it's a safe venue and we know what they're consuming, and that's not always the case.

[pu12en12g]

69 year old anarchist / atheist / ex-con using steroids for more than 40 years

http://www.ergogenics.org/clapp.html


Anabolic Steroids used in medicine:

Originally Posted by WillBrink

Kidney failure causes fatigue and weakness
Anabolic steroids can improve the quality of life of kidney dialysis patients and people with HIV, according to two new studies.

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reports two research projects into anabolic steroids and secondary wasting conditions.

Doctors at San Francisco General Hospital found that the anabolic steroid nandrolene decanoate increased kidney patients' body mass and reduced fatigue.

Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley found significant improvements in body weight and muscle strength in men with HIV-associated weight loss and normal testosterone levels.

Anabolic steroids - synthetic versions of the male hormone testosterone - are already used medically to rebuild tissues weakened by injury or disease, to assist in regaining or maintaining weight after illness and to aid recovery from breast cancer and osteoporosis in women.

Cont:

http://www.aegis.com/news/bbc/1999/BB990402.html

[MCWTRAINER]

Steroid 'andro' doesn't amass muscle
Dietary supplement, taken by McGwire, builds estrogen, study finds
By John Fauber
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: June 1, 1999
Use it if you must, but the controversial dietary supplement androstenedione won't improve your libido and it won't build muscles, according to a study released Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In fact, you are more likely to end up looking like Molly McGwire than home run king Mark McGwire, who helped bpopularize the substance during his record-breaking season last year.

Researchers said Tuesday that the steroid, which is legal to use, did not increase testosterone levels in men as advertised. But it did significantly increase levels of the female hormone estrogen, a change that could lead to a condition known as gynecomastia (enlarged breasts).

"There is no rationale for (using) it all," said lead researcher Douglas King, an exercise physiologist at Iowa State University. "It doesn't do what it purports to do."

It also could promote heart disease and certain types of cancer, King said.

But androstenedione continues to be popular: Internet sites offering "andro," as it often is called, abound. One site refers to it as the "East German Secret."

Internet ads promise testosterone increases of more than 300% and impressive muscle-building benefits as well.

Androstenedione (andro-STEEN-die-own) is produced naturally in the adrenal glands and, to a lesser extent, in the testicles. It is converted in the body to testosterone.

Last year, the 6-foot-5, 250-pound McGwire said he uses androstenedione as well as creatine, a non-steroid supplement that helps add muscle tissue in conjunction with a weightlifting program.

Androstenedione is not banned by Major League Baseball, but it is outlawed by the International Olympic Committee, the National Football League and the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Jim Hause, manager of the Health Hut store in West Allis, said a regular clientele uses the substance, including some men in their 40s and 50s who use it to boost their sexual drive.

"We always have new people trying it," he said.

A one-month supply costs $13 to $64, depending on the form it comes in and the potency, he said.

A drug official quoted in aJAMA editorial that accompanied the study said androstenedione use by youngsters has increased five times since McGwire admitted last year that he uses it.

But Hause said his store will not sell androstenedione to high school students unless they have their parents' permission. "At that age, you really don't need it," he said.

The JAMA editorial, written by Charles Yesalis III of Pennsylvania State University, said the federal government should consider removing androstenedione from the market.

"Given the adverse acute health effects of androstenedione and the lack of knowledge of its long-term effects . . . why is over-the-counter sale of this androgenic steroid hormone permitted, even to children?" he writes.

For the JAMA study, 30 healthy men, ages 19 to 29, with normal testosterone levels were put on an eight-week weight training program. Twenty of the men received 300 mg of androstenedione daily and 10 received a placebo.

The researchers found that muscle strength and testosterone levels did not differ in the two groups.

But the subjects who took androstenedione experienced a 50% increase in estrogen levels, researcher King said.

[MCWTRAINER]

Most Over-the-Counter Steroid Supplements Are Mislabeled


Few of the steroid-containing dietary supplements sold over-the-counter (OTC) as athletic performance-enhancers actually contain the ingredients and amounts listed on their labels, according to a study in the October issue of Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine.

"The results show that the labels of the dietary steroid supplements studied--cannot be trusted for content and purity information," write Dr. Gary A. Green and colleagues of University of California Los Angeles.

Dr. Green and his fellow researchers used a sophisticated test called high-pressure liquid chromatography to determine the presence and amounts of various steroids in twelve brands of OTC supplements.

Only one of the supplements tested had an accurate label, containing 90 to 110 percent of the listed amount of ingredients. In the rest, several types of errors were detected:
*Ten brands contained ingredients on the label in substantially lower amounts than listed.
*Five brands included ingredients that were not listed on the label--including one brand that contained a high dose of testosterone, a controlled steroid.
*Two brands did not contain one or more ingredients listed on the label.
*One brand contained an ingredient in a substantially higher amount than listed on the label.

Several of the errors had the potential to cause a positive urine test for steroids in an unsuspecting athlete. Other errors were "relatively inconsequential," but were apparent violations of the labeling requirements of the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act.

Over-the-counter steroids such as androstenedione (sometimes called "Andro") and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) are widely included in supplements marketed to athletes as performance enhancers. In recent years, there have been several reports of inaccurately labeled dietary supplements, and many athletes have blamed the use of "sport supplements" after testing positive for banned steroids.

Together with previous studies, the results suggest that many dietary supplements contain impurities or inaccurate steroid doses, which may lead to positive urine tests or even medical consequences. Dr. Green and his fellow researchers conclude, "[I]t is not safe for athletes to take any OTC steroids."

[MCWTRAINER]

A link to many links on steroids...
http://dmoz.org/Sports/Strength_Spor...olic_Steroids/

[MCWTRAINER]

Keep them coming if you got them Pu...

[pu12en12g]

Originally Posted by STEVEN KOTLER

Sympathy for the Devil
Everything you thought you knew about steroids is wrong
by STEVEN KOTLER

The road to the future is paved in blood — my own. Not too long ago, a nurse went a little crazy with my hemoglobin. Somewhere in the middle of the second vial, I got too dizzy to pay attention, but it felt like she took pints, quarts, gallons, whatever comes after gallons, gleefully mining my veins for any secrets they might conceal. The blood was sent to a medical lab that ran a battery of tests and then shipped the results to a doctor named Ron Rothenberg, with whom I would meet to discuss what portents it held. Besides the blood work, getting in to see Rothenberg also required signing a 10-page waiver, filling out a 20-page health-and-lifestyle questionnaire and being profoundly willing to look my medical future square in the eye.

Rothenberg, himself, is a medium-size guy, smooth-skinned and strong-shouldered, with sandy-brown hair, dark eyes and darker eyebrows. He looks a little like a Jewish version of a Latin American soap star, which is to say he looks nothing like his 59 years. He is open about his age, just as he is open about the fact that he feels 25, but unlike most who brag of their youthful virility, because of the way Ron Rothenberg now makes a living, his youthful virility is perhaps no idle claim. Rothenberg runs the California Health Span Institute in Encinitas, California, and to the limited number of people who know of him and understand the world of anti-aging medicine, he is considered something of a pioneer — which is saying a lot when you consider that the Western tradition of anti-aging medicine dates back at least to the 1500s, when someone named Juan Ponce de León accidentally discovered Florida while looking for the Fountain of Youth.

Rothenberg was not trained in anti-aging medicine, because, at the time he was trained, anti-aging medicine was not something one got trained in. Instead, he graduated from Columbia Medical School in 1970, moved out West, learned to surf, and completed his residency in 1975 at Los Angeles County–USC Medical Center. He received an academic appointment to teach emergency medicine at the University of California, San Diego, in ’77, and became a full professor in ’89. Throughout, Rothenberg has kept on surfing. Back in 1975, he was one of the first Americans to venture to Bali to try his hand at those now-legendary Indonesian waves. He has a house down deep in Baja, right in front of one of the better breaks in Mexico. Surfboards hang on his office walls, as do pictures of him riding overhead waves with a charging stance akin to that of Greg “The Bull” Noll. These pictures were taken last year, when Rothenberg was 58, but it was a few years before this, around the time he turned 50, when his interest in surfing pointed him toward the then-emerging field of anti-aging medicine.

“Around the half-century mark, I saw all these changes in my body,” recalls Rothenberg. “I felt fuzzy. I felt like I was losing my edge. My energy was low, my libido was low, things didn’t look as good as they used to. When I went surfing, I would get winded on the paddle-out. I wasn’t used to getting winded on the paddle-out. I read a Newsweek article about the anti-aging properties of DHEA and started to wonder if there was something I could do about the way I was feeling and the changes my body was undergoing.”

Rothenberg got in touch with the nascent American Academy of Anti-Aging and began re-educating himself. “Most doctors are frozen in time,” he says. “They stop learning when they get out of medical school. Unfortunately, one of the first things they teach you in medical school is that nearly half of what you’ll learn there is wrong — only no one is exactly certain which half.” One of the main things he learned in medical school was that time marches on and aging is an unstoppable process. For Rothenberg, this turned out to be part of the half that was wrong.

How wrong is still a matter of debate, but few disagree that the version of anti-aging medicine as practiced by Rothenberg and his cohorts represents one of the more radical departures in Western medical thought to surface in centuries. “Traditional medicine is reactive, disease-based medicine,” says Dr. Robert Goldman, chairman of the American Academy for Anti-Aging Medicine. “Anti-aging medicine is the opposite. It’s about finding the problem and fixing the problem before it occurs. If sports medicine is about optimizing the body for maximum athletic performance, then anti-aging medicine is about optimizing the body for living in general.”

Goldman believes that anti-aging is the future of medicine. And Ron Rothenberg was one of the first to venture into that future. He became the 10th doctor in the world to become board-certified in anti-aging medicine and among the earliest to hang a shingle and open his doors to the public, in 1998. He had been self-medicating for a little while before that, and his earliest patients were fellow doctors who noticed that Rothenberg seemed younger, faster, stronger and who wanted some of that good magic for themselves. His prescription for them was very similar to his prescription for me — and this is where the road to the future takes a sharp left turn — because the basis for both prescriptions was hormones. Though, as Rothenberg and others like to point out, “There’s a joke in the medical community: When someone has something nice to say about the work we’re doing, they use the word hormones. When they don’t have something nice to say, they like to call them steroids.”

My journey to see Dr. Rothenberg did not begin with an inquiry into anti-aging medicine, but it did begin with steroids. It began with a onetime baseball player named Jose Canseco and the stir caused by his memoir of “wild times, rampant ’roids, smash hits and how baseball got big.” It was in Juiced that Canseco claimed to be the man who popularized steroids in baseball. It was also in Juiced that Canseco defined road beef as “any girl you met on the road and had sex with.” For this reason and others, there’s very little in the book that gives one faith in its author’s opinions. He repeatedly argues that steroids are the wonder drug of tomorrow, but nowhere in the book is a medical paper cited or a scientist quoted. He promises that someday soon “everyone will be doing it. Steroid use will be more common than Botox is now. Every baseball player and pro athlete will be using at least low levels of steroids. As a result, baseball and other sports will be more exciting and entertaining. Human life will be improved, too. We will live longer and better. And maybe we’ll love longer and better, too.” As it worked out, these rosy prognostications came around the time that pundits and politicians were making plenty of hay saying the exact opposite.

They had been saying the exact opposite for years, but Canseco’s book and the BALCO scandal combined to add new fuel to the fire and helped spark this past spring’s congressional steroid hearings — a circus act that saw everyone from Mark McGwire to Sammy Sosa look uncomfortable fudging answers to questions raised by Juiced, while Canseco seemed relaxed and in control, and shameless by comparison. One memorable moment came when former pitcher and current Republican senator from Kentucky, Jim Bunning, decried the nightmare scenario of baseball players actually getting better as they aged: "Mr. Chairman, maybe I’m old-fashioned. I remember players didn’t get any better as they got ‘older.’ We all got worse. When I played with Henry Aaron, Willie Mays and Ted Williams, they didn’t put on 40 pounds and bulk up in their careers, and they didn’t hit more home runs in their late 30s as they did in their late 20s. What’s happening in baseball now is not natural, and it isn’t right."

The results of all the hysteria were new drug-testing and steroid-suspension policies in all major sports including baseball, where Commissioner Bud Selig has proposed 50-game suspensions for a first offense, and football, which increased the possible number of random off-season drug tests from two to six. There was also the re-drafting of the 1990 Steroid Control Act into the updated 2005 Steroid Control Act, and this doesn’t include the two sports-related anti-steroid bills pending in the House of Representatives.

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Originally Posted by Steven Kotler

The experts were nearly unanimous in their Canseco condemnations, but despite all of this, the reason I found myself sitting in Ron Rothenberg’s office last June was because I had started to harbor what seemed the most ridiculous of all suspicions: What if Jose Canseco was actually right?

The real reason I started to wonder this had little to do with steroids and plenty to do with another taboo class of chemicals. It is well known that back in the 1960s, when Timothy Leary snuck LSD out of Harvard and into mainstream culture, all sorts of tie-dyed hell broke loose. Our young people were at risk; the very foundation of our society was in jeopardy. Hallucinogens, we were told, were diabolical. They induced insanity. You want proof? Did not the Grateful Dead become the most successful bar band in the history of the world? Perhaps less familiar is the fact that before Captain Cosmonaut came on the scene, psychedelics had been the basis of some really promising science — so good that nearly all of modern pharmacological psychology is based on this research. LSD led us to the neurotransmitter serotonin, and serotonin jump-started the entire Prozac nation. Studies dating back almost to the 1920s hint that hallucinogens are uniquely suited to treat some of our more intractable diseases, but most of these studies have been buried so long and so deep that the core component of the Schedule One classification — where hallucinogens currently reside — states that they contain no beneficial medicinal properties.

There were, however, a few folks who knew what was what, and these folks have been stubbornly lobbying the powers that be for more than three decades. In 1990, a managerial decision to depoliticize the Food and Drug Administration forced the rest of the government to finally reopen this door. There are currently a half-dozen hallucinogen studies under way at major universities, the early results of which are seriously promising. All of which led me to wonder, if psychedelics weren’t the bogeymen they had been made out to be, maybe everything we’re hearing about steroids being the devil incarnate is wrong as well.

If you want to know anything about steroids, Mauro Di Pasquale is a pretty good place to start. He’s a two-time world-champion power-lifter, eight-time Canadian champ, two-time Pan-American and two-time North American champion. Along the way, Di Pasquale also went to medical school and became one of our foremost authorities on performance-enhancing drugs. He has since written eight books on the topic, worked as a columnist for half a dozen fitness magazines and as editor in chief for the international quarterly newsletter Drugs in Sports and the bimonthly Anabolic Research Review (both are no longer published). In the early ’90s, when World Wrestling Federation founder Vince McMahon decided it was time to get his empire off the juice, Di Pasquale was the one who got the job. He later became the medical director to the World Bodybuilding Federation and the acting medical review officer for NASCAR, helping both sports develop their stringent drug-testing policies.

I reached him at his home in Toronto after a frustrating morning spent trying to find a clear-cut definition of steroids. “You won’t find one,” said Di Pasquale. “When people use the word, they are usually talking about one of two things. Doctors use it to mean corticosteroids, which are catabolic hormones that break tissue down. Corticosteroids are the body’s natural anti-inflammatories, produced as part of our normal reaction to stress. When the general public talks about steroids, they sometimes mean our actual sex hormones, but mostly they mean testosterone or substances designed to mimic testosterone.”

Testosterone is both an anabolic and an androgenic steroid. Anabolic means the exact opposite of catabolic; it’s a hormone that builds up tissue rather than breaking it down. Androgens are any hormone that controls the development and maintenance of male sexual characteristics, just as estrogens are any hormone that controls the development and maintenance of female sexual characteristics. Testosterone is the upstream precursor of estrogen, meaning testosterone breaks down into estrogen. Quite literally, if there were no such thing as testosterone, there would be no such thing as women.

Our earliest known research into the effects of tampering with testosterone date back to 1767, when Scottish scientist John Hunter failed to learn much of anything by transplanting the testicles of a rooster into the abdomen of a hen. A hundred years later, a German zookeeper and professor named Arnold Berthold picked up Hunter’s thread and performed one of our first recorded experiments in endocrinology. He castrated a series of cockerels and afterward reported that his animals’ most definitive male sexual characteristics vanished right alongside their testicles. Gone were the flamboyant comb, the aggressive behavior and any interest in the opposite sex, but — and this was the finding that first paved the road into the future — Berthold also found that these changes could be reversed by injecting the castrated rooster with the as-of-yet-unnamed substance extracted from its testicles.

Two decades after Berthold’s breakthrough, our first steroid controversy arrived when noted British neurologist Charles Edward Brown-Sequard began injecting himself with an extract of animal testes. No one really knows which species he preferred, but he sampled guinea pigs, dogs and sheep and so enjoyed the experience that he spent the later years of his life tarnishing his illustrious career in the eyes of the medical community by touting his potion’s rejuvenating qualities and advocating injections as a means of prolonging human life. It was hard to persuade the general public to go this extract route, but in the 1930s a Dutch pharmacologist named Ernst Laqueur managed to isolate 10 milligrams of crystalline testosterone from 100 kilograms of bull testicles, and that changed everything. Suddenly, we could pick apart testosterone’s chemical structure; suddenly, we could experiment. Synthetic versions were soon to follow, as were the Swedish athletes taking Rejuven, a performance enhancer that worked its magic with a small amount of testosterone. Other shenanigans ensued. In the 1936 Olympics there were rumors that German competitors — fueled by Hitler’s dreams of Aryan perfection — were taking even larger doses.

A few years after that, as John Hoberman writes in his book Testosterone Dreams: “Testosterone became a charismatic drug because it promised sexual stimulation and renewed energy for individuals and greater productivity in society. Physicians described the optimal effects of testosterone as a feeling of ‘well-being,’ a term that has been used many times over the past half-century to characterize its positive effect on mood. In the early 1940s, testosterone was hailed as a mood-altering drug whose primary purpose was the sexual restoration and reenergizing of aging males.”

But the real dam broke in 1945, when science writer Paul de Kruif published The Male Hormone. When the book came out, it was big news. Newsweek wrote a full-page review, and Reader’s Digest excerpted the work. Reviewers cited both de Kruif’s bioethical fearlessness and his scientific excellence. The book was about testosterone and the impact it would have on our economy and our health. De Kruif foresaw riches for its manufacturers; however, he didn't predict that steroids would become a huge black-market business. He foretold increased vigor and extended life for its consumers. About health, de Kruif was downright prescient, though very few people know this, and the reason very few people know this is because it’s quite possible Paul de Kruif’s was the last unbiased opinion on the subject.

So strong are those biases and so fervently have they been promoted that calling the world’s top steroid experts and asking them questions — especially in light of the president’s inclusion of steroids as public enemy No. 2 in his most recent State of the Union address — was having a hall-of-mirrors effect.

“As used by most people, including athletes, the adverse effects of anabolic steroids appear to be minimal,” says Di Pasquale. “Steroids do not cause cancer. They don’t cause kidney failure. There have been thousands of steroid studies and about a hundred of those point out bad side effects. But if you look at those studies carefully, there’s no one-to-one correlation, and a one-to-one correlation is the hallmark of good science. Do anabolics produce ’roid rage? They produce an incredible amount of energy, but you need to think about the kind of people taking steroids. If really competitive and aggressive people start taking drugs that give them more energy, then common sense says that sooner or later you’re going to have some problems, but are steroids the problem or the fact that this person didn’t know how to control their anger long before the steroids came along?”

Di Pasquale says the same thing is true about all the scary steroid stories hanging around cautionary-tale cases like Lyle Alzado and Steve Courson. Alzado was the All-Pro-defensive-lineman-turned-actor who died of inoperable brain cancer in 1992 at the age of 43. Alzado blamed longtime steroid use for his condition. Steve Courson, who once lined up opposite Alzado, wrote the tell-all book False Glory: Steelers and Steroids about the juiced-up ways of the ’70s Steelers. Courson was recently on the heart-transplant list before correcting his gravely enlarged heart with diet and exercise. Both were known for living large as well as being large.