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     Objectives: Testosterone has a spectrum of effects on the male organism. This review attempts to determine, from published studies, the time-course of the effects induced by testosterone replacement therapy from their first manifestation until maximum effects are attained. 

Design: Literature data of testosterone replacement

Results: Effects on sexual interest appear after 3 weeks plateauing at 6 weeks, with no further increments expected beyond. Changes in erections/ejaculations may require up to 6 months. Effects on quality of life manifest within 3-4 weeks, but maximum benefits take longer. Effects on depressive mood become detectable after 3-6 weeks with a maximum after 18-30 weeks. Effects on erythropoiesis are evident at 3 months, peaking at 9-12 months. Prostate specific antigen and volume rise, marginally, plateauing at 12 months; further increase should be related to aging rather than therapy. Effects on lipids appear after 4 weeks, maximal after 6-12 months. Insulin sensitivity may improve within few days, but effects on glycemic control become evident only after 3-12 months. Changes in fat mass, lean body mass and muscle strength occur within 12-16 weeks, stabilize at 6-12 months, but can marginally continue over years. Effects on inflammation occur within 3 to 12 weeks. Effects on bone are detectable already after 6 months while continuing at least for 3 years.

Conclusion: the time-course of the spectrum of effects of testosterone shows considerable variation, probably related to pharmacodynamics of the testosterone preparation. Genomic and non-genomic effects, androgen receptor polymorphism and intracellular steroid metabolism further contribute to such diversity.

Most of the anabolic steroid not only dock to the androgen receptor, but also to the receptors for estradiol and progesterone. Knowledge about that is also relevant to steroids users, because the progestogenic and estrogenic effect of steroids tells us something about their possible side effects. In 2009 some Dutch researchers published a survey which might benefit health conscious steroids users.

The more you know about anabolic steroids, they more complex they seem to be.  If you start to study the chemistry of anabolic steroids you start to understand how various modifications are meant to prevent the conversion of steroids into estradiol-like and DHT-like hormones, while at the same time allowing for an increased anabolic effect. But if you understand that, you'll discover that it all works just a bit more complicated.

Take nandrolone.  Nandrolone differs from testosterone because nandrolone lacks a 19-methyl group. Thereby the aromatase enzyme converts nandrolone harder than testosterone into estradiol. At the same time  that the omission of 19-methyl group ensures that the anabolic effect of nandrolone is stronger than that of testosterone.
The absence of the 19-methyl group allows nandrolone to attach to the androgen receptor about two times better than testosterone. Because, by the omission of the 19-methyl group of nandrolone it can no longer convert in the androgen testosterone metabolite DHT,  at the same time nandrolone has less androgenic side effects than testosterone. Testosterone converts easily into DHT, DHT is hardly anabolic but strongly androgenic, and DHT can attach to the androgen receptor 3 times better than testosterone.

In the eighties, however, users found that nandrolone still has side effects caused by female hormones. At somewhat higher doses, men can develop breasts (gyno) from  nandrolone,. This is probably because nandrolone can attach itself to the estradiol receptor. By the absence of the 19-methyl group Nandrolone is also a bit of an estrogen.

It also became clear that nandrolone in somewhat higher doses suppressed the body's endogenous production of testosterone to a greater extent than synthetic testosterone. That is because nandrolone by the absence of the 19-methyl group is also suitable for the progesterone receptor. The combined androgen-estrogen-progestational effect of nandrolone, causes the steroid in the hypothalamus to press to all the buttons that reduce the body's own testosterone production. By the same mechanism nandrolone users can become temporarily impotent, and nandrolone was in animal studies more harmful for the heart and blood vessels than testosterone.

The story becomes even more complex. In the 21st century it became clear that steroid receptors in cells - and hence in muscle cells – worked together. The signal that the androgen receptor, after forming a complex with an anabolic steroid, that tells the muscle to become bigger, becomes stronger if the cell at the same time receives stimuli via the estradiol and progesterone receptor. That idea was the starting point of the thesis of Barry Blankvoort. [Development of an endogenous androgen receptor-mediated luciferase expression assay for interactive androgenic action, Wageningen 2003] If you've read it you look differently to cycles and stacks, and take all those messages about endocrine disruptors in our food a lot more serious. Ergo: the same mechanism by which nandrolone exerts so many side effects, also makes nandrolone such effective muscle builder.

Nilevar (Norethandrolone)

This is supposedly one of the first steroids in circulation in bodybuilding circles. Its what Arthur Jones had Bill Pearl on in 1956, and it gave him a gain of 30 pounds to win the Universe that year. Not coincidentally 1956 was the release of Nilevar by Searle in the US. The same company that would later bring us Anavar (oxandrolone) which was a lot milder on the system and notably less toxic. Nilevar is rarely used these days.

One could state, though not technically correct, that the substrate is an oral Deca preparation. It stems from the same base steroid (nortestosterone) and acts in a very similar fashion. It too is a potent stimulator of the androgen receptor, substantiated by its readiness to cause virilization in female users. Its likewise deactivated by the 5-alpha-reductase, which explains why in lower end doses its actually one of the mildest steroids, androgenically, in men. Norethandrolone is also a noted progestin and also aromatizes at some rate. This means, very much like nandrolone, that it can cause estrogenic side-effects with small amounts of circulating estrogen thanks to the estrogen-agonizing properties of the progestagenic activity.

The idea of steroid vacations is not new. For our magazine we wrote about Turkey - Croatia etc. Also countries like Thailand (Dennis James) and Mexico where extremely popular in the early 2000.  An article in "The Age" called "Following the steroid trail" was the beginning of the end for Australian based brands like Jurox, RWR etc branched in Mexico. Again an Australian newpaper  runs a story about steroids including some idiotic phrases from "steroid experts" . They don't really care about pedophiles floating tese countries, but rather choose to criminalise users of, in this country, perfectly legal drugs. Aussies start to look like Americans who want to dominate the rules where we all have to obey...pricks..

THERE'S something about the seedy Thai beachside town of Pattaya that keeps enticing Michael Dorn back - but it's not the sun, sea, sand or sex for which the resort is famous.

The 21-year-old from Blacktown is part of a thriving amateur bodybuilding subculture that uses anabolic steroids and growth hormones as a fast track to the ultimate ''ripped'' body. While the drugs are heavily restricted in Australia by laws that are among the strictest in the world, Dorn - and hundreds like him - have discovered a novel way around the problem: they travel to Thailand on ''steroid vacations''.

A Sun-Herald investigation has found that rather than risk prosecution in Australia, everyday gym users are travelling to Asia and ''stacking'' a dangerous cocktail of steroids that include powerful veterinary drugs and fertility medicine.

While police in Australia warn of a growing trade in steroids - and are increasingly finding them during raids aimed at party drugs - health experts say the products can cause life-threatening heart and liver damage, as well as baldness and infertility.

You will read countless muscle magazines, books,  internet articles, and online message boards searching for the secret to gaining impressive muscle size. They will say things like:

“protein powder 6 times a day”,

“load up on creatine for 6 days”,

“take this amazing N.O. pre-workout supplement”,

“be sure and eat within 45 minutes of your workout”,

“never workout longer than 45 minutes”,

“eat 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight”.

The supplement advertisements will come with pictures of muscled-up monsters so you know what they say is the truth. Other articles purporting to give you the secret to gaining muscles will say “The secret is that their is no secret – it takes hard work, determination, and sacrifice“. Or “The secret is taking this combination of supplements every three hours“. What they will never tell you is the truth. The truth is that there is a secret to gaining muscle mass, an open secret, and every single person in the fitness industry, bodybuilding industry, modeling industry, film industry, advertising industry, sports industry knows it and they will never, ever tell you what it is.

Well, friends, I know the secret and I will share with you what it is. In the back of your mind you already know what the secret is, you just don’t want to believe it. The secret to gaining impressive, dense, eye-popping muscles is this:

Over the years, bodybuilding nutrition has divided itself into three fairly distinct categories (I’m going to leave out the ones I consider voodoo nonsense) which are high-carb/low-fat, moderate carb/moderate fat, and low-carbohydrate. Low carb-diets can be further subdivided into high or low fat as well as cyclical or non-cyclical. I discuss each in more detail in Comparing the Diets.

In theory, you can make arguments for or against any of these approaches in terms of superiority. In the real world, it’s not quite that simple. You can always find folks (and this is true whether they are bodybuilders or just general dieters) who either succeeded staggeringly well or failed miserably on one or another approaches.Before going on, I want to mention that protein recommendations tend not to vary that significantly between diets and most of the arguments tend to revolve around the varying proportions of carbohydrate and fats in the diet and that’s what I’ll be focusing on here. Simply, I don’t consider low-protein fat loss diets in the equation at all for the simple fact that they don’t work for anybody but the extremely obese. Any dieting bodybuilder or athlete needs 1-1.5 g/lb lean body mass of protein on a diet. Possibly more under certain circumstances.

Every bodybuilder knows that cortisol is bad. Cortisol is one of those nasty catabolic hormones, and catabolism is bad.

At least that’s the logic. Cortisol is a hormone found in your body, in a class of compound called glucocorticoids. It gets its name from the fact that it’s produced in the cortex (outer layer) of the adrenal glands.

Synergism

We all know that some steroids increase each others effect, hence cycles and stacks.

Like arnold said “If you can’t grow on Deca and Dianabol, you can’t grow on anything”. We all know injectables and orals combine great. Still I know a lot of athletes that only use injectables. 

An interesting study:

If you look at the effect of steroids on the level of the muscle cell, then steroids differ more from each other than scientists thought. We came to this conclusion after German researchers have done experiments with genetically altered cells.

The German researchers modified cells from hamsters. In the genetic material of those cells they added new genes, causing the cells to produce androgen receptors (proteins where androgens should dock to start an effect) . If an androgen docks to the androgen receptor, it promotes a signal to three different genetic switches in the genetic material of cells. These switches are called 'Promoters'. When a receptor activated a promoter, then the cell produced a fluorescent protein. The more protein, the more powerful the androgenic signal was.

He put smiles on millions  of faces when he helped invent Viagra. Now the brains behind the little blue pills claims to have done it again.

Mike Wyllie, one of the team of scientists who developed Viagra in the 1990s, has created a drug that tackles premature ejaculation.

He predicts the spray-on medication, designed to prolong the joy of sex for millions of sufferers and their partners, is likely to become ‘the next blockbuster’ drug.

Premature ejaculation affects more than one in four men – making it more common than the impotence tackled by Viagra. Most are too embarrassed to seek help and when they do, treatments are generally limited to powerful anti-depressants and counselling.

There is one pill specifically designed to treat the problem but it is expensive and not widely available in the UK. In contrast, it is hoped the spray, called Tempe, which could be on sale within months, will be cheap enough for prescription on the NHS.

In trials, some men using the spray ahead of sex lasted up to eight times longer. But the drug is generally thought to treble a man’s ‘staying power’.

A story on a very very controversial bodybuilder, Steve Michalik, a pro bodybuilder in the 70s, on the net you'll find many stories about him. He trained and lived like a maniac and used all kinds of steroids and recreational drugs. Firstly I want to post a story from 1990 written by Paul Solotaroff for the "The Village Voice". I posted it on BodyPage directly and got many reactions. His many friends and inside bodybuilders found it exagerrated and have mixed opinions. Later I'll post more on this exiting bodybuilder.

On May 24 Steve Michalik was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. May he rest in piece.

“The Power and the Glory”

Half the world was in mortal terror of him. He had a sixty inch chest, twenty three inch arms, and when the Anadrol and Bolasterone backed up in his bloodstream, his eyes went as red as the laser scope on an Uzi. He threw people through windows, and chased them madly down Hempstead Turnpike when they had the temerity to cut him off. And in the gym he owned in Farmingdale, the notorious Mr America’s, if he caught you looking at him while he trained, you generally woke up bleeding on the pavement outside. Half out of his mind on androgens and horse steroids; he had this idea that being looked at robbed him of energy, energy that he needed to leg press two thousand pounds.

Nonetheless one day a kid walked up to him between sets and said “I want to be just like you Steve Michalik. I want to be Mr America and Mr Universe.”

“Yeah?” said Michalik in thick contempt. “How bad do you think you want it?”

“Worse than anything in the world,” said the kid, a scrawny seventeen year old with more balls than biceps. “I can honestly say that I would die for a body like yours.”