The Positive Effects of Testosterone on the Heart
by Doug Kalman MS, RD
Steroids will cause your kidneys to implode, your heart to blow a ventricle, and your liver to squirt out of your arse, fly across the room, and knock the cat off the futon. We read it on the Internet and saw an after school special about it, so it must be true, right?
Actually, the more you learn about steroids, the more you come to realize that, like all drugs, there’s a difference between their intelligent use and outright abuse. In this article, Doug Kalman takes a look at the effects of Testosterone on the heart. What he found may surprise you.
Over the years we’ve all heard the repeated mantra that anabolic steroids are bad for the heart. Some physicians will tell you that gear raises your risk of heart disease by lowering your good cholesterol (HDL) and raising your bad cholesterol (LDL). In fact, as some docs will tell you, steroids are known to even induce cardiac hypertrophy (enlargement of the heart). And since you can’t flex your heart in an effort to woo women, who’d want that?
But, as in every story, there’s more than one side. In fact, let it be said, the dangers of steroids are overstated and, hold onto your seats, may even be good for the heart. Let’s examine some of the scientific studies on the positive effects of Testosterone on the heart.
A drug to make you thin! Drug marketers go glassy-eyed when they calculate the potential. At least 44 million Americans are obese -- as many as 60 million by some estimates. And for reasons that go well beyond the associated health problems, virtually everyone who is fat is desperate not to be. In a 1991 University of Florida survey of 47 formerly obese adults -- who had each lost 100 pounds or more through gastric bypass surgery -- the majority said they would rather be deaf or blind than be fat again. In a more recent study, children who were shown pictures of other children with various disabilities -- with crutches, in a wheelchair, with an amputated hand, and overweight -- picked the pudgy child as the most unlikable in the group. In a culture that so vilifies fat, it's difficult to imagine that an effective cure for the obese wouldn't quickly find its way to the merely overweight -- another 67 million customers.
Winstrol, or "winny", is one of the steroids most commonly suggested for women, (along with anavar and primobolan). Winstrol comes in both oral and water-based injectable form (or as water-based, you can actually drink it). It is attractive to women or recommended for women because it is an oral, it has a relatively short half-life and detection time (i.e. it clears the system relatively quickly, reducing the duration of any undesired sides following completion of a cycle), and promotes lean muscle mass without water retention. It is most commonly viewed as a "cutter" for physique competition. Winstrol is also attractive as it tends to be both cheaper and more readily available than anavar or primobolan. Also because of this, it is less likely to be faked.
The dense forest of bodybuilding nutrition contains a paradox: the quantity of information available is abundant, but the wisdom of traditional diets to satisfy the primary concerns of bodybuilders is sparse and hard to find. Typical recommendations include very low-fat diets rich in protein foods like salmon and chicken.
Tricky Rick: Florida Governor Rick Scott
GHB are the abbrivations of Gamma Hydroxy Butryaat, also called ”Liquid XTC” or just “X”. But GHB has nothing to do with XTC. Initially the drug was developed as an anestheticum in 1960. The use as a narcosis means has strongly been decreased in the meanwhile, because there are many better resources at the present time. Also the substance was used as a means against insomnia or other sleepimpairments, as appliances at labour and to treat alcoholic abstention phenomena. In animal experimentings GHB had shown to be involveded in the production of Growth Hormone, and that their levels increased during administration, and this draw attention of bodybuilders. Allready soon it became the nickname “growth hormone booster”. Until now no scientific proof has been delivered that GHB raises growth hormone levels in human beings, nor that it prevents the muscle tissue breakdown. During the eighties and nineties GHB became popular at bodybuilders. GHB was a widely available over the counter supplement until it was banned by the US FDA in 1990. The substance has many beneficial effects, but it was typical used by bodybuilders and athletes because it can significantly raise growth hormone levels. Unfortunately, the increase in GH levels is also accompanied by an increase in levels of prolactin. The increase in prolactin counteracts many of the positive effects of an elevated GH level. This probably explains why many athletes experience, very little as far as muscle growth with the use of GHB. Several athletes using GHB, report an increase in lean body mass and strength increase. Many users don’t experience any muscle or strength increase, but do feel GHB helps to accelerate fat loss.
Most articles about steroids start with the use of Dianabol at the end of the 1950’s or 1960 in bodybuilding. Most of these articles also claim that Dr Ziegler (on the picture on the left) alone or in concert with CIBA, developed 1-dehydro-17α -methyl-testosterone methandrostenolone Dianabol® Let us review the facts briefly and see what it learns us.
The sport called bodybuilding demands the ex-treme in body presentation. No other athletic endeavor requires such high levels of regimentation for muscle development and body fat reduction. To outsiders, such efforts may appear vain and self-centered, even looming out there on the lunatic fringe. Nevertheless, the sport has had considerable influence on other fields of athletics, not to mention the general public.
