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I had the opportunity to interview
director Chris Bell on the eve of the
world premiere of "Bigger, Stronger,
Faster" at the Sundance Film Festival.
"Bigger, Stronger, Faster" is one of
sixteen films selected in the 2008
Sundance Film Festival Documentary
Competition . The documentary
about
anabolic steroids critically
examines "America's win-at-all-cost
philosophy by examining his two
brothers'
steroid use to became members
of the steroid subculture in an effort
to realize their American dream."
The need for post cycle therapy or PCT
(especially following longer cycles) is
one of those things that, at least in my
opinion, were established through anecdotal
observations long before we had studies
to look at “proving” it is right. The “post
cycle crash” is something every steroid
user had to historically deal with. As the
cycles dragged on, most experienced
steroid
users would develop significant stories
of crash and muscle loss. This is one of
the reasons many steroid users would simply
“stay on”.
In the recently published ebook, America's
Nuremberg: Human Experimentation in Anabolic
Steroid Research, Michael Scally, M.D. brings
to light the ethical, legal, and medical
failures of the research community to recognize
or investigate the period after anabolic
steroid (AAS) cessation.
Historically, the difference in the beliefs
held by the athletic and the physician/academic
communities on anabolic steroids are contradictory and
irreconcilable. Illicit
steroid users stated
observations of the relationship between
steroids and muscle have proven to be true despite
the rhetoric to the opposite. This is true
not only for the association between
anabolic steroids
and muscle but also for the effects of
steroid
cessation upon muscle. The former took over
sixty years for the medical community to
admit, while the medical community continues
to fail to recognize or investigate the
latter. Rather than wait the sixty years
it took the medical community to awaken
to its shortcomings this book will serve
the greater purpose of hastening their attention
to the period after AAS cessation.
William Llewellyn answers reader questions.
Current topics include increasing anabolic
potency of
steroid cycles with
Proviron, adding
minoxidil and RU58841 to steroid
stacks,
passing NCAA drug tests while using over
the counter supplements like Halodrol 50
and 6-OXO; measuring hormones with blood
testing versus saliva testing.
Steroid guru William Llewellyn covers
topics including occupational drug tests
for anabolic steroids, practicality and
effectiveness of trenbolone ethyl ester,
relative risk of long-term
oxandrolone cycles,
long-term androgen replacement therapy,
testicular atrophy and fertility,
trenbolone,
and total androgen load and cardiovascular
risk.
Anabolic
steroid side effects on the liver are
primarily due to 17α-alkylated steroids
and reported to include increased enzyme
activities, cholestasis, peliosis hepatis
adenoma, and even case reports of carcinoma.
The use of anabolic steroids is common
among athletes, particularly bodybuilders.
Prior reports of anabolic steroid-induced
hepatotoxicity based on elevated aminotransferase
levels have been overstated. Such reports
may have misled the medical community to
emphasize steroid-induced hepatotoxicity
when interpreting elevated aminotransferase
levels and disregard muscle damage. Levels
of both aspartate aminotransferase (AST)
and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) may increase
with strenuous exercise. Evaluating enzyme
elevations in patients who use anabolic
steroids, physicians should consider the
CK and GGT levels as essential elements
in distinguishing muscle damage from liver
damage.
Steroid guru
William Llewellyn covers
topics including why
growth hormone has
been recommended for use during
post cycle
therapy, why he is opposed to site injections,
and also outlines the problems associated
with long-term use of oral anabolic steroids.
If bodybuilding is such a good testosterone
booster, why do so many seasoned lifters
suffer from a very low testosterone level?
And I am not talking about former steroid
users only. Are they all overtrained? The
answer is no. The fact is, long term
bodybuilding may not be that good for your
endogenous
testosterone production. If you
look at the scientific research measuring
testosterone output after an intense workout,
you will find that some studies show an
increase in
testosterone, some show a decrease,
and others show no effect. So, the testosterone
response to a workout is very difficult
to predict. But I can clearly see a trend:
the more advanced you are, the less likely
your are to respond positively.
Internet pharmacies to
buy steroids present a potential
for abuse that is not present, or nearly
as prevalent, in traditional “bricks-and-mortar”
pharmacies. Essentially, three types of
internet pharmacies exist: 1) pharmacies
that only fill steroid prescriptions written
by a patient’s physician; 2) pharmacies
that charge for a physician “cyber-consultation”
(usually nothing more than the patient completing
a simple questionnaire) and then the cyber-doctor
writes a prescription for steroids; and
3) pharmacies that dispense prescription
drugs without a physician’s prescription.
Steroid authority William Llewellyn explains
the differences between masteron and proviron;
the effectiveness of
testosterone only cycles for given amounts;
and the legitimacy of certain growth hormone
preparations currently found on the black
market.
In events like the
Chris Benoit family tragedy the alleged
perpetrator’s characteristics inevitably
suggest hypotheses and the search for confirming
evidence begins.
Anabolic steroids or anabolic-androgenic
steroids (AAS) were blamed before prescription
steroids were found, as researchers and
commentators alike called forth the popular
roid rage connection. If anabolic steroids
are blamed and the richness of these lives
ignored, then the opportunity to prevent
such rare events goes unrealized. Singling
out a drug to blame leads to fiery rhetoric,
congressional hearings, prohibition and
scare tactics; none of these have succeeded
in curbing drug use, especially among those
at greatest risk for harm. Most
steroid users
do not experience negative effects and hence
distrust the message and the messengers,
perhaps most notably among those who should
listen. Research has shown this many times.
Blaming steroids diverts focus from potential
indicators of risk and predictors of harmful
outcomes. This is where science might be
most helpful in dispelling simplistic notions
and in working toward more effective risk
identification, targeting of limited resources
and reducing associated harms.
The information considered for the discussion
in this article is that Kris Dim collapsed
while training on June 9 and had emergency
heart surgery to repair a split in his aortic
valve. The surgery cited is for an acute
aortic dissection (AAD) and replacement
of a split aortic valve.
Kris Dim also suffered an apparent stroke
which resolved. There are some sites reporting
that he also suffered a heart attack. There
is no association, link, or otherwise known
between anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS)
and AAD. Many are quick to suggest a link
between AAS and a medical condition simply
by their existence in an individual. With
over one million illicit AAS users matched
by an equal number of licit users the link
or association would be easily discoverable.
This, however, does not stop the hysteria
to suggest, wildly, for a connection. A
more important association and one that
is well-known to most is the risk factor
of a bicuspid aortic valve. Schwarzenegger
underwent surgery for a bicuspid aortic
valve years ago. This is a known risk factor
for heart disease. The mention of a "split
aortic valve" for Kris Dim makes this a
strong possibility (once again, this is
only conjecture and speculation).
William Llewellyn explains
the various possible causes of soreness,
fever, and tissue sensitivity some users
experience in reaction to certain
steroid injections; offers his thoughts
on the "taste-testing strategies" for identifying
various steroids including
Dianabol; and
provides warnings for those preparing for
air travel with their injectable steroids
and syringes.
A traumatic bodybuilding workout will
cause an acute reduction of blood cholesterol
level within 2 hours. This shortage of cholesterol
can last up to several days during the recovery
phase. This lowering effect is due to an
accelerated uptake of cholesterol by skeletal
muscle. It reveals our fibers need this
extra cholesterol in order to recover and
grow. Subjects who responded best to weight
training were those consuming a cholesterol
rich diet AND having a
high blood cholesterol level AND using anti-cholesterol
statin drugs. Statin drugs seem to accelerate
muscle hypertrophy...!
Sleep is a major modulator
of endocrine function, particularly of pituitary-dependent
hormonal release. In healthy adult men,
circulating levels of testosterone have
a distinct pattern, with increasing levels
during sleep toward a maximum around the
time of awakening and a decrease during
the day.
This pattern is often referred to as a circadian
rhythm, despite the fact that disturbed
sleep reduces or blunts the nocturnal rise
of testosterone.
Testosterone increases during day sleep
in the same way as it does during night
sleep in healthy young men. The reverse
pattern is seen after waking: testosterone
falls. Findings suggest that sleep is a
more potent regulator of testosterone than
circadian factors.
The
definition of androgen deficiency is
still a matter of controversy. Androgen
deficiency can be defined purely biochemically,
using testosterone levels with percentile
cutoff values (e.g. 2.5 standard deviations
below the range for normal young males),
or using only signs and symptoms. This has
attempted to be remedied by using free testosterone
(FT) as a measurement. The growing interest
in measuring blood free testosterone is
constrained by the unsuitability of the
laborious reference methods for wider adoption
in routine diagnostic laboratories. Various
alternative derived testosterone measures
have been proposed to estimate FT from either
additional assay steps or calculations using
total testosterone and sex hormone-binding
globulin (SHBG) measured in the same sample.
Currently, there is no standardized reference
for FT...
William Llewellyn, the recognized
authority on the athletic use of anabolic
steroids and
performance-enhancing
drugs,
details some new commercially available
"designer steroids" that have origins in
esoteric
Japanese pharmaceutical steroids and
are now sold as "grey area" supplements
(drugs) over the counter in the United States.
There is no scientific peer-reviewed
literature that definitely establishes a
link between the administration of
testosterone and the increasing the risk
of prostate cancer. There is no compelling
evidence that testosterone has a causative
role in prostate cancer or to suggest men
with higher testosterone levels are at greater
risk of prostate cancer or that treating
hypogonadism with exogenous androgens increases
this risk. Just remember the incidence of
prostate cancer rises with aging which is
associated with declining testosterone levels.
Prostate cancer becomes more prevalent exactly
at the time of a man's life when testosterone
levels decline. Over 200,000 men are given
a diagnosis of prostate cancer each year
and most are first detected by a rise in
the PSA level unrelated to testosterone
therapy.
William Llewellyn, the recognized
authority on the athletic use of anabolic
steroids and performance-enhancing pharmaceuticals
in bodybuilding, addresses the recent trend
towards underground steroid manufacturing
labs and also recovery
steroid bridges between cycles with
steroidal and non-hormonal anabolic agents.
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