Does Growth Hormone really work to stop aging?

Growth hormone is produced in the pituitary gland of the brain. Once released, it induces the liver to make insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), and this hormone then triggers the growth of bones and body tissues. HGH is especially important for normal growth in children. Indeed, most of our knowledge of hGH comes from studying children who lack the hormone, and as a result suffer from stunted growth and development. In adults, a true medical deficiency of growth hormone may result from disease, tumors, surgery or radiation that destroys critical areas in the pituitary. This then leads to weight gain, cholesterol abnormalities, heart disease, fatigue, decreased immune response, loss of muscles and osteoporosis. Growth hormone and IGF-1 levels peak during puberty, then gradually decline after the age of 30, but the normal pituitary never totally stops its production of hGH.

Some investigators feel that diminished levels of hGH may not be a bad thing. Several studies have shown that women with high levels of hGH are more likely to get breast cancer, men more likely to develop prostate cancer, and individuals of both sexes are more apt to die at younger ages than those with naturally low hGH levels.  Research has also shown that mice with very high levels of growth hormone have premature brain aging and reduced life spans, whereas their rodent contemporaries who have genetic disorders such as suppressed GH production, or an inability to recognize and utilize growth hormone (GH resistance) have prolonged survival. But to be fair, there are also studies cited by physicians who feel that lower levels of hGH in aging adults results in diminished energy, muscle loss and decreased tissue repair. These studies have shown some positive effects in individuals whose hGH levels are brought up to the levels considered normal for young individuals. The researchers therefore propose that certain individuals who have low levels of IGF-1 (considered a marker for hGH) be treated with hGH injections to achieve a “younger” and improved health status. If you are looking for a performance enhancing drug that can lift up your on-field performance in more than just a way besides improving the sense of well being, human growth hormone or HGH would be an excellent choice for you. This is not just because HGH can easily prevent or delay the signs of aging like premature graying of hair, wrinkles, and balding, but also because it can even promote the sense of invincibility.

In addition to that, HGH is also admired in the world of professional sports for its positive effects on muscle mass, bone density, immune system, sleep, and skin texture. It is also suggested by medical practitioners to individuals suffering with deficiency of growth hormone and routinely prescribed to HIV/AIDS patients with muscle wasting or cachexia affected people. The use of HGH is associated with ergogenic and anabolic effects and the drug has the potential to enhance the anabolic capabilities of anabolic steroids when used in a steroid cycle. Human growth hormone acts on many aspects of cellular metabolism and is one of the best drugs for stimulating the liver and other tissues to secrete insulin like growth factor (IGF-1), which stimulates production of cartilage cells to result in growth of bones and plays an important role in organ and muscle growth. In addition to these advantages, HGH is also vital for promoting skeletal growth in humans.

One of the biggest advantages of human growth hormone for sportsmen is that it can easily convert body fat into muscle mass and leads to dramatic enhancements in terms of growth and development of body tissues. HGH is also admired for promoting bone strength, sexual function, organ health, tissue repair, cell replacement, energy level, and integrity of vital body organs. HGH use, for a period of eight to ten weeks, is also related with muscle toning, immunity, concentration, metabolism, and skin elasticity improvements that are nearly permanent. The performance enhancing drug is also useful in improving bone strength, brain function, and stress handling skills, exercise capacity, and muscle tissue repair functions.

HGH is medically recommended for treating Turner’s syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, chronic kidney insufficiency, deficiency or insufficiency of growth hormone, or for providing relief to children born small for gestational age. Human growth hormone is also recommended to treat muscle-wasting disease associated with HIV/AIDS, HGH deficiency due to rare pituitary tumors, and short bowel syndrome.

HGH use is also related to reductions of sun-damage type wrinkles, total body fat, and LDL (bad) cholesterol and improves body part integration, cell replacement, and muscle definition besides giving a redefined meaning to sex drive, vision, and sleeping patterns. Use of human growth hormone is also related to improved correlation between the strength and muscle size and improving stamina, vigor, memory, libido, kidney function, and healing time.

The list of advantages associated with HGH does not end here. The performance enhancing drug can easily help sportsmen lose body fat and weight. It may even reduce cellulite, improve eyesight and improve emotional stability. The use of HGH can help budding and professional sportsmen benefit from improved amino acid uptake and reduced oxidation of proteins. It can even be used for breaking down the fat cells in an exceptional manner and increase calcium retention and promoting lipolysis in the body besides providing assistance for the maintenance and functioning of pancreatic islets and reducing liver uptake of glucose. The recommended dose of human growth hormone (HGH) is 1-5 I.U. every day when administered via a 1 mL disposable syringe. The doses of HGH should always be recommended and regulated by a qualified medical practitioner and its use should only be made for a legal purpose and as per medical directions. Moreover, HGH should always be purchased from a reputed steroid pharmacy that specializes in the sale of legal anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs. At no point of time, two doses of HGH should be taken together. If the first dose has been missed, it should be skipped and the next dose should be taken at the scheduled time.

It is important to note that human growth hormone is very stable in frozen serum or plasma and most anti-doping agencies freeze liquid fraction of blood (serum or plasma) for future testing and detection.

Use of HGH is not recommended to pregnant or lactating women or women who may become pregnant while taking human growth hormone. It is also not recommended to children or those suffering from high blood pressure, stroke, kidney damage, liver damage, prostate cancer, breast cancer, or testicular cancer. HGH is also not recommended to those having allergy to HGH or any of its ingredients. HGH abuse or use of low grade HGH can lead to health complications such as shutting down of pituitary gland, acromegaly, carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis and edema and best avoided.

HGH abuse may also lead to side effects such as numbness and tingling of the skin, high cholesterol levels, increased risk of diabetes, growth of cancerous tumors, carpal tunnel syndrome, edema, and nerve, muscle, or joint pain. Some commonly reported side effects of human growth hormone abuse are joint and bone pain, hypertension and cardiac deficiency, abnormal growth of organs, accelerated osteoarthritis, diabetes in prone individuals, and worsening of cardiovascular diseases. Indiscriminate use of HGH may cause metabolic dysfunction, including glucose intolerance and other side effects associated with excess levels of IGF-1.

Use of human growth hormone should not be made by individuals suffering from high blood fats (cholesterol), bone problems (such as osteopenia, osteoporosis), stroke or blood clots, heart disease (such as chest pain, heart attack, heart failure), high blood pressure, kidney problems, and liver problems.

The most powerful anabolic steroid and bodybuilding

Kai Greene, full name Kai L. Greene, is a IFBB professional bodybuilder who has taken the bodybuilding world by storm the first time he won the Arnold Classic in 2009, with a follow up victory in 2010.

As a bodybuilder, Kai Greene is an amazing specimen. At 39 y/o, he’s 5 foot 8 inches and walks around at 310lbs off-season! That’s a big monster. His on-stage weight is equally as impressive, at an easy 275lbs. He’s a beast and really shows it when he’s dialed in for a bodybuilding show. What makes Kai Greene impressive is that he can go from 0 to 60 in seconds. Basically, he can show up and place 7th in a show today and 3 weeks later show up and take 1st or 2nd place. This is very unusual, but shows he still has a lot of work to do on his pre-contest preparation.

As with all professional bodybuilders, there is a question about drug use.

There are many speculations about steroid use in the IFBB world, but very few people are actually giving facts. Rich Piana talked about a few steroid cycle for the professionals and a few old-school bodybuilders like Dorian Yates admitted to high amount of steroids used. However, no real facts about IFBB pros steroid use have emerged.

    Testosterone Cypionate – a heavy testosterone base is used by most professional bodybuilders as a start to a cycle.
    Trenbolone Acetate – tren is used as a hardener and an agent to really change body composition, works perfectly with cardarine (GW).
    Dbol – a great oral bulker that works in synergy with anadrol to help you gain mass.
    HGH – helps to lean out, gain mass and get really thick.
    Cardarine (GW-501516) – works to combat trenbolone side effects and increase energy, as well as lose bodyfat.
    Aromasin – used to combat estrogen side effects from aromatizing compounds.
    N2Guard – used to combat negative side effects of steroid use. Helps with liver problems, kidney problems, heart problems and overall body health. It’s the best liver support on the market.

Trenbolone Acetate use in many cycles.
Trenbolone is literally the most powerful anabolic steroid conventionally and commercially available. Its an extremely powerful, impressive, and versatile anabolic steroid that tends to suffer from a heavy shroud of rumor, misunderstanding, and mysticism. The fear that many obtain when hearing about this potent steroid can easily be remedied by proper education and understanding, which will serve to bring greater confidence to individuals who may wish to use it, but have previously been too unsure to do so. It is ultimately the fear of the unknown that tends to influence people in a negative manner when it comes to Trenbolone. However, before venturing any further into the details of this anabolic steroid, the following important statement must be made clear: Tren is an intermediate-advanced level anabolic steroid that should never be used by first-timers, beginners, and should never be run in a first-ever anabolic steroid cycle. This steroid should only be utilized and run by intermediate and experienced level tier anabolic steroid users, and it is highly advised that its use only begin to be considered, at the very least, after several basic beginner cycles of Testosterone and other beginner level compounds have been used.
This anabolic steroid can be found in three different esterified variants: Trenbolone Acetate (the most popular and most widely used Trenbolone ester variant), Trenbolone Enanthate, and Tren Hexahydrobenzylcarbonate. The difference between these three types is simply the half-lives and release times, as determined by the ester that is attached to the parent hormone steroid structure. Esters that are bonded to any anabolic steroid in question do not change the actual properties and effects of the compound except for the half-life of the compound and the release rate. The idea here with different esterified forms of different anabolic steroids is primarily one of personal convenience and preference – some prefer faster acting anabolic steroids with a shorter half-life which necessitates frequent injections, while others prefer the longer half-lives of long estered anabolic steroids that are associated with less frequent injections. The popularity with Trenbolone Acetate lies in its fast acting ability due to the small Acetate ester attached, and also the ability for any user to quickly terminate their cycle should any undesirable effects be unbearable for the user. The elimination of administration for Tren Acetate will result in the compound quickly clearing the individual’s body (in a matter of days) leading to a quicker end to any undesirable side effects. The same cannot be said for Tren Enan, for example, as this variant would require two weeks for full clearance of the drug. Tren Acetate holds a half-life of 24 – 72 hours, Trenbolone Enanthate 7 – 10 days, and Tren Hex that of 14 days.The chemical modifications described above result in it becoming dramatically more potent of an androgen and an anabolic than its progenitor hormone Nandrolone, or even Testosterone. Testosterone is used as the baseline reference by which all other anabolic steroids are measured against and compared to (much like how the Celsius temperature scale utilizes the boiling and freezing point of water as the base reference for temperature measurement). As such, we can put Trenbolone’s anabolic and androgenic strength into perspective by comparing it to Testosterone. Testosterone possesses an anabolic and androgenic rating of 100 each, respectively. It holds an anabolic and androgenic rating of both 500 each, respectively. In comparison with Testosterone, Trenbolone is five times more anabolic and androgenic in strength than Testosterone. The modification responsible for making it five times stronger than Testosterone is its two double bonds at carbons 19 and 11. Furthermore, for better understanding and perspective, every potential Tren user must realize that in order to achieve the equivalent strength of 200mg, one would have to administer 1,000mg of Testosterone. In order for an individual to achieve the strength of 500mg of Trenbolone, the equivalent of 2,500mg of Testosterone would be required.

In terms of its metabolism, it has been previously mentioned that its totally resistant to the aromatase enzyme (which is the enzyme that is responsible for the conversion of aromatizable androgens into Estrogen). Therefore, Trenbolone holds zero Estrogenic activity as it cannot convert into Estrogen in any amount. Its also is completely resistant to the 5-alpha reductase enzyme, which is the enzyme responsible for the reduction of Testosterone into the much stronger androgen Dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Trenbolone here as well is immune from interaction with the 5-alpha reductase enzyme and cannot convert into DHT. However, it must be understood that in its own right is a very androgenic hormone (remember that Trenbolone holds an androgenic rating of 500 versus Testosterone’s androgenic rating of 100).

The extreme strength of the anabolic nature of Tren alongside the fact that it cannot convert into Estrogen are all factors that enable it to be such a versatile and flexible anabolic steroid – it can provide massive strength and lean mass gains in a bulk, and can also be utilized for cutting and fat loss phases as well. These features certainly crush the age-old rumor that this androgen is only useful for fat loss or cutting and/or for a pre-competition phase. These rumors have circulated from individuals within the anabolic steroid using community who are uneducated on its features. This is also very supportive of the fact that there is no reason for utilizing Tren at extremely high and unnecessary doses. This is especially true if an individual is a beginner to use.

Trenbolone Side Effects:
The final property of Trenbolone to be covered is that of its commonly labeled ‘harsh side effects’. Side effects will be covered in greater detail later on in the profile, but what must be understood in regards to Tren possessing ‘harsh’ and unique side effects is the fact that it is a 19-nor Progestational compound. Studies have shown that 19-nor anabolic steroids tend to exhibit binding affinity for the Progesterone receptors in the body. Trenbolone in particular possesses very strong binding affinity (much stronger than Nandrolone) for the Progesterone receptor. As mentioned above, this is one of the factors involved where it possesses side effects that are almost never seen in other anabolic steroids that are not Progestins. Progestogenic side effects are almost identical to Estrogenic side effects, and they include: severe endogenous Testosterone production shutdown/suppression, gynecomastia, and water retention. It has been determined that the activity of Progestins is closely correlated with the activity of Estrogen in the body.

The story of steroid Dianabol in athletics

In 1954, a physician named John Ziegler attended the World Weightlifting Championships in Vienna, Austria, as the team's doctor. The Soviets dominated the competition that year, easily breaking several world records and winning gold medals in legions of weight classes. According to anecdotal reports, Ziegler invited the Soviet´s team doctor to a bar and the doctor told him that that his lifters had used testosterone injections as part of their training programs. Whether that story is true or not, ultimately, the Americans returned from the World Championships that year and immediately began their efforts to defeat the Soviets using pharmaceutical enhancement.

As you may have expected, when they returned to the United States, the team doctor began administering straight testosterone to his weightlifters. He also got involved with Ciba, the large pharmaceutical firm, and attempted to synthesize a substance with strength enhancing effects comparable or better than testosterone's. In 1956, Methandrostenolone was created, and given the name "Dianabol".

In the following years, little pink Dianabol tablets found their way into many weightlifter´s training program, fast forward a few years, and in the early 1960s, there was a clear gap between Ziegler´s weightlifters and the rest of the country, and much less of one between them and the Soviets. It was also in the 1960´s that another anabolic steroid had been developed and used to treat short stature in children with Turner Disease syndrome.

At this time, physicians around the United States began to take notice of steroids, and numerous studies were performed on athletes taking them, in an effort to stem the tide of athletes attempting to obtain steroids for use in sports.

The early studies on steroids clearly showed that anabolic steroids offered no athletic benefit whatsoever, but in retrospect can be said to have several design flaws. The first issue with those studies, and the most glaring one was that the doses were usually very low, too low to really produce much of an effect at all. In addition, it was neither common for these studies to not be double blind nor to be randomized. A double blind study is one where neither the scientists nor the subjects of the study know if they are getting a real medication or a placebo. A randomized study is where the real medicine is randomly dispersed throughout the test group. Finally, in those early studies, nutrition and exercise was not really controlled or standardized. Not long after those flawed studies were concluded, the Physicians Desk Reference boldly (and wrongly) claimed that anabolic steroids were not useful in enhancing athletic performance. Despite this, in 1967, the International Olympic Council banned the use of anabolic steroids and by the mid 1970´s most major sporting organizations had also banned them.

Steroids in Olympics:
Just prior to the ban on steroids in the Olympics, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) began a program with the goals of synthesizing new anabolic steroids for their athletes to use in various sports. Their body of research remains the most extensive collection of information on the use of steroids in athletes ever complied. Despite the small size of their country, they managed to consistently dominate the top ranks of various sports.

By 1982, the International Olympic Council had developed a test for the detection of excess levels of testosterone in athletes, known as the "Testosterone: Epitestosterone test". In this test, levels of testosterone vs/ epitestosterone are measured, and if the testosterone level is 6x that of the epitestosterone level, it can safely be concluded that some form of testosterone has been used by the athlete. This is because testosterone is commonly no more than 6x the natural level of epitestosterone found naturally in the body. Thus, if there were more than that ratio, it was not naturally occurring, in all probability. The IOC was, as usual, one step behind the athletes. The GDR had already done a study on their athletes using a form of testosterone which would leave the body quickly, and thus they would be ready for the IOC test within three days of their last injection. They then developed a protocol to allow their athletes to continue steroid use, ceasing it only long enough to pass the drug test. In addition, the German firm Jenapharm, who had been supplying the government with steroids for their athletes, developed an epitestosterone product to administer to athletes to bring the ratio back to normal without discontinuing steroid use.

Their doping methods were so advanced, however, that they remained undetected for many years, until late 1989 when information was leaked to the western media about a government sponsored program of systematic anabolic steroid administration and concealment. Eventually, in the early 1990´s, the Germans had finally gotten caught, and the ensuing scandal was one which helped give anabolic steroids the bad reputation they have had ever since. Ironically, it was also in the early 1990´s that anabolic steroids had started to be used by the medical community to improve survival rates of AIDS and Cancer patients, when it was discovered that loss of lean body mass was associated with increased mortality rates respective to those diseases.

A similar story was being played out in the United States at about that same time. Before 1988, steroids were only prescription drugs, as classified by by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). FDA determines which drugs will be classified as over-the-counter versus those which will only be available through prescription. At this time, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, was invoked to restrict the access of steroids, making them available only by prescription. They were still not controlled substances at this time, however. Steroids remained in the media, occasionally making an appearance when an athlete tested positive, or admitted using them, but for another decade, they remained uncharacteristically out of the medias attention.

In the early part of the new millennium, steroids have again been pushed to the forefront of the news by the introduction of prohormones which were first developed and marketed by Patrick Arnold. It is at this point that the history of steroids in baseball begins to become more prominent; this is in all probability because Major League Baseball had no steroid testing program in effect during this time. During his epic quest to break Roger Maris home-run record, Mark Maguire was spotted by a reporter to have had a bottle of Androstendione in his locker. Although androstendione is not a steroid, and is simply a prohormone, the word steroid was again found circulating in the news on a nightly basis.

Not shortly after Roger Maris record was broken, another baseball player, Jason Giambi and various other athletes were either suspected of, or proven to have, taken anabolic steroids. Again, Congress convened a hearing, and just as they did the first time in 1990, they did not determine that steroids were a danger, but rather that the danger was more in protecting professional sports organizations. The updated statute has been updated to proscribe pro-hormones also The definition of an anabolic steroid as defined currently in the United States under is that "anabolic steroid" means any drug or hormonal substance, chemically and pharmacological related to testosterone (other than estrogens, progestins, corticosteroids, and dehydroepiandrosterone.

Currently, steroid use is far from declining. Among 12th graders surveyed in 2000, 2.5% reported using steroids at least once in their lives, while in 2004 the number was 3.4%. A recent internet study also concluded that anabolic steroid use among weightlifters and bodybuilders continues and by all accounts, there are no signs of it stopping in athletics any time soon.

In addition, the legitimate use of anabolic steroids for a variety of medical problems also continues, ranging from the treatment of Andropause or Menopause and ranging from speeding the recovery in burn victims to helping improve quality of life in Aids patients, to helping fight breast cancer and stave off osteoporosis.

Thus, the history of anabolic steroids is not something that has already occurred and been written, but rather it is a continuing history being written every day by scientists, lawmakers, doctors and of course, athletes.

How Much Mass Gains Can Be Expected in a Steroid Cycle?

In the two-week cycle case, the novice can typically get another 5 lb of retained muscle mass per cycle, up to at least the 25 lb net gain point. In the eight-week cycle case, a second cycle will often yield only another 5-10 lb of retained muscle mass. Once retained gains have reached typically 25-30 lb over natural best, then further gains typically will slow greatly. This really isn’t because of the number of cycles done, but because of how far one has gone past one’s natural maximum. These numbers are not hard limits. Some do much better. At some point, gains may very well slow to for example 3 lb per year. For example, that was Lee Haney’s average between his first and last Mr Olympia.

Where major losses have occurred, regains can be very fast, just as fast as beginner gains or even moreso. Slight losses from one’s peak however are often slow to be regained. During the cycle itself, body weight can be 8-10 lb or so greater than this, due to increases in water retention in the muscles.

This weight is rapidly lost at the end of the cycle, and doesn’t represent actual increase in contractile protein. But it is scale weight that is readily noticed during the cycle, and which enhances muscular appearance.

Testosterone suspension is an injectable preparation containing testosterone (no ester) in a water base. Since testosterone is not highly water soluble, the steroid will noticeably separate from the solution when the vial is left to sit. A quick shake will temporarily place the drug back into suspension, so that the withdrawn dosage should always be consistent. Many reference materials have not given this steroid the proper credit, stating it to be a very crude and ineffective product. Although it may contain testosterone without the benefit of an ester, the microcrystal design of this injectable will in fact sustain an elevated testosterone release for 2-3 days. The suspension we see today is clearly not the basic water plus testosterone design used in the 1940's. And since the drug will not leave circulation in a matter of hours, it is obviously useful. This is not news to the many Americans bodybuilders who have had a chance to experiment with this item, and regard it very highly.

Among bodybuilders, "suspension" is known to be an extremely potent mass agent. Most often it is ranked as the most powerful injectable steroid available, producing an incredibly rapid gain of muscle mass and strength. This is largely due to the very fast action of this drug, as the water-based steroid will begin to enter the blood stream almost immediately after an injection is given. When using a slow acting oil based steroid like Sustanon, it can take weeks before a peak testosterone level is reached. With suspension it is just a matter of days. This will usually result in the athlete noticing a size and strength gain by the end of the first week. By the time the athlete is 30 days into a cycle of suspension, the length it will usually take for a Sustanon cycle to really begin to work consistently, the mass gains are already (generally) very extreme. Clearly the anabolic effect of this testosterone will be realized much more quickly than we would expect with an oil based (esterified) preparation.

It is also important to remember that 100mg of a testosterone ester is not equivalent to 100mg testosterone of pure testosterone (as in suspension). When an ester is present, its weight is obviously included in the preparation's milligram total. Looking at Testosterone Enanthate, 100mg of this compound equates to only 72mg of raw testosterone. So the bodybuilder who uses 400mg of Enanthate weekly is really getting about 288mg of testosterone into his body each week. This is clearly a great increase over the endogenous testosterone level of the average male, which is in the range of 2.5 to 11 mg per day. But the general point is that during a cycle of Testosterone Suspension we will often see a much more dramatic intake of testosterone on average than is typically utilized with oils. Following common advice, the athlete will commonly inject a full 100mg of testosterone daily, a total of 700 milligrams per week. This is up to 40 times the amount produced by a normal male. Those who have attempted such a cycle are rarely disappointed with the results, as such heavy doses of this hormone will produce nothing less than a dramatic weight gain.

The most popular practice with Testosterone Suspension is to inject the drug at least every two or three days. The dosage will vary greatly depending on the needs of the individual, but is most often in the range of 50mg to 300mg per shot. Athletes looking to achieve an extremely rapid bulk gain will inject the already mentioned dose of 100mg daily. In most cases this cycle can be amazing, the user seeming to just "inflate" with bloated muscle mass in a short period of time.
As would be expected with a strong androgen, suspension can produce a number of unwelcome side effects. For starters, with a testosterone product we will expect to see a high rate of estrogen conversion. Estrogen levels in fact build very quickly with Testosterone suspension, which is actually reputed to be the worst testosterone to use when wishing to avoid water bloat. Gynecomastia can also develop very rapidly during a cycle, and in many cases this drug will be intolerable without additionally taking an anti-estrogen. A combination of Nolvadex and Proviron is an effective way to avoid experiencing such side effects, and is often taken from the onset of a cycle in order to prevent such occurrences before they become a problem. Sensitive individuals may find an investment in the antiaromatase Arimidex to be wiser. While this drug is very costly, it is also much more effective at controlling estrogen than the other agents which are currently being used by athletes. If there were ever a time to justify this expense, it would certainly be with a drug like suspension. It is also important that the athlete monitor blood pressure and kidney functions closely during a heavy cycle, a trouble area as water retention becomes more pronounced. Although testosterone puts very little strain on the liver, this drug can be harsh to the kidneys as the dosage increases. Of course if the athlete is encountering noticeably high blood pressure or trouble urinating (pain or darkening of the urine), the cycle should probably be discontinued and the doctor paid a visit. Conversion to DHT (dihydrotestosterone) will of course potentate the action of testosterone in certain tissues. One can therefore expect to endure oily skin, acne, increased aggression and body/facial hair growth during a typical cycle. Propecia/Proscar may be a requirement for those with a familial predisposition for male pattern hair loss, as suspension is known to aggravate this condition quite easily. Men with an existing hair loss problem may actually prefer stay far away from this steroid altogether, finding it to be just to strong an item to take risks with. The slower acting oil based injectables like Propionate and Sustanon would be a much better place to start experimenting if the individual still desires the power of an injectable testosterone.

Also, endogenous testosterone production will be quickly and efficiently reduced when using suspension. This can often reach the point of severe testicular shrinkage (atrophy). Some athletes will periodically take testosterone stimulating drugs like Clomid, Nolvadex, cyclofenil or HCG while on a cycle, in order to keep this effect to a minimum. Even if no such drug is used during, a combination of HCG and Clornid/Nolvadex should always be used as the cycle is discontinued. When used correctly, this procedure should be very effective at stimulating natural production, hopefully allowing the athlete to avoid a post-cycle crash. It is important to mention that in addition to stimulating the release of testosterone, HCG also acts to enhance the rate of aromatization in the testes. The risk for enhanced estrogen buildup makes concurrent anti-estrogen use very important, especially when the athlete had been taking large doses of testosterone. So as to keep potential health risks to a minimum (heavy water retention can take its toll), cautious athletes will also limit a cycle of this compound to no longer than eight weeks.

Overall, suspension is an extremely powerful drug, but also one that is prone to causing many uncomfortable side effects. Those looking for only a potent mass agent need not look for a better substitute; this product will certainly do the trick. But those athletes who want not just quantity but quality are likely to be disappointed with suspension, as the muscle mass gain is not going to be a hard, dense one. In fact the user must constantly fight fat and water bloat when building his new physique, and will often seek the benefit of cutting agents soon afterwards. The only exception to this would be cases where the drug is used for very short periods of time (pre-contest), to rapidly raise the androgen level and harden up the body. When estrogen is not given time to wreak its havoc on the physique, the rapid androgen increase can certainly be beneficial. Of course it will only take a few days for the androgen/estrogen ratio to shift back in an unfavorable direction.