It seems that the scientist who did the original studies on Fadogia Agrestis (the herb I brought to the market a couple of years ago as a testosterone booster) has come up with another potential test boosting herb:
Effect of aqueous extract of Bulbine natalensis (Baker) stem on the sexual behaviour of male rats.
Centre for Phytomedicine Research, Department of Botany, University of Fort Hare, Alice, South Africa.
The phytochemical constituents of aqueous extract of Bulbine natalensis (Baker) stem and its effect on male rat sexual behaviour were evaluated for 7 days. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of saponins, cardiac glycoside, tannins, alkaloids and anthraquinones. Administration of the extract at the doses of 25 and 50 mg/kg body weight resulted in the significant increase (p < 0.05) in mount frequency, intromission frequency, ejaculatory latency, ejaculation frequency, serum testosterone and luteinizing hormone concentrations, computed indices of sexual behaviour, erection, quick flips, long flips and total penile reflexes whereas the mount latency, intromission latency and post-ejaculatory interval were significantly decreased (p < 0.05) throughout the experimental period. The 100 mg/kg body weight of the extract produced contrasting pattern to the lower doses of the extract in all the parameters of sexual behaviour monitored throughout the experimental period. The results are indicative of prosexual stimulatory potentials of Bulbine natalensis in male rats. The aqueous extract of Bulbine natalensis stem at these doses (25 and 50 mg/kg body weight) may be used in the management of disorders of desire/libido, premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction in males.
I’m pretty sure there’s some people reading my blog who don’t know everything about how anabolic steroids work, how they’re metabolized, and all that other fun stuff…So I’m going to try to give an explanation for the people really interested in the science/biology/chemistry behind some of this stuff. Don’t feel like you need to read all of this at once, because it’s a pretty long read (and took me even longer to write), but it’s worth your time to get through all of it.
Part I
As you probably already know, anabolic steroids are drugs that resemble anabolic/androgenic hormones like testosterone, or similar derivations. The defining structural characteristic of all steroids is their four-ring structure, consisting of 3 cyclohexane (6 sided) rings and a cyclopentane (5 sided) ring.
Your body produces various steroids (and so-called pro-hormones) initially from Cholesterol which the body can eventually metabolize into testosterone.
The four-ring structure is called the Steran Nucleus, and for our purposes there are four rings (A, B, C, and D), and 19 total positions on the structure.
Each place where the ring has a “corner”, or is attached to another ring is a “position” on the structure.
The black and white diagram above represents your basic testosterone; the rings run from left to right and are called A, B, C, and D respectively. To create different steroids (testosterone is the one shown above) scientists can add things called carbon bonds, add beta groups, etc, and that produces different steroids. Typically, the A-ring and D-ring are most commonly modified to produce different steroids (with different effects). This is because the A and D rings generally undergo the most drastic metabolation in the body, so modifying them produces more bang for the buck, generally speaking. The B-Ring metabolism is most pronounced when A-ring metabolism is in some way hampered. The changes the B-ring typically undergo are 6b-hydroxylation and 6, 7-dehydrogenation. These changes are, in fact, not very drastic. C-ring metabolism is even more modest, being a simple 12-hydroxylation. If you didn’t catch those last few parts, don’t worry, because they aren’t super-important. Let’s talk about A and D ring metabolism for a second, ok? These are where we need to focus our energies, because understanding them is very important, while B and C ring metabolism is generally very limited, and won’t really be a concern to us at all, in any applicable context. First, A-ring metabolism…
In the A-ring we see 5alpha and 5beta reduction taking place:
And of course, 5alpha Reduction (5a-Reduction) is what turns testosterone into DHT. This is the initial step in metabolism of testosterone and many of its analogues, and basically just reduces the C4, 5 double bond—that’s the little line on the bottom of the first ring that’s missing in the lower left version of that picture above, where the hydrogen (“H”) has “appeared”. As you can see, 5beta-reduction is very similar, though not of prime concern to us here. After this reduction, typically the 3-keto group is transformed. Stability and instability of the 3-keto group is important to androgen binding, and the more stable the 3-keto group is, the more avidly a compound can bind to the Androgen Receptor and/or increase anabolic/androgenic activity (even doing so, in certain cases, independently of each other). Certain modifications to steroids can enhance the stability of the 3-keto group, such as 2-methylation or adding a 2-hydroxymethelyne group (the first modification is seen with Masteron and the second with Anadrol). On the other hand, Ethylestrenol lacks a 3-keto group totally, and is probably the weakest steroid available.
Of course, my example focused on testosterone, and if you add a double bond between the one and two carbon atoms of testosterone, you’ve made Boldenone (Equipoise). Boldenone is metabolized slightly differently since the 1-2 double bonds slows metabolism (hepatic breakdown, aromatization, etc…).
Add a 17-alpha-methyl group to that Boldenone we just spoke of, and you have Methandrostenolone (D-bol), which is broken down similarly, although it is orally active in the body due to the 17a-methly group.
(Note that Dianabol and Equipoise are the same EXACT compound with exception to the methylation you see at the 17th position for the Dianabol).
There are, of course, other actions that happen (or simply can happen) in the A-Ring, but we need not concern ourselves with them here. It is suffice to say that they are not of interest to us, again, generally speaking.
D-Ring metabolism…
The D-ring (the weird little one on the end with fewer sides than the other rings) is metabolized into testosterone’s main metabolites. This occurs by oxidation of 17b-hydroxy groups into 17keto steroids, which are shown less intricately in the first chart in this chapter. In some cases, they can even be converted back to the original configuration by the same enzyme (17b-HDS).
Hydroxylation can also occur at other positions, as can epimerization, or oxidation, within the D-ring. And remember, the D-ring is where we can methylation them to survive oral ingestion.
All of that was the first phase of anabolic steroid metabolism, which determines the primary effects they will have in the body. Phase II metabolism has more to do with metabolites, their degradation, and the eventual elimination of them and the steroid from the body, and as such is beyond the scope of our discussion here -well…. really, its just beyond the scope of our interest, more or less, because it’s not going to help us understand the anabolic actions of steroids any better. The preceding information should help you later in this book, when I mention that this (or that) steroid has a particular modification to help it do something (or other). I know that once I started understanding a little of what I am presenting here to you, I found it a lot easier to comprehend what was going on when I looked at a steran nucleus or chemical name for a particular steroid.
Synthetic anabolic steroids are based on the principal male hormone testosterone, modified in one of three ways:
- a. Alkylation of the 17-carbon (makes them survive oral ingestion)
- b. Esterification of the 17-OH group (alters active life and half life)
- c. Modification of the steroid nucleus (changes their properties)
Part II
Despite the number of synthetic AAS that have been developed by these little modifications here and there, their modes of action are still poorly understood.
As you know, male hormones, primarily testosterone, are responsible for the developmental changes that occur in boys during puberty and later in adolescence. Male hormones have both androgenic and anabolic effects. Androgenic effects are changes in primary and secondary sexual characteristics, like enlargement of the penis and testes, voice changes, hair growth on the face, increased nervous system efficiency, and increased aggressiveness. The anabolic effects of androgens (again, like testosterone) include increasing and limiting muscle protein synthesis by increasing transport of amino acid across cell membranes. It is also an anti-catabolic and inhibits cortisol by competing for receptor sites, as well as reducing cortisol secretion and the signals, which precede cortisol secretion. In addition to these anabolic effects, Testosterone increases the secretion of the other anabolic hormones in the “super family”, such as growth hormone and Insulin-Like Growth Factors from the liver, and finally, it produces an enhanced rate of erythropoietin synthesis. All of these effects are, of course beneficial to athletes, and explain how steroids exert their performance enhancing effects.
These effects are mediated, at least partially by stimulation of receptor molecules in muscle cells (which we generally call androgen receptors), which activate specific genes to produce proteins. Binding affinity to the androgen receptor has been used to explain the differences in potencies and effects of the natural and synthetic androgens we talk about, but that isn’t the full story. There are, of course, other effects that steroids exert, and we call those “non-receptor-mediated” effects. These are effects that happen indirectly, and not as a result of androgen receptor stimulation. Stimulation of the androgen receptor produces both anabolic and anti-catabolic effects, such as the retention of more nitrogen and the reduction of cortisol, respectively. Remember, Cortisol causes muscle breakdown.
Sounds great, right? It’s everything we want and more! It’s not all roses, however, because Anabolic steroid use decreases testosterone secretion. This happens because your body operates on a negative-feedback-loop in regards to testosterone. This means we’re going to attempt a balancing act regarding our natural hormones and the ones we put into our body. If you read this book carefully, you’ll learn how to use (or simply research) anabolic steroids to produce a heightened state of athletic ability, strength, speed, and of course, increased muscle mass. Then you’ll learn how to stop using steroids and not lose everything you’ve gained. Those are, at least, my humble goals for you.
So let’s get back to the first thing I told you about, which is how steroids are made. As you saw, simple modifications to the four-ring steran nucleus of testosterone can produce major changes in the hormone. From those simple changes to testosterone, scientists have identified the other two major families all anabolic/androgenic steroids are derived from: 19-nor-Testosterone (sometimes called 19-nor’s) and dihydroTestosterone (called DHT).
19-nor-Testosterone is simply testosterone that lacks a carbon atom in the 19th position, and Dihydrotestosterone is Testosterone that has had 2 hydrogen atoms added to it.
In general, 19-nor derived steroids exhibit a high anabolic effect and a low anabolic effect with not much aromatization, while DHT-derived steroids usually have a very nice balance of androgenic and anabolic effects and not much aromatization.
Of course, there are also other things you can do to steroids like methylate them (this makes them able to survive oral administration) or add an ester to them (this is a large fatty chain on a steroid that your body needs to work to break down, thus increasing the active life of the steroid). Adding an ester to a product doesn’t change its anabolic: androgenic ratio, but methylating it may. Esters do not alter the anabolic or androgenic properties because an ester is simply a chain composed primarily of carbon and hydrogen atoms, typically attached to the base steroid hormone at the 17th carbon position (called the beta position). Attaching an ester to a base compound slows the release of the base steroid from the site of injection.
Slowing the release of the base steroid is a great benefit to medicine, especially hormone replacement therapy (HRT) because suspended or free testosterone (or other steroid hormones) would only remain active in the body for a very short period of time. This is basically what is seen with testosterone suspension or Winstrol depot. If you are on HRT, you could take a shot of Testosterone Cypionate (testosterone with a long ester added) once a week, as opposed to taking testosterone suspension once or twice a day. Adding an ester also temporarily deactivates the steroid molecule. With an ester chain blocking the 17th beta position, binding to the androgen receptor is not possible, so the steroid is inactive. Now, in order for the base compound to become active, the ester must first be removed. This occurs once the compound has filtered into blood circulation, where your esterase enzymes cleave off the ester. This restores the necessary hydroxyl (OH) group at the 17th beta position, which enables the drug to attach to the receptor. Now the steroid is free to do all the good stuff we want it to do. This is why people often say, “test is test,” regardless of the ester; regardless of the ester, anabolic and androgenic properties of the base compound retain their respective integrity.
You may, at this point be asking yourself how these anabolic to androgenic ratio’s are arrived at. Well, this is kind of weird, but basically, male rats were given a dose of testosterone, sacrificed (killed to you and me), and then had an untrained muscle (the levator ani), and a part of the prostate (the ventral prostate) weighed. Those weights were given a score of 100 each (because 100 is an easy number to work with). When you want to know the anabolic: androgenic ratio of a new steroid, you simply administer it to a group of rodents with the same dose of testosterone used in the original group of rats I just told you about. You then weigh the levator ani and ventral prostate. The weights that are relative to testosterone (and it’s 100 score) are the anabolic: androgenic ratio of the 
new steroid. Of course, that’s not 100% relevant or applicable to humans.
By tweaking and refining steroids, scientists were able to create some very interesting compounds that have some profoundly beneficial effects to us as athletes. And now you know (roughly) how it’s done, and how steroids work.
NOW YOU KNOW!
It may come as a surprise to many people that I’ve spoken to numerous DEA and FBI agents while writing my upcoming book (my new publisher is targeting a release date in the Fall of 2009). Before I sent the book to my agent, I called the DEA and FBI agents I spoke to, and read them the portions where they were either mentioned or quoted, and asked if it was an accurate portrayal of the dialogue we’d had.
After reading numerous passages to the agents whom I spoke to, none of them needed me to revise anything. In other words, my transcription was totally accurate. If you’re interested in hearing the DEA/FBI on steroids and what they have to say…then you’ll like my new book. I have to admit that the agents I spoke to (some of whom requested anonymity) were forthcoming and intelligent. I didn’t ask them anything inappropriate, and as a result, they knew that my door was open for them to ask me questions also.
If you are thinking that this was like some kind of scene from Heat, you couldn’t be more wrong. I’m an author/journalist, and I use steroids legally. They don’t have any problem with me. In fact, one of the things they constantly stressed was that the DEA and FBI are not political organizations. In other words, they enforce laws, but they don’t have a political position on them; if steroids became legal tomorrow, half the agents I conducted interviews with would be glad to focus on so-called hard drugs.
Honestly, I can only remember them calling ME for information three times. One time, a woman from a Texas branch of the FBI called me, then said that she had received an email from a colleague about me in another branch, and no longer needed to talk to me.
Another time, a DEA agent asked me if I thought that there were more abscess and infections with Underground gear, and I said that I’m sure there are - but added that I almost never see or hear anything about them. I then got into a long winded monologue about Chinese imports in general, which I’m sure the agent was only humoring me by listening to.
And the only other time I really remember being called by the DEA (or was it the FBI?) was in reference to the Mitchell Report (yeah, believe it or not).
I think that people will really have their eyes opened by my new book, regarding Federal Law Enforcement agencies and what actually does and does not happen - and what kind of people they are. Of course, while I was writing my new book, I also referenced something called “THE STEROID USER’S SURVIVAL GUIDE” which was written by a former DEA agent (and has been out of print since the late ’90s)…and will give you an entirely different view of how things are really done.
Yesterday, Strong & Shapely Gym in East Rutherford New Jersey, held a charity event to help out the Tomorrow’s Children Fund, the New York Blood Center, and the Salvation Army. The seminar was advertised on the Muscular Development message board, and I always like to go to this kind of seminar (I showed up to the last one too). It’s always interesting to compare what I see being said on message boards with how it actually plays out offline.
There were a ton of people there, and you can check out the flyer below to see some of the people who attended. Some local (’Jersey) bodybuilding talent was on hand, and a bunch of people from the nutritional industry. I had initially gone to donate blood and forgot my I.D. (why do they need my I.D. anyway?), but when I returned with it, they had already left. On my first trip there, I brought a case of ALR Industries Magazines with me, to donate as give-aways. I made a donation to the Children’s Fund, and on my way in to the gym (yes, for the second time), I saw Gregg standing outside, and we ended up talking for a bit (we recognized each other).
I’d always said I was a big fan of Gregg’s, so it was nice to get a chance to chill out with him for a bit. I ended up staying at the gym for about six hours, just b.s.-ing with Gregg and his other buddy (also named Greg) for most of the day. Greg, for the record, was the only person in attendance with more ink than me (I have 30 hours of tattoos), and is the guy seen in “Bigger Stronger Faster*” with Valentino and Bell in the Diner Scene.
There were numerous other writers and people involved with the industry in attendance (a guy from MuscleMag, etc…), and mostly we talked about the industry (you may be interested to know that people in the industry never really talk about training or diet or nutrition with each other, we just talk about the industry itself).
Gregg was scheduled to do a seminar which was being taped by the other Greg, so they had a video camera on them - so an on-the-spot decision was made by Gregg and Joe Pietaro to do an interview with me for MDTV. We grabbed some space in a cardio room, and did a pretty long interview. I don’t know when it’s coming out (or even if it’ll make it to MDTV), but it was a lot of fun and totally unexpected. Look for that (*unless it ends up on the editing room floor) some time in the near future.
Gregg’s seminar started at around 5pm, and there were some people who traveled pretty far to see him, so he really gave it his all….even when the tape (the second one) ran out on the video camera, he was answering people’s questions and giving 100% effort into his talk.
Originally, the seminar started out in the Cardio room, but he wanted to prove some points about different exercises, so we spilled out on to the gym floor, and he put some volunteers through some different movements. About half way through the seminar (which, once again, was being taped), some guy in a Hulk Hogan costume jumped in front of the camera with Gregg, and started some kind of speech about believing in yourself and what a great success story Valentino is. I have no idea who he was, and I think he might have been some homeless guy who wandered in off the street. Gregg was a really good sport about it (I wouldn’t have been), and let the guy talk for just long enough to convince everyone that he probably had escaped from a mental hospital; then Gregg went on with his seminar.
A great time was had by everyone, and a nice donation was made to several really deserving charities.
On the 11th of October this year (2008), I told you that AnaFit (the nutritional company and steroid-discussion website) got sued by the FTC (for making false claims about one of their nutritional products), and I later told you that they had claimed that it was no big deal. In fact, Larry Berube (posting under the screen name “Ulter”) made the following statements about the situation to his members:
Like I said, they didn’t press it, they dropped the fines and we didn’t have to go to court if we complied and proved we didn’t profit from it, so we did.
Anthony is once again writing about something he knows nothing about.
So here we have the owner of Anafit (AFboard.com) telling his members that the FTC dropped the fines (the truth is that the judgment was SUSPENDED - not “dropped” because they COULDN’T PAY!), and he further says that I (*yeah, me, Anthony Roberts) don’t know what I’m talking about…
I’ll let you be the judge of whether that is true…
As you can see from this link on the FTC’s own website, the FTC did not drop the fines (e.g. I have caught Larry Berube lying to his members and customers).
The truth is that the FTC received a court judgment against Anafit for $493,545 (which they COULDN’T pay). Below is a full copy of the FTC’s press release outlining the deceptive marketing practices that Anafit was found guilty of, and the fines they will now have to pay:
Marketers of Dietary Supplements Ordered to Halt False Claims About Diabetes Prevention and Treatment
The marketers of dietary supplements that purportedly prevented and treated diabetes have settled Federal Trade Commission charges that they engaged in deceptive advertising practices. According to the FTC’s complaint, Glucorell, Inc. and Anafit, Inc., both based in Orlando, Florida, made false and unsubstantiated claims that two dietary supplements, Insulow and Glucorell R, are effective for preventing and treating diabetes.
Along with statements in their ads such as “Insulow® may be the only thing between you . . . and a needle,” the defendants also made unsubstantiated claims that Insulow prevents or reduces the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes; is an effective treatment for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes; lowers high blood sugar levels; prevents or reverses insulin resistence; increases fat loss and decreases insulin-related obesity; and enables diabetics to reduce or eliminate the amount of drugs and insulin required to keep blood sugar levels healthy and reduce insulin resistance, according to the complaint. The Commission also alleged that the defendants falsely advertised that all of these claims except the last had been proven by clinical studies.
The complaint also alleges that the defendants made unsubstantiated claims about Glucorell R. The defendants’ advertisements allegedly claimed that Glucorell R is effective for treating Type 2 diabetes, prevents or reduces the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, and is effective in treating and preventing cancer. According to the complaint, the defendants also falsely advertised that the last two Glucorell R claims were proven by clinical studies.
According to papers filed with the court, Glucorell, Inc. has been primarily responsible for packaging, distributing, and selling Insulow, and has marketed both supplements; while Anafit, Inc., has been responsible for packaging, distributing, selling, and marketing only Glucorell R.
Under the terms of the order approved by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on October 27, 2008, the defendants are prohibited from making the claims challenged in the complaint unless such claims are truthful, not misleading, and substantiated by competent and reliable scientific evidence. The defendants are also prohibited from making representations about the benefits, performance, or efficacy of any dietary supplement, food, or drug without competent and reliable scientific evidence.
The order contains a judgment of $493,545, which is the total amount the defendants received in sales for Glucorell R and Insulow between January 2005 and May 2008. However, the entire judgment is suspended due to their inability to pay. If it is determined that the financial information given to the FTC was untruthful, then the full amount of the judgment will automatically become due.
The complaint also names two of the companies’ principals, Laurence Berube and Jerel Scott Ferguson, as defendants. Both individuals have agreed to the terms of the stipulated order.
The order contains various record keeping provisions to assist the FTC in monitoring the defendants’ compliance.
I have to admit, I’ve never been impressed with most supplements out there on the market. Whey Protein was supposed to be the answer to everyone’s prayers, but honestly, did anyone switch from casein (or albumin) to whey protein and actually get bigger? Not really (at least nobody that I know). HMB is overpriced garbage, and certainly doesn’t “Feel like Deca” as Bill Phillips said.
But Arachidonic Acid seemed promising for awhile. It was logical, and looked like it had the potential to make you stronger or bigger. Remember, when you buy a supplement, all you care about is the results - in essence, you’re buying a result, and the supplement is the thing that you hope will get it for you. Getting stronger, losing fat, or gaining muscle is what you (and I) am after.
Bill Llewellyn, the man who holds the patent for it, has claimed that it is:
… the most effective non-steroidal muscle-building agent yet introduced to the supplement industry…
So it’s incredibly disappointing when a supplement has as much potential as I thought AA did, and it just turns out to really suck. I won’t bore you with the details, but here’s the conclusion from a published medical study:
CONCLUSION: AA supplementation during resistance-training may enhance anaerobic capacity and lessen the inflammatory response to training. However, AA supplementation did not promote statistically greater gains in strength, muscle mass, or influence markers of muscle hypertrophy.
Of course, the supplement is pretty popular with bodybuilders and especially on several forums. But in this case, the science just doesn’t support the claims being made by the patent holder. Maybe a future study will work out better for the product, but for now - it looks like a huge waste of money.
[As a side note, I know two of the people who were involved in conducting this particular study...Colin Wilborn was the guy who introduced me for my speech in 'Vegas, and Jean Jitomir was one of the girls who attended it (who I later got to meet and have lunch with).]
From time to time, here in my blog, I reprint articles from other authors.
Today I've decided to re-run an article by one of my favorites,
Chuck Palahnuik, the author of Fight Club - talking about his own steroid use.
Massive Attack
(from Gear Magazine)
by: Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club
“If everybody jumped off a cliff,” my father used to say, “would you?” This was a few years ago. It was the summer a wild cougar killed a jogger in Sacramento. The summer my doctor wouldn’t give me anabolic steroids.
A local supermarket used to offer this special deal: if you bought fifty bucks worth of receipts, you could buy a dozen eggs for a dime, so my best friends, Ed and Bill, used to stand in the parking lot asking people for their receipts. Ed and Bill, they ate blocks of frozen egg white, 10-pound blocks they got at a bakery supply house, egg albumin being the most easily assimilated protein. Ed and Bill used to make these road trips to San Diego, then cross the border on foot at Tijuana to buy their steroids, their Dianabol, and smuggle it back. This must’ve been the summer the D.E.A. had other priorities.
Ed and Bill are not their real names.
We were road-tripping down through California, and we stopped in Sacramento to visit some friends. At this point the cougar was still running wild. This was the countryside, but not. The wilderness platted into 2.5-acre mini estates. Somewhere was a female cougar with cubs, squeezed in among the soccer moms and swimming pools. This was less of a vacation than a pilgrimage from one Gold’s Gym franchise to the next along the west coast. On the road, we bought water-packed tuna and ate it dry, tossing the empty cans in the back seat. We washed it down with diet soda and farted the length of Interstate 5.
Ed and Bill shot the pre-loaded syringes of D-ball, and I did everything else. Arginine, Ornithine, Smilax, DHEA, saw palmetto, selenium, chromium, free-range New Zealand sheep testicle, Vanadyl, orchid extract… At the gym, while my friends bench-pressed three times their weight, pumping up, shredding their clothes from the inside, I’d hover around their giant elbows. “You know,” I’d say, “I think I’m putting on real size with this yohimbe bark tincture.”
Yah, that summer.
The only reason they let me hover was for contrast. It’s the old strategy of choosing ugly bridesmaids so the bride looks better. Mirrors are only the methadone of body-building. You need an audience. There’s that old joke: “How Many Bodybuilders Does It Take to Screw in a light bulb?” Three: one to screw in the bulb and two to say, “Really, dude, you look massive!” Yeah, that joke. That’s not really a joke.
The Sacramento people we visited, on our way home from Mexico, we stopped by their house again, and they pulled us inside and locked the doors. They were throwing a barbecue for some friends who’d been away at a men’s retreat. On this retreat, somebody explained, each man was sent out into the desert to wander until he had a revelation. Now while the tiki torches flickered and the propane barbecue smoked, one man stood clutching some kind of shriveled baseball bat. It was the desiccated skeleton of a cactus he’d found on his quest, but it was more. “I realized,” he said, “that this cactus skeleton was me. This was my manhood, abrasive and hard on the outside, but brittle and hollow.” Everybody else around the deck closed their eyes and nodded. Except my friends, who turned the other way with their jaws clenched to keep from laughing. Their huge arms folded across their chests, they elbowed each other and wanted to walk up the road to see some historical rock. The hostess stopped us at the gate and said, “Don’t! Just don’t.” Clutching her wine cooler and looking into the darkness beyond the steam of the whirlpool and the light of the tiki torches, she said a cougar had been prowling around.
The cougar had been right up next to their deck, and she showed us in the shrubs, a scattering of short, coarse, blond hair. That year, everywhere we drove, that whole trip, there were already fences and property lines and names on everything.
Ed juiced and lifted for a couple more years until he blew out his knees. Bill, until he ruptured a disk in his back. It wasn’t until last year when my father died, my doctor finally came across. I lost weight and kept losing weight until he whipped out a prescription and said, “Let’s try you on 30 days of Anadrol.”
So I jumped off the cliff, too.
People squinted at me and asked what was different. My arms got a little bigger around, but not that much. More than the size, the feeling was enough. Anadrol is an anabolic steroid, a synthetic derivative of testosterone. Possible side effects include: testicular atrophy, impotence, chronic priapism, increased or decreased libido, insomnia, and hair loss. One hundred tablets cost eleven-hundred bucks. Insurance does not cover it. But the feeling does. Your eyes are popped open and alert. The way women look so good when they’re pregnant, glowing and soft, and so much more female, Anadrol makes you look and feel that much more male. The raging priapism part - that was the first couple weeks. You are nothing but the real estate between your legs. It’s the same as those old illustrations in Alice in Wonderland where she’s eaten the cake marked “eat me” and frown until her arm sticks out the front door. Except it’s not your arm that sticks out, and wearing bicycle pants is totally out of the question.
About the third week, the priapism subsided or seemed to spread to my entire body. Weightlifting gets better then sex. A workout becomes an orgy. You’re having orgasms, cramping, hot, rushing orgasms in your delts, your quads, your lats and traps. You forget about that lazy old penis. Who needs it? In a way it’s a peace, an escape from sex. A vacation from libido. You might see a hot woman ant think, “Grrrrrrr,” but your next egg white omelet or set of squats are a lot more attractive.
I didn’t go into this stupid. This is a kind of weird aside, but a friend in medical schoolmate me a deal that if I introduced her to Brad Pitt, she’d sneak me in to help her dissect some cadavers. She met Brad, and I spent a long night helping her disassemble dead bodies so first-year pre-med students could study them. Our third cadaver was a 60-year-old physician. He had the muscle mass and definition of a man in his twenties, but when we opened his chest, his heart was almost the size of his head. I held his chest open and my friend poured in Formalin until his lungs floated. My friend looked at his freaking big heart, and his equally freaky big dick, and she told me: testosterone. Self administered for years. She showed me the coiled little wires and the pacemaker buried in his chest and told me he had a history of heart attacks.
About this time, a bodybuilder magazine ran an occasional little feature in its back pages, a catch-up profile about a star bodybuilder from the 1980s. Back then, these stars posed and gave interviews swearing they were blessed with great genetics and determination, they just worked hard and ate well, they never used steroids. They swore. In the update features, these same guys were pale and doughy, battling health problems from diabetes to cancer. And they admitted they had been using steroids.
I knew all this, and I still jumped off the cliff.
My father was dead, Ed and Bill were a mess, and I was fast losing faith in tangible shit. Here I’d written a story, a make-believe book, and it was making me more money than any real work I’d ever done. I had about a 30-day window of free time between my book obligations and the opening of the Fight Club movie. Here was a 30-day experiment, an updated Jack London adventure in a little brown bottle. My friends didn’t stop me. They only told me to eat enough protein to make the investment worthwhile. Still, I didn’t buy the 10-pound blocks of egg white. I never filled my fridge with rows and rows of foil-wrapped boneless, skinless chicken breasts and baked potatoes the way Ed and Bill used to. I just took the little white pills and worked out and one day in the shower, I noticed my nuts were disappearing.
Okay, I’m sorry. I promised a lot of friends I wouldn’t go here, but this was the turning point. When the old goose eggs shrink to ping-pong balls, then to marbles, then your doctor asks if you want a refill on your Anadrol script, it’s easy to say no. Here you are looking great, bright and alert, pumped and ripped you’re looking more like a man than you ever have, but you’re less of a man where it counts. Besides, the appeal of being a freaky, massive pile of muscle had already started to wane. Sure, at first it would be fun, like owning a rambling Victorian mansion, but after the first couple weeks the constant maintenance would eat up my life. I could never wander very far from a gym. I’d be eating egg protein every hour. All this and the whole project would still collapse some day.
I jumped off the cliff because it was an adventure.
And for 30 days I felt complete. But just until the tiny white pills ran out. Temporarily permanent. Complete and independent of everything. Everything except the Anadrol. the woman in Sacramento, hosting that barbecue all those years ago, she’d said, “Those friends of yours, they’re crazy.” Beside the swimming pool, the man cradled the brittle cactus skeleton of his masculinity, the woman still stared at her clumps of bleached “cougar fur.” Pumped and huge in their tanktops, Ed and Bill disappeared, lumbering down the road. Out in the dark was the cougar. Or other cougars.
Ed used to wear a T-shirt that said, “Fuck Moderation.”
The hostess said, “Why do men have to do such stupid things?” “As long as America has a frontier,” Thomas Jefferson used to say, “there will be a place for America’s misfits and adventurers.”
Now Ed and Bill are fat eyesores, but that summer, really dude, they were massive. A good pump, my father, the Anadrol, all that’s left is the intangible story. The legend. And okay, that thing about frontiers, maybe it wasn’t Thomas Jefferson, but you get the idea.
There will be cougars outside. It’s such a chick thing to think life should just go on forever. 
If you read this blog post from me yesterday, then you know that the British Dragon website is fully functional again, and promising to have new batches ready and on the market by early 2009.
I’m hearing a lot of things right now, but I’m only going to repeat the most credible. The early word I’m getting is that IP is not in control of the British Dragon website, but rather that GenXXL (Axio) is behind the site. I’m not sure if that’s true, but I have been in touch with the parents of Mark More (deceased owner of British Dragon), and they have told me that they have nothing to do with the site’s sale or re-opening, nor anything to do with the new British Dragon.
The word I’m getting is that people fitting GenXXL’s description are setting up shop and mixing oils in one country, and shipping them from another - which fits GenXXL/Axio’s usual game plan.
The rumor is that Richard Crawley (the only remaining founder of British Dragon) needed money for legal fees related to him being busted, and sold the site to GenXXL (who had been bidding for it over the course of several months anyway, prior to the site going down). If this is true, then GenXXL (Axio) is in control of the site, will be trading on a name that they did not create, and trying to take credit for almost a decade of British Dragon’s good reputation. This would sort of make sense, because recently, the Axio Labs brand has fallen off in quality, and complaints are piling up on every site.
However, I was under the impression that Axio Labs had already started up another brand, under the name Syntrop, and the domain is registered to a Mr. Henry Wu. Most Axio remailers and retailers are switching over carrying to this brand, as Axio’s quality and reputation has been taking a beating over the past few months.
The new British Dragon site is registered through the ICANN registrar Register.com, and anonymously held through a Portuguese company called Domain Discreet. Strangely, however, the British Dragon site’s IP location is listed as being within the United States, in Washington.
That’s a bit scary, huh? Why is the new British Dragon website listing an IP location within the United States?!? Maybe some kind of …well, actually…I’m at a bit of a loss as to explain why the “new British Dragon” has a website IP address within the United States of America. And honestly, I don’t see why GenXXL/Axio would bother with buying the British Dragon website when they’ve started switching over to calling themselves Syntrop.
I know a lot of people are claiming that Syntrop isn’t necessarily just the GenXXL guys moving on from Axio, but…
A quick look at their outgoing mail Internet Provider address for Syntrop seems to indicate that they are using the same IP address as Axio, GenXXL, Napsgear, Swiftpax, and several other Axio and GenXXL sources, but not British Dragon:
Naturally, there are also other sites using that same outgoing mail server, that have nothing to do with Axio/GenXXL…but it’s interesting to note that most of them do have strong ties to GenXXL. In fact, almost all of the GenXXL & Axio related sites share some of the same IP addresses as well as the same registration information. But The new British Dragon site is not among them. Registration is also slightly different (in some cases) even when outgoing mail servers were the same. For example, Axiolabsgear.com, is registered to Christian Andone, of Romania, and AxioLabs.com is registered to Sasha Petrozavodsk, while GenXXLgear.com is registered to the same person as GenXXL.com (Steven Slax).
At this point, I hope you’re thinking about how terribly clever and bright I am, or what great underground contacts I have to be able to get all of this information on all of these steroid dealers and underground labs.
Well, if that’s what you’re thinking, forget it.
All of this information was already out there and available for free on the internet already…I just had to dig it up. Believe me, if I can find out who owns a site, anyone can. The only thing that should shock you is the stupidity of these steroid manufacturers and dealers - you’d have thought that since one of them already went to jail, they’d smarten up and try being somewhat anonymous.
Now…I’m not 100% what any of this exactly means. It just seems to me, based on my research that there is more than a passing acquaintance between all of these sites…and it’s pretty sloppy - so I’m not totally convinced (*yet) that GenXXL now owns the British Dragon site (nor am I totally sure if it is International Pharmaceuticals, although it’s definitely something that he’d do, as he’s still producing BD counterfeits). 
I certainly think that GenXXL has been very sloppy in the past, and one of their owners (Brian Wainstein) ended up serving 4 months (out of a 2 year sentence)…the hilarious part of this is that he was arrested at the address he used to register the site that he sold steroids on. You may recall that I was the first to tell you about this bust, and who it was. You may also recall that I was the first to tell you about the British Dragon bust…but hey, who’s counting?
Amazingly after Brian was busted, one of his partners (Steven Slax, one of the other guys from GenXXL) then took over the domain name and registered it to his own home (no, really):
I know this seems like an amazingly stupid thing to do, but it gets worse…he actually gives his registrant name as SwiftPax, which is a site used to take orders and mail for GenXXL. Obviously, this degree of sloppiness and inability to be discreet is part of the reason I have always told people to avoid GenXXL. I’d be shocked if they didn’t get arrested again (and fairly soon).
Amazingly, NapsGear.com (NapsGear) has exactly the same registration information and address as GenXXL does!
Of course, I’m aware that there are ways around all of this, proxy IP addresses, fake mailing addresses or P.O. boxes, and anonymous hosting - and tons of other tricks. But I’m not seeing any related to the information I’ve given you today.
I’ll update you when I get more information…
British Dragon products are hitting the gyms again, supported by the fact that BritishDragon.com website is back online and fully operational. It’s only been up for a few days now, but for anyone who has forgotten, British Dragon was founded by Mark More and Edwin Richard Crawley…Mark passed away, and Richard was arrested.
Prior to that, I told you that the company folded. Around the point that the company was going under, the owners of Axio Labs (GenXXL) were trying to purchase the domain name from Mark and Richard. Naturally, they were trying to purchase the domain name so they could run the site, and claim to be “back in business” …even though they’d never actually (previously) manufactured a single British Dragon product.
But when they went out of business, the owners of British Dragon put this notice up on the website, TELLING US EXPLICITLY that they were going out of business, and that their stock was going to run out sometime in 2007:
British Dragon has always been a procurement company. However, with an aim toward producing licensed products, we formed a partnership in Eastern Europe to manufacture. Before this was finalised, sub-standard products were being produced which were not to the standard nor tradition of British Dragon.
Thus, no genuine British Dragon products (as under the control of the founders) will be produced after December, 2006.
All our regular distributors as listed on the Suppliers list will have sufficient stock until well into the new year (2007).
British Dragon would like to thank its loyal supporters.
Please re-visit this site for further bulletins.
Therefore, anyone carrying British Dragon products in 2008 is carrying a counterfeit. Of course, we know that IP had already been caught by British Dragon trying to counterfeit their gear. Then, a few months ago, this popped up on the British Dragon website:
Coming soon, eh?
Yeah, counterfeits are coming soon.
My guess is that International Pharmaceuticals (*OR GENXXL) is up to his (their) old tricks, and when the British Dragon website’s registration ran out, he was waiting there to scoop it up (he did the same thing with the Quality Vet trademark), and will now be producing products that say “British Dragon” but have nothing to do with the original company.
The new British Dragon site and products is a scam…the website is under control of somebody who has never had anything to do with the original company, and the founders and owners have nothing to do with it.
I’ve contacted several people (Mark More’s family, and a few other people associated with British Dragon, to try to verify what’s going on)…I’ll update you when I know more.
Even if you are (or consider yourself) well versed in steroids, this should be a good refresher course in steroids for most of my readers; I’m not just going over definitions, but also going in depth on some of the biology and chemistry for them.
And although I’ve seen people using various medical/chemical/biological terms on the Internet (in forums and discussion boards), but…well, judging from the context I’m seeing them used in, I’m pretty sure that people don’t actually know what they mean (by pretty sure, I mean positive). By that, I’m saying I’m 100% sure people are totally incorrect, on most of the forums, most of the time (by most, I mean all).
Of course, there’s various “educational” posts available, which attempt to give us definitions for the terms we’re seeing in use on those forums. Do we really need someone to define the word “bro” for us?
Alright, with that being said, I’m going to move on to some useful definitions for the average steroid user.
Androgen: This is a catch-all term for drugs (or synthetic compounds) and/or naturally occurring hormones that stimulate the development and maintenance of masculine characteristics. Usually when we (I) talk about them, we’re talking about
Androgen Receptor: This is the receptor “reserved” for steroids like testosterone and such (in other words, androgens). When the androgen receptor binds with an androgen, it forms a dimer, travels to the cell nucleus, and imparts gene transcription.
Aromatization: This is the process by which testosterone converts to estrogen, via the aromatase enzyme. This occurs in various tissues, such as skeletal muscle and adipose tissues. Also, you’ll experience less of this if you have less adipose tissue (less fat on a cycle means fewer sides, believe it or not).
Dihydrotestosterone: This stuff, also called DHT, is made from testosterone in your body via interaction with the enzyme 5-alpha-reductase, which adds 2 hydrogen atoms to testosterone. It has a variety of effects in the human body, and is responsible for certain unwanted side effects such as hair loss. DHT interacts strongly with the central nervous system, and has both anabolic as well as androgenic effects.
Estrogen: This is the primary female sexual hormone. Men don’t want much of it floating around, as it is responsible for some nasty side effects like water retention, gynecomastia, acne, etc. It also may aid in growth by helping production of IGF and GH and may even enhance immune function. It can also increase the amount of androgen receptors in the body. We certainly want some of it around, but not too much, as it can also lower testosterone levels.
Follicle Stimulating Hormone: This hormone (commonly referred to as FSH) is a gonadotropin, which is responsible for egg-cell-containing follicles in the female ovaries, and it also stimulates follicular cells to secrete estrogen. In males, it helps stimulate the production of sperm cells in the testes during puberty. It also may tell the testes to secrete testosterone, but certainly influences the number of leydigs cells, which we secrete testosterone. . Finally, FSH stimulates the production of Androgen Binding Protein in the Sertoli cells.
Glucagon: This is a hormone that is produced in the pancreas and regulates blood sugar levels. Unlike insulin, glucagon is released when blood sugar levels are low. It causes the release of glucose from glycogen.
Growth Hormone: Growth Hormone (GH) is a protein that stimulates your body’s cells to undergo more rapid cell division. It enhances the movement of amino acids through cell membranes and causes an increase in the rate in which they convert molecules to proteins and decrease the rate they use carbohydrates and increase the rate they use fats. It is secreted in rhythmic pulses, especially while you’re asleep and has an important anabolic effect on the body.
Hormones: A hormone is simply a substance secreted by a cell that has an effect on another cell. They can stimulate changes in target cells even when they are only present in miniscule amounts.
Hypothalamus: This releases gonadotropin- releasing hormone, and also controls most secretions of the pituitary gland.
Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Testicular-Axis: This is usually called the HPTA, and as you can guess, it basically regulates all of the hormones that stimulate the production of testosterone as well as GH and other goodies. Needless to say, keeping your HPTA in good working order is very important.
Insulin: Insulin is a protein secreted by the pancreas that acts on the liver to stimulate the formation of glycogen from glucose and inhibits the conversion of non-carbohydrates into glucose.
Insulin-Like Growth Factor: Insulin-like growth factor is released from the liver in response to GH. It has an important anabolic effect on the body.
Luteinizing Hormone: This stuff (usually called LH, in shorthand) promotes the secretion of sex hormones. We’re hoping to keep it high (or not let it get too low) so it keeps telling out testes to secrete testosterone. Both LH as well as testosterone is secreted in pulses between eight and fourteen times per day, testosterone being preceded by LH by approximately an hour. Testosterone is, of course, controlled via a negative feedback loop, thus a higher level of testosterone in your body causes a decrease in LH.
Negative Feedback System (or loop): This is the system by which your body recognizes an abundance of a particular hormone and consequently stops producing it. In simple terms, if you are injecting testosterone, your body will sense this and stop producing its own.
Pituitary Gland: The anterior lobe of this secretes a variety of hormones such as growth hormone, thyroid- stimulating hormone, prolactin, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone. You want to keep this thing healthy and happy.
Prolactin: This is a protein that promotes milk production in the female body, and even worse, if you screw up, in the male body. Prolactin causes a decrease in Luteinizing Hormone, and this lowers testosterone (see below).
Prostaglandins: Some of these regulate cellular responses to hormones and stimulate the secretion of a variety of hormones.
Receptor: This is a thing in the cell that is basically like a parking spot. When a steroid hormone comes in, it’s like parking a car in that spot. The steroid hormone then tells the cell to do something. If the hormone is testosterone, it may tell the cell to “build more muscle!” If the hormone is estrogen, it may say, “Watch Desperate Housewives!” Well, not really, but you get the idea.
Steroids: These are compounds whose molecules contain fairly complex rings of Carbon and Hydrogen atoms. Steroid hormones include (but are not limited to) testosterone and estrogen, and we will be primarily concerned with those two although we will examine many other hormones. Sometimes we use the term “steroid” to mean anabolic steroid, which is only one possible type. Steroid hormones (like testosterone) are soluble in the lipids that make up cell walls. This means they can get into a cell and mess around with the receptors in the nucleus, which is exactly what we want.
Testosterone: This is the primary male sex hormone. Settle in, this is going to be a long explanation, but possibly the most important one. Testosterone is manufactured in the Leydigs cells in the testes, at about 2.5-11mgs/day for the average male. You know those dudes with full beards in Junior High School? Yeah, they are probably producing somewhere around the upper limit. The testosterone molecule floats around in your body eliciting various changes including the building of muscle, and development of male sexual characteristics. Remember those receptors I told you about earlier? Yeah, well testosterone “parks” in those spaces and delivers it’s message (“Build more muscle”), then “unparks” and drives around the lot looking for another spot to park in and deliver it’s message. In normal males 2% of testosterone is unbound to protein (free), 54% is bound to albumin and other proteins, and 44% is bound to sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG).
Thyroid Stimulating Hormone: This is a protein bound to a carbohydrate. Yum! No…just kidding…it is a protein bound to a carbohydrate, but what it does is control the secretion of hormones from the thyroid gland.
That was by no means a comprehensive list of the hormones in your body, or their functions, and of course it’s not everything that each and every hormone does or can do under special circumstances. But it’s good enough for our purposes here, and knowing what those hormones do will help you know what the various steroids will do in your body. Hopefully now you have a better basic understanding of the primary hormones and terms used regarding anabolic steroids.
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