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AnadrolComplete info about Anadrol
Anadrol (commonly called by athletes "A50" or "A-bombs") was initially developed as a compound to help people with anemia, and has since been used very successfully to aid people who are suffering from many other diseases where weight loss is a concern. Thus, it is clearly an effective agent for promoting weight gain, increasing appetite, gaining strength, and increasing red Blood cell count. And, as with most Anabolic/Androgenic Steroids (AAS), it has its downsides as well. Anadrol will inhibit your body's natural production of hormones (testosterone, etc), will negatively affect your blood lipid profile, can cause water retention, is notorious for causing headaches and is also highly liver toxic (in fact, it has the worst reputation for hepatoxicity out of all steroids). Paradoxically, although one of the benefits touted by its original manufacturer (Syntex) is that it can be used to stimulate weight gain through increasing appetite, taking too much may actually inhibit your appetite! In oder to gain a complete understanding of this compound, we need to take a look at its advantages contrasted with its disadvantages. Anadrol is a DHT-derived compound, and is a 17-Alpha-Alkylated steroid, meaning that it has been altered at the 17th carbon position to survive oral ingestion. Most oral steroids are 17aa, and this helps them make it through your liver in a useful form. The 17aa alteration, which makes it possible for Anadrol to survive its first pass through your liver, also makes it very taxing on your liver. How taxing is A50 and how much weight can you gain from its use? There was a 30 week study done on A50 and, as you can expect, a reasonable amount of side effects were noted. The fact that A50 causes some side effects has really never been in debate. But how effective was the drug? At first it should be mentioned that this study was done on people with AIDS related wasting, and they actually gained weight (8+kg) while the control group lost weight and had increased mortality rates (1). I suppose, if you're in a study because you have a wasting disease which is also a terminal illness, you don't want to end up in the control group. Anyway, weight gain in this study peaked at 19-20 weeks, though, so the last 10 weeks weren't very productive in this respect. Clearly, you wouldn't want to run Anadrol for 20 weeks, given its toxicity, but after that, any effect in terms of weight and strength gains would be negligible anyway. The sheer fact that this study lasted so long (30 weeks) should make it apparent that sides can be kept under control and the drug can be used safely. People are commonly told to limit their intake of A50 to 4 weeks or less. However many experts believe you can easily run A50 for 6 weeks or more. Unwanted effectsSince Anadrol is derived from DHT, it can't actually convert to estrogen (via the aromatase enzyme), and it's not a progestin or a compound with progestenic activity, so the estrogenic side effects it produces are of a very mysterious nature. It has been speculated that perhaps it can stimulate the estrogen receptor without actually being converted to estrogen, that's about as plausible an explanation as possible. However, things really get strange when Oxymetholone is used in studies to alter the female reproductive/menstrual cycle; in those cases, it has lowered plasma progesterone levels (7)! One would expect that an AI (aromatase inhibitor) wouldn't be of much use with this drug, but many have found that Letrozole (which has, in some cases, been shown to reduce estrogen in the body to an undetectable amount) (6) can greatly reduce or even eliminate many of the more noticeable side effects of Anadrol, such as the bloating. The side effects from this drug are certainly no joke, but are easily preventable and controllable. One study even showed very few sides for subjects using up to 100mgs of Oxymetholone (2). In the original UnderGround Steroid HandBook, Dan Duchaine states that he used it at doses up to 150mgs/day. Clearly, Anadrol's hepatoxicity has been a bit exaggerated, in some circles. It is recommended to limit Anadrol's use to 6 weeks, at a maximum even if just to err on the side of caution. UsageHow should we use Anadrol? It is very appropriate to include it in a cycle with injectable steroids, but not other 17aa compounds. A 6-weekrun of this compound at begin at the start of a cycle, as a form of "jumpstart" towards seeing gains quickly is a good idea. The quick gains you will get from Anadrol (up to a pound per day for the first 2 weeks are not uncommon in Anadrol users) are also just as quick to disappear upon cessation of use, unless you are simply using it as a kickstarter, while waiting for your other compounds to kick-in. We can say that utilizing Anadrol as a "Jumpstart" is the most popular use of this drug for athletes and bodybuilders today. This drug is immensely popular with strength athletes who don't have to worry about weight classes (field athletes and strongmen), and with powerlifters in the heavier weight brackets. It's also important to note that in one study by Schroder et. al (2), Anadrol showed that it has the ability to lower serum SHBG (Sex Hormone Binding Globulin, which binds to your free test and makes it no longer useful for anabolism, among other things) concentrations by 54.9 ± 25.8 and 45 ± 16.2 nmol/l in the 50- and 100-mg treatment groups. This means there will be more free test circulating around your body when you take this drug. Clearly, this would produce some synergy when stacked with other steroids. Given the large amounts of weight and strength which can be gained in a relatively short time span on this drug, I'm sure this comes as no surprise to many. Another important and often understated characteristic of this compound is that Oxymetholone doesn't bind well to the androgen receptor (Relative Binding Affinity = too low to be determined) (3); its rate is one of the lowest possible. There are a lot of non-receptor mediated effects from this steroid, making it a very potent addition to ANY BULKING stack, because it won't be competing for the receptor sites with the other steroids you're using. It's also a very poor choice for a cutting stack. DosingHow much should you use? Well, this is actually one of the most interesting facts about Anadrol. You see, most steroids produce what we call a "dose respondent curve" which is a fancy way of saying, "the more you use, the more you gain." Anadrol is one of the few steroids where the dose respondent curve flattens out very quickly. When you take 50mgs of Anadrol, you'll make some very good gains. When you take 100mgs of Anadrol, you'll make even more gains. However, it has been found that 100mgs/day is as effective for weight gain as 150mgs/day but produces fewer side effects and is less toxic (4). The jump from 50mgs to 100mgs constitutes an acceptable rise in benefit vs. cost, but this is not the case as dosages get over 100mgs. Now, let's see how 50mgs and 100mgs of Oxymetholone actually effect strength, when compared with each other: As you can see, in this study, doubling the dose of Anadrol nearly doubled the strength gains of the test subjects. Now, when we look at changes in body composition from Oxymetholone we can see that although the guys taking the 100mgs (vs. the 50mgs group) had more fat lost and more lean body mass gained, it wasn't as dramatic as the differences in strength gains between the two groups: This steroid is very available on the black market in the form of capsules, tablets (some are even 75mgs!), liquid, and even paper. Prices will vary, and be indicative of many different factors including the form in which you buy the compound (paper will usually be the most expensive, and liquid the least), and where you live. Here's how Oxymetholone is metabolized in your body: References
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