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You’re taking pleasure in your calories and macronutrients.
It appears as though you’re giving your exercises everything you have.
You’re spending a small fortune on vitamins for your workouts.
And it’s not even close to being enough. Simply said, the needle isn’t moving as rapidly as you’d like it to.
Perhaps you’ve even entertained the idea of using steroids in the past. However, you are aware of the potential side effects and health hazards, and you are not yet ready to take the plunge into the unknown (har har har).
And then you come upon SARMs, which you can’t but but wonder about:
Supposedly, these pills are the “holy grail” of bodybuilding supplements.
Is it possible that they can genuinely help you grow muscle and reduce fat almost as well as steroids, but without any of the negative side effects?
Moreover, they are both affordable and legal!
It beyond comprehension.
That’s why so many people believe that SARMs are the ultimate supplements for health-conscious bodybuilders, and so many athletes are praising them for their ability to improve performance while also increasing muscle mass.
It certainly appears to be too good to be true, but is it really true? What does the scientific community have to say?
We’re going to get to the bottom of it all in this piece, so stay tuned.
We’re going to look at what SARMs are, how they operate, and what the research indicates about how effective and safe they are in practical use, among other things.
SARM is an abbreviation for selective androgen receptor modulator, and it refers to a type of medication that is structurally related in steroid.
There are many different SARMs available on the market, and some are more potent and have a higher risk of adverse effects than others, depending on the drug.
The most well-liked of them are…
You could wonder why the strange alphanumeric names are used.
Because SARMs have not been approved for medical use, pharmaceutical marketers have not bothered to refer to them by their proper names. Currently, they are only available for purchase as “research compounds,” which are designed for use in scientific study; however, more on that in a bit.
Now, in order to comprehend how these pharmaceuticals function, we must first examine the physiology of hormone agents.
Human hormones are chemical messengers that your body utilises to connect with cells in order to maintain health and well-being.
To think of them as outbound mail with vital recommendations, imagine them arriving at the “mailboxes” of the cells’ hormone receptors, where they are then executed.
Androgens are hormones that are responsible for the development of masculinity (deeper voice, facial hair, more muscle and lower body fat levels, and so forth). Testosterone is the most well-known androgen, although there are other androgens as well.
Androgens have three basic mechanisms by which they exert their effects on the body:
Under normal circumstances, your body carefully regulates androgen production, relying on sensitive feedback mechanisms to keep hormone levels in check and prevent abnormalities.
When anabolic steroids are introduced into the body, however, your cells are inundated with androgens, which are so many that all easily available receptors are completely overloaded.
Muscle cells grow as a result of this, sending a very powerful message to all cells that are listening, including those that are not listening.
For weightlifters, these appear to be exciting times, but there are certain risks involved.
According to research, some of the harmful consequences of steroid use are reversible, while others are irreversible. It is possible to suffer irreversible harm.
Some reversible alterations include testicular atrophy (shrinking), cysts, greasy hair and skin, elevated high blood pressure and “bad” cholesterol levels, increased aggressiveness, and a decrease in sperm count, to name a few.
Among the irreversible effects are male-pattern baldness, heart disease, liver disease, and gynecomastia (male breast growth) (breast development).
Another significant disadvantage of steroid use is the possibility of developing psychological and bodily dependence.
Research conducted by experts at Harvard Medical School discovered that 30 percent of steroid users had dependency syndrome, and speaking with enough true drug users will reveal everything about their addicted upbringing and living conditions, according to the study.
Over the last several years, scientists have been working hard to develop steroids or steroid-like medications that are not as hazardous to people’s health and well-being as traditional steroids, and supplement marketers say SARMs are just that.
In contrast to steroid hormones, non-steroidal anabolic steroids are designed to stimulate the androgen receptors in muscle and bone cells alone, with little effect on any other cells in the body and, consequently, on the body’s whole endocrine system.
As far as anabolic steroids are concerned, taking them on a regular basis is similar to carpet bombing your system with androgens. This system works, however it is irresponsible and causes a large number of innocent deaths.
Taking SARMs, on the other hand, is analogous to using a drone to strike just the asshole whistleblower reporters… sorry… I mean, bad guy terrorists…
Simply said, SARMs can signal to your muscle cells that they need to develop without the noise and commotion associated with anabolic steroids.
SARMs achieve this in two ways, according to the science: first, they have a specific affinity for some tissues, such as muscle and bone, while having no attraction for others, such as the prostate, liver, and brain.
They do not degrade into undesirable chemicals that cause side effects, such as DHT and oestrogen, as readily as other compounds.
The second point is particularly important.
One important aspect of SARMs is that they are not easily converted into DHT by an enzyme known as 5-a reductase, which is responsible for a variety of negative side effects associated with steroid use.
SARMs are also resistant to the enzyme aromatase, which is responsible for the conversion of testosterone into oestrogen in the body.
Finally, because SARMs are less strong than traditional anabolic steroids, they do not have the same negative impact on natural testosterone production as traditional anabolic steroids, making them simpler to recover from.
Statistically significant androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) are a wonder medicine that replicates many of the effects of testosterone in muscle and bone tissue while having (ideally) very little effect on other organs. As a result, the hypothesis holds that you may have all of the benefits of steroids without any of the negative effects.
SARMs were initially developed to treat patients suffering from disorders such as muscular wasting, osteoporosis, anaemia, and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
When they were first introduced, they were meant to be a much healthier alternative to testosterone replacement treatment. It is still up in the air whether or not they will be able to realise their vision.
SARMs are typically used by bodybuilders for one of two reasons:
(1) to increase muscle mass, or
(2) to increase strength.
For the purpose of “getting their feet wet” with anabolic drug usage before to beginning standard steroid cycles.
Increase the efficiency of steroid cycles without increasing the risk of side effects or health complications.
A large number of bodybuilders feel that SARMs are particularly useful for cutting since they aid to preserve lean mass while appearing to have no effect on water retention.
After all, while research has shown that SARMs aren’t as good for bodybuilding as traditional steroids, they are unquestionably more effective than anything natural that you may consume (like creatine).
They’re also popular among elite sportsmen since they’re more difficult to detect in drug testing than most other substances.
Now, if everything I’ve written thus far has made you want to sprint to Google with your money in hand, hold on a sec… we’re not finished yet.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have only been available for a few decades and, unfortunately, have not been subjected to any human research studies.
We just don’t know enough about how they function or the potential long-term consequences of using them, which is a fair source of concern.
Furthermore, because all SARMs offered online are essentially black-market commodities, they are not subject to any kind of regulatory monitoring, and quality control is usually an issue. Mislabeling, contamination, and other antics are all too typical in today’s world of business.
This is what we do understand about the situation, however:
SARMs work by inhibiting your body’s natural testosterone production.
An important selling feature for a lot of these medicines is the assertion that they do not interfere with the creation of testosterone by the body’s testosterone-producing cells.
This is a fabrication. They most certainly do.
Researchers at GTx Inc., a pharmaceutical company that specialises in the production of SARMs, conducted a study in which male subjects who took 3 mg of the SARM ostarine per day for 86 days experienced a 23 percent drop in complimentary testosterone levels and a 43 percent drop in total testosterone levels (throughout the trial).
Because GTx, Inc. manufactures and sells SARMs, the company had no motivation to inflate the results to make them appear worse than they actually were. In fact, they were paid to do the opposite, which was to underreport the bad side effects (there is no proof that this was done, but I’m just making a point).
Another investigation, conducted by experts at Boston University with the SARM ligandrol, revealed similar results to the one described above. A total of 76 men between the ages of 21 and 50 had a whopping 55 percent decline in total testosterone levels after taking 1 mg of ligandrol daily for just three weeks, according to one study. It was also discovered that it took 5 weeks for their natural testosterone production to recover. This was alarming.
Because SARMs lower your levels of luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone, they are being investigated as a male contraceptive owing to the fact that they diminish your sperm count as well as your testosterone levels.
All of this isn’t unexpected when you consider the fundamental physiology at work:
When androgens are introduced into the body, the body recognises the increase in testosterone production and responds by decreasing its own synthesis of comparable hormonal substances.
Whatever the SARM hucksters claim, SARMs are certain to suppress your natural testosterone production, and the more you take, the more your natural testosterone levels will plummet, as will your overall health.
It is likely that the more SARMs you take, the greater the likelihood of experiencing undesirable side effects.
SARMs are not totally free of negative effects; however, when used in small dosages, these effects are often negligible.
SARMs are probably less difficult to recover from than traditional anabolic steroids.
We recall that they do not convert into DHT or oestrogen in the same manner as steroids do, implying that they do not have the same negative effects on your system as steroids.
Bodybuilders, on the other hand, do not often utilise tiny dosages of steroids, which is why they are more likely to experience a lot of the bad side effects associated with steroid usage, such as acne and hair loss.
This is also true for the testosterone suppression that you have recently learned about, as you have discovered. The greater the amount of exogenous (originating outside of an organism) anabolic hormones you put into your body, whether through SARMs or plain ol’ testosterone, the greater the decrease in your natural testosterone production.
A study undertaken by experts at Copenhagen University found that a decrease in natural testosterone levels may last for several years after a person has stopped using steroids (or SARMs).
On paper, SARMs appear to be less taxing on the body than conventional steroids, which are mostly testosterone-based. If you take enough to notice significant benefits, however, there is a good chance that you will also experience significant negative consequences.
The anabolic properties of SARMs are also less than those of pure testosterone, which means they are less likely to decrease natural testosterone levels as much (although there is insufficient research study to know for certain).
As a result of this, if you’re taking enough to reap large benefits, you’re very certainly also taking enough to reap major drawbacks as well. That’s just the way medications are: they have both positive and negative effects, and you constantly have to evaluate the pros and cons.
Furthermore, if you use enough SARMs to cause some of the more severe side effects, such as hair loss, gynecomastia, and other issues, the consequences might last a long time, similar to the impacts of anabolic steroid usage in the past.
According to anecdotal evidence, many people say that they recover from SARM use more quickly than they do from normal steroid cycles. You should, however, take such accounts with a grain of salt because many of these folks have also taken far smaller doses of SARMs than they have ever used of steroids, making it impossible to do an apples-to-apples comparison.
Furthermore, as you’ll see in a minute, it’s very plausible that the substances these individuals were taking were not even SARMs.
When it comes to the bad effects of SARMs, they may be considerably simpler to recover from than when it comes to the negative effects of regular steroids, however this is based primarily on bodybuilder stories rather than clinical study.
SARMs may increase your chance of developing cancer.
In the case of the SARM cardarine, several large clinical studies had to be halted because it was causing malignant growths in the digestive tracts of laboratory mice.
You may have heard that the doses utilised were considerably greater than what we in the physical fitness industry would ever consume, but this is not accurate in this instance.
Because rats discard some medications from their bodies far more quickly than we do, they require higher doses to have the same effects as we do in humans.
In the above-mentioned study, the mice were given 10 mg per kg of body weight of cardarine per day, which, when adjusted for a human metabolism, equates to around 75 mg per day for a 200-pound man on a daily basis.
Explore bodybuilding forums, and you’ll quickly discover that many bodybuilders consume far more than that amount of protein each day.
Given that you can’t extend rodent studies to human beings (despite the fact that we share 98 percent of their DNA, we aren’t giant mice), it’s unclear if that medicine or other SARMs are actually increasing our chance of acquiring cancer in the first place.
There is also evidence that SARMs may actually block certain types of cancer, so we are at a loss for words as to what is going on.
If you ask me, this is merely another reason why I believe that SARMs should be considered as the very last and very first high-risk, low-reward option.
Although they’re marketed as a less dangerous alternative to traditional anabolic steroids like as testosterone, they’ve also been studied and understood far less thoroughly, which is why many specialists feel SARMs are a riskier alternative. It is far better to comprehend the devil than it is to understand the demon you do not understand.
There is evidence that SARMs may raise your risk of developing cancer, and little is known about the overall safety of these medications in the general population. When you take them, you are essentially acting as a guinea pig, and only time will tell how the experiment will turn out.
SARM products that claim to be effective are frequently not effective in any way.
Keeping in mind that SARMs can only be legally supplied as “research study compounds,” we should be cautious.
Naturally, the vast majority of SARMs available for purchase on the internet never make it into a research facility. More often than not, they are found in the bodies of bodybuilders, professional athletes, and physical fitness enthusiasts who are looking to bulk up.
As a result, the only people who are supposed to acquire SARMs are scientists who are interested in learning more about how they actually operate and whether or not they have any useful medicinal applications.
This opens the door to all kind of skulduggery, including but not limited to:
Poor quality control or cutting shortcuts during the manufacturing process might result in the pharmaceuticals becoming contaminated with harmful substances.
Making them into a mixture with lesser and often dangerous drugs in order to gain money.
Making them appear to be something they are not in order to increase revenue.
The results of a research study done by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) that entailed the purchase of 44 SARM items from 21 different internet vendors provides damning evidence to this effect.
The researchers then went a step further by requesting that all of the vendors give what’s known as a “chain-of-custody” of the items, which identifies which hands the products passed through during the manufacturing process (and thus who had the chance to tamper with them).
Following an evaluation of the items, the researchers discovered that…
In all, just 52 percent of the goods tested had any evidence of SARMs at all.
25 percent of the goods tested included doses that were significantly lower than those listed on the label.
25 percent of the goods included no or just trace levels of the SARM listed on the label, and instead contained unlabeled substances such as additional SARMs, as well as the oestrogen blockers androstenetrione and tamoxifen, among other things.
Overall, the SARM industry is a lawless wild west, and it is unlikely that this will change any time in the foreseeable future.
A lot of the products now on the market that are marketed as SARMs either do not contain any SARMs at all or include other unexpected chemicals and possibly toxic substances.
According to the study conducted by USADA, there is presently no federal government agency that requires SARMs makers to adhere to the rules. As a result, many manufacturers are well aware of this and are more concerned with earning a profit than anything else.
Basically, SARMs are a bad idea.
SARMs are medicines that deliver some of the advantages of anabolic steroids while causing less of the short-term side-effects associated with anabolic steroids.
Despite the fact that they are not as dependable as steroids, they do, without a doubt, increase muscle growth more than any other natural product on the market. They appear to be safer as well, but do not take this to imply that they are risk-free to consume.
Research clearly demonstrates that they lower natural testosterone production and have a detrimental impact on the endocrine system, and there is evidence that they may also raise the risk of developing cancer as well.
However, given the nature of SARMs, we cannot rule out the possibility of long-term health consequences from using them.
Finally, there is strong evidence that many of the items now on the market that are marketed as SARMs may not really contain SARMs and may instead include other pharmaceuticals, fillers, and potentially harmful contaminants.
So, if you’re looking for a clear-cut advise from me, it’s this: Stay away from SARMs at all costs.
In my opinion, the risks outweigh the benefits, and they’re just not essential if you want to create a muscular, powerful, and lean physique that you’ll be proud of.
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