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Why can't we just give steroids to people with muscular dystrophy?

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Re: Why can't we just give steroids to people with muscular dystrophy?

#61
post #22
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As a result, when you end your cycle, your body needs to restart its natural test production. There can be a delay while this happens and it leads to unpleasant, though temporary, side effects, like weight gain and a loss of sexual appetite. Why not just slowly taper it off?

Test is injected into muscles, usually once every 2-4 weeks. It can't be taken orally. This makes dosage control difficult. The long half-life also means that your body's control systems are slow to act (if they reacted quickly then you'd risk ending up with too much, and be unable to get rid of it).

IM injection is one of the best ways to get correct dosage control (apart from IV controlled delivery of course).

Also there are several steroids with different half-lives, so you can pick the best for your case.

Re: Why can't we just give steroids to people with muscular dystrophy?

#62
post #19

Why are steroids even a controlled drug? If a man wants to use them and knows the risks he should be able to. Same with any drug I guess.

We’ll, for one it’d ruin sports. If it’s legal and up to the athlete to decide — then in order to remain competitive all athletes would need to take steroids. You’d basically be telling athletes that they’d need to subject their bodies to the side effects of steroids if they wanted to remain competitive in their sport. That seems like an unfair obligation to place on athletes.

> We’ll, for one it’d ruin sports

Do you mean ruin professional sports? And for the professional sportspeople only? If so that doesn't seem on its own like a restriction that would need to apply society-wide.

Re: Why can't we just give steroids to people with muscular dystrophy?

#63
post #9
post #2

A different question. As someone who had to recover from Achilles tear and had to rebuild an atrophied calf muscle. Why don’t we just give anabolic steroids to people if their muscles atrophied after wearing a cast?

In men, there are complications with your body’s natural testosterone production. If you inject test (the most basic anabolic steroid) then in order to maintain a sort of homeostasis, your body will lower its natural test production. The same goes for any other anabolic steroid, as they are all test derivatives. As a result, when you end your cycle, your body needs to restart its natural test production. There can be…

Not all steroids will immediately shut down your HPTA like test would. There are drugs like Oxandrolone (Anavar) which will not have this side effect assuming a low dose and relatively short term of use - it was originally prescribed for burn victims but nowadays you can get it prescribed in regular clinics for heavy injuries too.

Re: Why can't we just give steroids to people with muscular dystrophy?

#64
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or BPC 157.

Has anyone here used it? Or TB-500? I have a tendon/pulley injury that doesn't seem to want to heal and I've been researching it. At least one relevant study. There is one Dr. in my area (a gyno of all things) that has a website promoting his practice using it. So has at least a sheen of professionalism. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21030672/

I have tried both, for a nagging rugby-induced shoulder injury.

Nothing. Nada. No perceptible difference. I am…passingly acquainted…with injectable performance-enhancing drugs, and TB-500 and BPC-157 just did nothing for me.

Nor did they for a good friend. Now, that is a tiny sample size, and largely meaningless. (Did our supplier actually manage to get ahold of or synthesize a complex long-chain peptide? Shrug!) But there’s my 2 cents.

Re: Why can't we just give steroids to people with muscular dystrophy?

#65
post #4

Weren't some SARMs trialed on cancer patients that were having muscle wasting?

I know they were used on people with AIDS.

As was Anavar, an anabolic-androgenic steroid.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8970686/

It was fairly commonly used in the Bad Old Days of HIV/AIDS, before there was anything resembling a real treatment. Got a lot of people out of bed.

Re: Why can't we just give steroids to people with muscular dystrophy?

#66

Why are steroids even a controlled drug? If a man wants to use them and knows the risks he should be able to. Same with any drug I guess.

Here, I’ll play devil’s advocate, even though I may have dabbled in anabolics once or twice. (Kidding, DEA! Obviously! D.A.R.E. worked for me!)

The potential side effects are real. Very real. It requires a high degree of information literacy to do even a basic testosterone cycle, as you need to understand the injection frequency, how to control estrogen on cycle, and post-cycle therapy. It’s not like weed, were you can just go buy a vape cartridge. It’s a little complex, and liable to end up going poorly in the most interested market of young naïve men.

-

Now, that’s the best argument, though if you’re libertarian minded, it’s still a terrible argument.

Of course the real truth is…do you have money? Do you live in or near a large city? If you do, there are “male enhancement clinics” who are more than happy to provide you with testosterone and maybe more, and guide you through all the side effects and post-cycle therapy. It is trivially easy to get ahold of steroids, and it is not hard to find a doc who will look the other way.

Re: Why can't we just give steroids to people with muscular dystrophy?

#67
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Test is injected into muscles, usually once every 2-4 weeks. It can't be taken orally. This makes dosage control difficult. The long half-life also means that your body's control systems are slow to act (if they reacted quickly then you'd risk ending up with too much, and be unable to get rid of it).

more current test treatments are recommending much more frequent injections to more closely mimic the 'constant' production your body actually creates. Rather than injecting once a week, injecting multiple times a week eliminates a lot of the really highs and lows from injecting on schedules like you recommend. The issue is compliance - nobody really wants to inject themselves every day or every other day.

I’m surprised that doctors are prescribing TRT, with testosterone enenthate, but then only having the patient inject once a week. That half-life is really sputtering out by the end of the week.

(Well, I know why—like you said, compliance. But c’mon, left cheek on Monday, right check on Thursday, easy enough.)

Re: Why can't we just give steroids to people with muscular dystrophy?

#68
post #33

A cure for muscular dystrophy for humans already exists. Only problem is, it costs a whopping $2 million USD. [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-novartis-genetherapy/nova... [2] https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/24/7254041...

Muscular Dystrophy isn’t a single disease— it’s an umbrella term for a whole class of neurodegenerative diseases with different etiologies. We need to be clear on which one we’re talking about when we talk about cures.

The industry is going the route of gene therapy.

> SAREPTA THERAPEUTICS ANNOUNCES GENE THERAPY PROGRAM FOR LGMD2A/R1 Today

https://investorrelations.sarepta.com/news-releases/news-rel...

Re: Why can't we just give steroids to people with muscular dystrophy?

#69
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or BPC 157.

Has anyone here used it? Or TB-500? I have a tendon/pulley injury that doesn't seem to want to heal and I've been researching it. At least one relevant study. There is one Dr. in my area (a gyno of all things) that has a website promoting his practice using it. So has at least a sheen of professionalism. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21030672/

I wonder if either of these would work for a nagging tennis elbow? I'm 50 and I've tried pin-firing and it doesn't seem to have cleared it up.

Re: Why can't we just give steroids to people with muscular dystrophy?

#70
post #22
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As a result, when you end your cycle, your body needs to restart its natural test production. There can be a delay while this happens and it leads to unpleasant, though temporary, side effects, like weight gain and a loss of sexual appetite. Why not just slowly taper it off?

Test is injected into muscles, usually once every 2-4 weeks. It can't be taken orally. This makes dosage control difficult. The long half-life also means that your body's control systems are slow to act (if they reacted quickly then you'd risk ending up with too much, and be unable to get rid of it).

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