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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "

15.05.2012

Gain 1.5 kg lean body mass with three-week course of LGD-4033

Despite the negative reports on S4, SARMs like ostarine have become pretty common among chemical athletes, so another SARM, LGD-4033, is likely to find its way quickly into steroids circles. Especially if you read about the successes reported from the first human experiments with LGD-4033. According to research led by Shalender Bhasin, healthy men can build up 1.5 kg muscle mass in just three weeks by taking the substance. And they managed this without doing weight training.

LGD-4033 was developed by LGD Pharmaceuticals. At present pharmaceuticals companies have about half a dozen SARMs in the pipeline, for which the first round of human studies have been successfully completed, and which could therefore be launched pretty soon. LGD-4033 is one of these.

SARMs are compounds which in terms of structure do not resemble classical anabolic steroid hormones such as testosterone and trenbolone, but which do interact with the androgen receptor. Because they are so 'strange' endocrinologists expect that they will have fewer side effects than their steroids, the anabolic steroids. Steroids throw processes in the body into chaos in a myriad ways because they interact with multiple receptors and enzymes. Because of their design SARMs only interact with the androgen receptor and with no other receptors. At least, that's the idea.

You can read more about SARMs in Chapter 20 of Ergo-Log's Anabolics Book. [Which by the way is now available as a paperback book. Hint, hint...]

Endocrinologists at Boston University are soon to publish the results of a study they did in which 76 healthy men aged between 21 and 50 participated. The researchers divided the men into 4 groups, of which one group took a placebo every day for three weeks. This was the control group. The men in the other three groups took 0.1, 0.3 or 1 mg LGD-4033 daily.

In the men who took a daily 1 mg LGD-4033 their lean body mass increased by 1.5 kg. That's a lot for a SARM. This is probably partly because LGD-4033 breaks down slowly. The half-life of the steroid was between 24 and 36 hours. LGD-4033 had no effect on fat mass.

The new SARM did have some side effects. The 1 mg dose resulted in a statistically significant reduction of free testosterone in the blood. As you can see in the figure above, after three weeks of taking 1 mg LGD-4033 the testosterone level was only restored to its normal level after five weeks. And before you ask: no, the test subjects did not do post-cycle therapy.

But the concentration of PSA, a protein that predicts the likelihood of prostate cancer, did not rise, which is a positive sign. The blood viscosity did not increase either, which is also a positive sign.

The effects on lipids were mixed. The daily dose of 1 mg LGD-4033 resulted in a significant decrease in the concentration of the 'good cholesterol' HDL. That's bad news. But on the other hand the concentration of trigylcerides went down – and that's positive. "Long-term studies are needed to clarify the effects of long-term SARM administration on cardiovascular risk", the researchers write.

Not only the cardiovascular effects, but also the reduction of endogenous production of testosterone, mean that the researchers are not entirely convinced of the long-term effects of LGD-4033. "Short-term indications for grievous conditions, such as cancer cachexia or functional limitations following an acute illness or hip fracture, might provide a more attractive risk:benefit profile for initial trials of SARMs than long-term indications such as aging-associated sarcopenia", they conclude.

The study was financed by Ligand Pharmaceuticals.

Source:
J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2012 Mar 28. [Epub ahead of print].

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