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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "
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11.08.2009 |
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Striant less efficient than testosterone plaster
If you only read the abstract, then you’d believe that you’d be much better off using the testosterone preparation Striant rather than sticking testosterone plasters on your shoulder. But if you read the entire article, jointly published by English and German researchers in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, you’d realise you’re better off not spending your hard earned money on Striant.
Striant [see photo] looks a bit like a contact lens. But instead of placing it in your eye, you stick it to your gums, where it slowly releases testosterone for about twelve hours. Substances like polycarbophyl help the hormone to enter your body through your gums.
The researchers did an experiment on nearly seventy men, with an average of fifty, who had low testosterone levels. Half of the subjects used a testosterone plaster for seven days – Androderm, produced by the Watson pharmaceuticals company to be exact. The other half stuck a new Striant pill to their gums twice a day.
The figure below shows how the testosterone levels in the different groups on day 7. The large arrow shows when the men stuck an Androderm plaster on, and the small arrows indicate when the other men put in a new Striant. The testosterone levels were higher in the Striant group.
The figure gives the impression that Striant is a better choice than Androderm. And the figures for estradiol and DHT concentrations give the same impression as well. The Androderm users had a DHT concentration of 1.2 nanomols per litre. In the Striant group the figure was 2.4 nanomols per litre.
Things start to look different though if you compare the amount of testosterone contained in an Androderm patch with the amount in Striant. A patch contains In 5 milligrams, which was supposed to last the test subjects a whole day. One Striant contains 30 milligrams, and the subjects used two of these each day.
So the Striant users had a slightly higher testosterone level than the subjects who used Androderm plasters. But that’s hardly surprising if you’re getting twelve times as much testosterone.
The research was funded by the pharmaceutical company Columbia Laboratories, the manufacturer of Striant.
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