DefMetalLifter
MuscleChemistry Registered Member
Boosting Growth Hormone, Seeing the Light About Vitamin D
It’s pretty scary out there right now, as it seems we are entering some sort of all-out war on performance enhancement— and this war includes nutritional supplements as well as pharmaceuticals. More and more money is being put into law-enforcement actions against not just steroid dealers, but also legitimate doctors whose clientele are mature, responsible individuals simply looking to optimize their quality of life. It is really kind of tragic how we got this way, and it seems that the personal right to pursue happiness of normal individuals will become a casualty of the war on sports doping.
If only our government can step back and assess the situation in a more objective manner, and recognize that performance enhancement, in a safe controlled fashion by non-competitive individuals, is NOT harmful to society and should be a right for all of us. We don’t want to see middle-aged men get arrested, simply because they want to look and feel younger, do we?
Anyway, that’s just my thought for the month. So now you can go on and read some interesting tidbits I have compiled for you
New GHRH ‘Super-Agonist’
Not much information has been disseminated about this new drug candidate, but it looks very interesting for bodybuilding, and I am sure it will be in demand if it ever makes it to production. Right now it is only known under its experimental name ‘AKL-0707’ (formerly known as LAB GHRH), and its being produced by a drug development firm called Akela Pharma, which is headquartered in Canada. The drug is intended to be an alternative to growth hormone (GH) therapy, and is targeted toward the treatment of muscle wasting in patients with chronic renal failure.
As a quick background for you, growth hormone is released from the pituitary in a pulsatile manner, and its release is prompted by the action of growth hormone-releasing Hormone (GHRH). GHRH is released from the hypothalamus gland and travels to the pituitary, where it interacts with GHRH receptors. Native, human GHRH is a peptide consisting of 44 amino acids.
Native GHRH is not very useful as a drug to raise growth hormone levels, because it is extremely subject to destruction by serum proteases. This means you would have to either inject it several times a day, or utilize some sort of intravenous pump— both very impractical delivery methods.
AKL-0707, on the other hand, was developed to resist serum proteases while maintaining a high affinity to the GHRH receptor. AKL-0707 is 29 amino acids long, as opposed to the 44-amino acid length of native GHRH. When injected into the body, this drug has been demonstrated to cause a rapid and profound increase in growth hormone levels, and continued use over weeks results in substantial elevations in serum IGF-1 as well.
In a recent study, AKL-0707 was given to non-dialyzed, chronic kidney disease patients. Compared to the placebo control group, the drug group increased 24-hour GH secretion by almost 400 percent after 28 days. The natural rhythmic pulsatile release of GH was unchanged as well, and serum IGF-1 levels were doubled. DEXA analysis revealed that the group taking the drug experienced an increase in fat-free mass and body mineral content, and a decrease in body fat content. This group also experienced a decrease in urinary nitrogen excretion, despite no change in protein consumption, which indicates anabolic activity.
What is the significance of this? In my opinion, it’s interesting because it demonstrated a profound effect on GH and IGF-1 levels, while unlike straight GH therapy, a natural pulsatile release of GH was maintained. This may mean more IGF-1 production per given amount of GH, and perhaps less of a downregulatory action on the GH/IGF-1 axis. It would be interesting to see what the real-life benefits of this drug are on normal humans, and if this ever makes it to market (or is copied on the black market). I am sure we we’ll find out.
How Does GH Affect Muscle?
GH has been called a performance-enhancer, and bodybuilders take it to increase muscle mass (as well as decrease fat mass). But what is it really doing to the muscles themselves? Skeletal muscle consists primarily of muscle fibers, and these fibers are what perform the contractions that allow you to brush your teeth or do a bench press. Between each contractile muscle fiber, there is what’s called the ‘extracellular matrix.’ This filler material consists mostly of collagen, and it holds all the muscle fibers together in one neat package. While having nothing directly to do with contraction, this matrix imparts important mechanical properties to the muscle and plays a role in muscle regeneration after exercise or injury.
A recent study in the Journal of Physiology shed some light on what exactly is GH’s effect on muscle. The study examined the effect of administering 33-50 mug/kg/day of recombinant human GH for14 days, on the muscle and tendon morphology of healthy, young individuals. As expected, GH administration caused an increase in serum GH, serum IGF-1, and IGF-1 mRNA expression in tendon and muscle. Furthermore it was observed that tendon collagen I mRNA expression and tendon collagen protein synthesis increased by 3.9-fold and 1.3-fold, respectively; and muscle collagen I mRNA expression and muscle collagen protein synthesis increased by 2.3-fold and 5.8-fold, respectively. However, actual contractile muscle cell protein synthesis was unchanged. And most interestingly, exercise had no effect on these results.
So apparently, GH is great for increasing the strength of tendons and bulking up the non-contractile collagen matrix of skeletal muscle, and it does so independently of exercise. This kind of substantiates what we have known all along— that is GH is excellent for connective tissue health and for a little extra bulk in muscle, but on its own, adds little or nothing to physical strength.
Vitamin D and Testosterone
Vitamin D has been in the news a lot lately. At one time, vitamin D was considered to be little more than a ‘helper hormone,’ necessary for calcium metabolism in bones. New research has shown that Vitamin D is also vital for the health of the immune system, cardiovascular system, and for cancer prevention, among other things. On top of that, we are now recognizing that in the past, we underestimated the amount of vitamin D required for optimal health— and a great many Americans are actually clinically deficient in the vitamin. Vitamin D is produced in large part by exposure to the sun, and our society's ‘solar phobia’ has had a large negative impact on vitamin D status for a lot of the population (dark-skinned individuals, in particular).
One more role of vitamin D has potentially been established. A group of scientists in Austria recently examined the relationship between vitamin D status and serum androgen levels in men. They assessed the levels of 25(OH)D (a circulating form of vitamin D), testosterone, and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) in 2,299 men from 1997 to 2000. Researchers found that men with sufficient 25(OH)D levels (>/=30 mug/l) had significantly higher levels of total and free testosterone, and significantly lower levels of SHBG, when compared to 25(OH)D insufficient (20-29.9 mug/l) and 25(OH)D deficient (<20 mug/l) men.
The researchers also discovered something else that was interesting— in a significant portion of the men studied, levels of 25(OH)D, testosterone and SHBG followed a ‘seasonal pattern.’ Levels were lowest in March and highest in August. While one study is not definitive, this one is definitely intriguing. A connection between sun exposure, vitamin D and androgen status seems to have been made. Knowing this, you may want to consider either adjusting your ‘safe’ sun (or tanning bed) exposure and/or vitamin D supplementation. But be careful— it’s important to remember not to overdo it. While vitamin D toxicity is rare, you want to make sure you don’t go out lying in the sun all day, and popping massive amounts of vitamin D pills. I suggest you read up on the latest vitamin D research
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Ok. Time to go tan in the backyard.
