Posts made by jamezb46

@Sugarnotsnow

I don't think so unless you had a specific issue you were trying to address with it.

For example, high estrogen could potentially be addressed with P4 because it opposes estrogen, but the problem could also be solved by taking an aromatase inhibitor such as exemestane or androsterone.

@haidut posted a study on RP forum showing that P4 is androgenic. What the study showed is that castrated rats given progesterone has larger prostates and seminal vesicles than untreated castrated rats.

That study is important to put into context, however.

When the rats were castrated, they had much less androgens being produced (obviously), and therefore progesterone was able to grow their prostates due to its known agonism of AR.

P4 also opposes endogenous androgens by blocking their ability to bind to AR. So, in the context of an uncastrated rat, I'm not sure that the P4 would actually grow their prostate because it would stop the androgens that they are naturally producing from binding to AR in the prostate.

If anything, there would probably be a biphasic androgenic effect in uncastrated rats, where a low dose of P4 increases prostate growth, moderate dose shrinks it by opposing testosterone and DHT, and high doses grows it because even though the P4 blocks DHT and T, it has its own anabolic effects to the prostate which take over at a higher dose.

TLDR; I think you're better off using male androgens like testosterone, DHT, and synthetic ones like anavar, turinabol, and halotestin (If you can afford it) and use aromatase inhibitors like exemestane or androsterone as needed.

@Lothric

Yes, I remember that he talked about the 8:1 P4:DHEA ratio in his Cortinon+ produt at the very beginning of Generative Energy #11.

He said something along the lines of "That ratio, administered orally 3x per day, with 5mg DHEA per dose really jacks up the testosterone levels in males"

Georgi went on to say that "Two of my bodybuilding friends say it works for them as well as their TRT", or something along those lines.

I think it's plausible, considering that there is scientific evidence that progesterone is a glucocorticoid antagonist, and is also an estrogen antagonist. Whenever the hypothalamus senses that estogen levels are low, it sends a signal to the pituitary gonadotrophs to signal the testicles to make more testosterone.

But who really knows if taking 120+ mg of progesterone per day is smart as a man.

I guess I can send him an email and hope he responds.

@Fructose

Well, I'm not sure that's really accurate.

There is lots of evidence that the hippocamal neurons responsible for producing GnRH do not really have a negative feedback loop with the endogenous endpoint androgens (DHT, T) themselves per se, but rather with estrogen.

When introducing anabolic compounds with inherent estrogenicity such as nandrolone, they probably have their own negative HPTA feedback, but it does not appear to be the case with testosterone itself.

That is why steroidal AIs such as exemestane (Aromasin) work. They reduce the conversion of testosterone to estrogen thus removing the negative feedback that estrogen has with the HPTA.

If you were right about testosterone having a negative feedback, then there would be no way that exemestane would work. But it does.

You could try taking testosterone powder either in milk at around 30mg/day with around 200mg P5 together with an AI such as androsterone and see if you get "shut down" (I don't think you will

@thyroidchor27

P5P can help to reduce homocysteine.

I have been going through one of the studies @haidut posted on the RP forum about the combination of Androsterone and DHEA. Indeed, he is correct that the 1:1 ratio of androsterone:DHEA has the greatest effect on Comb/Bodyweight ratio (for those who don't know, the comb is the red thing that hangs off of rooster's necks).

I only really have two questions:

1. If we are interested in using androsterone/dhea combo to boost muscle growth, then what would it matter if the CW/BW ratio increased, since that ratio in no way increases in any obvious way as muscle mass increases. In fact, if we want muscle growth, then we would presumably like that ratio to be largely unchanged, but for body weight itself to increase, independently of the ratio of body weight to comb weight.

2. Does anyone know what the hell "Daily dose gamma" means? I could not find anything on google about "gamma" in the context of measuring the amount of drugs administered.

@LetTheRedeemed

Yes,

Since it is known that caprylic acid is androgenic, it might be that the caprylic acid is acting locally as an androgen-mimetic thus giving you acne.

You can read about how it - "promotes the proliferation of prostate cancer" (I don't think androgens cause or worsen prostate cancer - in fact testosterone injections into prostate cancer cells cause the cancer to regress) - which really means that it is trophic to the prostate and thus either acts as an androgen-mimetic or enhances the activity of endogenous androgens.

Some of the "nuts" which are really seeds have some vitamin E, and selenium both of which are beneficial.

Some nuts are relativaly lower in PUFA such as macademia nuts, but none of them are particuarly high on SFA/PUFA ratio, which is what really counts.

You need about 400 mcg tocopherols/ 1 gram PUFA, perhaps some nuts that are higher in selenium, vitamin E, and lower in PUFA could be O.K so have in, say, chocolate or something. Brazil nuts might fit that description and they are high in selenium as well.

@DavidPS

Thanks for the information, especially since it is a direct response from Dr. Peat.

There are a number of threads on the RP forum about some ( I think it was Charlie, among others, a long time ago) getting relief from dry skin with b6. Some, however, did not find relief with the b6 supplementation.

I think the calcium/phosphate and vitamin d work systemically, and decrease inflammation/improve metabolism in the whole organism. For example, dialing in the calcium/phosphate ratio would decrease PTH, and thus allow for t3 to increase, thus improving metabolism across the whole organism.

Vitamin D is also known to be weakly androgenic (and thus oppositional to estogen), which is potentially a shared MOA with C8:0.

@josh

Well, if you want to try supplements you could try those that are carbonic anhydrase inhibitors such as acetazolamide.

@Sunniva

Wonderful. Glad to see my solution seems to be of general utility.

Of additional interest is the androgenicity of caprylic acid. Perhaps that is another mechanism by which it opposes the inflammatory response that is SD. Namely, by opposing estrogen.

I’m currently researching p5p, the active form of vitamin b6 for this skin disorder as well. I’ll report back in a few months. It may be that SD is really a micronutrient deficiency, of some combination of zinc, b6, selenium, etc.

Since people in the RP community don’t eat a lot of PUFA, their metabolic rate is higher and thus the need for these micronutrients, as demonstrated in the PUFA-deficient mice who developed scaly skin on their paws.

The fact that one study gave them b6 and saw no improvement doesn’t really show much, since they didn’t control for other micronutrients such as those above mentioned.

@Sunniva

That’s awesome to hear. Did you recommend it based on this post?

@yerrag

So the caprylic acid worked for you?

The standard picture of the HPTA in males is: Hypothalamus releases GnRH, which induces the pituitary to release LH and FSH, which induces the leydig cells in the tests to produce testosterone.

Now, I want to get clear on what the negative feedback mechanism is between the hypothalamus and sex hormones.

I am well aware that there are other signals the triggering of which will induce a negative feedback mechanism on the hypothalamus, such as decreased dopamine levels, increased CRH levels, increased leptin levels, and so on. I am for my present purpose not interested in those processes.

From some surface level research, it seems as though the primary negative feedback mechanism is with estrogen, as regards the negative feedback mechanism the hypothalamus has with sex hormones. So, in men this would presumably be with estradiol (E2).

Although, there is some discussion of how very high androgen levels can also have a negative feedback mechanism with the hypothalamus.

So, how exactly does the hypothalamus detect this estradiol? Are there estrogen receptors in the specialized neurons in the hypothalamus the binding of which constitutes the negative feedback mechanism?

And (assuming there is a negative feedback mechanism with androgens, which I think is probably true at a sufficiently high level of androgens), how exactly does that work? Are there androgen receptors in some of the neurons in the hypothalamus that when activated decrease the output of GnRH?

I ask because depending on what the mechanism is, it might be interesting to design a drug that influences the binding of androgens or estrogens to these receptors in the hypothalamus, which could potentially increase the "natural" testosterone levels (i.e the testosterone produced by the testicles)

Drugs that limit estrogen synthesis like exemestane are known to work on this mechanism, but I want to know what the full story is.

@PrinceTrebata

Yes, it can be done with two stainless steel bowls, some salt to help the one containing ice to stick to the one containing the ice cream, and a good amount of time. It's called Philadelphia ice cream.

@BroImGay

Perhaps. You could try Haidut’s energin and oxidal. Coffee of course is also great.

But I would need to know your context. Working a job you hate for absurd hours is never going to be healthy. With that said, if you could provide more details I could give a better answer.

If the burnout is mostly because you hate what you’re doing and find it meaningless, but you imagine that if what you were doing were more meaningful, things would be better, I would look into substances that can shift the neurotransmitter dominance from serotonin to dopamine, such as cyproheptadine. With that said, I’m not sure that such a pharmacological intervention would help you put up with your situation better. Rather, it might make you more assertive, and thus more motivated to get out of whatever led you to burnout.

If the burnout is more “physical” then you could try red light therapy, or anything to help you sleep better, such as anything that decreases the effects of cortisol, such as 6-keto p4, emodin, progesterone, DHEA.

Lastly, if the burnout is making you feel “on edge” at work or wherever it is coming from, you could try taking some DHT boosting supps such as androsterone, methylated SFA, testosterone, or DHT itself to help you keep a level head and not suffer the potential negative cardiovascular or psychological effects of feeling like you went to rip people’s heads off.

@Butter-Girl

Lovely. I LOVED when I made ice cream with rum and raisins. It was only a small amount of rum lol. Plus I think it was Jamaican which may have a significant amount of policosanols.

I really want to try a coffee ice cream. Could be great as a desert.

@Crypt-Keeper that was my experience also. It dissolves very well in DMSO + Ethanol, however. Transdermal is the way I think.

@Bye4ever

Do you think using Pansterone + kuinone topically on scrotum at a few drops/day is a sustainable way to get a boost of androgens?

And what could you recommend for an acute boost pre workout for increase aggression and power? It would likely be sublingual/buccal, right? But what androgen in particular would you think would be best 1-2x/wk? DHT? Anadrol? Var? Tren?

@Sugar

Hairdut provided studies showing that transdermal DHEA, P4, and K2 applied to testicles (dissolved in DMSO/ethanol) is very effective at raising androgens. There’s even an individual on the RP forum who got his test into the 1000+ ng/dL range using that combo.

You could also look into the combination of oral DHEA and androsterone which again Haidut provides evidence for completely revitalizing castrated rats.

If you want to do an experiment with straight T/DHT, that will most likely work too and be very effective. I myself am going to do an experiment with t dissolved in tocopherols and taken orally. I think 5-10 mg/day dissolved in the vitamin E should have a very powerful effect, together with p4 since supplemental androgens can down regulate the enzymes that produce/convert other hormones into the precursor steroids.

If you don’t want to dissolve in tocopherols, I found a study showing that 200 mg T given as free crystals 2x/day was able to raise the T levels of Eunuchs to full normal levels for the entire day, and that was in the 70’s.

@madmac

Ok. I plan on dissolving T in vitamin E; your claim of being able to dissolve 20 mg DHT/mL is encouraging.

Please let me know what effects you have noticed from taking it, and please include dose and route of administration.

Also, if possible I would like to know what the concentration of tocopherols is in your solution in mg/mL.