Testosterone Info

Max Muscle: As manufacturers come out with various types of prohormones and testosterone precursors, some are claiming that the 5-forms or 4-forms are "closer" to the natural pathways and are thus more likely to produce results. What does "nearer" the pathway really mean? It seems like math modeling where we interject a pictorial that has little to do with the far more intricate dynamics of the process...
Dr. Eugene Shippen: The problem with any altered molecule, whether it's DHEA with the 7-hydroxy form or something else, is understanding that the body is designed to use the actual prohormone to switch on and switch off between the active and inactive form. This is going on all the time, and we begin to interfere with this process, and what we don't know is whether on form is truly better than another in the long-term. I intuitively feel that whenever you alter a molecule -- whether it's birth control pill estrogen, or whether it's a substituted testosterone -- things like methyl testosterone always seem to have side effects. Activate one cell and you get an effect, but you upset a kidney or liver cell in the process. We know that the substituted androgens, the different methyl testosterones and so on, cause liver tumors in some animals. Why would it do this? It may both overstimulate and block up the natural switching mechanisms and not allow the normal off switches to down-regulate or regulate the normal cyclical functions

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There are 2 different systems of hormone production in the body. Some researchers believe that 30 to 50 % of our testosterone and estrogen production are peripheral; in other words, about a third to a half of that production occurs out in the fat cells cells and in the live and kidneys and so on. Every tissue in the body has some ability to convert the prohormones into the final end product. Even the muscles have this ability, but it's to a very limited degree. So you have to think of these hormones as activators of the whole organ and the organs within the body; the liver, the kidneys, the brain, the nervous system, the pelvic system for sexuality. Every system needs the same hormones, but activates or energizes those cells to do their own selected jobs. So, these hormones activate the kidney to filter urine; the liver to filter blood and so on