Hi. I've done research on the effect of steroids on body collagen levels especially pertaining to joint degredation wear and tear. I spent the whole day visting forums, medical sites and the such like, and continually saw this one posting which i am sure you will all recognise immediatly as it must have been copied and pasted into every training related forum on the web. And it goes a little something like this :-
" Deca @ 3 mg/kg a week(about 270 mg/wk for a 200 lb male) will increase procollagen III levels by 270% by week 2. Procollagen III is a primary indicator used to determine the rate of collagen syn. As you can see, deca is a very good drug at giving you everything you want -- an increase in collagen syn, an increase in skeletal muscle, and increases in bone mass and density. The one thing it does not give you is wood
Primobolan, @ 5 mg/kg, will increase collagen synthesis by roughly 180% -- less than deca and equipoise but still substantial.
Equipoise @ 3 mg/kg will increase procollagen III by approximately 340% -- slightly better than deca.
Oxandrolone has over a hundred studies documenting its effectiveness at treating patients needing rapid increases in collagen syn to enhance healing."
Unfortnatly there is nothing to coroborate this posting and the author has disappeared, refusing to answer any emails or explain his " scientific findings ".
My worry is that: forum after form website after website is full of people refering to this posting and stating they are going to add deca or equipoise to their stack to protect their joints.
Unfortunalty painful joints only disappear while on deca and return very swiftly when the course is ceased showing that deca only has a masking effect
The closest i came to any evidence between test and collagen is this: http://www.nature.com/jid/journal/v1.../5600357a.html
which states test has no effect on collagen, and this: http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=3235477
which also states that test does not affect collagen synthesis.
When on a cycle the body produces more estrogen and cortisol. My question is this if test does not affect collagen, is it the higher levels of cortisol which the body produces. Most studies show that estrogen actually increases collagen production.
Thanks in advance for your help. John.