What does half-life mean?

[One Pec Cecc]

I saw on ' common beginner cycles' thread that dbol has a half life of 4-6 hours. What does that mean exactly?

[senorrebo]

The length of time in your system for the drug to lose half of it's strength.

[One Pec Cecc]

Oh okay, thank you...When is the best time to take dbol then? (im not on a cycle nor do i plan to do one until i learn as much as i can)

if it has a 4-6 hr half life then does that mean u should workout in those 4-6 hours?

[Times Roman]

The length of time in your system for the drug to lose half of it's strength.

Pretty damn close.

It is the amount of time half of what you took is no longer in your system.

[Bonaparte]

Use your google. This is high school chemistry material.
In pharmacology, there are two types of half-life: plasma and elimination.

[Times Roman]

Use your google. This is high school chemistry material.
In pharmacology, there are two types of half-life: plasma and elimination.

oh shit! I forgot about that!!

I was referring to elimination, and senorrebo was referring to plasma (more or less). Sorry senorrebo!

[senorrebo]

oh shit! I forgot about that!!

I was referring to elimination, and senorrebo was referring to plasma (more or less). Sorry senorrebo!

No worries. I phrased it poorly, too.

[MickeyKnox]

Some light reading for those interested..(I am NOT the original author)



"Anyone new to steroids may be wondering what this means, even some experienced steroid users may also be wondering what this means. So here in simple terms you can read and hopefully understand all about steroid half life's and what this term means.

Basically every drug has a half life, steroids included. If for example, you were to inject 1000mg of testosterone cypionate once weekly, for 10 weeks, how would you know when you were "off"? Would you be "off" when you had finished your last dose? You would be able to calculate this from the half life of testosterone cypionate . The half life of testosterone cypionate is around 12 days. This means that 12 days from your last shot of 1000mg of testosterone cypionate (Time to start PCT ? You decide.), your blood levels of testosterone cypionate will contain 500mg of the steroid. Another 12 days from then, i.e. 24 days from last dose, your blood levels will contain 250mg of the steroid. This amount then keeps halving every 12 days. At 48 days (almost 2 months) from your last dose, your blood levels will still contain 67.5mg of testosterone cypionate.

Therefore you can clearly see that when you finish your cycle, even though you are not putting any steroids into your body, you may think that you are now "off", however you still have, and will still have for some time after your last dose, "active" blood levels of the steroid. Therefore you can plan what to use, how long for, and how long off your cycle, based on these half life's."


Active Life versus Half Life

The confusion comes from the 2 terms being used synonymously when they should not be. "Half-life is not a reference for the total time a drug will be found active in the body. It may take several half-lives before the drug is completely inactive."

Half-life: The period of time required for the concentration or amount of drug in the body to be reduced to exactly one-half of a given concentration or amount.

Example: The half-life of Anavar is 9 hours+/- (9 hours after oral administration of 50 mg of Anavar, 25mg is still present in the body).

Active life: Refers to the period in which the amount of a drug in the body is enough that it will still produce the desired effects for which it was administered. Or conversely, inhibit natural recovery of normal bodily function. It is dose dependent.

Example: The active life of 1,000mg of testosterone decanoate would be more than one month. At day 30 after injection, 250mg or more of this drug would still be present in the body."