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good old GOFIGURE getting on the band wagon

2guns

By 2guns
in Steroids & prescription meds

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2guns Veteran member

2guns

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Effects of steroids and ephedrine on heart

We know that overeating some foods can do some pretty bad damage to our hearts and other internal organs so imagine what overdoing synthetic supplements can do! In this article we feature Steroids and Ephedrine and their effects on the heart. These supplements are sometimes used to enhance training performance in our beloved sport of bodybuilding so probably timely to discuss them in our Heart issue.

Anabolic steroid use has been associated with a wide range of adverse side effects ranging from some that are physically unattractive, such as acne and breast development in men, to others that are life threatening, such as heart attacks and liver cancer. There's also myriad of other hormonal, skin and muscular problems that come with steroid use but we'll just focus on cardiovascular.

Steroid use has been associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including heart attacks and strokes, even in athletes younger than 30. Steroids contribute to the development of CVD, partly by changing the levels of lipoproteins that carry cholesterol in the blood. Steroids, particularly the oral types, increase the level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and decrease the level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL). High LDL and low HDL levels increase the risk of atherosclerosis, a condition in which fatty substances are deposited inside arteries and disrupt blood flow. If blood is prevented from reaching the heart, the result can be a heart attack. If blood is prevented from reaching the brain, the result can be a stroke.

Steroids also increase the risk that blood clots will form in blood vessels, potentially disrupting blood flow and damaging the heart muscle so that it does not pump blood effectively.

Ephedra (also known as Ma Huang) is a natural substance found in plants, which has been used as an herbal supplement by the Chinese for thousands of years. But in recent times Ephedra has been used in dietary supplements such as Xenadrine and Hydroxycut (which now doesn't contain ephedra due to change in U.S law) to help weight loss, bodybuilding, and increased energy. Ephedra effects are similar to amphetamines; a compound with potentially powerful stimulant effects on the nervous system and heart.

Ephedrine is classed as an ergogenic drug that clearly enhances endurance, energy and strength - Firstly for athletes interested in muscle gain, ephedrine enhances the metabolic rate - the measure of fat, protein and carbohydrate conversion by the body. And an enhanced metabolic rate could clearly increase the speed of depositing new muscle mass. Secondly the stimulant effect of the drug also increases the force of skeletal muscle contractions. The adrenaline rush provided allows the user to push harder through their training and can indirectly lead to further muscle and strength gains. Finally it is important to note that the powerful mental edge the drug can provide, typically making the user feel far more energetic and much better able to concentrate on the tasks at hand. The action of the drug, used correctly, can dramatically increase fat loss and spare lean muscle tissue.

Originally the drug was released as an asthma treatment, as one of it's actions is as a bronchiol dilator (opening of the air ways), however, newer and better drugs are now being used for this application. Forms of ephedrine, however, can still now be found in common cold and flu medicines in chemists. Besides increasing heart and respiratory rate this drug also stimulates the thyroid gland to transform the weaker LT-4 (L-thyroxine) into the stronger LT-3 (Liothyronine), which accelerates metabolism.

While Ephedra and ephidrine can melt the fat super fast, it does has some pretty bad effects and the U.S Food and Drug Administration has banned the sale of dietary supplements containing ephedra (ephedrine alkaloids) due to concerns over their cardiovascular effects in 2004. Although you can probably get your hands on ephedra if you know people, hence why we're talking about it.

Ephedra raises blood pressure and constricts blood vessels. This produces a serious list of ephedra side effects. Symptoms that have been linked to ephedra include:

Possible Side Effects of Ephedra

nausea, headache; dizziness, irritation of the stomach; diarrhea.

anxiety; psychosis

kidney stones

tremors

dry mouth

irregular or rapid heart rhythms; heart damage

high blood pressure

restlessness; nervousness; sleeping problems

decreased appetite

flushing; sweating

increased urination

Matters of the heart

Tips for Keeping your heart healthy!

We train because we want to look good on the outside, come on admitted, we're all little vain creatures! but its also important to be healthy on the inside. And being heart healthy should be top of your fitness list as without our hearts, well, we would die. And we don't want that at this point in our fit lives. So if you're partial to some fatty KFC or McDs or even some Hell pizza or packet of bikkies or two, then perhaps you should change your habits so you can live more healthily without clogging up your arteries which may lead to heart attack or other heart conditions:

* Choose lean meats and poultry without skin and prepare them without added saturated and trans fat.

* Eat at least two servings of fish each week. Fish can be fatty or lean, but it's still low in saturated fat. Recent research shows that eating oily fish containing omega-3 fatty acids (for example, salmon, trout and herring) may help lower your risk of death from coronary artery disease. Prepare fish baked, broiled, grilled or boiled rather than breaded and fried.

* Select fat-free and low-fat dairy products.

* Cut back on foods containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to reduce trans fat in your diet.

* Cut back on foods high in dietary cholesterol.

* Cut back on beverages and foods with added sugars. Many snack foods and beverages have added sugars. Cut back on added sugars to lower your total calorie intake and help control your weight. These foods also tend to be low in vitamins and minerals, and the calories add up quickly. Drinking calorie-containing beverages may not make you feel full. This could tempt you to eat and drink more than you need and gain weight.

Examples of added sugars are sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, dextrose, corn syrups, high-fructose corn syrup, concentrated fruit juice and honey. Read the ingredient list. Choose items that don't have added sugars in their first four listed ingredients.

* Choose and prepare foods with little or no salt.

Foods low in salt lower your risk for high blood pressure and may help you control it. Aim to consume less than 2,300 mg of salt or sodium per day.

Limit high-sodium condiments and foods such as soy sauce, steak sauce, Worcestershire sauce, flavored seasoning salts, pickles and olives.

Replace salt with herbs and spices or some of the salt-free seasoning mixes. Use lemon juice, citrus zest or hot chiles to add flavor.

* Cholesterol, fiber and oat bran

Fiber is classified as either soluble or insoluble. When regularly eaten as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, soluble fiber has been shown to help lower blood cholesterol and may also help reduce the risk of diabetes and colon and rectal cancer. The more calories you require to meet your daily needs, the more dietary fiber you need. Try to eat at least 14 grams of fiber per 1,000 calories you consume. If you find it hard to eat lots of fibre, try sprinkling some Fibresure on your food.

* Don't smoke!!!! you've seen the ads on tv and what smoking does to your lungs and its effects on others around you. Give up now!!!

Heart Facts

* Your system of blood vessels - arteries, veins and capillaries - is over 60,000 miles long. That's long enough to go around the world more than twice!

* The adult heart pumps about 5 quarts of blood each minute - approximately 2,000 gallons of blood each day - throughout the body.

* When attempting to locate their heart, most people place their hand on their left chest. Actually, your heart is located in the center of your chest between your lungs. The bottom of the heart is tipped to the left, so you feel more of your heart on your left side of your chest.

* The heart beats about 100,000 times each day.

* In a 70-year lifetime, the average human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times

* An adult woman's heart weighs about 8 ounces, a man's about 10 ounces

* A child's heart is about the size of a clenched fist; an adult's heart is about the size of two fists.

* Blood is about 78 percent water.

* Blood takes about 20 seconds to circulate throughout the entire vascular system.

* The structure of the heart was first described in 1706, by Raymond de Viessens, a French anatomy professor.

* The electrocardiograph (ECG) was invented in 1902 by Dutch physiologist Willem Einthoven. This test is still used to evaluate the heart's rate and rhythm.

* The first heart specialists emerged after World War I.

from gofigure.co.nz

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mclovin Member

mclovin

Posted
Posted

id say they banned it more to curb , meth production. the u.s goes first , then the rest of the worlds powers of be follow suit like sheep, how many people do ya think would die globally of ephidrine induced conditions vs overweight or obeese people ? abuse anything and your fucked , gear, alcohol ,kfc, acid .. any of these in moderation in a healthy adult , fine imo

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Flex Senior member

Flex

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Dale Sheppard from Miada is at it too....

Strength Comes From Within - SAY NO TO DRUGS!

There seems to be a pandemic of drug users in the fitness industry. Why is it that so many guys ask about or want to know how to get steroids instead of just eating right, taking supplements that actually do work like T-MAX and training with real effort and determination! Oh that's why..because it is hard, gut busting work!!

When I challenged all supplement owners/bosses in New Zealand to compete against me for 4 years running - fully drug tested for all drugs of any kind, including those that improve performance, NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM STOOD UP TO SHOW WHAT THEIR SUPPLEMENTS HAD DONE FOR THEM "NATURALLY" TO IMPROVE THEIR STRENGTH! In other words they wouldn't stand behind their brand. I gave up after 4 years.

I see so many young guys getting involved in using drugs of all kinds now. If it aint steroids its mind-altering shit that has no place in the human body. The bodybuilding magazines and major supplement companies have a lot to do with this drug-culture, especially in bodybuilding and gym culture, and I believe they have poisoned what is a truly great and healthy lifestyle choice. The steroid and growth hormone filled competitive bodybuilders used to promote products in magazines have raised the bar of physical muscular development so high that the new crop of young men coming through feel so inadequate with their own natural development that they too are lured to the dark side of performance enhancing steroid drugs.

I say to any of you considering or currently using steroids, GET OFF THEM OR DON'T START - YOU DON'T NEED THEM! I mean if I'm 36 and although not setting the world on fire anymore, I am still doing 40kg dumbbell curls using just T-MAX, TRI-SPORT and HARDEN UP MULTI-STACK and still weighing in at 110kg. With the same and some effort you can too if you want to! Be proud of what you are achieving without using drugs and don't aspire to or compare yourself to the chemical factory professional bodybuilding physiques, it aint worth it!

-----------------

I've misplaced my dictionary but it think it's spelt - h y p o c r i t e........

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michaelk Senior member

michaelk

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When I challenged all supplement owners/bosses in New Zealand to compete against me for 4 years running - fully drug tested for all drugs of any kind, including those that improve performance, NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM STOOD UP TO SHOW WHAT THEIR SUPPLEMENTS HAD DONE FOR THEM "NATURALLY" TO IMPROVE THEIR STRENGTH! In other words they wouldn't stand behind their brand. I gave up after 4 years.

and when i challenged Dale on the forum he used to have on his website as to why one of his athletes chose not to take the drug test at the 98 Nationals, he chose to open up attacks on me whilst never having met me and having no personal first hand knowlege of me, and never actually bothereing to answer the question.

It didn't take long til the forum was removed.

Some of us don't have that short a memory Dale :wink:

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Paul Member

Paul

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I say to any of you considering or currently using steroids, GET OFF THEM OR DON'T START - YOU DON'T NEED THEM! I mean if I'm 36 and although not setting the world on fire anymore, I am still doing 40kg dumbbell curls using just T-MAX, TRI-SPORT and HARDEN UP MULTI-STACK and still weighing in at 110kg. With the same and some effort you can too if you want to! Be proud of what you are achieving without using drugs and don't aspire to or compare yourself to the chemical factory professional bodybuilding physiques, it aint worth it!

Thats some fucken funny shit right there pure gold :^o

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Marcus Senior member

Marcus

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I mean if I'm 36 and although not setting the world on fire anymore, I am still doing 40kg dumbbell curls using just T-MAX, TRI-SPORT and HARDEN UP MULTI-STACK and still weighing in at 110kg.

Yeah and between the ages 21 & 35 he used the stuff that got him up to 110kg.

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Bigboy Member

Bigboy

Posted
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I don't see why we need to enter into these pseudo moralistic debates about gear vs no gear.

Essentially gear was banned for prefessional sports, ie even playing field, but a part from this, I think its a purely personal choice, so long as one understands the risks.

But again , it's like everything, one can make an argument for and against. I agree, there does a ppear to have what I call a 'druggy' culture develop where most problems in life are solved by some drug or another - rather than the 'doing'. It's as if people don't enjoy the process of anything anymore, but only judge the end result (which they want instantaneously) That is the real pitty - and danger!

If you take gear in moderation, work hard, enjoy the training and have great results - then so much the better. if all you doing is shopping around for a new drug depressed that you are not becoming superman overnight - I suggest you re-evaluate the situation. Health also relates to mental health and attitude - gear or no gear!

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mr natural Senior member

mr natural

Posted
Posted
I mean if I'm 36 and although not setting the world on fire anymore, I am still doing 40kg dumbbell curls using just T-MAX, TRI-SPORT and HARDEN UP MULTI-STACK and still weighing in at 110kg.

Yeah and between the ages 21 & 35 he used the stuff that got him up to 110kg.

.

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Dale Member

Dale

Posted
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"Wow" yet another almost entire thread that is devoted to me. I'm starting to think you boys have some sort of fetish desire... :pfft: :pfft: Sorry, not interested!

There are a number of points in this thread .. MARCUS you make a straight out public accusation (well a statement of fact actually) that I used steroids between the ages of 21 and 35. Given I'm 37 in a few days time that would mean between 1992 and 2006. What fucken planet fiction have you been living on. I damaged my back when I was 18, and didn't lift weights again until I was 23! The supplement boss challenge has been going since 2002. I was stronger when I was 18 than I am now.

And as for your comments MICHAELK, you quote my "Supplement Boss Challenge" issued in 2002 and then talk about something you were aware of in 1998. Miada didn't start until August 1999 so how the f*ck do I know what a sponsored athlete did or didn't do in 1998. But if its the athlete I think you are talking about, ask yourself how long they lasted on the Miada list for...not very long.

As for the "forum" that was on the Miada site way back in 2000 or so, it was becoming full of talk about drugs, sort of like this site, and therefore it was stopped. There was nothing positive being posted.

And there is an entire thread under subject "TEST LEVELS" discussing my own willingness to be tested with MR NATURAL, anytime, anywhere, anyplace. Most of all this thread was posted before I joined, but there seems to be some pretty defamatory statements in this thread in particular which, like when someone else decided to do the same sort of thing, forced me to take the appropriate action and hence it became an expensive option for the individual concerned...you also put this website/owners at risk also given it seems to be openly allowing defamatory statements to be made and posted by members with an agenda.

And no SAMWELLY, biceps curls are not a measure of strength. It was just an example of what an old man who works 18hrs a day and trains f*ck all can still do. :evil:

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Dale Member

Dale

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Marcus and Blair, lifting isn't about how much drugs you take. From what I know, if you build a strong natural base you will always have that base. You will always be strong and you will always have thickness and density and the second you lift again after time off, your strength will return and your body will fill out again. However, if you rely on drugs from an early age or before reaching your natural potential testosterone peak of 25, I'd say you are depriving yourself of really reaching your full potential and ability to maintain your physique drug-free in the future. Of course pro-bodybuilders will probably totally disagree with me, so be it but I think you will never have the base, never have the thickness and when you are not using drugs you will lose everything and return to your natural potential before using the stuff.

I was asked by Blair to take a photo doing an arm curl recently with the 40s, had to do it myself a day or so ago and hold it at mid-range still while the digital camera focussed! Lucky it was only 40kg as it was taking a while to focus!! As I said to Blair, not that impressive as could do this when I was 18. Did a workout last night, first in 23 days consisting of 1 set of 10 reps with 30kg and 1 set of 8 reps with 40kg alternate dumbbell curls..that's it..a gym member there at the time asked if I come up and do curls all day long...such is the perception of your "average" person. Anyway, Blair will send that pic thru to you early next week. :)

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