Part 1: Prohormones Explanation
By John Rocco Quint
Over the past couple years, many athletes looking to gain strength and lean muscle mass have turned to prohormones as the main supplement of choice. Prohormones were relatively unknown until a reporter found a bottle of Adnrostendione, or Andro, in Mark McGwire’s locker when he was making his historic run on baseball’s single season home run record. Ever since then supplement stores have not been able to keep this stuff on the shelf, and making it even more appealing to consumers is the government’s many bans on these products as well. To the consumer this sends the message that this stuff works and it works so well that we have no choice but to ban it. Even if you read the directions on a bottle of prohomones, it will say DON’T take more than this much in a day, that sends the message that this stuff is that powerful and works, when in reality the negative side effects of these products far outweigh the positive side effects.
Please don’t believe that I have formed my opinion from only research that I have done, I myself fell for the hype and have used these products before. And why not, it is a steroid precursor, so it is the legal alternative to steroids. A steroid precursor in laymen’s terms means that outside of the body it is not an anabolic steroid, however these precursors are intended to be converted to full active hormones in the body by an enzymatic process that occurs during metabolism, this results in an addition of whichever atoms happen to be missing from the chemical structure of the compound. For instance, Andro is a couple atoms away from being the anabolic steroid known as Methandrostenolone or more commonly referred to as Dianabol or Dbol, but once the prohorhomone Andro is in the body it is metabolized and added to it are the atoms needed in order to convert it to the hormone testosterone. This sounds too good to be true, and that is exactly the case.
There are many problems with prohormones and everyone will experience different effects, however I will not argue that these products will make you gain weight, make you stronger, and get a bigger pump in the gym. Right now you are probably reading this and thinking that I am crazy, so please let me explain. The explanation for the increase pump and strength gains is simply just a temporary increase in testosterone levels that will be greatly suppressed after you discontinue the product. You will gain a lot of weight maybe 10 to 15 pounds and possibly even more. However the only problem is it is all water weight from the increase of estrogen in the body and any muscle that you do actually build, which will not be much, will be lost once you discontinue use of the product. The reason for this is by taking prohormones you are suppressing your own body’s ability to make testosterone and you are increasing estrogen production, so once you stop using you are not creating much testosterone by yourself and possibly none therefore you will not be able to retain any of the muscle that you built, but don’t worry your not losing much.
When it comes to hormones, your body wants to maintain homeostasis, so when you increase your testosterone levels artificially your body will also be increasing your estrogen levels so that your body stays in hormonal balance. The main problem with this increase in estrogen production, comes when you discontinue use of the prohormone because your ability to produce testosterone is significantly suppressed if producing any at all, while you are still producing much more estrogen than needed. This is where negative side effect like gynecinastia, increased water retention and from that high blood pressure comes in. So by discontinuing use of the prohormones you have just thrown your body totally out of hormonal balance and could take months or longer to fully recover from these harsh drugs. The reason why the FDA has banned these drugs is because it is evident that they are unsafe, and not because they are so effective. You also have to take into account that supplements including prohormones, are not regulated by any governing body including the FDA, so therefore we really don’t know exactly what is in these products or what else these supplement company’s are adding to them. You cannot be naive, these supplement companies are just trying to make money and they have really no regard for your health in the short term or long run. The only thing that they want is that when you are on their products you feel different and have the illusion that they are actually working and that is why prohoromones are so popular.
I hope that this has given you some insight on what exactly prohormones are and what they do in the body and to the body. Please check back for part 2 of this article when I will explain ZMA, a natural and safe alternative to prohormones.
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