The 4-Hour Body_ An Uncommon Guide to Ra - Timothy Ferriss [68]
He is best known for simple interventions that have helped save many lives and improved thousands more.
He describes the results of one such approach, used personally, in his own words:
My CD8 cells, which may be one of the most important barometers for longevity for PWA’s [people with AIDS], went from 900 to 2500 cells [per millimeter squared], and my symptoms disappeared! I never felt or looked better in my entire life, even when I was HIV-negative!
Jeff Taylor, who’s been HIV-positive for more than 25 years, had two collapsed lungs and just two T-cells remaining when he began a similar treatment. Six weeks later he had 300 T-cells. It saved his life.
The mystery treatment wasn’t a new antiviral cocktail. In fact, it wasn’t new at all.
It was anabolic steroids. Specifically, Nelson used testosterone cypionate and Deca-Durabolin® (nandrolone decanoate), and Jeff used Anavar® (oxandrolone).
This is confusing to most people. Aren’t steroids supposed to kill you, or, at the very least, cause cancer or liver failure?
How can it be that the very same oxandrolone Jeff used “has been found to be one of the most cost-effective and least-toxic therapies to date” for treating male burn victims?
After doing an exhaustive review of the literature and interviewing scientists and actual users, Bryant Gumbel, the host of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, concluded the following on June 21, 2005:
As frequently evidenced by officials nationwide, Americans, when drugs are concerned, rarely choose logic when they can opt for hysteria. Case in point: the recent hoopla over steroids. In light of the media excess, the public pronouncements, and the wailing in Washington, one would assume that the scientific evidence establishing the health risk of steroids is overwhelming. But it’s not. On the contrary, when it comes to steroid use among adult males, the evidence reveals virtually no fire, despite all the smoke.
This summation, needless to say, ran counter to expectations.
Did you know that birth control drugs are technically steroids?
This is also true of the cortisone shots that future baseball Hall of Famer Curt Schilling used in the 2004 World Series, the same anti-inflammatory injections Andre Agassi used during his final U.S. Open.
Steroids represent an incredibly broad and important class of hormone, and there are hundreds of variations in plants, fungi, and animals. If you eliminated steroids from your body, you would die.
The term “steroid” is most often used in the media to refer to anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS), more commonly called anabolic steroids. These compounds are variations of the hormone testosterone or are intended to mimic the effects of testosterone.
Nandrolone, for example, is testosterone that has been chemically modified to minimize its conversion to estrogen or DHT, the latter change making it less androgenic—that is, it will have less of an amplifying effect on secondary male characteristics like hair growth (or loss from the scalp) or the thickening of the vocal chords.
Below is a side-by-side comparison of normal testosterone and the most commercially popular form of nandrolone, Deca-Durabolin® (“Deca”), which Nelson used. Deca is also one AAS that Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are alleged to have used.
I have legally used low-dose anabolic steroids and other growth agents under medical supervision both before and after joint surgeries. Multiple MDs reviewed blood tests every two to four weeks to ensure there were no complications. These drugs are specifically designed to increase protein synthesis; in the case of my surgeries, it was moderated and a proper use of the appropriate tools.
Do I encourage recreational or cosmetic use without medical supervision or without legal prescriptions? No. Anabolic steroids are Class III controlled substances, and you can receive up to three years’ imprisonment for possession and up to 10 years’ imprisonment if convicted of trafficking or intent to traffic.
Do I think that healthy children, adolescents, or women should use powerful male hormones?