Testosterone>DHT

[Jodiat]

Has any one tried DHT blockers while lifting? Saw Palmetto and Flax seed lignans seem to alter the conversion and could help with the excess that is produce with lifting heavy weights?

Any Ideas?

I will experiment in due time.

[Jodiat]

Also is it worth investing in a blood glucoes reader to check my sugar levels and gain more understanding of when im low or high?

[RRM]

Has any one tried DHT blockers while lifting? Saw Palmetto and Flax seed lignans seem to alter the conversion and could help with the excess that is produce with lifting heavy weights?

Lignans have an enormous variety of effects in the human body.
They are not at all precision weapons, and may affect multiple metabolisms.

Also is it worth investing in a blood glucoes reader to check my sugar levels and gain more understanding of when im low or high?

The funny thing is that we have a very accurate device build in already.
You just need to learn to read it.
When the blood is too high in glucose, it will cause nausea.
When its a bit too low, you will feel less energetic.
When its getting lower, you will feel tired and depressed.
When it its still lower, you get cold sweat and become very weak. If you still continue you may either collapse
or your body takes over and releases some adrenalin and other hormones to convert muscle protein into blood glucose (and some endomorphins to be able to keep going).

Also a funny thing about this device is that the more time (and more carefully) you spend listening, the louder it speaks.

[Jodiat]

Yeah im not looking into buying a sugar reader now as im seemingly getting better at the input/output and energy.

Ive read some males and females have helped acne with SPM and read one studdy that flax lignans help reduce loss of hair in males. Somthing to do with using a less potent dietry hormone in place of a bodily produced hormone - also it tied into how progesterone cream can help some women with menapouse and PMS.

[chris m failla]

Can you please describe some of the effects of lignans? I recently purchased a product that contain norway spruce lignans. They recently added this new ingredient to a product I like to use on certain occasions. I wasnt happy when they added the lignans though.

[Jodiat]

It was some years ago but here is what I generally remember and I cant remember the websites since changing my laptop.

Some foods have compounds in them which mimic our own hormones. Sawpalmetto, beta sitosterol, flax lignans, soy isoflavones, (progesterone/estrogen creams - in a way)...theres some more but I cant remember them.

The idea is that our own hormones are uptaken by our receptor sites. What these 'mimics' do is compete with our own hormones at these sites.

This can be good and bad depending on the situation.

One person I knew took Sawpalmetto and his acne went really really bad. Another person I knew her acne went much better.

The flax lignan report I read gives the idea that flax can lower DHT (which in excess is one of the prime hormones driving acne) and it lowers this by blocking the uptake of Testosterone by competing at the various hormone receptor sites. In other words I kicks testosterone of its pearch and is replaced by a 'less' powerful version of itself.

This explains how Soy can have femanine effects on some males as soy is a weak phyto-estrogen.

As you can see playing god with hormones is dangerous. However Ive seen it work amazing in some people and amazingly poor in others.

Some women who hit menopause for example find the use of progesterone cream a god send as estrogen and progesterone strike a balance, (which is unbalanced - by nature) which can be unbalanced again with a diet that useses dietry mimicing hormones. This gives estrogen too much of a balance and progesterone starts becoming a problem which can be helped with HRT. Also PMS and estrogen/progesterone are linked to acne and the womens monthly breakouts if they are acne phrone.

[chris m failla]

I know the cause of baldness, and DHT is not all bad. We need DHT to maintain an erection and for many functions. Our bodies produce it for a reason. However, high insulin levels, as well as IGF-1, which is highly anabolic, grows bone, especially of the skull. When the skull grows that means less hair. The bone growth pushes against the scalp cause blood restriction, causing hair loss. Just look at bald heads, they are somewhat pointy at the top. Flatter heads dont go bald. Just look at Bruce Willis, his head is egg shaped, pointy. Brad Pitt had more of a square shape. I do this comparison in everyday life and it is dead on. Some guys that are bald always will have larger heads or skull growth of the frontal, and parietal bone. I also think that stress of excersise causes bone growth and then hair loss. Maybe excessive adrenalin causes tight scalp and or bone growth. DHT also grows bone among other things, but is not the only culprit. So a diet that minimizes IGF-1, insulin, high estrogen, can stop or prevent balding. Also, dont get stressed with excercise.

[Jodiat]

very interesting stuff. Also English footballers seem to get grey hair/bald quite early and age very quickly. Stress in physical and mental forms is a challange but too much stress thats over taxing can lead to alot of problems.

[Thomas]

Footballers tend to have a lot higher DHT/testosterone than average.

I wouldn't mess with trying to block DHT even if you have too much and are worried about going bald.
Chris is right, you need it for erections, deep voice, muscle tone, strength etc

[Thomas]

Jodiat, I didn't know heavy weights causes -excess DHT

[chris m failla]

Weight training increases growth hormone, hence IGF-1, which grows tissues and bone, which may cause the individual to bald. If the person has a strong genetic trait for a strong hair line and somewhat square head, they will not bald. But a healthy testosterone level is needed to grow hair. DHT is a hair growth stimulant, causing hair growth all over the body including the head. It is false to think DHT grows hair on body but inhibits hair on the head. I grows hair all over, but it also grows bone, and if the skull expands, there will be hair loss due to decrease blood supply. Scalp compression excersise are used to reverse and stop hair loss and inhibit skull expansion followed by massage.

[Jodiat]

Im not sure it does - only thinking it might as an increase in the former might increase the latter.

[B-Rad]

Footballers tend to have a lot higher DHT/testosterone than average.

I wouldn't mess with trying to block DHT even if you have too much and are worried about going bald.
Chris is right, you need it for erections, deep voice, muscle tone, strength etc

Elite athletes have higher testosterone, lower dht. Thats why you'll rarely see a pro athlete with acne despite the widespread roid use in pro sports.

How to lower DHT naturally:
1. eat high fiber diet
2. do not eat high calorie diet
3. eat low calorie diet
4. avoid stimulants like caffeine or chocolate

[fictor]

Weight training increases growth hormone, hence IGF-1, which grows tissues and bone, which may cause the individual to bald.

This explanation for why high levels of anabolic hormones (endogenous or not) can cause baldness, is not a valid scientific fact. I asked my professor (I am currently taking a ground course, 1 year, of medicine, to be able to study nutrition) about this, and she said this sounded like a too simple explanation for a more complex effect.

Also, this does theory does not hold well, if we look at teenage boys. These boys have massive levels of endogenous anabolic hormones, and they grow a lot, in a very short time. Still, baldness in men are not commonly seen before later in life, when growth is much slower, or has stopped completely, and hormone levels are much, much lower. The skin is very very stretchy, and I (nor my professor) can hardly imagine growth of the skull to strech it to such extreme measures that it will cause hair loss.

[RRM]

Its indeed complicated, as there are a number of factors involved in baldness,
which may seem contradictive:

- a hereditary factor, which may cause baldness at early age. Its mostly, but not always androgen dependent.
- high levels of androgens (responsible for hairgrowth) are associated (through protein deposition) with baldness (androgenic alopecia), acne and muscle volume. Androgens involved are: androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and testosterone.
- stress; alopecia seems to get induced by stress; corticosteroids and antiandrogens may reverse this process