Beyond-Brawn-2nd-Edition

BEYOND BRAWN
Non-nutritional supplements
20.131 A long catalog of much-hyped but useless products (including “steroid
replacements”) have come and gone over the years, and plenty more will
come and go in the future. When I wrote BRAWN, back in 1990/91, some of
the fashionable supplements were octacosanol, cytochrome C, beta-sitosterol,
smilax officianalis, gamma oryzanol, inosine, yohimbe bark extract,
cyclofenil, dibencozide and ferulic acid. How many of those do you see
heavily touted today? None!
20.132 Some of these products did hang around for a few years even though they
did not work. If enough people try something, just once, that is enough to
make the scam worthwhile for manufacturers. And notice how often an
“improved” version of an original scam is promoted, to get more mileage out
of it.
20.133 One or a few of the current crop of vogue non-nutritional supplements will
hang around for long enough to produce enough positive feedback to prolong
sales, but nearly all of them will fall by the wayside as people discover
that they do not work. Of course, this will happen only after a lot of money
has been wasted; money that could have been better spent on quality food.
So the supplement manufacturers will have to come up with other products.
Hence, in a few years from now, different supplements will be touted to
those that are doing the rounds today.
Growth hormone and testosterone elevating compounds
20.134 A number of “supplements,” e.g., androstene, androstenedione, pregnenolone,
insulin growth factor derivatives, GABA, tribulus terrestris, and acetyl-carnitine,
are each claimed to produce significant elevations in growth
hormone or testosterone production. A lot of the advertising claims are
plain dishonest, and some are based on non-human studies. If any of the
hormone elevations are truly substantial, then the product concerned will
soon become a prescription drug. No product that produces substantial
hormonal changes is going to remain as a bodybuilding food supplement for
long.
20.135 If you take hormone boosters for extended periods it is likely that your
natural production of the hormone(s) concerned will be reduced or even
impaired. Any substantial increase in hormone output beyond normal
levels—other than for correcting deficiencies, and strictly under medical
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