A research team at Luleå University of Technology and Umea University has, in a unique study involving ten Swedish elite lifters who are actively using anabolic steroids, studied the effect of Anabolic steroids on body fat. Swedish elite lifters who use anabolic steroids have more dangerous fat distribution in the body.
The research was done at the Department of Medical Sciences at Luleå University of Technology in collaboration with the Sports Medicine Unit at Umeå University and Winternet in Boden. The result is now published in The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research.
- We know that the elite lifters who take Anabolic androgenic steroids have a higher possibility to suffer from strokes and heart attacks. The results of this study of how body fat is distributed in elite lifters who use anabolic steroids may be a reason for the increased tendency to suffer from cardiovascular disease, says Anders Eriksson, a researcher at the Medical Science at LTU.
The researcher studied how two different groups of elite lifters store fat in the body. One group had used anabolic steroids and the other had not used steroids. The study showed that elite lifters who use anabolic steroids have significantly lower fat deposits below the waist, that is, lower levels of so-called gynoid fat, than elite lifters who do not take anabolic steroids.
The power lifters in the study have had their bodies scanned in a so called DEXA scanner that is normally used to study osteoporosis, but that can also measure total body composition and fat content in different parts of the body.
Showing posts with label BODYFAT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BODYFAT. Show all posts
New study appears to show that high body fat in men is not a cause of low testosterone.
It's not estrogen produced by body fat that causes low levels of testosterone in type 2 diabetic men, according to a University at Buffalo study published last month in Diabetes Care.
Instead, the mechanism responsible for low levels of certain sex hormones in type 2 diabetic men is more complicated than originally thought, which will have implications for the development of effective treatments. The UB researchers suggest that, based on their findings, the mechanism likely originates in the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controls hormones influencing appetite, sleep, moods and sex drive.
In 2004, the UB researchers first identified this syndrome of hypogonadism (low testosterone) in a third of type 2 diabetic men that they studied.
At the time, the conventional wisdom was that an enzyme expressed by body fat is increased in obese people, explains lead author Sandeep Dhindsa, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and senior author Paresh Dandona, MD, UB Distinguished Professor of Medicine.
"It was thought that that enzyme, in turn, increased estradiol levels in the blood, which led to suppressed testosterone levels," says Dandona.
But the connection may not be all that simple, partly because not all type 2 diabetics are obese, Dandona says.
Their current study, which included both obese and non-obese type 2 diabetic men, revealed that estradiol levels in 240 subjects with low testosterone were lower, not higher, than normal levels.
"Low testostone levels as well as low estradiol levels, which we saw in this study, both probably contribute to the markedly increased risk of cardiovascular mortality in type 2 diabetics," he says.
The UB researchers established the estradiol levels using a classical measurement method and a state-of-the-art tandem mass spectrometry measurement.
"These data establish unequivocally that elevated estradiol concentrations are not the cause of this hypogonadism syndrome," says Dandona. "We now need to look for other mechanisms for the rational understanding and treatment of this syndrome so that we can unravel the mysterious mechanisms underlying this important cause of male hypogonadism (low testosterone) and potential infertility."
Dandona and his UB colleagues have extended these observations to non-diabetic, obese adults and obese children, between the ages of 15 and 20, a quarter of whom have a similar problem with low testosterone levels.
"Low testosterone levels affect a third of male type 2 diabetics, of which there are roughly ten million in this country," says Dandona. "If we can elucidate the specific underlying mechanism, we can develop a rational treatment for this condition."
Instead, the mechanism responsible for low levels of certain sex hormones in type 2 diabetic men is more complicated than originally thought, which will have implications for the development of effective treatments. The UB researchers suggest that, based on their findings, the mechanism likely originates in the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controls hormones influencing appetite, sleep, moods and sex drive.
In 2004, the UB researchers first identified this syndrome of hypogonadism (low testosterone) in a third of type 2 diabetic men that they studied.
At the time, the conventional wisdom was that an enzyme expressed by body fat is increased in obese people, explains lead author Sandeep Dhindsa, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and senior author Paresh Dandona, MD, UB Distinguished Professor of Medicine.
"It was thought that that enzyme, in turn, increased estradiol levels in the blood, which led to suppressed testosterone levels," says Dandona.
But the connection may not be all that simple, partly because not all type 2 diabetics are obese, Dandona says.
Their current study, which included both obese and non-obese type 2 diabetic men, revealed that estradiol levels in 240 subjects with low testosterone were lower, not higher, than normal levels.
"Low testostone levels as well as low estradiol levels, which we saw in this study, both probably contribute to the markedly increased risk of cardiovascular mortality in type 2 diabetics," he says.
The UB researchers established the estradiol levels using a classical measurement method and a state-of-the-art tandem mass spectrometry measurement.
"These data establish unequivocally that elevated estradiol concentrations are not the cause of this hypogonadism syndrome," says Dandona. "We now need to look for other mechanisms for the rational understanding and treatment of this syndrome so that we can unravel the mysterious mechanisms underlying this important cause of male hypogonadism (low testosterone) and potential infertility."
Dandona and his UB colleagues have extended these observations to non-diabetic, obese adults and obese children, between the ages of 15 and 20, a quarter of whom have a similar problem with low testosterone levels.
"Low testosterone levels affect a third of male type 2 diabetics, of which there are roughly ten million in this country," says Dandona. "If we can elucidate the specific underlying mechanism, we can develop a rational treatment for this condition."
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