A physician’s analysis of Anastrozole as used in bodybuilding as an anti-estrogen and its side effects and properties. Anastrozole is primarily a drug used to combat breast cancer, but bodybuilders use it for its anti-estrogen effects, and it’s commonly prescribed by “anti-aging” clinics – however I have serious concerns about their cookie-cutter approach and long-term administration. Anastrozole in this use has several problematic side effects, but the most concerning is that it can significantly lower HDL. Combined with testosterone or steroids, I’ve seen this lead to heart attacks before age 40. It also may cause depression, especially in men who already have depression. This drug should be used extremely carefully in men – if you are considering taking anastrozole as an anti-estrogen or have taken it, please watch this video.
Anteye estrogens and bodybuilding part 2 anastrozole this is going to be bro science at its absolute best as this agent has been used for decades for men that are bodybuilding and in the culture of use of anabolic steroids that are estrogenic steroids testosterone esters and agents like dyna ball and an ahall it’s been used for many years in addition it’s also
Used off-label medically at anti-aging clinics which we’ll discuss today the concept is that these powerful agents will control the antigen to estrogen ratio as they do and it limits the effect of super physiologic estradiol and as we see water gaining puffiness gynecomastia is classic an overall wellness that our men using this drug and trying to stay balanced
With libido emotional liability and classically we be this the history of an astra saw developed by zenica pharmaceuticals in 1995 it was adjunctive treatment initially for hormone receptor-positive advanced breast cancer events soon after there was a head-to-head trial that it showed that it beat out is a first-line therapy tamoxifen for this type of breast
Cancer the mechanism of action of anastrozole it’s a selective non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor where systemic lis this medicine blocks the enzyme aroma dates from its conversion of engines into estrogens it’s very straightforward the medical uses of this agent it’s an anti estrogen for chemotherapy for locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer that is hormone
Receptor-positive also adjunctive therapy for early breast cancer now it’s interesting that 99 percent of breast cancer are seen in women 1% or seen in men i don’t think a lot of people understand that that it is seen in men breast cancer but it’s about 1% now off-label uses of this strong medicine we’ve seen in the last two decades there has been limited case
Studies and even some trials showing that men that have low testosterone in addition they had higher estrogen levels and we do see that in men organically that are getting older and have certain metabolic medical conditions and they use this drug to block the effect of the aromatase the aromatized estrogen and in theory liberate the man’s free testosterone which it
Does seem to do now i can tell you that i’ve tried it i’ve used this for men in this scenario these are not anabolic steroid using men they’re two men that have low tea organically and it does work on paper but i can tell you that it’s not sustainable unfortunately it’s not sustainable and again this is a powerful medicine so that’s some of the history anecdotally
That i found now off-label use currently today is anti-aging rejuvenation clinics in america and abroad they will use this unfortunately as a cookie cutting approach they’ll give man testosterone and they’ll give men this strong drug or other types of anthias regions possibly others arms like clomid tamoxifen and even human chorionic gonadotropin and these are
Medicines that certainly can be used but it’s done in a cookie cut way and it’s not monitored in my opinion well though use it again as men in the bodybuilding community use it for pathogenic conversion from steroids testosterone esters to limit water gain gynecomastia and overall wellness at this point in the discussion let’s talk about side effects because this
Is the most crucial aspect of this presentation now this is a medicine that’s very powerful and we’re going to discuss the uses in men that are using it in their recreational or professional bodybuilding cultural centers and just men that are using steroids personally and again these are estrogenic steroids mainly esters of testosterone and again also being used
Chronically at anti-aging facilities the issues with this drug are complicated and they’re not proven there’s no studies there’s no prospective randomized double-blinded studies this is all clear bro science and it’s all anecdotal although there’s a lot of data here and i can tell you that this drug can be used carefully and the side effects are gonna be dose
Dependent time dependent and man dependent and how it’s used the number one side effect goes right to the heart you’re gonna see that this medicine will have significant in deteriorating effects on the high density lipoprotein vhdl which is a protective good hdl for a man for his heart it’s interesting that we see this medicine even in small doses take a inherent
Baseline hdl downward now it’s interesting that why and who were using this with men on testosterone and or steroids i want to point out there’s some synergy here men are on testosterone and i could tell you that every man so close to 100% when he goes on even trt doses his hdl will go down at least a little bit sometimes a lot depending on what other drugs and
Who he is that he’s using but when you add testosterone replacement and/or steroids to this drug and ostra saw you get significant declining values in hdl i’ve seen numbers of hdl unmeasurable i’ve seen men in the single digits and commonly i see men coming in using this medicine from themselves or anti-aging clinics when their hdl s are in the 20s or certainly
In the 30s sometimes even lower and they’ll tell me that they’ve had these numbers for many years in some circumstances and unfortunately although it’s very rare i’ve seen several men under the age of 40 have myocardial infarction because he has bad history family history of coronary disease using these agents and his hdl will be very low and this whole conundrum
Or this whole physiological milieu has led him into having a blockage in his heart and i’ve seen this man diagnosed we myocardial infarction status post stunting and bypass surgery i have unfortunately a number of men that i care for right now that are in this regard so you have to be very careful it is interesting what’s the mechanism of this doc how does this
Medicine lower the hdl inherently well it’s mediating through the liver somehow and it’s not toxic to the liver but it’s mediating field liver because this is where the lipoproteins are generated and it’s interesting that a man will have a perfectly good estradiol number or even a super physiologic or high number but his hdl goes down so obviously this is affecting
This aspect of producing the hdl directly itself in some mechanism we have no idea how side effects continued definitely it’s going to have an effect on the mood and the well-being in the cns of a man despite having balanced estrogen levels i’ve seen this i’ve seen this for years i deal with it all the time men will have malaise and fatigue they will have depression
And if a man has depression underlying this is such a strong medicine for him even though doc it’s balanced and they’re checking the levels aura i’m checking the levels and their astro dial levels or total ass region is completely normal even some circumstances elevated of course there are some testosterone we don’t know how it mediates there must be direct effects
On the central nervous system especially for a man that has underlying depression please be careful libido it’s gonna it’s going to be a fine balance on libido men will use this drug of course because they want to stay balanced we always all want to stay balanced you’re on antigens you want a balance see the estrogens it’s a perfect concept but in the beginning
It could work well and then over time it’s not sustainable again despite looking at the numbers on paper we call this treating the paper it doesn’t sustain for all men but some men it does have to be watched carefully and then of course sometimes you see hot flashes even because that’s usually when you see men that are abolished with the estrogen and it’s such
A strong medicine that if you’re taking too much of this even a little bit too much in the beginning it may work when you have a big overload of estrogen then quickly it will go down and if you stay on that same dose without being monitored you can have side effects of hot flashes and again these are central nervous system effects next musculoskeletal now we know
From women that use this because they have breast cancer and they have to use it they can have pronounced declining density of the bones it’s called osteopenia and osteoporosis i’ve seen it as i was a primary care doctor for many women for over a decade so in men we don’t know we don’t know how it’s going to affect the bones and i don’t think it’s in a call cause
Osteoporosis in men but we just have no studies on this because the men still have levels of estrogen that we can measure to be balanced now in addition these men have androgen which we know is very pronounced protector of bone density very interesting but the interesting piece here is the musculoskeletal aspect is tendon injury ligament injury how many powerlifters
Have 80 joints and lifters and just regular guys that are on this medicine and they’re trying to balance it and they have 80 joints and this is incredible to me again despite looking at the number on paper and being balanced last aspect of side-effects is miscellaneous so there’s all sorts of miscellaneous side effects beyond the basic heart in the mood and the
Musculoskeletal side effects that are obvious gi effects hair loss while you’re on testosterone are you losing your hair cuz you’re on testosterone nail fungus and other skin effects very interesting dermalogica fex i’ve seen over many many years now rationale for use and how i cautiously may use this drug in men that i monitor very closely because there is a
Rationale for this medicine it’s very powerful but it can be very effective with a man you only use it as a last resort you don’t cookie-cut you don’t just put every man on testosterone an astra saw clomid hcg tamoxifen this is absolutely unethical and obviously as you could see me right now ridiculous and dangerous it needs to stop number one if you’re going to
Use this medication you have to make sure a man does not have heart disease you have to take a very good history and physical exam you have to assess him for classic risks for heart disease blood pressure cholesterol diabetes does he have heart disease check a coronary artery calcium score check is hdl if this is a man like many men have inherently organically low
Hdl s and maybe he has a family history of early coronary disease in his dad i do not use this medicine ever on that man i can’t number two limited use of this medicine with anabolic steroid users that are young there is use of this drug as you’re getting them off steroids in the recovery period and about recovery medicine when you’re using medicines ethically
Like human chorionic gonadotropin that could classically increase the conversion aromatization of the endogenous androgen to estrogen and he’s going to suffer so you use this carefully monitored and selective estrogen receptor modulators that i’ll do videos on in the future and of course when you’re using testosterone esters with men to rescue them and to recover
Them you off anabolic steroids this medicine can be classically used again monitored closely it’s a limited-use motif it has to be limited if you’re using it with trt i like to monitor and adjust other things first for an example if a man is on testosterone you could micro dose it really works i’ve learned this from my patients over years that have had heart attacks
There are low doses of antigen because they have to because they have anabolic steroid use i will go down ism and they’re not going to produce endogenous testosterone so we have to use some testosterone for this man he’s gonna suffer so he is an aroma tizen person maybe very sensitive to it to the esters so we use the lowest possible dose micro dosing can really
Work very very careful with this so also look what else you’re looking at if you’re looking at gynecomastia or weight issues or cns depression really do a good history doctors and patients rely on that use weight loss dietary changes and fergana co mastiha for crying out loud use surgery just to rely on this medicine forever go to a good plastic surgeon and i do
Use tamoxifen for short periods of time to reset a man that’s auntie artie he’s having some sensitivity in gynecomastia it’s important we could use tamoxifen it may be better but there’s no data for this and you have to be careful for the side-effects of that i’ll do a video on that so that’s my take on an astra saul which is an incredibly powerful life-saving
Medicine for breast cancer it can be used cautiously with close monitoring for men to improve their quality of life when they’re on estrogenic compounds like testosterone esters but you need to be monitored very carefully and you need to be doing this with the proper man and physician i hope this helps thank you so much thomas o’connor here i’m glad you made to
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Transcribed from video
Anti-Estrogens in Bodybuilding Pt. 2 – Anastrozole – Doctor's Analysis of Side Effects & Properties By Anabolic Doc