Optimized HGH in Bodybuilding with Kurt Havens - J3U Podcast // Eps.164 — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00welcome to the j3 university podcast I'm
- 0:02your host John jitt and I'm your co-host
- 0:04Luke Miller our mission is to elevate
- 0:06the physique coaching standard and
- 0:08deliver the highest level of competitors
- 0:10to the stage let's jump into today's
- 0:14[Music]
- 0:18episode optimizing growth hormone in
- 0:21bodybuilding today we have on Kurt
- 0:24Havens who is a physique coach also does
- 0:28a lot of research and also put out a lot
- 0:30of great information around um Androgen
- 0:33uh information growth hormone all all
- 0:36things PDS related I think that's kind
- 0:38of been the passion project for Kurt and
- 0:40so if you haven't seen a lot of this
- 0:42information out there happy to have him
- 0:44on the our podcast for the first time
- 0:46because that is a an area that we'd love
- 0:48to talk about and chat on but Kurt has
- 0:51his entire book that has come out on on
- 0:54growth hormone which was an excellent
- 0:55read and recommend everyone to pick this
- 0:57up if you have anything to do with
- 0:59growth hormone
- 1:00because it's delivers science and
- 1:03doesn't dilute it and as an
- 1:05understandable takeaway which is a hard
- 1:07thing to convey so Kurt um great to have
- 1:10you on how you doing excellent thanks
- 1:12for having me guys yeah I mean that's
- 1:15kind of been my passion I realized
- 1:16through both what was going on in social
- 1:18media what was going on in modern
- 1:21medicine is just a serious lack of good
- 1:23information on PS right and just stigmas
- 1:26behind a lot of these things
- 1:28and and just a lot of bror that just
- 1:31been carried on and carried on and it's
- 1:32not necessarily the best way to go about
- 1:34doing these things right because the
- 1:35goal is we want to be able to do this
- 1:37safely and do it long term and maintain
- 1:39our
- 1:40health yeah I think with growth hormon
- 1:43has always been so misunderstood and you
- 1:46know when I was coming up in
- 1:47bodybuilding it was like growth for was
- 1:49going to be the game changer like don't
- 1:51use this earlier on this is your Ace
- 1:53card to play like you turn pro use
- 1:55growth hormone it like opens up the
- 1:57gates right I think insulin he probably
- 1:59more misunderstood which is a whole
- 2:01another podcast of itself um but you
- 2:04know G absolutely is misunderstood so I
- 2:08I would love and a lot of our listeners
- 2:10they have heard us speak to growth
- 2:12hormone but um just uh I want to get
- 2:14into like the depths of the conversation
- 2:16around some some misapplications and
- 2:19understanding of problems that are
- 2:20coming up because that's where I think
- 2:21you could you really shine I know we
- 2:23could go a whole podcast probably on
- 2:24just mechanistic action and and Pathways
- 2:27of this but if you could just give like
- 2:29a fundamental breakdown of the role of
- 2:32growth hormone in the body with regard
- 2:34to bodybuilding right like muscle growth
- 2:36fat loss like what is this stuff
- 2:38actually doing and maybe what it's not
- 2:40doing what people are are say it might
- 2:42be doing totally so it's secreted
- 2:45Naturally by your anary pituitary gland
- 2:47uh usually in times of stress hunger
- 2:50right it's it's considered a stress
- 2:51hormone it's actually a cyto kind so we
- 2:54can get into that later because that
- 2:55plays into how you inject it and why we
- 2:58inject it certain ways versus other ways
- 3:00um and there are five uh unique genes in
- 3:04the human body for growth hormone and
- 3:06they're all on chromosomes 17 we are
- 3:08only really concerned with the the the
- 3:11first two that we see in adults the
- 3:13other three are placental growth hormone
- 3:15that you see in pregnancy and so that's
- 3:18a totally different thing and that plays
- 3:20into some of the long acting growth
- 3:21hormones that have come on the market um
- 3:24I touched on that in some other podcasts
- 3:26I don't that's probably a whole another
- 3:28Topic in and of itself as why that's not
- 3:30necessarily the most ideal drug either
- 3:32um it's so growth hormone is responsible
- 3:35for tons of stuff like uh total human
- 3:39body development right when you're
- 3:40growing uh and for bodybuilders
- 3:44specifically we're looking at a from a
- 3:46muscle building fat loss uh
- 3:49collagen um all tissue basically uh bone
- 3:54liver cells immune system
- 3:57sleep I I always joke
- 4:00that if growth hormone only improved my
- 4:02sleep as much as it did I would still
- 4:04use it even if it had no other effects
- 4:06because to me the Sleep benefits are are
- 4:08so profound especially when you get like
- 4:11I'm 50 so at at this point in my life
- 4:14sleep is not a great thing anymore you
- 4:16know I don't know if you guys get that
- 4:18yet but when you when when you get up
- 4:20there it it it becomes really
- 4:22compromising it becomes difficult to get
- 4:23through training and recovery and manage
- 4:26all these things you know and keep
- 4:27making progress um into later years
- 4:30because that's the the goal here right
- 4:31like I want to be able to do this until
- 4:32I'm in my 70s at least in some capacity
- 4:36um and that's you know and I think
- 4:39that's where using these things wisely
- 4:40and using things like growth
- 4:42hormone I think can really Aid in that
- 4:45right like the two see in my opinion the
- 4:47two
- 4:49healthiest things people could use would
- 4:51probably be testosterone growth hormone
- 4:52they're endogenous hormones and the body
- 4:54knows exactly what to do with them um
- 4:56they would produce in theory the less
- 4:58the least amount of C effects even
- 5:00though there's things like prabal that
- 5:01are very refined they're not natural
- 5:03hormones so we don't really know long
- 5:05term what those drugs actually do
- 5:07especially in the doses that
- 5:08bodybuilders
- 5:09take
- 5:11um would you say k like going through
- 5:13this because we talk about muscle
- 5:15building talk about body composition and
- 5:18with growth
- 5:19hormone there's you know everyone thinks
- 5:22about the growth aspect with its naming
- 5:25would you say there's a stronger role
- 5:27for growth hormone a more like limiting
- 5:29body body fat or reducing body fat over
- 5:32its muscle building capacity um or or is
- 5:36it vice versa you know so that's and and
- 5:38I state that in my book in the beginning
- 5:40it's kind of like a shocker is that
- 5:42growth hormone itself is not really
- 5:43building muscle directly right there it
- 5:45shows that it seems to prevent some
- 5:48level of protein breakdown through mtor
- 5:51activation at a muscle cell but it
- 5:53doesn't really increase muscle protein
- 5:54synthesis
- 5:55rates um and it's most of the effects we
- 5:58see are through igf one so igf1 is
- 6:02really kind of the drive and force
- 6:03between why most guys are using GH and
- 6:07not so much for the GH GH itself is more
- 6:09of like a fat loss agent right and the
- 6:12other things like the Sleep
- 6:15um and those sorts of effects uh soft
- 6:18soft tissue collagen those kind of
- 6:20things are more from growth hormone
- 6:21although igf plays a role there too um
- 6:25but yeah so it's it's it's growth
- 6:26hormone itself is not necessarily
- 6:27building muscle directly that's not why
- 6:29you're using it yeah I so I guess that
- 6:32kind of gets into like next question I
- 6:34had
- 6:35which some people the the access to
- 6:38growth hormone or it's you know still
- 6:40stated the cost limitations of accessing
- 6:43growth hormone might be what would cause
- 6:45someone to go down a different path
- 6:46right like I started because when I was
- 6:49going to use uh peptides right these
- 6:52growth hormones secreted gogs because
- 6:53they're very accessible this was back in
- 6:55like 2015 like nearly 10 10 years ago um
- 6:59Qui realizing like how I had to use
- 7:01these things and the amount that I need
- 7:02to use it's like damn I might as well
- 7:04just buy growth from them by this point
- 7:05but um you brought up a couple points
- 7:08when you're talking around
- 7:10differentiating effects between GH and
- 7:12igf-1 and it sounds like we definitely
- 7:15want both to be occurring for the fat
- 7:16loss aspects but also these muscle
- 7:18building effects collagen building
- 7:20effects and so you still see a lot of
- 7:24people asking about
- 7:26mk677 or ipam morelan and these other
- 7:31coges what what might you be limiting
- 7:35factors in some of these and uh be you
- 7:39be held back by trying to go this route
- 7:41like what are what are your opinions and
- 7:43thoughts around those so mk677 is really
- 7:46interesting so that as last I saw it's
- 7:49in stage three of clinical trials to
- 7:51become a pharmaceutical drug and the
- 7:54name is changing it won't be called M
- 7:56mk677 that name signifies a a joint
- 8:00venture between MC and another peptide
- 8:02company they joined to form a lot of
- 8:05these peptides years ago and that's how
- 8:07they were all named with those numbers
- 8:08and those letters uh those were like uh
- 8:11research same a lot of steroids actually
- 8:13have research numbers on them before
- 8:15they become like a chemical name um I
- 8:18think mk677 might be the most valuable
- 8:21of them but not necessarily for our
- 8:24population they're looking at children
- 8:26with delay growth or growth hormone
- 8:28deficiency and elderly so my father's in
- 8:32his 70s and he's had great luck with
- 8:34MK the the issue with MK and all of
- 8:38those
- 8:38secretagogues well especially the
- 8:40injectable ones is with the with the
- 8:42injectable ones like EP morelan you have
- 8:44to time your food and all these things
- 8:46around it right in order for it to even
- 8:47work um the the biggest limiting factor
- 8:52is it's basically like a test it's going
- 8:53to work similar to a testosterone
- 8:54booster its limiting factor is your
- 8:56pituitary gland so if your pituitary
- 8:58gland is not functioning
- 9:01ideally or or if you never had a huge
- 9:06amount like if your body wasn't
- 9:07producing a ton of growth hormone to
- 9:08begin with it's only going to take you
- 9:10to where you were naturally right so
- 9:12that's kind of the rate limit versus
- 9:13when you inject a hormone you're
- 9:15bypassing that thing right differ
- 9:17injecting testosterone versus taking you
- 9:20know a pro hormone or um one of those
- 9:24over-the-counter test boosters right
- 9:25like even if they increase your test by
- 9:2740% is that enough for us to see result
- 9:29in the gym probably not unless you're at
- 9:31the rock bottom of the of the range so
- 9:33that that's I think for bodybuilders
- 9:37most likely I would say the the secret
- 9:39aogs are pretty useless they don't
- 9:41really seem to do a ton I mean I guess
- 9:42it's better than nothing but in the
- 9:44current environment it seems that you
- 9:45can get underground lab GH pretty
- 9:49reasonable now it's changed a lot in the
- 9:51last 10 years right it's HCG is probably
- 9:53actually more expensive now than GH yeah
- 9:56probably so the ways the laws have
- 9:58changed with the pharmaceutical compan
- 9:59is making this stuff um that's I mean
- 10:03that's that's pretty much the yeah you
- 10:07know Luke wrote a bit more on this like
- 10:10in our j3u course but look looking
- 10:12around the research of the secog like
- 10:15you know it could get a guy maybe into
- 10:17maybe into the 300s like maybe High Norm
- 10:20but to get someone super physiological
- 10:22to where you really gain the benefits it
- 10:24just seems like that's not the role and
- 10:26then to to your point as well Kurt it's
- 10:28like what's your ability to produce
- 10:30growth hormone and if you're a young guy
- 10:32in your 20s you might already have a
- 10:34really good production so you're like
- 10:36just try taking this to probably maybe
- 10:38even produce the same amount it's like
- 10:40using trt when you're 20 years old like
- 10:42why would you do that unless you're
- 10:44truly hypogonadal yeah which is rare
- 10:46right right you can cause that by poor
- 10:48diet lifestyle overtraining those kind
- 10:50of things but like which you see a lot
- 10:52of this trt at these young Ages which is
- 10:54wild right I mean I didn't start trt
- 10:56till I was 40 but I was truly
- 10:58hypogonadal and my body just wouldn't
- 11:00respond anymore you know and I and I did
- 11:03beat the [ __ ] on myself so I you know I
- 11:05probably had lower test levels at a
- 11:07younger age but did it really affect my
- 11:08training I'd say probably not um and
- 11:12that's kind of where you know using
- 11:15exogenous growth hormone would make a
- 11:16much bigger difference than using these
- 11:18other things and the reason why I said
- 11:20before underground lab GH and not
- 11:23generic is just I think we have to be
- 11:26careful with the term because the term
- 11:28generic in a pharmacetical sense
- 11:30basically means it's manufactured to the
- 11:32same specifications as the
- 11:34pharmaceutical and unfortunately they're
- 11:36not made to the same specs they're
- 11:38similar right the drug itself is the
- 11:40same but what goes into it the process
- 11:41to manufacture that and bottle it and
- 11:43stuff is is vastly different and that's
- 11:46what we tend to see the difference
- 11:48between PHA G and the the underground
- 11:52lab stuff I don't know if you want me to
- 11:53go into what the difference is and
- 11:55there's nothing wrong with underground
- 11:56lab stuff especially affordability wise
- 12:00accessibility um abundance right most
- 12:03most people especially in this country
- 12:04don't have access to pharmaceutical
- 12:06growth hormone and even if they did the
- 12:08cost is not something they can really
- 12:10take on right because you're looking at
- 12:12basically a Mercedes S-Class a month to
- 12:14run any good amount of Pharma GH I I do
- 12:17want to hit that and this is one of my
- 12:18next questions but there there's a last
- 12:20point about like access and uh we talked
- 12:24about like a srog but also what's
- 12:27accessible I see this promoted a lot
- 12:28because
- 12:30people can sell them you can have a
- 12:31discount code and you can push it is
- 12:33igf1 Dez igf1 lr3 like these are all
- 12:36really popular as as well which there's
- 12:40limiting aspects around this and so I
- 12:43also wanted you to be able to to touch
- 12:45on those as well I I in in my experience
- 12:50and in my knowledge the those variants
- 12:53of igf are not going to be as effective
- 12:55in in rodent studies they seem to do
- 12:57much more than in humans in in the
- 12:59Practical realities I don't know anyone
- 13:01that's used any of those igf variants
- 13:03and really got much out of it I would
- 13:05say again if you're going to go the the
- 13:07pure igf route it seems that Inc relux
- 13:09is kind of the way to go but again the
- 13:11cost right abundance especially in the
- 13:13United States is it's really hard to
- 13:14come by and it's probably more for a
- 13:17very Advanced user I would say in my
- 13:20mind working with athletes at different
- 13:22levels I'd say incorporating something
- 13:24like ankux comes way at the later stages
- 13:27like where you are John when you're
- 13:29looking at the difference in 1% is the
- 13:32difference in you winning the Olympia
- 13:33versus you know not winning the Olympia
- 13:36versus at a local show I I highly doubt
- 13:39that that's going to be the game changer
- 13:40there for most of those guys yeah I'm
- 13:43just pounding down incr over here of
- 13:46course that's where you typically would
- 13:48see it but it's more in the European
- 13:49guys I think over there yeah I've seen
- 13:51like some Middle Eastern countries like
- 13:53have access around these things but e
- 13:55even the guys that I personally have
- 13:57never used incr but the guys that I have
- 14:00spoken to it's kind of the same thing it
- 14:01just doesn't have a real profound effect
- 14:05uh I do think and I think going back to
- 14:07our original thing where if you're just
- 14:09trying to take igf-1 we talk about oh
- 14:11this is what we're really after for
- 14:13bodybuilding and I I think that is not
- 14:15the only thing we are really after
- 14:17because I think the real benefit is
- 14:19growth hormone itself both right um to
- 14:23be able because my my experience is in
- 14:26the offseason this is the leanest I've
- 14:28ever been able to stay so the indirect
- 14:31effect to be able to partition more
- 14:34towards muscle is how I get the muscle
- 14:37building effects yes igf-1 has a role
- 14:40right but it's really I think the growth
- 14:42R owns indirect effects of partitioning
- 14:44ability that creates such a profound
- 14:46response and you're missing out on that
- 14:48I think with just taking like something
- 14:50like incx and youve probably seen the
- 14:52studies on incx because incx is actually
- 14:55utilized for um like children deficient
- 14:59in growth hormone that are
- 15:00non-responsive like they have some type
- 15:02of defect or um error to where they
- 15:05don't have igf-1 occurring and so they
- 15:07use incx um and and the dosage of those
- 15:10studies like man to have replacement
- 15:13amount of
- 15:14igf-1 you wouldn't be able to afford it
- 15:16and I see the protocols of what guys
- 15:18take it's like it's it's like a tinth of
- 15:21what's even effective so yeah it's
- 15:24hugely expensive and we try and in HIV
- 15:26the same thing we've we've studied IG
- 15:29incr luux versus using serostim and the
- 15:32outcome is just not as great like you're
- 15:34just getting so much more out of the GH
- 15:37you know in in those people and that's
- 15:38that's on an extreme end but if you look
- 15:40at that if it can grow new cells and
- 15:43stop wasting in someone that's
- 15:45terminally ill like that you have to
- 15:47figure for someone like us who's clearly
- 15:49not you know you're not sitting in a bed
- 15:51you're not wasting away you're not
- 15:52expressing all these cabon genes it's
- 15:54it's going to have a I just think an
- 15:57overall better effect than just using
- 15:58something like KF I think I think one of
- 16:01the things on the anecdotal side of like
- 16:03growth hormone usage is like John you
- 16:05mentioned like stringing like Seasons
- 16:07together like being able to manage body
- 16:09composition kind of being like the
- 16:10primary input of where we see the
- 16:13applicable usage being extremely high
- 16:16I've actually been using it pretty well
- 16:18though in keeping people training from
- 16:19an injury profile perspective on the
- 16:21collagen synthesis side of the equation
- 16:23um actually pretty robustly getting
- 16:26people back to training post injury with
- 16:28combination of like tv500 bpc alongside
- 16:31growth hormone usage kind of going down
- 16:33that collagen synthesis route so I kind
- 16:35of wanted to let you touch on that real
- 16:37quick before we got into the access
- 16:38stuff because
- 16:40like the secondary effects of growth
- 16:42hormone are where like it's so robust as
- 16:45a coach being able to manage someone and
- 16:47we talked about this in the previous
- 16:48podcast like John's body composition
- 16:51comments about I can take someone
- 16:53through an allseason phase longer I can
- 16:55keep them exposed to physiological
- 16:57androgens longer because I'm managing
- 16:59body composition better and as a result
- 17:00Health metrics I'm stringing along
- 17:03Seasons better because I can keep them
- 17:05in a better body comp but I can keep
- 17:07them training more effectively too
- 17:09because I'm getting them out of injury
- 17:10profiles or n niggles a bit quicker
- 17:13because of the collagen synthesis side
- 17:14of the equation so I just want to let
- 17:16you touch on that because I think that's
- 17:18a I don't say underutilized but maybe
- 17:20under discussed or under uh realize
- 17:24potential benefit of keeping that in
- 17:25play as well yeah and having seen in
- 17:29person in the middle of an offseason
- 17:31like I saw you last year at the Arnold
- 17:32your condition all year round is
- 17:34phenomenal I don't think the pictures do
- 17:36it that Justice that you post on
- 17:38Instagram I mean you you look like
- 17:40you're ready to get on stage all the
- 17:42time which is Quite a feat for someone
- 17:43your size and this your amount of food
- 17:46and you know that you have to eat just
- 17:48to just to make progress at your you
- 17:50know I wasn't like that before I've
- 17:51gotten fat so people you're just leaning
- 17:53I'm like no man I'm not like doing stuff
- 17:57correctly it's amazing that's I think
- 17:58how you were able to move up weight
- 17:59classes so quickly and so smoothly you
- 18:02know year after
- 18:03year yeah and you know I think Luke has
- 18:06a good thing to bring up around this
- 18:08we're talking about peptides right um
- 18:10and like everyone jumping on like bpc or
- 18:13tb500 to like oh I have this injury let
- 18:15me throw this in and I personally I've
- 18:18just seen so much more response at a
- 18:20growth hormone than bpc or
- 18:23tb500 it just seems like it's all over
- 18:25the place like some people notice it
- 18:27some people don't I think there's lot of
- 18:29placebo maybe happening there but yeah I
- 18:32I've never personally seen a ton of I I
- 18:34think that there is some Merit to using
- 18:36bpc and tb500 tb500 is very like acute
- 18:38like you literally just injured yourself
- 18:40that's a great time for tb500 bpc is
- 18:43probably more like a long like a nagging
- 18:45thing that's been around for a while it
- 18:46might Aid in that recovery to some
- 18:49degree right how much is hard to say and
- 18:51I think like you said it probably
- 18:52depends on the person and the injury
- 18:54right if it's something's fully torn
- 18:56it's not going to fix it yeah GH I think
- 19:00GH I think has a much more profound
- 19:02effect on recovery and healing it just
- 19:04needs to be used long term right it
- 19:07doesn't collagen synthesis doesn't
- 19:08really start to ramp up it's kind of a
- 19:09biphasic response doesn't really start
- 19:11to ramp up for about six months after
- 19:13use and then again at another big ramp
- 19:15up at a year so if you're if someone's
- 19:17using growth hormone for a prep or
- 19:19something they're only going to use it
- 19:20for two or three months they're probably
- 19:21not even getting anywhere near the full
- 19:22benefits of it it's just starting to
- 19:24build yeah at that point um but I think
- 19:27you could definitely use all all three
- 19:29together if you if you actually have an
- 19:31injury or coming out of surgery or
- 19:32something yeah you kind of weigh like
- 19:34what is the the risk of of not using
- 19:37versus using them right and like you
- 19:39know these aren't FDA approved drugs but
- 19:42we have quite a bit of research
- 19:44nonetheless probably more than in the
- 19:46past of what is even an FDA approved
- 19:48drug so uh people should keep that in
- 19:50mind when they're like we all use human
- 19:52approved drugs it's like yeah but even
- 19:54the current ones are probably even
- 19:55stricter to come to Market and for
- 19:58specific Reon reasons that sometimes
- 19:59they don't pan out but
- 20:01anyway yeah I think uh those those
- 20:04probably are be like lower from growth
- 20:07hormone probably like our our next like
- 20:09tier of of peptides that probably have
- 20:12some good good efficacy but the rest the
- 20:14stuff is who knows hit or miss right i'
- 20:17I've never really seen many people have
- 20:19much luck with a lot of the other stuff
- 20:21that's out there probably wasted money
- 20:22and if you're going to spend thousands
- 20:24of dollars on these random peptides I
- 20:25would probably just invest in growth
- 20:26hormone at that point yeah um now there
- 20:29there was a study I don't know if you
- 20:30recall I have to send it to you it was
- 20:32in in young individuals U do dosing I
- 20:35believe and they actually showed like
- 20:38within a 14-day period a ramp up of
- 20:41collagen synthesis with using growth
- 20:43hormone now this is just means like hey
- 20:45some mRNA increases of collagen
- 20:47synthesis but to pan out to an actual
- 20:51effect that you're noticing is going to
- 20:53be some time right like you're saying
- 20:55it's not going to be the next week it's
- 20:57like I'm Healed right it's uh takes some
- 21:00time to actually that's the issue with
- 21:02mtor and protein synthesis and nitrogen
- 21:05retention all these things these were
- 21:07metrics we used years ago to determine
- 21:09if a drug was efficient or not and it
- 21:10turns out that just retaining nitrogen
- 21:14while it might prevent some catabolism
- 21:16or stimulating mour like Lucine right
- 21:18stimulates mour that doesn't mean you're
- 21:19growing muscle from being Lucine right
- 21:21there's none so just stimulate and when
- 21:23they studied it's really difficult to
- 21:25figure out if that's protein synthesis
- 21:26in a muscle or if that's whole body
- 21:28protein synthesis right that's a big
- 21:30determining Factor too so it's it's not
- 21:32that you don't want to keep your protein
- 21:34synthesis elevated to some degree if
- 21:36you're trying to grow but in and of
- 21:38itself it's not going to be the stimulus
- 21:39for growth right there's only four
- 21:41Pathways that we know of that cause
- 21:42growth of muscle and humans and
- 21:45unfortunately mtor is not directly one
- 21:48of them right it's it's mechano
- 21:50transduction from exercise it's the
- 21:53andren receptor the igf-1 receptor and
- 21:55p13k which is an energy sensor that
- 21:58insulin and igf and all those things can
- 22:00interact with as well as food but it's
- 22:02it's Downstream from mtor but mtor
- 22:04itself is not going to cause right you
- 22:06could drink all the protein you want
- 22:07you're not going to grow it's with all
- 22:09these studies like we learn about how
- 22:10something works in a path it's not the
- 22:13thing that we want to just put all of
- 22:15our programming into right so it's like
- 22:17yeah like your your pi3k pathway right
- 22:20it it does influence inour great what
- 22:23does that actually mean for us to
- 22:25implement in our our routines but um
- 22:29to to to bring this back of something
- 22:30that you were about to get into that I I
- 22:33just kept us in a rabbit hole of
- 22:35peptides was um around growth hormone
- 22:40access and the question we get a lot is
- 22:43how do I know my GH is
- 22:46real which a is a is a simple answer yet
- 22:49a challenging answer because there's a
- 22:50lot of nuance there I would say
- 22:54from you could do a GH pulse right you
- 22:57could do you could do lab to see you
- 22:59could possibly test igf again igf we can
- 23:01touch on igf and serum if you want later
- 23:04and I can kind of explain kind of the
- 23:06misunderstanding there with that test um
- 23:09I would say I mean really simple growth
- 23:11hormone's fairly dramatic when it's good
- 23:14you you would know that your growth
- 23:16hormone is good I think the first sign
- 23:17is when the dose is adequate that your
- 23:19sleep should start to become much deeper
- 23:22and you start to have really vivid
- 23:23dreams and you see that even on things
- 23:25like mk677 they start to have really
- 23:27strange dreams
- 23:29um I think from a body composition point
- 23:31of view when you use an adequate amount
- 23:33of growth hormone for your body and
- 23:34everyone just responds to different
- 23:36amounts right there are guys that can
- 23:38use you know four or five units and get
- 23:40fantastic results or other guys that
- 23:41might use a bottle a day um I I would
- 23:45say it it's it's fairly apparent though
- 23:47when it's working when you're using the
- 23:50right amount I'm sure you noticed right
- 23:51when you when you started using it it
- 23:53became obvious really quickly enough of
- 23:56it and but I also Al I guess the
- 23:59challenge around that is you have to be
- 24:02fairly uh you know introspective in
- 24:06aware and someone earlier on might not
- 24:09have that kind of awareness right so
- 24:10like when I raised up my dosage this is
- 24:12when I'm I'm seeing things happen that
- 24:15wouldn't make sense before right like
- 24:17body weight's increasing I'm not seeing
- 24:19F and you're like wow okay I'm seeing
- 24:22this visually happen you feel Fuller
- 24:24right you got a fuller look veins right
- 24:27increases nitric oxide you bigger
- 24:28thicker veins on it I guess the
- 24:31thing that I would be careful with is
- 24:34that a lot of people see if drugs are
- 24:36working based on their also their we
- 24:40maybe we say effect other effects
- 24:42because they're not just side effects or
- 24:43negative effects they're just all
- 24:44effects right that oh man my hands are
- 24:46swollen or that my hands are tingling um
- 24:49or man my fasted blood glucose is Sky
- 24:52High it's like those aren't ways that we
- 24:54want to chase down to make sure your
- 24:56growth room is real like you don't
- 24:57really want the other effects to be
- 24:59happening same with like Trend ballone
- 25:01right oh man my sleep's terrible like I
- 25:03got some I got some good Trend now like
- 25:05no or you're just taking too much much
- 25:07or you don't tolerate it right I think
- 25:08that's that's another thing that people
- 25:10have to understand is like not everyone
- 25:12can take aspirin not everyone can take
- 25:13Tren not everyone can take growth
- 25:15hormone you might not tolerate it it's
- 25:18you know just because you get a negative
- 25:19effect doesn't mean that it's working
- 25:21right so if a guy and I'm not Haring on
- 25:24micro doing stuff but if a guy's taking
- 25:2510 milligrams of trend and he's Fe
- 25:28feeling it does that mean it's an
- 25:30effective dose because you get a side
- 25:31effect no if you took right amoxicilin
- 25:34is dosed at 500 milligram if you took
- 25:35half of an amoxicillin and you broke out
- 25:37in hives does that mean your your the
- 25:39bacteria in your body's going away no it
- 25:41means you have side effect you're
- 25:42allergic to the drug so you you
- 25:43shouldn't be using that drug that's kind
- 25:45of the same steroids we shouldn't be
- 25:47chasing sides to figure out what
- 25:49efficiency is yeah and that doesn't also
- 25:51mean you're going to have a great growth
- 25:53response to it right you could just have
- 25:55a poor resilience to side effects you
- 25:57get all I have clients where they get
- 25:59like take steroids they take all the
- 26:00negative effects and they do not respond
- 26:03like from a muscle building standpoint
- 26:04and but if you looked at if you went off
- 26:06side effects you're like man this guy's
- 26:07gonna have a great response like nope
- 26:09nope that's not always the case at all
- 26:11so no well because with with especially
- 26:13with the steroids you have multiple
- 26:15places for this Android receptors so
- 26:17non-genomic stuff on the cell surface is
- 26:19going to cause most of the side effects
- 26:21and those are located on organs in your
- 26:23brain that's when guys take Trend and
- 26:25they feel awful on it it doesn't mean
- 26:27that it's actually causing any sort of
- 26:28Gene transcription right you could be
- 26:31you could have a polymorphism or be
- 26:32totally lacking in a classic AR and and
- 26:36knock at any respon from Trend but you
- 26:37could really feel it right so me
- 26:39testosterone it can make you a nervous
- 26:40wreck it doesn't mean it's doing
- 26:41anything most likely the guys that seem
- 26:45to respond the best can will grow on the
- 26:47smallest amounts but they can also
- 26:49tolerate bigger amounts yes right and I
- 26:51think that's why amongst prob
- 26:52bodybuilders you see variations in
- 26:54amounts of drugs taken right and it
- 26:57because some someone like yourself could
- 26:59probably grow on 400 milligrams but you
- 27:00could also take 4,000 milligrams and be
- 27:02okay versus guys that have poor
- 27:04responses have it across the board right
- 27:06they have it at their first injection
- 27:07and no matter what you do with their
- 27:08dose it doesn't ever get any better and
- 27:10the response doesn't change you know
- 27:12same with GH like if your hands go numb
- 27:15at two
- 27:16units most likely something is off right
- 27:20we got to look at a couple things
- 27:20hydration sodium intake um maybe
- 27:24bringing it back down and then trying
- 27:25again or maybe it's just not the right
- 27:27drug for you yeah you could just have
- 27:28more robust that like uh sodium
- 27:31potassium atpa like influence that
- 27:35growth hormone has or even on
- 27:37aldosterone you retain more water that
- 27:40could be problematic um but to to go
- 27:43back around this testing piece because I
- 27:45remember like you used I used to read on
- 27:47the forums that was out of like well how
- 27:49do you test your growth fromone right
- 27:50like it was out that you you do 10 IU
- 27:53intramuscular injection and then you
- 27:55know the growth hormone Peaks around 3
- 27:56hours after this Administration you go
- 27:58pull your labs and you see what your
- 28:01serum GH level was and if you had a
- 28:04baseline to compar off of maybe you
- 28:05would just know like all right this is
- 28:07the response but you can't really say
- 28:09the amount of growth hormone that was
- 28:11being present but then also you later
- 28:14find out well these companies are like
- 28:16adding in peptides to their growth
- 28:17hormone to where maybe you're seeing a
- 28:19response and that's not just from rhgh
- 28:22maybe it's like also added with some
- 28:24ghrp6 or something in there or Dez you
- 28:27could put like cheaper igf or something
- 28:29in there right sure make than than
- 28:31growth hormone itself yeah that's and
- 28:34serum do you want me to touch on serum I
- 28:35I do I do I I think um before I guess
- 28:39the only real way that I would say would
- 28:42be an hlc test sending off your vial of
- 28:45growth hormone to be able to say like
- 28:47this is the Purity the potency uh the
- 28:50dimer you know all these aspects that
- 28:52would be there and geez if you get
- 28:56plugged into the right areas you can
- 28:57find a lot of these testings that have
- 28:59been already done
- 29:02Forest companies that have been out for
- 29:04a while it just be around the right
- 29:07people for long enough and you start
- 29:08will finding these these things out but
- 29:11um but but yes the testing piece so some
- 29:13people are also just looking at crmi gf1
- 29:17and so dive into this because if you're
- 29:19taking zous hor growth hormone it's
- 29:21going to raise up your CI gf1 what does
- 29:23that mean for us with response or even
- 29:27uh growth horm
- 29:28quality yeah well I'll back up one
- 29:31second with the testing before we close
- 29:33that out the um I think where the
- 29:36difficulty in understanding the
- 29:37difference between a Pharma and a and an
- 29:39underground lab gh2 is ideally you want
- 29:42it to be as as pure as possible right
- 29:44you're really looking for 98% pure
- 29:46better um and you ideally want as low of
- 29:49the dimer as possible in in this case
- 29:51that word can mean a ton of things
- 29:52depending on what science you're talking
- 29:54about in this case we're talking about
- 29:55like broken protein protein strands in
- 29:57there that are just not GH anymore
- 29:59they've there's something else who knows
- 30:01what they are um where the trouble
- 30:06starts even if you had an underground
- 30:07lab GH that's 98% pure 99% pure and it's
- 30:11just at the correct milligram amount
- 30:14what happens is they add some binders
- 30:16and fillers to it that can affect the
- 30:18absorption and the rate limit for growth
- 30:20hormone like you said about testing your
- 30:22blood is how much you can absorb right
- 30:25so when you put things like Baloo and
- 30:27188 which is a polymer into it it slows
- 30:29down the absorption so you're not
- 30:31getting the whole amount it'll stay a
- 30:33lot of times you can see it in cheaper
- 30:34GH when you inject it it'll leave a lump
- 30:37that'll last for a while um it's just
- 30:39not absorbing properly versus forag G
- 30:41when you put it in it'll leave a lump
- 30:42immediately and then it absorbs a couple
- 30:43minutes uh the other thing is manitol is
- 30:46typically added uh which is a diuretic
- 30:49it's a nonp potassium sparing diuretic
- 30:50and it's used to it the freeze drying
- 30:52process so when genotropin is made or
- 30:55serostim is made it's freeze red in very
- 30:58expensive equipment um and in the
- 31:00underground labs they don't have access
- 31:02to that equipment so what they do is
- 31:03they add manitol to it to speed up the
- 31:05drying process so they can make it into
- 31:07a little puck and put it in a bottle and
- 31:08get it out the door and that manitol
- 31:11screws with the Sodium pottassium ratio
- 31:13and can cause side effects to get worse
- 31:15so sometimes you might see guys will use
- 31:18three or four units of of an underground
- 31:20GH and they'll get incredibly numb hands
- 31:22that you wouldn't see on a Pharma one
- 31:23until you got to like eight or 10 right
- 31:25and it's not going to necess improve
- 31:27over time because the manats in there um
- 31:30because normally what I'd recommend when
- 31:31guys get numb hands with using PHA G is
- 31:35start reducing some of the sodium in
- 31:36your diet or just be very mindful of
- 31:38what you're of what you're taking in and
- 31:40increase your water intake if you're not
- 31:41already someone like yourself who's
- 31:43already very mindful of how many
- 31:44electrolytes you're taking in and how
- 31:46much fluid you're that's a time to start
- 31:48paying attention to it um and some of it
- 31:50will go away with time as your body gets
- 31:51used to filtering at a different rate um
- 31:55okay so with the igf serum stuff so so
- 31:59the test was not designed for athletes
- 32:03so it was never meant for us it was
- 32:06meant for disease States so when a
- 32:08doctor originally was looking at this
- 32:10which would primarily be an
- 32:11endocrinologist they were looking for
- 32:12acromegaly or giantism or growth Mor
- 32:15deficiency or a pituitary adona which is
- 32:18a non-cancerous tumor that's pressing on
- 32:21the pituitary that's causing either you
- 32:24know like a hypers
- 32:25secretion um that's really what they're
- 32:28looking for because there is no direct
- 32:30correlation between your serum igf and
- 32:32what you're going to look like right we
- 32:34we see this all the time in athletes
- 32:36Chase irons is a great example of this
- 32:37because when he was doing his 18 UNS of
- 32:40serm a day his serum igf was in the low
- 32:43hundreds he was growing like a weed
- 32:45because his but most of that that igf
- 32:47was going inside of his muscles so it
- 32:48wasn't detectable in serum and what
- 32:51really is going to determine that is
- 32:53your binding protein so in response to
- 32:56GH your liver Secret treats in humans
- 32:59seven binding proteins number seven is
- 33:01debatable if it exists or not or if
- 33:03that's actually what it is but so this
- 33:04there's that's that we know of six for
- 33:06sure your your liver will respond by
- 33:09producing these binding proteins and
- 33:10each binding protein has a different
- 33:12function they'll limit where it can go
- 33:13or what organ it goes to so your body
- 33:15can regulate how it's going to grow so
- 33:17there's just not this like free-for-all
- 33:19of growth um and certain things will
- 33:25increase or decrease them and one of the
- 33:27common ones you is in bodybuilding is as
- 33:29Sky's estrogen Rises their igf and serum
- 33:31Rises and they're like well this is why
- 33:33we run our estrogen high in the
- 33:34offseason because look at my igf it's at
- 33:36an
- 33:36800 and meanwhile that doesn't mean it's
- 33:38actually entering the cell it's
- 33:40completely bound so that is a that
- 33:43Nature's Way of preventing igf in
- 33:47pregnant women from going to the fetus
- 33:50so you see during pregnancy as a woman
- 33:53is as her estrogen goes higher and
- 33:55higher as she gets as the pregnancy goes
- 33:57on in
- 33:58stages the um it will bind up more of
- 34:02her natural igf and also her pituitary
- 34:04will produce less so the placenta can
- 34:07start producing more because you don't
- 34:08want that igf to cross over to the fetus
- 34:11uh but you see that in bodybuilders as
- 34:12well so they run huge amount of
- 34:14aromatizing drugs and they're letting
- 34:16their estren run wild you'll see their
- 34:17igf go up in serum which is rendering
- 34:19most of it useless so just seeing an
- 34:22inere might show that you have injected
- 34:24growth hormone but it's not showing that
- 34:26you're going to get any muscle growth
- 34:27out of it directly so I don't I don't
- 34:29really love to test it's like most of
- 34:31the serum tests don't really show us
- 34:32anything DHT in serum isn't really
- 34:35teaching us anything technically estradi
- 34:37and Serum is not is only telling us
- 34:38what's in the blood it's not telling us
- 34:40what the cell is doing with the estrogen
- 34:42how fast it's converting um so some of
- 34:45these tests are just
- 34:46misunderstood and they're you know and
- 34:48and the trt clinics are now using them
- 34:50as metrics to determine an outcome but
- 34:52yet it's not even it wasn't designed for
- 34:54that I I guess you have to kind of
- 34:58corroborate the story of if you have a
- 35:00sear marker it's not the sole thing to
- 35:02go off of but also what is the
- 35:04presentation response that you're
- 35:06noticing then what other markers might
- 35:08be helping you to assess that because
- 35:10like you said these intracellular
- 35:12conversion or expression of hormones is
- 35:16probably what's really deeming response
- 35:19um you know however there could be some
- 35:22Association right we see this with I was
- 35:24looking at some studies around uh bone
- 35:28growth and using growth hormone and also
- 35:32around estrad and suppressing estrad
- 35:35lowering serum igf-1 aqual lowered
- 35:39localized igf-1 in bone and didn't cause
- 35:42as much growth now is that a one to one
- 35:44ratio what is it we we don't know um
- 35:47could there be some like hey if your
- 35:48serum igf1 higher could you also get
- 35:50more local igf1 possibly could it be
- 35:54completely unrelated for someone like
- 35:55say Chase sure um it it it might give
- 35:59you some some marker of like okay you
- 36:02took this and it has a
- 36:03rise what does this mean it might not
- 36:06mean much um so again I don't think it I
- 36:10have people ask me all the time of like
- 36:12hey I'm taking this much growth for I'm
- 36:13look at my Ser my gf1 like is that good
- 36:15is that bad it's like gosh it's like not
- 36:19I wouldn't weigh much into it and like
- 36:20we just spoke to earlier is that I I
- 36:23really think still the big benefit here
- 36:25is is growth hormone um and that that
- 36:28response in igf1 to a lesser degree
- 36:32because with Chase right um you could
- 36:35make the case like is Chase getting more
- 36:36localized igf1 or is it just that he has
- 36:39a very great robust growth hormone
- 36:41response yeah probably both it it maybe
- 36:44it's both right it's hard to pinpoint it
- 36:46down so you're kind of looking at like
- 36:47okay what is just your response and and
- 36:50that's why you should be monitoring and
- 36:51tracking pretty pretty effectively so to
- 36:54just like give like like specific
- 36:57recommendation around like you mentioned
- 36:58right run your estal as high as you can
- 37:01to have more a gdf1 it's like that's
- 37:04kind of misguided U there's a lot more
- 37:07to that and we probably do a whole
- 37:09podcast is pulling that whole
- 37:11conversation apart um but yeah I think
- 37:15with [ __ ] igf1 testing is not gonna be
- 37:17your best guide to your response
- 37:21right thanks everyone for tuning in to
- 37:23today's podcast are you struggling to
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- 37:59coaching standard at j3 University let's
- 38:01get back to today's
- 38:04podcast shows us something but what it's
- 38:06showing us it's it's a part of a puzzle
- 38:09right I mean like I said initially I
- 38:10think using the mirror is going to be
- 38:12your best guide right you know my igf so
- 38:16I have I have a kidney issue um I'm not
- 38:20going to go too much into it but when I
- 38:21so I have a prescription for growth
- 38:23hormone for that kidney issue so it's
- 38:25not necessarily on label but it can be
- 38:28used for chronic kidney disease uh when
- 38:30initially um I started using it my egfr
- 38:34was only a 40 which is pretty awful um
- 38:38and the my igf serum was really high was
- 38:41like almost an 800 and part of that is
- 38:43with one kidney you don't filter G I'm
- 38:45not breaking it down and excreting it as
- 38:47fast so it's basically recirculating
- 38:49again and then the body's trying to
- 38:50protect me from it by binding it more
- 38:52and and leaving it there but I wasn't
- 38:54large I was 140 pounds at the time so it
- 38:57clearly having an 800 igf wasn't causing
- 39:00any sort of growth expression
- 39:02there GH has actually almost completely
- 39:06fixed my kidney my egfr non adjusted
- 39:08with catin c is now
- 39:10108 interesting my one kidney functions
- 39:13better than most people's to kidneys
- 39:15especially at my age and that's not
- 39:16taking the 220 pounds that I weigh now
- 39:19into account
- 39:20either yeah I can't even it's probably
- 39:23too many variables for me to State along
- 39:25that lines but I usually would always
- 39:27have cring and we know that's not a
- 39:28great marker but nonetheless it's been
- 39:30normal for the past like year and a half
- 39:33and it could it be completely unrelated
- 39:35possibly I have really good argulus or
- 39:37something but very well maybe there's
- 39:40something is around that new nephrons
- 39:42that increases filtration rate I mean
- 39:44that's one of the benefits of using
- 39:46growth hormone uh an interesting thing I
- 39:48want to add on Kurt and is that during
- 39:51like my last two weeks for the Olympia
- 39:53prep I pulled my labs and this was like
- 39:57and I also pulled them like six weeks
- 39:58after the show the same estradi level
- 40:01same growth hormone amount but my serum
- 40:04igf-1 was vastly different like I was in
- 40:07the 300s versus being in the 600s and it
- 40:11it just goes to show that you have
- 40:12multiple influencers that going to
- 40:14probably affect this serum level like my
- 40:16cortisol was up pretty high like that
- 40:18could be an impactor or could have been
- 40:21like I'm in a more dieted State
- 40:24potentially there's less like binding
- 40:25proteins and you're seeing Less in the
- 40:27serum put maybe again like it's like
- 40:30does that reflect my my had a poor batch
- 40:32of growth hormone like no that that's
- 40:34not what that means either so no it's
- 40:37you know and one of the main factors in
- 40:39igf production is glucose right glucose
- 40:41and protein are going to be the two
- 40:42biggest stimulators of igf production so
- 40:44if you're dieting going into the Olympia
- 40:46most likely your carbohydrates were not
- 40:48at your normal amount I'm assuming that
- 40:51you pull them down so you're not going
- 40:52to see necessarily you know the same
- 40:55idea of response that you're going to
- 40:56see as you your offseason but again what
- 40:59is that there's no reflection on what's
- 41:00in that bottle of growth at all you know
- 41:03it might not even affect the outcome of
- 41:05how you look yeah right we don't know
- 41:08and that's the thing when we we all look
- 41:09at Labs right we all we all coach we all
- 41:11look at these things labs are much more
- 41:13complicated than just looking at a
- 41:14number in a range right there all of
- 41:16those things especially endocrine system
- 41:18play off each other and there's tons of
- 41:20ways that they all interact and it's not
- 41:23sometimes as simple as just one number
- 41:25right like what's causing something to
- 41:26be off
- 41:28we could do we could do a video one time
- 41:30on on how to read all the end markers oh
- 41:33my gosh right people love going over lab
- 41:35work um I I do want in this episode
- 41:38because I know I only have like 15
- 41:39minutes with left with you is to give
- 41:41some people some real takeaway that are
- 41:42utilizing growth hormone that run into
- 41:45problems because they're there it's real
- 41:47simple to take growth I I would have a
- 41:48great response but a lot of times what
- 41:50you're doing in the coaching world is
- 41:51like hey this happens what do I do like
- 41:53I can't tolerate this and so that's a
- 41:55lot of like the coaching tricks that
- 41:56start coming in play which there's I
- 41:59think the biggest one you'll hear about
- 42:01and I I guess I didn't have this on our
- 42:03question list but was uh hand numbness
- 42:05and issues waking up sleeping and that
- 42:08seems like I can't even tolerate this
- 42:09stuff um do you have any suggestions
- 42:13around this aspect to maybe make from
- 42:16not happening to begin with OR once it
- 42:18is happening what what do you do from
- 42:20there so I would say yeah I mean we can
- 42:23go over all the best practices as we
- 42:24know right and again there's no like
- 42:26most there's no absolute like the the
- 42:29response I'm going to give doesn't mean
- 42:30that that's 100% right all the time
- 42:32medicine is based in averages and I
- 42:34don't I can't speak to every person
- 42:36watching this video right because we're
- 42:37all unique and what even amongst the
- 42:39three of us we might respond totally
- 42:40different to different things I would
- 42:42say with the easiest way to
- 42:45just not even get the numb hands to
- 42:47begin with OR prolong it as long as
- 42:49possible is to start really low right
- 42:52now I was just going to back up for a
- 42:54second the majority of this conversation
- 42:56is geared toward so growth hormone like
- 42:59other hormones is sexually dimorphic
- 43:00meaning it responds differently in men
- 43:02versus women women's response to growth
- 43:05hormone is significantly different and
- 43:08the these dosing and and the advice
- 43:11isn't necessarily the same for women
- 43:12people could reach out to me if they
- 43:14have questions for females because the
- 43:15dosing is and the the utilization and
- 43:18the you know the tolerance all these
- 43:20things are very different um for so for
- 43:22men I would start low start at two or
- 43:25three units right and stay there for a
- 43:26couple weeks it doesn't if you don't
- 43:27feel anything it's fine stay there and
- 43:30then go up and go by single units right
- 43:32go up to if you start a three try four
- 43:35and then stay there for a couple weeks
- 43:37and go up really slowly if you reach a
- 43:40point where all of a sudden your hands
- 43:41start to go numb the first thing I would
- 43:43do is back off to the previous dose for
- 43:45a couple weeks a lot of times then when
- 43:47you go back up to that dose it's gone
- 43:50right it's just again your kidneys are
- 43:51getting used to this new amount of
- 43:52sodium so growth hormone causes sodium
- 43:55phosphorus nitrogen pottassium or I
- 43:58sodium is going to be outside of the
- 43:59cell and that's what's going to cause
- 44:01the hand numbness it's going to compress
- 44:02the medial and the brachial nerve inside
- 44:04the wrist it looks like an emergency
- 44:05break on a on a car like if you've ever
- 44:07seen emergency break it's a cable inside
- 44:09of a sleeve the sleeve is there to
- 44:10protect it the nerves run through a
- 44:11sleeve the sodium basically compresses
- 44:14the sleeve and pushes on the nerve and
- 44:16nerves taper as they get toward the ends
- 44:18of your hand so they're they're very
- 44:19tiny and they're going to be sensitive
- 44:20to that stuff it's not necessarily like
- 44:23a diabetic neuropa that you you know if
- 44:25you read some of these side effects
- 44:26those that's not exactly what that is
- 44:28and nor is it technically carpal tunnel
- 44:29syndrome because it's not causing the
- 44:31straps to grow it's just compression
- 44:34from sodium um so I'd start low and and
- 44:38re and like I said previously revisit
- 44:40like the amount of sodium and pottassium
- 44:42you're taking in your diet a lot of guys
- 44:44especially in the last five or 10 years
- 44:47have really increased their sodium
- 44:48intake expecting something out of that
- 44:51that sodium is probably not going to do
- 44:54just be cognizant of what you're taking
- 44:56in the seasoning you're using in those
- 44:57sorts of things you might need to
- 44:59significantly reduce that in order to
- 45:00not get those sides and Po and
- 45:03potentially either add potassium rich
- 45:04food in your diet or you can even use a
- 45:07supplement as long as you're very
- 45:08careful right you don't want to
- 45:09potassium is one of those things you
- 45:10have to be very mindful of the dose um
- 45:12and go by lab work like get get them
- 45:15both you know where they're in the
- 45:16proper range um we don't ever see anyone
- 45:20in the emergency room that comes in like
- 45:22you come into the emergency room labs
- 45:23are run right I've you never seen anyone
- 45:25sodium deficient unless this something
- 45:27severely wrong so it's in America at
- 45:29least or First World countries generally
- 45:31people are in sodium deficient so most
- 45:33guys probably don't need to add a ton of
- 45:34salt to their diet right unless they're
- 45:37sweating a ton or doing you
- 45:39know so that that's another place I
- 45:42would start um yeah usually your serum
- 45:44sodium is more reflective of uh fluid
- 45:47status over your actual sodium stat
- 45:50sodium intake status yeah someone super
- 45:53dehydrated their sodium level might be
- 45:54super but you see that in chloride as
- 45:55well too that generally goes down as
- 45:57well with fluid is off but I think you
- 45:59give great Insight here Kurt because if
- 46:01you know how something works kind of
- 46:03know what to address so what is the
- 46:04issue it's like water retention and so
- 46:06if you're retaining more water this is
- 46:08why those aspects are occurring to
- 46:10address it well yeah lower your dose and
- 46:13hold it there because I think with a lot
- 46:14of these issues around growth hormone
- 46:16say with blood glucose rise it's kind of
- 46:17transient like it kind of comes up and
- 46:19then it stabilizes and you start
- 46:21regulating it just like a new water a
- 46:24balance in the body like you regulate it
- 46:26you get used to it right um I think you
- 46:27bring up another great Point around what
- 46:30a bodybuilders do in the offseason that
- 46:32might be altering their fluid balance is
- 46:35like well food gets higher what do you
- 46:37drop out no veggies there's like no
- 46:38potassium uh then also you have more
- 46:41variations in your diet sodium fluxes
- 46:44that causes more more shifts in uh your
- 46:47water balance too and can can lead to
- 46:48those problems and I think the last
- 46:50thing that she brought up what I hear
- 46:52guys that have that problem is that they
- 46:53just jump in growth hormone with a high
- 46:55dose and and then yeah guaranteed you're
- 46:58going to have side effects if you go
- 46:59right to it and it's um and I did that
- 47:02myself I went from 3 to six and N within
- 47:03a month I couldn't even feel my hands I
- 47:06had to go back to six I stayed at six
- 47:07for a little bit and then I went back to
- 47:08nine I have not had problem since it
- 47:10just you know it was just dumb I was
- 47:12trying to rush something and it wasn't
- 47:15working now this is a lot of people
- 47:18knows this around sleep and so on the
- 47:19topic of sleep we do usually see the
- 47:22growth hormone improve sleep however I
- 47:25have these individuals that have reached
- 47:26out out in clients too where they have
- 47:29like poor sleep on growth hormone and
- 47:32and it's seems rare of course and it
- 47:34seems counterintuitive but nonetheless
- 47:37like you have them not take girl thr and
- 47:38they're like yeah I sleep better and I
- 47:40don't know if you've encountered this
- 47:42because it's rare and if if there's an I
- 47:46don't even know if we know the
- 47:47explanation around this maybe it's on
- 47:48blood glucose regulation or something so
- 47:51it's generally there going to be blood
- 47:53glucose right or they could be eating
- 47:54too late close to bed it's usually going
- 47:56be blood sugar thing or it's possible
- 47:58that the dose versus what the pituitary
- 48:01is putting out is not adequate so I've
- 48:04seen in younger guys if they take three
- 48:06units for instance even though that's a
- 48:08milligram it's possible that by the time
- 48:10they absorb it and it gets in the system
- 48:11that it's less than their brain was
- 48:12naturally producing and it's going to
- 48:14actually cause worse sleep right in that
- 48:16case um if all the other things are
- 48:19addressed something you could try maybe
- 48:21try to take it in the afternoon maybe
- 48:22try to take it in the morning then and
- 48:24see if that actually helps your sleep I
- 48:26would say best practice though with
- 48:28growth hormone Administration and this
- 48:30is just from the last 50 years of
- 48:33studying the drug and how it's used
- 48:34medically so you have risk versus reward
- 48:36with anything right not to say that that
- 48:38you couldn't use it other ways but it
- 48:41seems the most practical safest way to
- 48:43use it is to take your entire dose at
- 48:45night before bed right so you have no
- 48:46food by the time it absorbs your gut is
- 48:49clear you have no food in men
- 48:51specifically that's your biggest bolus
- 48:54that's going to be secreted so it's it's
- 48:56mimic what your body would naturally be
- 48:58doing your igf and stuff will still be
- 49:01elevated in the morning so if you're
- 49:02doing fasted cardio you're still in a
- 49:04great place versus if you take it during
- 49:06the day you can run into blood sugar
- 49:07issues right because now you're blunting
- 49:09some of the the ability to take in
- 49:11glucose into the cell uh fatigue I don't
- 49:14know if you ever got that if you I I
- 49:15tried to split up 18
- 49:17once um I was taking 18 units and I
- 49:19wanted to split it up throughout the day
- 49:21just to see and I I literally couldn't I
- 49:23couldn't stand for more than a couple
- 49:25minutes without feeling tired so I was
- 49:26sitting all day um so it's not a really
- 49:29practical use to do anything if you
- 49:30can't actually get anything done uh
- 49:32versus when you take it at night you
- 49:34typically don't experience those things
- 49:36if you talking about blood sugar I know
- 49:39you you mentioned this before with the
- 49:42video blood like blood sugar vers like
- 49:45is is the blood sugar rise a concern so
- 49:48it doesn't seem so so we're taught that
- 49:49we generally don't even look at fasting
- 49:51glucose outside of someone who's
- 49:53diabetic who has to figure out how to
- 49:54dose their insulin A1C is a much better
- 49:56predictor of what's actually going on
- 49:58because you have tons of things that go
- 50:00on in the human body that can affect
- 50:01glucose from stress to sleep to Dawn
- 50:04effect um so it's not always the
- 50:06greatest thing as long as your A1C is
- 50:08staying you know in the low fives
- 50:11generally not a concern because
- 50:12sometimes with Gran you will see your
- 50:13fast and glucose go up but as a
- 50:15long-term Trend as long as it's not
- 50:17staying like that it's not a
- 50:19concern right you get an average of 10
- 50:22points up from fast and glucose from
- 50:23growth hormone in most people but that
- 50:25doesn't he's going to increase you you
- 50:27take it at night it's in your system for
- 50:2910 to 12 hours you're going to wake up
- 50:31maybe eight hours later growth still
- 50:33having action of raising blood glucose
- 50:35and Insulin higher it's G to be there
- 50:37you kind of almost want that to happen
- 50:38as that is part of its uh transition to
- 50:41its anabolic role um interesting thing
- 50:44around sleep is like I was talking to
- 50:46someone and they were having problems
- 50:49with grow with feeling lethargic during
- 50:51the day and taking growth from at night
- 50:53kind of went down this you know path of
- 50:55like timing Etc and and I think even
- 50:57with our last topic around hand swelling
- 51:00is we look straight to like the root
- 51:01issue of like first is what it should be
- 51:04but a lot times we look at like the kind
- 51:06of The Superficial one like uh growth
- 51:08hormone what do I do with this well
- 51:09what's also happening the offseason
- 51:11right uh you're gaining body weight
- 51:13you're retaining more water Sleep
- 51:15Quality is probably going down
- 51:16potentially around sleep apnea so
- 51:18talking with one individual he had sleep
- 51:21apnea and he just wasn't wearing his
- 51:22mask and as he's gained like 20 pounds
- 51:25it's gotten worse he's more lethargic
- 51:27during the day it's like H that's
- 51:28probably your issue over the growth
- 51:31hormone which I think a lot of guys that
- 51:33could be the problem in the offseason
- 51:35and not your growth hormone making you
- 51:37feel lethargic all day y um it it I
- 51:40don't know if that is an application we
- 51:42talk about someone with poor sleep
- 51:44potentially and is it around blood
- 51:46glucose is uh maybe that is like a PM
- 51:49dosing of lantis for could be specific
- 51:52case um I haven't played around with
- 51:55that enough because that situ ation is
- 51:57very rare but but it it maybe
- 51:59potentially um also we've seen like
- 52:02split dosing of shifting a little bit to
- 52:05the am doesn't have as much influence on
- 52:07blood glucose and would just lower your
- 52:09total dose in the evening I'm just
- 52:11saying like if you if you to pick one
- 52:13simple way yeah agree one of the things
- 52:15I try to do with Fitness is I try to
- 52:17make it as simple as possible because if
- 52:19I'm going to tell people to inject
- 52:20something six times a day who is doing
- 52:21that like you're really traveling with
- 52:23your GH everywhere you go you're doing
- 52:24it work you know you're you're like I
- 52:27just to simplify it I think it's easier
- 52:29just to take it a night you're going to
- 52:30get the same effect as you would you
- 52:33know give or take by splitting it up and
- 52:35you're most likely less health problems
- 52:37at least for the average person that
- 52:38doesn't mean that that's always the
- 52:39answer for everyone though see the last
- 52:41thing I was going to see have best
- 52:43practices is with with all peptides you
- 52:46know and Insulin included you don't want
- 52:48to inject the intramuscular so when you
- 52:50you lose about 20% when you put a
- 52:52peptide into a muscle growth hormone
- 52:54specifically doesn't the growth hormone
- 52:56re ctor on muscle doesn't it's not
- 52:58translocating in like like an andren
- 53:01receptor it's a cell surface thing and
- 53:03it's acting on Downstream Pathways like
- 53:06mtor that are inside the cell when you
- 53:09put growth hormone into a muscle cell
- 53:11because growth hormone is related to
- 53:12It's a cyto Kind your body senses an
- 53:15immune response and it tries to kill the
- 53:17growth hormone and you might end up with
- 53:19so you see guys that get welts and and
- 53:21all sorts of strange side effects and
- 53:23growth hormone so generally not the best
- 53:26idea to be sticking it in a muscle it's
- 53:29it's why you see across the board in all
- 53:30the pharmaceutical Brands it always is
- 53:32used
- 53:34subq um but again it's it's you know if
- 53:38people want to do what I am then so be
- 53:39it you can do what I am uh you know that
- 53:42just doesn't make a ton of sense that's
- 53:44not how the drug was designed it's
- 53:46pretty similar to injecting testosterone
- 53:47subq I'm not really a big fan of putting
- 53:49oil under my skin either but again if
- 53:52that's it's super low tolerance like
- 53:53it'd have to be a very very low amount
- 53:57um is is what I've what I've found but
- 54:00change changes the phonetics as well a
- 54:01bit too same with growth hormone I know
- 54:05some people brought up the idea of like
- 54:06if you use an if you're going to do say
- 54:09a daytime dosing using intramuscular
- 54:11because you get a quicker rise put it
- 54:13around training maybe less impact around
- 54:15blood glucose for the entire day is that
- 54:18like looking at the tree and missing
- 54:19kind of the for aspect probably 20% like
- 54:23unless you just have money you know
- 54:25coming out of ass it seems like kind of
- 54:27a waste to make any drug less efficient
- 54:30and and really like i' I've done I've
- 54:32done it ejectable cartine right is
- 54:34intramuscular yeah doing subq oh geez
- 54:37who can tolerate it but what what do you
- 54:39stop I stop using it because I want one
- 54:42less damn intramuscular injection so
- 54:45just do it subq you're at your GH like
- 54:47it it's it's completely applicable that
- 54:49way that to be on the stomach tricep you
- 54:52do it on your thigh anywhere you can
- 54:53grab skin you can put it it doesn't
- 54:55matter it's going to absorb right
- 54:56there's no that's another broin there's
- 54:58no really like localized growth that's
- 55:00inflammation that you see when you stick
- 55:01it in when you stick a drug into a
- 55:03muscle that's not necessar causing some
- 55:05sort of cellular response at the muscle
- 55:07that's gonna there might be some tiny
- 55:10little acute amount but it's not over
- 55:11the course of your bodybuilding career
- 55:13it's not going to net you any more
- 55:14growth in fact it might just put Scar
- 55:15Tissue somewhere that's going to limit
- 55:17your growth or change the shape of that
- 55:19muscle right like you see guys with
- 55:21glutes that are really jacked up from
- 55:22too many injections or shoulders that
- 55:23are jacked up yeah um so so I would just
- 55:26minimize as like you said as many things
- 55:28as you can inject into your muscle as
- 55:31possible yeah no these are these these
- 55:33last segment are all great like
- 55:35takeaways for everyone Kurt and I I know
- 55:37we're at time so I want to just give you
- 55:39a moment because I I mentioned about
- 55:42your growth r book but also for people
- 55:44that want more information about you or
- 55:47if you do individual coaching or
- 55:48anything that you'd like to speak to um
- 55:51please uh take the floor let us know
- 55:53where we can find more information on
- 55:54you and your your business business uh
- 55:58I'm on Instagram at kurt. Havens uh
- 56:00YouTube kurt. Havens unfortunately I
- 56:02don't get a ton of time to make my own
- 56:03content anymore I need to start doing
- 56:06that again um I'm on a bunch of other
- 56:09people's podcasts like figure Steve you
- 56:11know here uh Dr
- 56:14Dean um I have a forum I so I I coach
- 56:18it's Atomic life coaching.com if people
- 56:20are looking for coaching or
- 56:21consultations and I have a form as well
- 56:24uh because I understand a lot of people
- 56:26can't afford to just hire a coach or pay
- 56:29for a console but they need some sort of
- 56:31help and I'm trying to help as many
- 56:33people as I can so forum is like a low
- 56:35price price point entry so that you can
- 56:38you know I I'll still interact I can
- 56:40answer simple questions and stuff um and
- 56:43it's a it's a good Community there
- 56:45that's forum. Atomic life.
- 56:48coaching
- 56:50um I think that's pretty much it most my
- 56:53on
- 56:54Instagram that's a huge value out it if
- 56:56you can get a forum with with one of us
- 56:58to ask us questions and Kurt is a is a
- 57:01wealth of knowledge around these
- 57:03topics it seems like an easy no-brainer
- 57:07thing that I would do like if I had that
- 57:08when I was younger hey join this forum
- 57:10for a cheap price and you could ask this
- 57:12guy that knows all the answers um and
- 57:15gets yours and have good application
- 57:16that would
- 57:17be so valuable so anyway Kurt appreciate
- 57:22everything you're doing and putting out
- 57:23information and just raising the bar for
- 57:26peed knowledge and uh just kind of dis
- 57:29dismantling all the Bro lore that's out
- 57:32there um and then thank you for your
- 57:33time to come on the the podcast I know
- 57:36you're a busy guy so we appreciate it
- 57:38thank you guys so much all right
- 57:40everybody we'll talk to you next time
- 57:42and thank you for tuning in
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