Steroid gut isn’t bloat. It's much worse – MRI study — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Elite modern day bodybuilders are often extremely lean,
2. 0:03yet they have a huge gut.
3. 0:04What is up with that?
4. 0:05An obvious explanation is steroids,
5. 0:07but if it's steroids, why didn't the golden era bodybuilders have bigger guts?
6. 0:11Or is it just that they have to eat so much food
7. 0:13and protein in particular that their gut extends?
8. 0:17A new study finally investigated this palumboism
9. 0:20with gold standard MRI scans on three different populations: an active control
10. 0:24group of normies, drug tested natural bodybuilders, and enhanced bodybuilders.
11. 0:29The enhanced users, on average, had been on anabolics for 6 years
12. 0:32and were currently on an average dosage of androgens of 1 gram per week.
13. 0:37A hefty dosage, indeed.
14. 0:391 gram of androgens per week corresponds to about 10 times
15. 0:42the normal dosage of testosterone replacement therapy.
16. 0:45Other than having a 10x TRT dosage, the enhanced bodybuilders
17. 0:48did not significantly differ from the natural drug tested bodybuilders
18. 0:51in terms of training volume, training experience, or protein intakes.
19. 0:55The MRI scans revealed the obvious expected difference
20. 0:58in body composition between the groups, with the controls being here,
21. 1:00drug tested bodybuilders being significantly more jacked,
22. 1:03and the enhanced bodybuilders again being a step up in terms of jackness.
23. 1:06In addition to the obvious body composition difference,
24. 1:08the MRI scans revealed a shocking difference in organ size.
25. 1:12The good news is that the natty bodybuilders
26. 1:13did not significantly differ in organ size from the recreational control group.
27. 1:17This means that despite far larger muscles, a lot of extra muscularity,
28. 1:21a lot of extra food volume, and a much higher protein intake,
29. 1:24averaging 2.5g/kg per day, well in excess of what most people need,
30. 1:28they did not have bigger organs.
31. 1:30This confirms most research at this point that high protein
32. 1:34intakes and training and a good diet are not bad for your organs.
33. 1:38They do not harm your kidneys or your liver.
34. 1:40By the way,
35. 1:41if you're interested in optimizing your physique while staying healthy,
36. 1:43check out the link in the description for a two week free trial
37. 1:46to the MH Physique App.
38. 1:47The shocking finding was that compared to the other groups, the enhanced
39. 1:50bodybuilders had massively enlarged organs with effects ranging
40. 1:54from 35-52% in the heart, liver, kidneys and spleen.
41. 1:59This validates the term steroid gut.
42. 2:01However, many people speculated that it's mostly the growth hormone,
43. 2:05not just testosterone or androgens that caused the enlargement in organs.
44. 2:09Growth hormone quite literally makes everything in the body grow,
45. 2:12ironically, except muscle mass
46. 2:14if you're not also on a lot of other androgens and presumably insulin.
47. 2:17This is why people with very high growth
48. 2:19hormone levels develop what's called acromegaly.
49. 2:21And we see these symptoms in bodybuilders as well.
50. 2:23You get an enlarged head, enlarged hands...
51. 2:25Basically everything grows. Again, except your muscles
52. 2:29if you don't combine it with a lot of androgens.
53. 2:31So growth hormone mechanistically sounds like a plausible explanation.
54. 2:35It also fits with the Golden Era bodybuilders not yet having palumboism.
55. 2:39Bodybuilders like Frank Zane, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Mike Mentzer
56. 2:42were also insanely jacked.
57. 2:43However, they did not have the palumboism, steroid gut yet, so
58. 2:48presumably the rise in steroid guts has coincided with the rise of growth
59. 2:53hormone and insulin usage in pro bodybuilding, and this enabled
60. 2:57pro bodybuilders
61. 2:58to get to the true freaky mass monster stage above the Golden era levels.
62. 3:02However, an alternative explanation is that bodybuilders simply
63. 3:06using a lot more gear or using it for longer periods of the year.
64. 3:09In support of the explanation
65. 3:10that is just total dosage that matters,
66. 3:13only 20% of the bodybuilders in the current new
67. 3:16study were on growth hormone, or insulin at the time of the study.
68. 3:20Now, of course, it could be that they used it before, and it's
69. 3:24the side effects from the previous usage that caused these effects,
70. 3:27but my experience is that, especially with growth hormone, most people
71. 3:30that are on it, they kind of use it long term and they go to a lower dosage,
72. 3:33they don't completely stop using it.
73. 3:35Growth hormone is not used as cyclically as other androgens.
74. 3:38Still, this study cannot completely tell us if it's just growth hormone,
75. 3:41but it strongly suggests that if you just use enough androgens,
76. 3:44including testosterone, you also develop steroid gut.
77. 3:48Regardless of which drugs exactly cause palumboism, it's most likely not benign.
78. 3:52It's not just water retention,
79. 3:54and it's also not just abdominal distension from extra food.
80. 3:57It's massively enlarged organs.
81. 3:59Steroid gut might just be as bad for you as it looks.
82. 4:03If you like evidence based reviews of popular fitness topics,
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85. 4:11See you next time!