IGF 1 AN UNBIASED REPORT from THE AUTHOR OF CHEMICAL WARFARE --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Everyone is talking about this substance as the new miracle growth product of the nineties. It is reported to have packed on thirty pounds of lean tissue on one top an Olympia contender in less than nine months. Others have reported gains of thirty to forty pounds of lean tissue in a matter of months. Is this hype or is there some validity in what is being said. More than this, are the IGF 1 products floating around at the moment the real thing or have a few clever dealers flooded the market with counterfeits in the hope of a quick kill. INSULIN LIKE GROWTH FACTOR! It is nothing like insulin so let us dispense with that myth right from the start. It is a hormone that occurs naturally in the body. It peaks through puberty and decreases as we get older in much the same way as testosterone and growth hormone. It's primary purpose as a hormone is as a messenger which makes its way to skeletal muscle cells and tells them to grow. This is why people are getting so excited. It is like cutting out all the intermediary stages and going direct to the grow. message. But it is not that simple. Before I continue, perhaps I should also state that it is not a controlled or banned substance. Not on any list any where in the world. It is not tested and it is not illegal. Perhaps there are moral implications and perhaps there are dangerous side effects but from a legal and sports council standpoint, it does not exist as a performance enhancing substance. At least not yet. However, if it really works then it will not be long before they try to stop it. The first problem with any research, and I discovered this as soon as I started silting through the technical papers, is that not much is known about the substance. In fact, even the researchers have not performed detailed tests on laboratory animals let alone humans. If you ask Kabi, they will say that the molecule has not even been successfully stabilised yet. They are almost right. However, certain companies have managed to stabilise it, just. I say just because the resulting compound is very delicate indeed You only have to make one little mistake with the stuff and you destroy it instantly. HOW DOES IT WORK? I said it was not like insulin. Well, in away, I was misleading you. I have my reasons because it quite clearly is not insulin in the way it operates but, from a chemical structure point of view, they are similar chemicals. It will lower blood sugar levels and diabetics should be aware of this. Further, bodybuilders should be sure to eat well and be extremely careful if they intend to use the product on a pre-contest diet. If you go hypo after use then get some honey or sugar down your neck bloody fast otherwise it will he goodbye and good night I said that diabetics best beware but in another way this could be a useful drug for those with insulin deficiency. It also increases red blood cell production and balances out amino acid levels in the blood which can he caused by diabetes or indeed poor nutrition. Those of you using TNT will not have this problem. There is also evidence to suggest muscle splitting action which, if true, would be deviating, this means that it would cause you to increase the number of actual muscle fibres you have in your body. This is like a genetic change and a miracle come true for those of us not so genetically gifted IGF 1 levels in the body are effected by many things. The main factor though is nutrition. Starve someone and their levels fall to almost fifty percent, this is perhaps a part of the reason for the catabolic state created by a pre-contest diet However, stuff them with food and the levels rise dramatically. This is basic survival in action and pretty obvious when you know how it works. Your body resists any tendency to put itself at risk. It is careful to keep its caloric need well within the available food supply. So if you have three thousand calories a day then you body will make sure it only carries the mass that needs two thousand calories to support it. In the elder this is important. It keeps the mass down by suppressing the hormonal messengers that make you bigger. This means you have to acclimatise your body system to a lot more food. Convince it that nutrition of the finest quality is in absolute abundance and, therefore, it is safe to creep up with the mass. Drugs like anabolic steroids, especially testosterone propionate, will elevate IGF 1 levels by about twenty percent, so will primobolin depot. These are often viewed as anticatabolic steroids and now we have a little explanation as to why. Medically I would say that the treatment of diabetes is the best avenue for research, although fighting muscle wasting diseases like AIDS and MS must also be worth consideration. For this reason, tests on humans are on the programme and in the next few years we will have all the answers we need at our fingertips. Somehow, though, I think that the bodybuilding population will get to the truth long before the medical experts. A few things worry me. Firstly, is this switching on of dormant genes? This is a recently discovered phenomena. It appears that we all have these off genes that can be turned on by certain chemicals like IGF 1 and some of these genes can have terrible effects like give us leukaemia or other forms of cancer. The chances are reasonably slim but there is a chance and the dice will roll when you use the stuff and this needs to be weighted up with the possible benefit. I mean how good are you and how good could you possibly be and is that good enough to take even a small life and death gamble. Make no bones about it, this is a real risk. Also, I cannot conceive that the drug knows the difference between one form of cell and another. This means that pretty much everything will grow like intestines and kidneys and this could get nasty. It is a fact that the symmetry of things change when they get bigger and this stops them working. Think about this. Take a box with the sides each two centimetres long. How big is the surface area of that box. Well it is four centimetres for each face and there are six faces. That is twenty four centimetres. Stay with me, it matters. Now, the internal area of that box is eight centimetres. This means the ratio of the surface area to the internal area is 24:8 or 3:1. Now, if we make the box a little bigger, see what happens if we make each side 3 centimetres. Well the surface area goes to 54 centimetres and the internal area goes to 27 centimetres. This means that the ratio of surface area to volume drops to 2:1. This ratio of surface area to volume is the most important criteria in the function of many of your body's organs and, lose the big ratio, and things go very wrong. This is why an enlarged heart is such a bad thing and why anything that makes organs bigger is potentially life threatening. This is another roll of those dice of death that needs to be factored in the calculation. IGF 1 will also produce reduction on bodyfat levels in much the same way as conventional growth hormone and for very similar reasons. For this reason, the diet must have a level of essential fatty acids. I suggest supplementing with a daily tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil for the omega three fatty acids plus a portion of fresh water fish a day like salmon or trout or even sardine. WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? It comes in micro gram doses which is very very small amounts. These are the amounts that the hormones act within the body. Bottles range from 20 to several hundred micrograms with 1OO microgram bottles being the most common. Now, the substance is killed by light and heat so it must be packed in a dark container and surrounded by a freezing material at all times If the dealer says it has been hand sent and kept in his freezer and it is not specially packed, then it is rubbish. Dosage really concerns me. The research showing clear mass gains suggests doses of 15 mg per day, that would cost a second mortgage for a week's supply at current prices. Bodybuilders seem to be experimenting with doses of 20 micrograms a day taken in two doses, one at night and a second in the morning. They combine the product with growth and high androgen gear stacks. COMPANIES THAT MAKE IGF 1 I can identify nine legitimate companies. Hyclone Laboratories INC This is the most popular and the lowest grade product on the market. It is also much much cheaper. Mainly because it is cell culture grade and not really made to inject into humans. Also, the protein quality is only about ninety percent. This is a very quick acting version as well because of the lack of binding protein so you need to take it more often. Still, it is a viable source and should work if it is going to work at all. My main problem is that most of the counterfeits I have seen have been of the Hyclone product. Other companies are Austral Biological, Biosource International, Sigma Bio sciences, Accurate chemical, ICN, Promega, R and D systems, Advanced Scientific and Chemical. Price varies greatly but the average seems to be around £500.00) for 100 micrograms. That would last something like five days. Yes it is a lot of money. AFTER THOUGHTS I do not know, is the answer. Technically this is a break through, but I just feel that it hasn't broken through quite yet. Are you ready to sell your car on a chance of some extra mass. I know that some of you are and that is why I wrote the article. I understand - I am one of us, remember, and feel exactly the same. Unfortunately, there are no real magic formulas, not to my mind anyway. There are things that work and work well but only as part of a total and comprehensive bodybuilding lifestyle. Be careful who you get it from. They will all have clever stories of how they got it from the manufacturer. Personally I have found only one legitimate source after investing in three different versions of the product and getting nothing in return whatsoever. I am supposed to know what I am doing. Sometimes, when you want something so badly, you also want it to be right and that is our down fall. You can always contact me if you require more information via the Internet at the BodySculpture E-mail address of WRIGHTNJ@ITL.NET We are hear to look after the interest of bodybuilders and no one else. We are a place you can turn to should you need help. Let me leave you with this final thought. Do you eat right every day? Do you train as hard as you can and make certain to get plenty of rest every night? Do you pay careful attention to your nutritional supplementation, taking all the right products in all the right ratios? Do you use your pharmacology in a safe and effective manner? If your answer to all these questions is a resounding yes, then perhaps look further. If not, then sort this out first for goodness sake because the answer you seek actually lies at your fingertips. [Image] -------------------------------------- THE BROTHERHOOD OF IRON As you climb the steps of the gym you have a sense of apprehension that weighs heavy on your stomach like a concrete block This is unfamiliar territory. Someone else's turf. For a moment you consider turning back, scuttling down the five flights of stairs to the sanctuary of your car. (gyms are almost always up five flights of stairs). In an instant of iron resolve you shake your head free from doubt, you are going to train, it is what you do. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Chemical Warfare Home Page --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This page is maintained by Interactive Marketing (WRIGHTNJ@ITL.NET) using HTML Author. Last modified on 26/10/95.