Caffeine enhances the effects of anabolic steroids?

[BEAR]

Can a few hundred mils of caffeine boost the anabolic effect of oxandrolone?

[OnTheSauce]

Interesting. Invest in caffeine pills I must

[BEAR]

Apparently it's only effective with Anavar though....

[OnTheSauce]

Well they only tested anavar. Doesn't say anywhere it wouldn't be just as effective with other ones

[Dan C]

Interesting study and results. When I first saw the thread title and post, I started thinking about how caffeine might do this. I recently just learned in my biology course about how caffeine affects the body at the cellular level. It does two things: first, it acts as an adenosine receptor agonist. This is what is responsible for the increased wakefulness and alertness, as adenosine binding to the adenosine receptors in your brain causes you to be a bit more sleepy/sedated. When caffeine displaces adenosine and binds to the adenosine receptor itself, you feel more awake. The second thing caffeine does is it acts as a phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitor in cells. To make a long story short, phosphodiesterase is what is responsible for terminating certain signaling pathways within cells. By inhibiting PDE, caffeine increases the duration of these signals (and hence why it has an effect on fat metabolism in aiding fat loss / lipolysis among other things).

However, the actual mechanism of how caffeine might potentiate the effects of anabolic steroids is yet to be elucidated. The study mentioned that the caffeine increased bioavailability of Oxandrolone, but researchers haven't seemed to pinpoint exactly how it does this. It's possible that caffeine probably inhibits some kind of enzymatic pathway in the liver that is responsible for metabolizing anabolic steroids at a higher/faster rate, hence the higher blood plasma levels of Oxandrolone that were observed with caffeine administration. That's just my little hypothesis, but I could be wrong. Hopefully they study this even further to find out why and how exactly caffeine does this so that we can understand how to better use it for this purpose.

Good find. I might blog about this one.

[BEAR]

So Dan, if injectable steroids bypass the liver, does that mean caffeine will likely not have the same effect on injectable as oral?

[Dan C]

So Dan, if injectable steroids bypass the liver, does that mean caffeine will likely not have the same effect on injectable as oral?

Bingo. That is exactly what I am thinking. It might still have a small effect though, but maybe too small to be significant.

You see, oral AAS make the first pass through the liver because they are being ingested orally, and then they make a second pass through later on. Injectable do not make the first pass, but they do make the second. The metabolic pathways in the first and second passes, are as far as I know, different. There are some similar pathways in both though, but they are largely different. The other thing about oral AAS (and I have mentioned this many times in the profiles I've written for Steroidal) is that they are C17-alpha alkylated in order to allow them to bypass metabolism in the first pass, but the C17AA does not make the hormone completely invincible to it. It merely raises the percentage of how much of the hormone ingested will reach the bloodstream. It is never 100%. So, when you ingest 100mg of Anavar, for example, you are never getting 100%. Only 80% might be getting through that first pass into the blood stream. That's one of the reasons why for many AAS (especially orals), their anabolic rating is not a solid number, but a range (such as 322 - 630 for Anavar, for example).

NOW, what about caffeine? Well, some drugs are metabolized via the same/similar pathways, while others are metabolized through different pathways. For example, Oxycodone (the opiate painkiller) is metabolized through a different pathway in the liver than anabolic steroids are. I am sure you have heard of the grapefruit juice trick, right? In case you're unfamiliar with it, grapefruit contains a compound within it that actually disables an enzyme in the liver (cytochrome P450) that is responsible for the metabolism of a wide range of drugs in the body. Drink grapefruit juice about 15 minutes before popping an Oxycodone and see what happens. It intensifies and prolongs the effect quite significantly, and you don't even need to do it 15 minutes after - you can take it for 6 hours after and CP450 will still be inhibited. This is why on many medications, they put on the label "DO NOT CONSUME WITH GRAPEFRUIT JUICE" because it can increase the concentration of many drugs in the body to toxic levels (some heart medications are notorious for this).

But this doesn't happen with all drugs. Grapefruit juice does not work well with amphetamines, for example. Grapefruit juice does have a bit of an effect with some oral AAS, I believe, but I don't know how much. My point here is that its possible that caffeine is to oral AAS what grapefruit juice is to other drugs. It possibly inhibits enzyme(s) involved in specifically metabolizing oral AAS in the liver, probably mostly in the first pass.

[BEAR]

Thanx Dan.

I also wonder is the effect so great that it's worth the rigors that stimulants can put your heart through? I assume the only way to know would be to try it & see.

[Dan C]

You're referring to caffeine?

I would say it is dose dependent. But I will tell you this: caffeine is a serious drug. I actually believe it to be more serious than some illicit drugs. Don't kid yourself just because it has reached status-quo acceptability in our society. It is probably the ONLY drug that I have used that after coming off consistent use, it made me feel like utter garbage during the recovery/withdrawal period. I have used amphetamines chronically (Adderall prescribed for my ADD) and I never had problems while on or coming off that, and didn't make me feel like chronic caffeine use did. Ephedrine doesn't even do to me what caffeine does. I refuse to take caffeine more than once in a very rare while, and I will stay away from it when I can. I won't touch the ECA stack anymore because of the caffeine.

I'm baffled as to how caffeine is so acceptable as a socially acceptable status-quo drug (along with alcohol), but other drugs that have been branded illicit and controlled substances that are nowhere near as bad are shunned in our society. But I'm going off topic now lol.

[BEAR]

Yes I was talking about the caffeine. And on that note, I totally agree 100%, caffeine is no joke, I don't mess with it at all. As a matter of fact, I don't mess with ANY stimulants, I hate the way they make me feel, not to mention the effects they can have on your bp & heart.....bad news.