Q: I’ve been taking Anadrol for the past couple of months. Man, I get the best pumps from it, and do I ever grow and get strong on it! At the same time I don’t feel well. I often have headaches and stomachaches and generally don’t feel right. I feel as if I’m coming down with the flu whenever I take Anadrol. I’m also getting some gynecomastia, primarily in my left nipple. How can I be getting bigger and stronger on Anadrol and still feel sick at the same time?
A: Dan Duchaine was one of the first steroid experts to note that most people do not feel well on Anadrol, while they feel on top of the world with D-bol. Many people wonder how they can be having problems with their liver and kidneys on Anadrol when they’re getting so big and strong at the same time. It’s like asking, How come I can punch a hole in a wall when I’m using angel dust and feel no pain?
Dan felt that only those with very strong constitutions can handle Anadrol well, while others fare better with less toxic drugs. To use an analogy, some people can drink a bottle of Scotch and hardly seem drunk, while others have a few light beers and are looped.
If you can tolerate large amounts of alcohol, you probably can tolerate Anadrol 50 well. I’m one of those guys who drink two beers and are flying, and I seldom drink because of the medications I have to take. I’ve never used Anadrol 50, but I suspect I would not feel well on it. On the other hand, I do well on mild anabolics such as Winstrol tabs, Stromba, oxandrolone and nandrolone decanoate. That’s just my body chemistry.
My decision not to use Anadrol 50 was not a moral choice or anything like that. It was strictly economics. When I used steroids a couple of times a year back in the mid-’80s, I could buy 100 generic D-bol tablets for $13, while 100 Anadrol tabs cost $100 bucks, or a buck each. I could buy almost seven bottles of D-bol for the price of one bottle of Anadrol, so it made no economic sense for me to use Anadrol 50.
And as I said, I have a weak constitution. I once tried Parabolan for a week and stopped because it gave me headaches, and Parabolan is one of the most toxic and powerful of the nonaromatizing androgens. I always did better with milder steroids such as Winstrol, Stromba, Maxobolan, nandrolone decanoate, Anavar or a moderate amount of D-bol.
Your body is giving you biofeedback: It’s trying to tell you there’s something wrong with your using Anadrol. The physical problems are manifesting themselves in headaches and stomachaches. If you’re starting to pee blood, you know you’re doing damage to your liver and kidneys too.
If you ate some half-cooked hamburger that had been sitting at room temperature all day and you got food poisoning, would you eat the rest of the hamburger? No, you’d throw it away. Your body is trying to tell you to stop using Anadrol 50 altogether or to drastically cut back on the dosage. It all comes down to cost-to-benefit ratio. You didn’t mention how much you’re taking, but whatever the amount, it’s too much for your body. Anadrol 50 is so powerful that even small amounts of it can bring noticeable amounts of size and strength. I know some people who find that even one Anadrol 50 tab every other day is plenty’while they’re also taking Winstrol, nandrolone decanoate or some Sustanon 250. Others cut the 50-milligram tablets in half and take just 25 milligrams a day.
Let me ask you a question: If you could take different steroids and gain almost as much in the way of muscle mass, size and strength but without the head- and stomachaches, would you change to the other steroid? I think you would. Let’s face it, if the only time you feel good on Anadrol is when you’re training in the gym, you’re throwing away a big part of your life.
Here’s what I would do. I would list every possible positive and negative side effect you can think of. Some of them might be the following:
‘Change in bodyweight
‘Change in resting pulse rate first thing in the morning, before arising
‘Change in skin color and yellowing of eyes (jaundice)
‘Change in body temperature taken first thing in the morning
‘Change in muscle size
‘Change in lean muscle-to-bodyfat ratio
‘Acne
‘Hair loss on head
‘Nausea
‘Bloating
‘Headaches
‘Stomachaches
‘Change in appetite
‘Excessive sweating
‘Shortness of breath
‘Increased strength on exercises
‘Better recovery between workouts
‘General sense of well-being
‘Aggression and/or changes in temper; i.e., ‘roid rage
‘Change in libido (for better or worse)
‘Mood changes
‘Depression
‘Lack of interest in things you used to like to do
‘Personality changes
‘Change in attitude toward school or work
‘Change in attitude toward family, friends and girlfriend or spouse
‘Increased gynecomastia
‘Blood in urine
‘Change in frequency of bowel movements
There are probably others I’ve forgotten, but you get the general idea. Start with the smallest amount of Anadrol possible (half tab a day or one tab every other day) and take that amount for a week. Go down your list of side effects and note whether there was no change, a change for the better or a change for the worse.
If you’re only using half a tab of Anadrol a day or one tab every other day, I’d expect to see only positive changes or no changes at all during the first week.
Mark all that down and make sure you carefully weigh yourself on a good scale and have your lean muscle mass-to-bodyfat ratio charted. Check your temperature each morning. Check your resting heart rate before getting out of bed. Write everything down in a training diary so you have some baseline figures. If possible, get your doctor to do a complete blood work to check for liver enzymes, white and red blood cell count, endogenous testosterone and estrogen levels and a host of other factors.
Measure major muscle groups such as arms, calves, thighs, waist, hips and chest. Note any increases in the weights used on exercises or if you were able to do more repetitions with the same weight.
On week 2 increase your Anadrol dose by half a tab a day. That means either one tab every day or 1 1/2 tabs three times a week. Again note any changes. By week 2 you definitely should be noticing positive changes in bodyweight, measurements, strength and attitude’specifically, your aggression. You may also begin to notice some negative changes.
When week 3 rolls around, increase your dosage by one-half tab a day. That brings you up to 1 1/2 Anadrol 50 tabs every day of the week or two every other day. By now you’ll definitely be noting both positive and negative changes. Are the negative changes something to worry about? That depends entirely on you. Some guys would grow horns out of the tops of their heads and feel it was okay to take more Anadrol. Smart bodybuilders note any negatives changes and see if the positive changes outweigh the negative.
Keep increasing the Anadrol by half a tab per day a week. Eventually, you’ll come to a point where there are more negatives than positives. If you start pissing blood, that’s a strong indication that your body is saying, no more. At that point it’s probably best to cut back by half a tab a day’maybe even a whole tab’and stick with that amount for the rest of the cycle. That’s how you determine the optimal amount of Anadrol 50 for your constitution.
Of course, things get a lot more complicated if you’re stacking the Anadrol with Parabolan, Sustanon 250 and nandrolone decanoate or other anabolics. If you’re stacking two or three (or four or five) other steroids with your Anadrol and you’re experiencing too many negative side effects, stop the most toxic steroid first. In that example it would be the Anadrol 50. Next would be Parabolan, followed by Sustanon 250 and the nandrolone decanoate last.
Some people’myself included’can make pretty decent gains with low-toxic steroids such as Winstrol or Winstrol V, nandrolone decanoate and a small amount of Sustanon 250. You don’t necessarily have to take the most toxic steroids to make the best gains. In my experience it’s the bodybuilders who have the worst genetics who need high-androgen steroids to make good gains. The genetic elite can make excellent gains with modest amounts of low-toxic steroids.
Some of the greatest physiques of the past 60 years were built drug-free. Men like Steve Reeves, John Grimek, Reg Park and Bill Pearl built fantastic physiques with no steroids at all, and such greats as Larry Scott and Don Howorth developed their prize-winning physiques with as little as 10 milligrams of D-bol a day.
My advice to you is to stop the Anadrol 50 altogether or take no more than one tab three times a week, stacked with Winstrol or Winstrol V, some nandrolone decanoate and a shot of Sustanon 250 every two weeks. Boatload in the calories and protein and really bust your butt in the gym. The gains won’t come as fast as they would with Anadrol 50, but you won’t experience half the side effects and you’ll feel much healthier too.
Q: I was planning to buy some black-market steroids from a guy at the gym. I don’t know this fellow well at all, but he’s very big and strong and intimidating. What are my odds of getting real steroids for my money?
A: That’s a hard question to answer without knowing the individual you’re dealing with. If he’s trying to build a business and a reputation as someone who can be trusted, you’ll probably get real gear. If he doesn’t care about having you as a repeat customer, then the chances are not so good. He could sell you virtually anything that can be put into a vial to make a fast buck.
It helps to educate yourself about which steroids are popular, which steroids are most commonly counterfeited and how to determine a fake steroid from a real one. Two books that contain a lot of good information on anabolic steroids, including how to distinguish a fake from something real, are The World Anabolic Review 1996, by P. Grundig and M. Bachman (better known as WAR), and Physical Enhancement With an Edge’Mexican Anabolics, Legalities, Health and Nutrition, by S.L. Moninuk. Bill Phillips’ Anabolic Review, sixth edition, is an excellent source of information. I also highly recommend any books by Jim Wright, Mauro DiPasquale and Dan Duchaine. I’ve heard good things about Anabolics 2000 by William Llewellyn. [Editor’s note: Llewellyn’s ‘Chemical Q&A’ appears on page 128.]
The first three recommended books contain photographs of real steroids and their fake counterparts, while the latter give helpful advice about the little nuances that prove a steroid is real and how to detect fakes from real products.
Let me give you an example. The largest amount of Dianabol, or methandrostenolone powder, you can put into one milliliter of oil-based injectable D-bol product is 25 milligrams. The crystals are just too big to dissolve any further, so if someone tries to sell you oil-based Dianabol that says it contains 50 milligrams per milliliter or 100 milligrams per milliliter, you know it has to be a fake.
Parabolan has a very pungent and strong smell when you crack an ampoule open, so if that smell isn’t there, it’s not Parabolan. Anadrol 50 tablets taste peppery, so if someone gives you one to try and it tastes sweet or bland or anything but peppery, then it’s not Anadrol 50.
Your best protection against rip-off artists is knowledge. You should know as much about the drugs you’re buying as the guy who’s trying to sell them to you. Otherwise, you’re waiting to be scammed.
Editor’s note: The statements, opinions and ideas in this article are Greg Zulak’s and not necessarily those of IRONMAN magazine. IM
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