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Anti-Estrogen Usage to Protect Your Physique and Your Physiology Anti-Estrogens Anti-estrogens can be crucial to safe and effective anabolic steroid usage. There are a few key purposes to use them, and a few untraditional yet valuable alternative usages as well. We will go over both. Most of the uses vary due to the different mechanism of action for each drug; the way they work. Depending on the mechanism of action, a given anti-estrogen drug may be more or less suited to your unique need. As a side note, in some of these explanations, the chemical and medical literature will not be the same as you will find in genuine text books on the dry topics. We are using these terms with strict purpose of understanding the physiology and biochemistry of anabolic steroids for our purposes. Please keep this in mind. Anti-estrogens work in a few basic ways. The first is to block the estrogen receptor itself. This is known as a second line inhibitor because estrogen is allowed to be produced, it is just blocked at the receptor. This occurs by the anti-estrogenic drug fitting into the estrogen receptor, and “taking its parking space”. When the original estrogen comes along, it can no longer fit into the receptor. Examples of second line inhibitor drugs would be clomid or nolvadex. Both of these drugs are actually estrogens, they are just so weak that they do not elicit any of the negative effects of the true estrogen, and thereby, block the negative estrogenic effects. These are also two of the most known drugs since the athletic usage of anabolic steroids began. First line inhibitors are drugs such as arimidex and proviron. Although these two drugs are from different chemical classes, they are both first line inhibitors. Proviron is actually a steroid with zero direct anabolic activity. As we will soon describe, proviron has other benefits aside from its anti-estrogenic activity. It is used clinically to replace androgens in the male for the purpose of sex drive and virility. Arimidex is a drug which is a chemical antagonist. For the purpose of estrogen talk, we can consider first line inhibitors and chemical antagonists to be the same. What is meant by this, is, the estrogen is inhibited at site of production, not at the receptor. Both arimidex and proviron will bind to the aromatase enzyme and render it inactive. Without the aromatase enzyme the body cannot convert various anabolics into estrogen. Estrogen is essentially blocked at its root, where it is originally produced. First line inhibitors are usually a more effective and potent method of estrogen control. The disadvantage is that the first line inhibitors will usually not do much for whatever estrogen is already present in the system. It will only work on preventing further amounts of excess estrogen from being produced. In practical terms, this will result in a delay from days’ to weeks’ time before a significant anti-estrognic affect is seen. This is fine if you are just using it as precaution, but if you need immediate anti-estrogen activity due to excessive bloat or, you will want to take a second line inhibitor such as clomid or nolvadex immediately. Once the immediate estrogen is under control, you can add in the first line inhibitors to prevent further accumulation of estrogen metabolites in your system. Here is a little more detail about these most popular anti-estrogens in order to help you choose how and when to use which: Nolvadex Nolvadex is one of the most well known anti-estrogens. It is also one of the oldest and most popular medications for breast cancer victims, which is the text book clinical use for this drug. Nolvadex is actually a weak estrogen and will bind to the estrogen receptor. The receptor is then occupied and when the normal and stronger estrogen floats by the receptor, it has no where to “park”. This is what we have defined as the classic second line inhibitor. Second line, because we are allowing estrogen to be produced, we are just blocking it at the receptor. For male usage, nolvadex is a good drug of choice to use for ant-bloating and to control gyno if you are not particularly susceptible to these estrogenic side effects. If you are not and just need minor control, 20mg per day is probably enough to keep the majority of water off and your nips from being sensitive. If you are susceptible, you may need a stronger ant-estrogen, or may need to combine nolvadex with another anti-estrogenic drug, or may need a much higher dosage of nolvadex (probably closer to 40mg/day). There is some literature out there that states nolvadex having better leutinizing (testosterone stimulating) properties than clomid. This is with respect to post cycle recovery and jump starting your natural testosterone. Personally, amongst all my friends and colleagues, I have not found this to be true. With respect to post cycle recovery of natural testosterone production clomid is definitely more effective. Clomid As we’ve stated above, clomid is more effective at restoring natural testosterone production. Everything you read about these two drugs seems to offer the same info. I will afford you with something different. For anti-estrogen protection, nolvadex is probably a little stronger. Its chemical structure makes for a slightly more potent anti-estrogen. I have yet to see any quality literature which describes the affinity for either drug at the estrogen receptor. Clomid after all, is also a weak estrogen. Another term used to classify clomid and nolvadex is “competitive inhibitor”. They are so called due to the fact that they are weak estrogens and actually bind to the receptor. By doing this they are competing for the “parking spot” in the receptor, thereby occupying the space when the truer, stronger estrogen comes along. Its like being at the local mall and having someone pull around the isle, cut you off and take your spot. In a sense they just “competed” with you for your spot and “inhibited” you from taking it. Got it? Good. See this stuff is simple, my fellow friends and athletes. The literature also fails to describe exactly why clomid works more efficiently as a leutinizer. Even in the medical literature, the drug is primarily used for fertility purposes for both males and females. This means clomid has value in stimulating the pituitary in both men and women. Clomid is used on a five day course in order to stimulate ovulation in the female in order to enable fertilization. There is not a fertility doctor in the world that doesn’t know what clomid is. It is a drug that has always been in their toolbox. Part of the reason is, it works. The literature is less extensive for fertility cases in the male but know that it is indeed used for this purpose. Now, as much as I am all for underground self taught knowledge, we have to hand it to the medical professionals for specific cases. For example, if nolvadex were a better leutinizer, it would be the drug of choice in fertility clinics for stimulating ovulation in the female and for aiding fertility and motility of sperm in the male. Simple fact is that this is not the case. Save your self time and frustration by using a medically time tested drug for your post cycle recovery of testosterone. For recovery of your natural test, use clomid. Arimidex Arimidex is called a chemical inhibitor of estrogen. Actually, it is a chemical inhibitor of the enzyme aromatase. Arimidex has a high affinity (liking for) for the aromatase enzyme. As we’ve said before, it is aromatase that converts various drugs into their estrogenic metabolite that can bind to the estrogen receptor and bring about side effects. Arimidex is an effective anti-estrogen and had a great deal of popularity when physique athletes began to get a hold of it. The only problem was the cost. The pills came in 1mg tabs and were over $10/pill. To top it off, not many underground companies were making legitimate arimidex so you didn’t have much choice as a buyer. Now the price has dropped considerably with the availability of other anti-estrogens such as femara (a much stronger and often unnecessary anti-estrogen). Personally, companies like IP (international pharmaceuticals) have excellent products, you just need to trust your source-but that is your deal. Okay, assuming you have access to a legit arimidex product, you do not need the full 1mg tab per day. Even if you encounter an estrogenic problem your best bet is to add a second anti-estrogen, rather than simply increasing the dosage of arimidex. No matter how cheap you can currently find arimidex, this will be a cheaper (on your wallet) and more effective technique with respect to killing the side effects. You can find cheap nolvadex and clomid almost anywhere. Just add in 20mg or so of the nolvadex or 50mg per day of the clomid (if you have a cheap connection, sometimes clomid pricing can be outrtageous too). If you have an immediate estrogen issue, pick nolvadex over clomid and start your dose closer to the 40mg per day mark. This should wipe out any estrogen currently floating around in your system and causing problems. As for the arimidex, I (and many friends) have found .5mg every other day (eod) to be perfect. Then again, I do not particularly fall vulnerable to estrogenic side effects. If you are like me and don’t tend to get much estrogen build up, this dose will probably work fine. I have read literature (by gurus) that describes arimidex having a short half life on the accord of 4-8 hours. This is incorrect. If you consult any medical pharmaceutical book you will find the half life is much longer, in the area of 24-36 hours. Now, in my opinion I do not fully trust that the half life is quite that long either. However, I do know that the activity of the drug will last at least that long. The “free” drug in the bloodstream has hours that can be debatable. However, for our purposes we only care about how long the drug can be active binding up that estrogen bad guy. Typically drugs which bind enzymes do not dissociate from them over the course of just a couple hours. The most important thing to consider here is the duration of drug action, which is on par with the half life listed in the medical and pharmaceutical texts, 24-36 hours. Due to the long half life, you could take 1mg of arimidex eod when wishing to increase the dosage. There really is no need to take it every single day unless you are using very small amounts per dose. For example, I like to be consistent every single day with what I do. I’ve tried the eod schedule as I explained above, but often would forget to take the dose on dose day. Instead, I found myself some .25mg tabs and then just took one tab every evening before bed. This worked great. If you are using another anti-estrogen, use it equal time spaces from you arimidex. The theory here is to maximize blood levels of one drug while the other is falling so you have round the clock protection. Proviron Proviron or Pro-v is an interesting drug. Proviron is technically a steroid. Proviron has no anabolic activity though. Its clinical use is to replace androgen content in the male for men who are being treated for low sperm count and also low sex drive. For the purpose of fertility, pro-v is also combined with many other drugs. For our purposes, think of it as a dual drug for zilching out estrogen as well as offering some insurance against a loss of libido during your cycles. This is an awesome benefit. Personally I have used pro-v with a deca only cycle when trying to stay away from test (I am an androgen head), and pro-v did a noticeable job at keeping my sex drive up to where it usually is when I am on test. It was able to accomplish this great feat with only one, 50mg tab a day. I used IP’s little yellow tabs. Don’t know if you’ve seen them but they are great. To be truthful, I don’t really know if they are made anymore. Either way, 50mg of a legit pro-v per day will offer you great assurance in sustaining your libido. I realize that I speak of this often, but it is key to being able to enjoy your cycles and I find it is also closely related to appetite. This is completely anecdotal but when the sex drive is high, the appetite tends to be high, and you can grow much better with less anabolic steroids. I would trade a ravenous appetite any day over being on a ton of juice with no appetite when bulking and mass is the goal. It is the food after all, that allows the juice to work its magic. As far as post cycle recovery, pro-v is often advocated by many sources. I would disagree because pro-v takes the place of the androgen component of your natural test. This is good immediately after a cycle but masks the ability of your own natural recovering testosterone to produce normal sex drive. Pro-v has other benefits during cycling that we will discuss as this web site expands but for now, use it as an anti-estrogen. Wait a minute. I almost forgot to tell you how proviron works. Pro-v works by binding to the aromatase enzyme as does arimidex. This is why they are both grouped into the class of first line inhibitors despite the chemical difference in their structures. Remember we are classifying drugs first and foremost with the chemically enhanced individual in mind. Typically pro-v comes in 25mg tabs and this is usually sufficient for most people when using pro-v as an anti-estrogen-on cycle. When you begin to learn a little about how drugs work differently, although they may give the same end result, you can obtain more from combining different drugs. The terms scientists would use is “mechanism of action”. You want to combine drugs which have different mechanisms of action, but which yield the same end result. This enables you to use less total drug, and still get more benefit. The synergistic property of drugs allows this beautiful phenomenon. Remember how drug synergy works, 1 + 1 = 3. The combined affect of the drugs is greater than the sum of its parts. This is the effect we want to illicit from all of our physique drugs. We will talk in depth about how to do this for various purposes of safe bulking and cutting as this web site expands. So please stop back often!