Posted by velaguff on July 24, 2002, at 13:45:16
I'm not a musclehead, but before the depression got really bad, I'd go to the gym on a regular basis. The only exercise I've been getting lately is hoisting a tumbler of rotgut vodka in my right hand (to pump up my right arm), alternating with an El Cheapo Grande Stinkadero See-gar in my left hand (to pump up my left arm). This is not a very effective fitness program. I used to look like Ren, after he got his "pecs" from Charles Globe. Now I look like Stimpy...a "bloated sack of protoplasm", as Ren so eloquently put it. Anyway, I used to seek out info on, and occasionally try, the latest bodybuilding supplements. No question about it, looking good makes one feel better (a no-brainer, that). For maybe 6-7 years, GNC, mail order places & websites have sold "prohormones", which are essentially "designer" steroids. I tried several that were just in oral capsule form, they did nothing. Not surprising, prohormones are almost completely destroyed by the digestive tract. Then, about 4 years ago, the fitness chemists came out with sublingual formulas in which the prohormone was combined with something called a "cyclodextrin" molecule, which encloses the prohormone molecule, sheperding it, so to speak, through the oral membranes. I tried one of these formulas; at the time, I had not worked out for about 3 months, due to depression. I had lost about 30% of my strength. All that lost strength came rushing back in TWELVE DAYS. Steroids & prohormones won't make one much, if any, bigger and stronger than they could've gotten anyway (they just speed things up), and after 12 days, the party was over. The point is this: the prohormone/cyclodextrin molecule DEFINITELY got the juice into my blood. Not the placebo effect....I wasn't expecting it to work, because the oral capsules hadn't worked. Elizabeth, and anyone else who's interested, would not "Subutex", the sublingual form of Bup, work much better with cyclodextrin? Just swirling any given substance around in your mouth doesn't work so well. As I understand it, that's the rap on Subutex. It probably is NOT enclosed in cyclodextrin molecules. Maybe it is, but it's MONEY that drives research and improvement in the nutritional supplement world, just as in the pharmaceutical world. Bodybuilding supplements are a megabazillion dollar business. Treating heroin addicts with Subutex probably reaps only chump change. I thinks that's Subutex's rationale, whereas InjectaBup (intramuscular: ouch!) is generally used for pain relief. With a small market, maybe Subutex was never improved with cyclodextrin. Maybe it should be! Then maybe one of us will get lucky and consult our Dr. Pencil Neck just after they've run over a small animal on the way to work, and are in a good mood. Then, maybe, we'll be allowed to try "CycloBup" for depression. Another way to get prohormones into the bloodstream, that they're using now (and is reported to be even more efficient than cyclo/sublingual prohormones): combining them with DMSO (Dimethyl Sulfoxide), as topical gels. DMSO penetrates the skin, carrying the prohormone with it. That might work beautifully with Bup! I don't know why I torture myself thinking about stuff like this. Developments such as these, even if viable, are about as likely as finding corn-on-the-cob on the menu at a three star French restaurant. Shouldn't depressed patients have advocates to press new ideas on their behalf, like maybe (just a wild guess)...SHRINKS?
poster:velaguff
thread:113545
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020718/msgs/113545.html