{"id":6394,"date":"2024-02-05T12:51:26","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T16:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/no-biological-free-lunches-the-blog-of-author-tim-ferriss\/"},"modified":"2024-02-05T12:51:26","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T16:51:26","slug":"no-biological-free-lunches-the-blog-of-author-tim-ferriss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/no-biological-free-lunches-the-blog-of-author-tim-ferriss\/","title":{"rendered":"No Biological Free Lunches – The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Profit<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWhen we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.\u201d
<\/strong><\/em>\u2014 John Muir<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy.<\/strong><\/em>\u201d
\u2014 Blade Runner<\/em><\/p>\n

There are few or no biological free lunches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This short post will cover the essentials of how this principle applies to performance-enhancing drugs.<\/p>\n

But before we dive in, let\u2019s watch some entertainment that drives the point home\u2026<\/p>\n

\n

Growth agents have a place in medicine1<\/a><\/sup>, and some sports effectively require them at higher levels. That said, there are risks when you turn the volume to 11 within complex hormonal cascades<\/a> with equally complex feedback loops. I have some personal experience here. When I long ago had my shoulder completely reconstructed (video here<\/a>; viewer discretion is advised), a portfolio of anabolic drugs was part of the recovery plan. This wasn\u2019t advised by my surgeon. I found gray-area longevity doctors recommended by world-class athletes, and the cocktail was incredibly effective for regaining full range of motion.<\/p>\n

Physical optimization is fundamentally about trade-offs.<\/p>\n

And if you ask \u201cIs this risky?,\u201d the follow-up question is sometimes relative: \u201cRisky as compared to what?\u201d In this case, I decided that using these powerful drugs with supervision was an acceptable risk relative to the likelihood of otherwise never regaining full function of my left shoulder.<\/p>\n

I did a ton of homework, I budgeted for possible problems, and I didn\u2019t take it lightly.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s alarming how many folks now treat \u201cT\u201d or \u201cTRT\u201d (testosterone replacement therapy) as something akin to taking a multivitamin, when they never would have considered taking androgenic-anabolic steroids (AAS) a few years earlier. Like Patagonian toothfish has become Chilean sea bass on fashionable menus worldwide, it\u2019s quite the rebrand story, but that doesn\u2019t change the underlying biology.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It also doesn\u2019t change the underlying \u201creplacement\u201d part of TRT, which applies to many drugs.<\/p>\n

If you take something exo<\/em>genously (originating from outside an organism; think \u201cexo\u201d of exoskeleton) that your body produces endo<\/em>genously (originating from inside an organism), your body\u2014in its infinite wisdom\u2014will reduce or stop producing said something. Endocrinology abhors waste. This is why many men\u2019s testicles will shrink down to Raisinets when they take supplemental testosterone, and for a decent percentage of those men, the deflated balloons will not return to baseline function without post-cycle therapy (PCT) drugs like Clomid\/clomifene and\/or hCG. Side note: just as with testosterone, you shouldn\u2019t casually take hCG. Faustian bargains abound if you don\u2019t have a basic grasp of the systems you\u2019re tinkering with.<\/p>\n

This also applies to supplements and food. The more technical FDA definition of \u201cdrug\u201d highlights a legal distinction, not a pharmacological one. If something\u2019s intended to produce a change in your body, consider it a drug and you\u2019ll make fewer mistakes. This is helpful reframing, whether the input is a prescription drug, illicit drug, peptide, mineral, supplement, or banana.<\/p>\n

Separately, many growth agents aren\u2019t hyper-selective (e.g., human growth hormone<\/a> [HGH], IGF-1), meaning that they don\u2019t just affect one tissue type. If, like some enhanced Major League Baseball players, your head jumps a few helmet sizes, that enlarged cranium won\u2019t shrink when your muscles atrophy after getting off the sauce. Ditto if you unknowingly supersize your liver and spleen. It\u2019s hard to hit undo<\/em> on Dolph Lundgren jawlines if you\u2019re a woman, it can be tricky to unwind drug-induced breast tissue growth (gynecomastia)<\/a> if you\u2019re a male, and it\u2019s hard to whisper your organs down a size if you\u2019re a human.<\/p>\n

Think very carefully about which doors are two-way doors\u2014reversible\u2014and which are one-way doors. Best to measure twice and cut once.<\/p>\n

This is not to say there isn\u2019t a place for TRT. There is. But the use case matters, and the dose makes the poison. If I were 50+ years old and had chronically low testosterone plus<\/em> symptoms of low testosterone plus<\/em> I\u2019d been evaluated for possible reversible causes of low T, I might consider TRT to bring me within physiologically normal levels<\/em>. This is fundamentally different from someone taking supra<\/em>physiological doses\u2014amounts greater than normally found in the body\u2014for getting swole like a kangaroo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This all might seem complicated, but most of what I\u2019m saying boils down to basic logic and a few guidelines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a doctor, and I don\u2019t play one on the Internet, but the below heuristics have helped me avoid a lot of problems with performance-enhancing \u201cdrugs,\u201d as broadly defined earlier:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Assume there is no biological free lunch.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Assume that the larger the amplitude of positive effect of *anything*, the larger the amplitude of side effects,<\/strong> whether they are known or unknown. This could apply to modafinil or a high-octane macchiato.<\/li>\n
  3. Don\u2019t ask a barber if you need a haircut.<\/strong> If someone is selling the thing you\u2019re considering, or its use has become their identity, expect biased advice.<\/li>\n
  4. Replicate before you escalate. <\/strong>This comes back to \u201cmeasure twice, cut once.\u201d I\u2019ve seen many friends take dramatic steps before replicating their tests. If you booze over the weekend, sleep like garbage, and then do a blood draw later AM on Monday, you might find that\u2014gasp!\u2014you have low testosterone. Before you pull out the big guns, perhaps you should repeat the test on two<\/em> Wednesdays<\/em> and do so earlier in the morning, when T will typically be higher. Some evidence also suggests predictable seasonal variations in T levels. Last but not least, labs make mistakes. I recall one well-respected lab for allergy testing returning 100% positive results for black bean allergy to all<\/em> of their clients for a two-week period. It was a lab error. Before any intervention with possible side effects, replicate.<\/li>\n
  5. I routinely cycle off of drugs and supplements I can safely<\/em> cycle off of for short periods of time.<\/strong> This might be one week every two months and one entire month a year. These are basically intermittent wash-out periods<\/a>, intended to allow my body to reestablish some homeostasis and feedback loops without a bunch of confounding variables. Put another way, we don\u2019t know what we don\u2019t know, and some medically supervised form of pharma-fasting is an insurance policy. I think about cheap insurance in life<\/a> a lot. THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO CRITICAL MEDICATIONS, AND YOU SHOULD SPEAK WITH YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE MAKING ANY CHANGES TO YOUR HEALTHCARE REGIMEN.<\/strong> Please don\u2019t win any Darwin Awards<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  6. Know how you could get off of any substance before<\/em> you get on it. <\/strong>Our understanding of biology is incomplete, so as with any form of gambling, no matter how informed, know your exit plan before you sit down at the table.<\/li>\n
  7. Biceps are temporary, baseball helmet sizes are forever.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Choose wisely and play the long game, my friends.<\/p>\n

    \u2013 T<\/p>\n

    P.S.<\/strong> Sincere thanks to AS, PA, SG, KS, and MN for reading drafts and providing feedback. Of course, any screwups are mine. In timely news, the following came out in Forbes<\/em>, just as I was about to hit publish: \u201cBillionaire Peter Thiel Backs Doping-Friendly Olympics Rival \u2014 What To Know About The \u2018Enhanced Games.\u2019<\/a>\u201d I\u2019ll certainly watch this competition, but truth be told, the doping Olympics already exists, and it\u2019s called the Olympics. Athletes and coaches just have to be champions in two categories simultaneously: their sport and cat-and-mouse drug testing. I suggest the podcasts, documentaries, and books below for a taste of how sophisticated this has become.<\/p>\n

    Additional resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Use of Growth Hormone, IGF-I, and Insulin for Anabolic Purpose: Pharmacological Basis, Methods of Detection, and Adverse Effects<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

    All things testosterone and testosterone replacement therapy<\/strong><\/a> by Dr. Peter Attia<\/a>. (Exclusively for my audience, Peter kindly made this podcast episode\u2014a 2-hour deep dive on testosterone and TRT\u2014available for free. It is normally behind a paywall and part of Dr. Peter Attia\u2019s membership<\/a>, which offers extensive<\/em> show notes for every podcast episode, member-only \u201cAsk Me Anything\u201d episodes, premium articles produced by Peter and his dedicated team of world-class research analysts, and much more. Click here to learn more about becoming a member<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

    Bigger, Stronger, Faster<\/em><\/strong><\/a> <\/em>(Documentary) \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

    Icarus<\/em><\/strong><\/a> <\/em><\/strong>(Documentary)<\/p>\n

    Anabolics<\/em>, 11th Edition<\/strong><\/a> by William Llewellyn<\/p>\n

    Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams<\/p>\n

    \u201c<\/strong>The World\u2019s Most Famous Performance-Enhancement Chemist<\/strong><\/a>\u201d<\/strong> (Podcast episode on The Tim Ferriss Show<\/a> <\/em>with Patrick Arnold.)<\/p>\n

    Patrick Arnold, widely considered \u201cthe father of prohormones,\u201d is an organic chemist known for introducing androstenedione (remember Mark McGwire?), 1-Androstenediol (marketed as \u201c1-AD\u201d), and methylhexanamine into the dietary supplement market.<\/p>\n

    He also created the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone, best known as THG and \u201cthe clear.\u201d THG, along with two other anabolic steroids that Patrick manufactured (best known: norboletone), were not banned at the time of their creation. They were hard-to-detect drugs at the heart of the BALCO professional sports doping scandal, which thrust Barry Bonds and others into the spotlight. BALCO distributed these worldwide to world-class athletes in a wide variety of sports, ranging from track and field to professional baseball and football.<\/p>\n

    Related and Recommended<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n

    The Tim Ferriss Show<\/strong><\/a> <\/em>is one <\/span>of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than 900 million downloads. It has been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it’s been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

    \"Profit<\/a>
    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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