# Myostatin inhibitor?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 6, 2015, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344 "2015-03-06T06:00:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CaptainAmerica\_1987](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptainAmerica_1987)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2015, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/1 "2015-03-06T06:00:01Z")
Are there any legit supplements out there yet?
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### Author:  [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2015, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/2 "2015-03-06T06:44:23Z")
No. And there are unlikely to be. Stick to steroids that are FDA approved if you wanna get swole, bro. About half of the drugs bodybuilders take are FDA approved medications that have been through the winnowing processes for safety. Google searches will show you which ones are legit and which ones are actually approved only for animals.
You can get em OTC at pharmacies in Mexico, etc. Or, allegedly, through the black market in the USA. Not as easy to get your hands on as some fake myostatin inhibitor “supplement”, but they actually work and are known to be reasonably safe.
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### Author:  [@CaptainAmerica\_1987](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptainAmerica_1987)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2015, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/3 "2015-03-06T06:48:29Z")
Well I’m not interested in steriods by any means that’s why I’m asking about about myostatin inhibitors.
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### Author:  [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2015, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/4 "2015-03-06T06:55:17Z")
> [@CaptainAmerica\_1987](#):
>
> Well I’m not interested in steriods by any means that’s why I’m asking about about myostatin inhibitors.
You want a drug that will cause muscle mass gain faster than your body is capable of doing so naturally. (and also to let you have bigger muscles than nature is comfortable with keeping on your frame due to the energy and protein requirement)
Anabolic steroids are that drug. They are reasonably safe and pretty darn effective.
Sure, maybe in 2100 we’ll have something better, but the problem is that steroids are probably about as safe as myostatin inhibitors would likely be in humans. The problem is that the Congress of the USA has decided that using such drugs for cosmetic or non-medical reasons is a crime. It’s up to you if you want to risk committing that crime, or go to a nation with more enlightened laws and use them legally from there.
As such, even if Bayer pharmaceutical found a safe and effective small molecule myostatin inhibitor tomorrow, they’d quickly be made illegal by Congress the following day.
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### Author:  [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2015, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/5 "2015-03-06T06:55:18Z")
Nm
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### Author:  [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2015, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/6 "2015-03-06T07:04:03Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#):
>
> Do you have a cite for that? Because as far as I knew, there were actually only one or two anabolic steroids that had ever been approved for medical use by the FDA. But I could be mistaken. I dont think so tho.
I just know. All the esters of testosterone, the oxandrolone, and a couple of the orals are all approved. Body builders also take an estrogen blocker (called an aromatase inhibitor usually) that is also a standard FDA approved medication.
The standard bodybuilder “cycle” is just testosterone (with an ester to give it a longer half life), an oral [drug](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanozolol), and an estrogen blocker taken after the bodybuilder is done with his cycle.
There are controlled experiments done by credible institutions using steroids at the dosage levels used by bodybuilders, you can read their [papers](http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199607043350101) for the protocol they used.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2015, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/7 "2015-03-06T21:28:42Z")
There are several drugs in development as myostatin inhibitors but I don’t know how far they are, or if the trials have stopped or what.
Its not a supplement, but ACE-031 (which is technically an artificial receptor to use up myostatin rather than a receptor blocker) has shown some promise.
I found a website selling it, no idea if it is legit. Or a good idea for that matter (I think trials of ACE-031 were cancelled due to safety issues).
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### Author:  [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2015, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/8 "2015-03-06T23:47:06Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> **(I think trials of ACE-031 were cancelled due to safety issues)**.
Right. Roiding up clearly has substantial risks - but those risks are known and \*most \*of them are not particularly lethal. (steroids seem to cause bad cholesterol to be more prevalent and cardiac enlargement and raise blood pressure and speed up prostate cancer. )
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### Author:  [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2015, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/9 "2015-03-07T00:21:06Z")
> [@Habeed](#):
>
> I just know. All the esters of testosterone, the oxandrolone, and a couple of the orals are all approved. Body builders also take an estrogen blocker (called an aromatase inhibitor usually) that is also a standard FDA approved medication.
>
> The standard bodybuilder “cycle” is just testosterone (with an ester to give it a longer half life), an oral [drug](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanozolol), and an estrogen blocker taken after the bodybuilder is done with his cycle.
>
> There are controlled experiments done by credible institutions using steroids at the dosage levels used by bodybuilders, you can read their [papers](http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199607043350101) for the protocol they used.
As you can see, I went back and edited out my reply. I initially misread you post as saying half of all “steroids” bodybuilders use are FDA approved, when you in fact said half of all “drugs”.
That being said, testosterone is not a steroid. Steroids are synthetic versions of testosterone, which is a naturally-occurring hormone. I stand by my claim that there are only one (oxandrolone that I’m sure of) or two FDA approved anabolic steroids. Unless you can cite otherwise.
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### Author:  [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2015, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/10 "2015-03-07T01:09:59Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#):
>
> As you can see, I went back and edited out my reply. I initially misread you post as saying half of all “steroids” bodybuilders use are FDA approved, when you in fact said half of all “drugs”.
>
> That being said, testosterone is not a steroid. Steroids are synthetic versions of testosterone, which is a naturally-occurring hormone. I stand by my claim that there are only one (oxandrolone that I’m sure of) or two FDA approved anabolic steroids. Unless you can cite otherwise.
I already did. Do your own googling, or assume I know what I’m talking about. I said - all the esters of testosterone. Which is a steroid, in both the natural and synthetic forms. The name steroid refers to the rings in the molecular structure, not where it came from. Each ester is a different drug. Then there’s oxandrolone, stanozolol, and the various estrogen blockers. Then there’s insulin and human growth hormone.
As I said, if you make a list of all the drugs used by bodybuilders, weighting it for prevalence, you’ll find that at least half are FDA approved, and many bodybuilders only use FDA approved drugs or well accepted supplements. (such as protein, creatine, and of course diuretics to make themselves look more muscular near contest time)
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### Author:  [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2015, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/11 "2015-03-07T01:18:45Z")
> [@Habeed](#):
>
> I already did.
😕 You did? Did I miss it? Where is it?
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### Author:  [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2015, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/12 "2015-03-07T01:27:43Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#):
>
> 😕 You did? Did I miss it? Where is it?
And ok, testosterone is FDA approved, obviously. And I can think of two synthetic steroids that are also FDA approved (Oxandrolone and Winstrol). I am not claiming expertise in the matter. I would like to have my ignorance fought. If there are additional steroids that are also approved, I haven’t heard of them.
And I don’t know how you can claim to have provided a cite. You flat out did not, yet said you did. ?
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2015, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/13 "2015-03-07T01:38:59Z")
Here we go
> **[A single ascending-dose study of muscle regulator ACE-031 in healthy...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23169607/)**
>
> Single-dose ACE-031 treatment was generally well-tolerated and resulted in increases in muscle mass in healthy postmenopausal women.
> [@](#):
>
> ACE-031 was generally well-tolerated. Adverse events included injection site erythema. Mean ACE-031 AUC(0-∞) and C(max) increased linearly with dose; mean T(½) was 10-15 days. Statistically significant increases in mean total body lean mass (3.3%; P = 0.03, by DXA) and thigh muscle volume (5.1%; P = 0.03, by MRI) were observed at day 29 in the 3 mg/kg group. Statistically significant changes in serum biomarkers suggest ACE-031 also improved bone and fat metabolism.
I can find some places selling ACE-031 online, but they charge $80-180 per mg. So you’d spend a hell of a lot of money seeing how they dosed it up to 3mg/kg.
For \<$180 you can get 8 weeks worth of steroids, nolvadex and clomid.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2015, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/14 "2015-03-07T01:50:29Z")
Not that I’m encouraging steroid use, but that study I posted earlier found a 3.3% gain in LBM. If you had 160 lbs of LBM to start that is barely 5 pounds of muscle over a month (of course I’m assuming the women in the study didn’t work out or eat more protein. Had they done so I’m sure gains would have been better).
An 8 week cycle of AAS can add 15-25 pounds of LBM by comparison. Health wise and financially I don’t see the appeal of myostatin inhibitors (at least as of 2015).
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### Author:  [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2015, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/15 "2015-03-07T07:50:57Z")
Personally, I think gene doping has the most ultimate promise.
It would amount to a shot into each muscle group you want to have swole. You have a lot of control over the process, and the side effects would be minimal, assuming a safe delivery mechanism. After getting doped up, certain muscles in your body would be permanently trying to keep themselves in tip top, hypertrophied shape.
Even if it were illegal in the USA, you could just go to Estonia or whatever, get the doping done at a legitimate clinic, and have monster muscles forever.
I suppose there could be several major problems, though. Were you to begin starving for any number of reasons (even if you are wealthy and have limitless money for food, you might get sick and be unable to eat for a prolonged period), the doped muscles would compete with your brain for protein.
The extra load on your heart, kidneys, and liver when you get elderly but still have massive muscles in key parts on your body could also shorten your final years.
And, more realistically, the viral delivery mechanism used probably has a small unavoidable risk of cancer.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2015, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/16 "2015-03-07T11:31:38Z")
How would gene doping work? Do you mean inserting a gene for myostatin inhibition? Are there other biological or pharmacological methods of building muscle other than AAS, HGH, insulin and myostatin inhibitors?
There is also the fact that at least with current pharmacology once you surpass your natural/genetic limit it becomes harder to maintain gains. Some people can get built to professional bodybuilder size and stay there easily even after quitting the drugs. Some people lose 50+ pounds of muscle in a year if they quit the drugs and hard workouts. So maybe someone can figure out why some people maintain muscle better than others.
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### Author:  [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/17 "2015-03-07T17:29:09Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> How would gene doping work?
You insert a gene to tamper with the process. In rats, they inserted genes for insulin receptors, so that the rat’s muscles respond better to insulin. As a side effect, they hypertrophy up to “swole”, probably reaching their maximum possible size.
There’s obviously dozens of gene targets at different stages, it’s just a matter of picking one, assuming your insertion method is robust enough.
Among other nasty problems, now the client would have muscles the size of a professional wrestler, but not the tendons, bones, or neuromuscular tuning to control them correctly.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myostatin-inhibitor/714344/18 "2015-03-07T19:20:29Z")
Do people or animals that don’t have myostatin have issues with tendons, ligaments or bones failing? I thought this was a common problem on cycle too, gaining 20 pounds of muscle in 8 weeks is hard on the body.
This is all very interesting. I know these drugs are used by athletes, but this could hopefully do a lot for the elderly some day.
On the subject of gene doping, is that done with RNAi to block expression of the original gene and some kind of virus to insert a plasmid into the host cells? I wonder how far along they are with that. That kind of therapy could be helpful for a variety of diseases (assuming symptoms come down to a handful of genes).