I might of asked this question before, but I can’t remember. I was just reading the other active thread about testosterone, which I am currently on as my body quit producing it due to chronic use of pain medication. It got me wondering where does the liquid testosterone I inject every week come from? I hope it is synthetic, but I get this creepy image of some greasy guy hard up for money heading down to the local donation center to get his nuts milked for the stuff. Ewwww, please tell me they don’t need a donor to get it. If they do create it, how is that done?
I may be totally wrong but I seem to have read that it get synthesized from soy. That is the reason that it can be detected in drug tests. It’s very similar but not exactly the same as human produced testosterone. Now, CMIIW.
Well, I feel much better now, thanks! Make it from soy? Interesting, I really don’t understand how that’s possible, thankfully we have eggheads that do! (no offense meant to any eggheads here, I meant it as a compliment.)
Donor? I’d expect to get paid! And what a satisfying career that would be; helping out your fellow man so to speak. Supporting and doing good for society. It would be the kind of dream job that brings a smile to your face several times a day. You could even hire an assistant and drive the unemployment rate down a few more points. It would keep the greasy guys off of the streets and put them into penthouse apartments. I see nothing negative here.
Testosterone is a steroid hormone. If you look at its chemical structure it is basically four rings of carbon in a chain, with a few other atoms hung on each end. It shares this with other steroids like estrogen and vitamin D. In the body all of these are made starting with cholesterol, which is basically four carbon rings and a few more carbon atoms hanging off one end. It isn’t a huge leap to chop those odd carbon atoms off, and hang something else on the end to make testosterone.
If you want to make any of these in the lab you want to do it much the same way. Rather than start with cholesterol, you can start with a phytosterol, which is almost the same, but has a couple more carbon atoms hanging off the end. Phytosterols are common in plant oils, and soy bean oil is about 20% phytosterol, so is a ready source of raw material. That is really all there is to the idea. Soy contains lots of a useful raw material that is converted to testosterone by fiddling with the atoms hanging off the end of the basic structure. Peanuts would be about as good a source of phytosterol, but given how much soy is grown, and how huge the industry for soy derived products is, it isn’t much of a surprise that soy is the easy source.
To “synthesize” means to put together parts taken from other sources.
Testosterone is “synthesized” from sterol precursors taken from plant sources, mostly yams or sweet potatoes, I forgot which. Then chemists change things around by isomerizing (rotating chains by breaking and reattaching bonds) for a final product.
Estrogens are made much the same way with less hassle from soy sources, so that could be where a previous contributor got his idea. That is why I keep my 8-year old daughter away from large amounts of soy.
Remember also that most soy is now the “Roundup-Ready” variety made by Monsanto and is full of low-grade toxins by its Frankenstein nature. GMO foods have been BANNED in the White House since they were first invented. Think POTUS knows something?
Somatropin/ HGH/ human growth hormone is now produced by a genetically-engineered E. Coli bacterium and is bioindentical to human.
Hope this helps.
Eat lots of Yams, avoid modern soy, and eat lots of cinnamon for better insulin activity and curry spices to reduce systemic swelling and high blood pressure.
Remember that test turns into deoxyhydro test in your skin which chokes off follicle health and aromatizes into estrogen esters- estrogen that can give you gynecomastia/ bitch tit/ man boobies.
PS: Tribulus helps keep test levels up, commercially available “aromitase inhibitor” helps some but is weak and grossly overpriced. Bulgarians used Tribulus since WWII
Cite? I mean, I avoid too much soy, old or new, because it’s gaacky, don’t particularly like curry, am happy to eat yams when I can find them (mostly I buy sweet potatoes, which aren’t the same thing) and cinnamon as long as they are not mixed, but at the SDMB we are supposed to FIGHT ignorance, not spread it, so please provide citations that demonstrate your claims.
Do you have the slightest bit of evidence that Roundup Ready soy is harmful for you, or full of ‘low grade toxins’? Leaving aside the trivial sense in which plenty of compounds- including water, sugar, etc.- are toxic if taken in excess.
I think he knows plenty of things: He knows how to organize a successful campaign organization, he knows how to negotiate deals with other politicians, he knows the launch codes for nuclear weapons, he knows Sasha and Malia’s middle names and birthdays. But I don’t think he knows any more about genetically-modified foods than I do, and I’m certain that he doesn’t know any more about them than professional, degreed biologists do.
It’s typically from wild yams or soy. Synthetic testosterone is chemically identical to that produced by the body. The way they tell it apart (for drug testing purposes) is from the isotopic composition, specifically the carbon-12/carbon-13 ratio.
The difference in the isotope ratio is pretty darn small (carbon-13 makes up only about 1% of carbon atoms anyway, and then you get a small variation on that 1%), but can be measured with a modern mass spectrometer. You wouldn’t expect any difference physiologically from the testosterone itself (although other components, concentration, etc. etc. could affect the physiological response)
I removed your homemade DHEA recipe. I am not a lawyer or a law enforcement officer and therefore am not an expert on such things, but I have serious questions about the legality of this recipe. As per the SDMB registration agreement, you agree not to post anything that in our opinion promotes illegal activities.
I’m not exactly sure Testosterone does anything other than make your hair fall out faster than normal.
I’ve been on patches for a while as my levels are quite low and instead of the miraculous regrowth of muscles and attitude, all that happened is my sparse hair became an awful lot sparser very quickly.
I’m guessing the traditional fresh air and exercise routine will probably do the same thing without the hair problem.
Not every method of therapy is equal - if you’re not getting the desired results from the patches - try a different therapy method - there is even a generic now that is substantially cheaper (I get my names confused since I’ve tried them all).
Androgel and the new generic version (goes on inner thigh as opposed to shoulder) have both done wonders for me - while the patch was very inconsistent as a delivery mech.
You could even hire an assistant and drive the unemployment rate down a few more points. It would keep the greasy guys off of the streets and put them into penthouse apartments. I see nothing negative here.