Anadrol 50(commonly called by athletes "A50" or "A-bombs") was initially developed as a compound to help people with anemia, and has since been used very successfully to aid people who are suffering from many other diseases where weight loss is a concern. It is an effective agent for promoting weight gain, increasing appetite, gaining strength, and increasing Red Blood Cell count. And, as with most Anabolic/Androgenic Steroids (AAS), it has it´s downsides as well. Anadrol will inhibit your body´s natural production of hormones (testosterone, etc& ), will negatively affect your blood lipid profile, can cause water retention, is notorious for causing headaches, and is also highly liver toxic (in fact, it has the worst reputation for hepatoxicity out of all steroids). Paradoxically, although one the benefits touted by it´s original manufacturer (Syntex) is that it can be used to stimulate weight gain through increasing appetite, taking too much may actually inhibit your appetite!

Anadrol Effects on Body

Anadrol is a DHT-derived compound, and is 17-Alpha-Alkylated steroid, meaning that it has been altered at the 17th carbon position to survive oral ingestion. Most oral steroids are 17aa, and this helps them make it through your liver in a useful form.

Anadrol Side Effects

This 17aa alteration, which makes it possible for Anadrol to survive its first pass through your liver, also makes it very taxing on your liver. How taxing is A50 and how much weight can you gain from its use? Well, there was a 30 week study done on A50 and, as you can expect, a reasonable amount of side effects were noted. The fact that A50 causes some side effects has really never been in debate. But how effective was the drug? Well, first it should be mentioned that this study was done on people with AIDS related wasting, and they actually gained weight (8+kg) while the control group lost weight, and had increased mortality rates. (1). Weight gain in this study peaked at 19-20 weeks, though, so the last 10 weeks weren´t very productive in this respect.

Since Anadrol is derived from DHT, it can´t actually convert to estrogen (via the aromatase enzyme), and it´s not a progestin or a compound with progestenic activity & so the estrogenic side effects produced by it are of a very mysterious nature. When Oxymetholone has been used in studies to alter the female reproductive/menstrual cycle; in those cases, it has lowered plasma progesterone levels! (7)One would expect that an AI (aromatase inhibitor) wouldn´t be of much use with this drug, but many have found that Letrozole (which has, in some cases been shown to reduce estrogen in the body to an undetectable amount)(6) can greatly reduce or even eliminate many of the more noticeable side effects of Anadrol, such as the bloating.

One study even showed very few sides for subjects using up to 100mgs of Oxymetholone (2). In the original UnderGround Steroid HandBook, Dan Duchaine states that he used it at doses up to 150mgs/day. Clearly, Anadrol´s hepatoxicity has been a bit exaggerated, in some circles. Limit Anadrol´s use to 6 weeks, at a maximum.

How should we use Anadrol? I´d probably be willing to include Anadrol in a cycle including injectable steroids, but not other 17aa compounds. I´d make any 6-week-run of this compound begin at the start of a cycle, as a form of "jumpstart" towards seeing gains quickly. The quick gains you will get from Anadrol are also just as quick to disappear upon cessation of use. In one study by Schroder et. Al (2) anadrol showed that it has the ability to lower serum SHBG (Sex Hormone Binding Globulin& which binds to your free test and makes it no longer useful for anabolism, among other things) concentrations by 54.9 ± 25.8 and 45 ± 16.2 nmol/l in the 50- and 100-mg treatment groups. This means there will be more free test circulating around your body when you take this drug& clearly, this would produce some synergy when stacked with other steroids.

Another important and often understated characteristic of this compound is that Oxymetholone doesn´t bind well to the androgen receptor (Relative Binding Affinity = too low to be determined) (3)

ANADROL CYCLES

What is an Anadrol Cycle? How much should you use?

Anadrol is one of the few steroids where the dose respondent curve flattens out very quickly. When you take 50mgs of Anadrol, you´ll make some very good gains. When you take 100mgs of Anadrol, you´ll make even more gains. However, it has been found that 100mgs/day is as effective for weight gain as 150mgs/day but produces less side effects and was less toxic (4).

Relative (%) changes in strength are shown for the groups receiving placebo (filled bars), 50 mg/day oxymetholone (open bars), and 100 mg/day oxymetholone (gray bars). Nos. above bars represent relative change (%) from baseline to week 12 for the 1-repetition maximum tests of strength. Error bars represent ± 1 SE from the mean. * Significant difference from placebo, P < 0.05; significant difference from placebo by Wilcoxon test, P < 0.02. See text for additional statistical analyses.

In this study, doubling the dose of Anadrol nearly doubled the strength gains of the test subjects. Now, when we look at changes in body composition from Oxymetholone (chart below) we can see that although the guys taking the 100mgs (vs. the 50mgs group) had more fat lost and more Lean Body Mass gained, it wasn´t as dramatic as the differences in strength gains between the two groups:

Changes in body composition are shown for the groups receiving placebo (filled bars), 50 mg of oxymetholone per day (open bars), and 100 mg per day (gray bars). Numbers above the bars represent the mean absolute changes and the error bars are ± 1 SE. For total lean body mass (LBM) and total fat, differences among the 3 groups were significant (P < 0.0001, one-way ANOVA). * Significant differences from placebo, P 0.001.

What is Anadrol?

(Oxymetholone)
     [17 beta-hydroxy-2-hydroxymethylene-17 alpha-methyl-5 alpha-androstan-3-one]
     Molecular Weight: 332.482
     Molecular Formula: C 21 H 32 O 3
     Melting Point: 178-180C
     Manufacturer: Syntex (Originally)
     Release Date: 1960
     Effective Dose: 100mgs (optimal)
     Active Life: <16hours
     Detection Time: up to 8 weeks
     Androgenic: Anabolic Ratio: 45:320

Source: steroid.com