the ultimate creatine, finasteride and weightlifting thread

[waldo]

so after 2 weeks on finasteride my ballache has stopped, my libido has returned to normal and in hopes to regain 100% erection strenght i have reduced my daily finasteride dose to 0.5mg.

anyway before starting finasteride i quit using creatine for weightlifting, because i read it increases dht levels. i took creatine daily, when i was working out, throwing in brakes of a month every 2 months. the thing is though, i took creatine like this for about 1.5 years, and while i had some impressive strenght and muscle volume gains (without considering the increased water storage in the cells), my hair also suffered more in these last 2 years than ever before. now this simply be the normal course of my progressing male pattern baldness, wich started at 16 (i am now 22), but maybe the creatine intake had something to do with it. i consumed about 3g per day. i didnt do a loading cycle and that kind of stuff, i consider that method obsolete.

so what do you guys think ? is creatine bad for the hair or not? do you have studies to back up your theories ? i will do some research straight away after this post.

i have a stack of creatine here wich i dont want to give away, but rather start using again.

about wether finasteride reduces your strenght or not... im pretty sure it does. from my understanding of biochemistry, androgens play a key role in muscle buildup and development, and the reduction of dht is likely to impact your gains, however only to a neglible extent.

let me know what you guys think!

 

[Wuffer]

Hey Waldo, glad to hear you are feeling better now.

I'm not sure about Creatine and DHT since i've never used it, but I know it can cause kidney stones and a few other problems. When I was 20, I had a bodyfat of 2% and was 185 pounds; completely ripped! Did it all on a clean diet and protein supplements. I don't believe you need all these fancy vitamins and supplements; just keep a clean diet, work out hard, and you will see results.

finasteride does not cause any problems in the gym. DHT is definitely needed by the muscles, and many other parts of your body, but the 30% remaining after finasteride usage is more than enough for your body to do what it needs. I will try to find the study I read that explained this.. but..

Think of it this way; lets say have you a constant supply of DHT your body maintains it at 100 molecules (before taking finasteride). All your muscles use up 200 molecules throughout the day. You take finasteride and now you maintain 30 molecules of DHT in your bloodstream constantly. Your muscles still have more than enough DHT available to function, since there is always a constant supply. Your muscles use only 10 DHT molecules an hour, so your body is able to keep up supply. This is why finasteride is safe, and the total removal of DHT from your system is very bad.

It's a pretty bad analogy, but hopefully you can understand the concept.

I've been hitting the gym hard ever since I started on finasteride, 3 months ago. I've seen fantastic gains and made the same progress as when I was 20 (I am 29 now). In 3 months i've dropped from 210 pounds to 190. This includes a huge increase in muscle mass. Pretty much every lift is double what it was when I started. I went from squatting a max of 140 (pathetic, I know) up to a max 270 as of this morning. Both of these were done on the smith machine.

finasteride has not hindered my gains in any way. If anything, the increase in testosterone has helped me! To top it off, I no longer have to wear a hat to the gym to hide my bald spot!

 

[raptorizedamazing]

A friend of mine whos married and has kids whos into body building used to take creatin. Although he has thinning hair, creatin should not affect your DHT levels on your scalp.

 

[Cassin]

Thats quite a title for a thread! : )