Muscle Pumping

Archive for the ‘Hormones To Build Muscles’ Category

MANILA, Philippines – We have always been warned that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But this one, however unbelievable it may seem, is backed up by actual science –– you can eat more, exercise less and still get the body that you’ve always wanted. Whatever it is that you wish you had or didn’t have, you can get or get rid of it by simply understanding and giving exactly what your body needs to create it.

“Don’t get obsessed with the diet and workout. Get obsessed with the science,” says sports science specialist and Sexy Solutions fitness consultant Edward Mendez. If he were an app, he’d be the Instamotivator, because throughout our chat he just kept churning out gems like this –– words that deserve to be plastered on top of a good photo and regrammed 1,000 times for the fitness-, exercise- and diet-obsessed to see.

Edward is also a model and an actor, but his passion is nutrition and fitness. He has worked with various celebrities in achieving their fitness goals, including Vicki Belo and Cristalle Henares, Atom Henares, Lui Villaruz, Lorenzo Mara, Tim Yap and Raymond Gutierrez. What makes him a good motivator is that he is as passionate about talking about fitness as he is living it. You can ask him anything about diet and exercise and he will have a perfectly quotable response that he would always, later on, back up with science. It’s a gift that he makes good use of through his Twitter account, where he posts tips and trivia on fitness, as well as in his upcoming book, Your Dream Body Come True, which will be out later this year. His experience in training athletes and helping them recover from injuries while he was still in the States, as well as working with his father, has given him all the material he needs. Here, he works with patients undergoing treatment at Sexy Solutions and helps them achieve their goals through proper nutrition and exercise, on top of writing and taping his launching movie, which will also be out by the end of the year.

“The book is going to be released a month after my movie is released, hopefully this coming December. It’s my launching movie so might as well come out with a launching book. I had to get in shape for that movie, too. I found out last January that we had to start filming –– right after the holidays! Ninety-percent of the movie I don’t have a shirt on, so I had to do my own mini-transformation. I had only a month to prepare,” said Edward. “But I already have the understanding of the science, and the muscle memory that I had created from my past transformations made it very easy. The great thing is this can apply to everyone,” he added.

Fitness has been Edward’s passion since he was 14, when he first picked up the dumbbells. “My shallow motivation then was to impress the girls, I was being bullied because I was very skinny, I was always the weakest one in the gym. But when I discovered that it was really what I loved to do, I decided to take it more seriously,” he said. “When I was younger, I thought it was more about putting a lot of hours in the gym and eating less –– I didn’t have the knowledge. I had to unlearn everyone I’ve absorbed from magazines and I did have a lot of failures.” It is through these failures, a continuous process of trial and error, that he gained enough practical knowledge and experience to write Your Dream Body Come True. He said his first transformation was when he saw his abs for the first time: “I thought I would never see them, ever!” Since then fitness has been both a passion and obsession for Edward. Here he shares some of the myths, facts and tips that he’s encountered in his journey to his ideal physique –– some of them are explained in detail in his upcoming book. For now, he dishes out some food for thought –– non-fattening and easy-to-digest, just for you.

FACT: “No pain, no gain” is the type of belief that can really go against your goal.

Exercise is a form of stress and when you put your body under a lot of stress, you produce a lot of hormones called cortisol. When you put too much stress on your body by working out in the gym for hours, you don’t really improve, you actually destroy your body. The improvement of your body comes after going to the gym –– when it repairs with sleep and nutrition. My philosophy is that it should be 30 percent training, 70 percent nutrition.

I go to the gym for 30 to 40 minutes. I spend more time in the kitchen preparing my own food, though I’m already at that point when I can afford to eat whatever I want because I already built the foundation for my body. When you go through my diet for a 90-day period, it becomes a fat-burning machine. It just instinctively understands that even bad foods can be good at certain times –– you can eat “bad foods” depending on the time of the day because your body behaves differently in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night. So in my book, I explain how you can eat what you normally would avoid.

MYTH: Lifting weights will make you look like a bodybuilder.

Men and women are biologically different. The common myth for women is that when you lift weights, you get muscular and bulky. This is almost impossible because women produce 90 percent estrogen and only a minor percentage of testosterone –– it’s the other way around for men. Testosterone is responsible for giving us the bulky, muscular look over time when men lift heavy weights. Women do not get the same result –– they will only get a tight, fit body.

The reason many women are finding it difficult to lose weight or getting back in shape is because, over time, they start losing muscle. A pound of muscle can burn 70 calories even when you’re doing nothing. The more muscles you have, the more fat you burn. Resistance training is the only way to go.

FACT: You can get away with eating sugary foods at a specific time during the day.

Sugary foods, burgers –– you can eat them, pretty much anything that you enjoy. I also recommend people who follow my program to have a cheat day, which I prefer to call a “reward day.” On this day, your body will not store any fat at all because you’ve upgraded your body into a fat burning machine and you have all these muscles to handle this cheat day.

Even on non-cheat days, you can still eat sugary foods, because you can use sugar to burn fat. After workout, your body is depleted of lycogen, which is a fuel that comes from carbohydrates, you have a one-hour window to eat sugary foods, combined with protein and other nutrients, and that sugar will cause a spike of insulin. Normally, when you eat sugary food at other times of a day, insulin levels can shoot up so high that it just transports all these carbohydrates into your fat cells and this is the main cause of fat gain: sugar, not fat. After a workout, the body will prioritize refueling your muscles regardless of how sugary the food is.

MYTH: You cannot overeat and then try to make up for it by overexercising.

You can’t compensate for overeating by not eating for the rest of the day or the next day, and then going on a three- or four-hour marathon on the treadmill. That does not work, because when the damage is done, it’s done. You can’t undo it. Just move on and eat healthy the next day.

FACT: Stop counting calories –– start choosing your calories.

It’s not about the number of calories you consume in a day; it’s about what makes up these calories. If you’re consuming 1,000 calories per day, you’re creating a deficit, however, if that 1,000 calories is composed mainly of fat and carbs and low protein, you will still gain fats. If you’re consuming 2,000 calories, but it’s balanced –– they come from whole wheat bread, brown rice, lean protein like chicken and beef, omega-3, omega-6, then you have a greater chance of losing fat easily. It’s about quality over quantity.

FACT: A workout is not a marathon.

It’s common practice to go to the gym for hours and just focus on one area. I used to do this too, when I didn’t know any better. When you work out the same muscle area every day, you destroy your tissues every day. You’re not giving it time to recuperate. You’re wounding yourself and then it gets a scab and then you keep picking that scab. It is a waste of time. In the gym, it’s all about damage. Do as much damage as you can in the shortest amount of time and then grow, repair and improve outside –– with sleep, with the proper nutrition, protein, vitamin A, minerals and so on.

I work the whole upper body one day, and the lower body another day, alternately. This is called periodization. I just do 40 to 45 minutes per session and then on other days, I do cardio –– 30 minutes max of very intense cardio. I never pace myself because pacing yourself for two to three hours on the treadmill doesn’t work. It’s not about the duration, it’s about the intensity.

FACT: Choose your activities wisely and align them with your fitness goals.

Here’s an example: There are two different types of runners, the long-distance runner and the sprinter. Depending on your goals for your body, you have to be very picky about what type of exercise or what type of running you’ll be doing. If you like to run for 10k, 20k for fun, that’s great. But if you want to not burn muscles and build a tight physique, you have to limit your running.

FACT: Building leg muscles will help you burn more fat.

Henry Cavill, Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth look great because of their symmetry –– the evenness of their muscles. Some people are so big but they have small legs. It’s all about symmetry. Most guys like to work out their upper body, but don’t work out their legs. But the thing is, even for women, leg workouts can actually burn fat the fastest and the most. For guys, if they want to gain muscle, they have to work out their legs because the legs increase the growth hormone in testosterone. The leg muscle group is the largest combined muscle group. The larger the muscle group you work out, the greater the increase in the growth hormones in testosterone. For women, when that growth hormone is increased, they burn fat really fast.

FACT: Yoga is recreation, not exercise.

Yoga, pilates and all those other activities are not really exercises. They’re more like recreation. Yoga is a complementary recreation to going to the gym, but it’s not something that you should rely on to shape your body.

* * *

At the core of Edward’s fitness philosophy are common sense and science. “You may be a little chubby or a little too skinny, but you can still renovate your body, reprogram your body, using nutrition and proper training, and having self-belief and having the intelligence. Intelligence comes first, discipline comes second when it comes to fitness. A lot of people have the discipline to diet but they lack the common sense,” he said. Through his book, he hopes to equip readers with the right knowledge to help them achieve their fitness goals as well as set the facts straight on diet and exercise.  He adds, “Not only will you physically change, but your mental healthy will also propel to another level. That’s my goal –– not just to help people get in shape but to also somewhat change their lives. The transformation is life-changing, and it’s a good story to tell.”

* * *

Sexy Solutions has branches in Medical Plaza, Makati, High Street Central at The Fort, and II Terrazo in Tomas Morato. For more information, call 810-SEXY(7399) or visit sexysolutions.com.ph.

NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:NPSP), a biopharmaceutical company
pioneering and delivering therapies that transform the lives of patients
with rare diseases worldwide, yesterday presented findings supporting
the therapeutic potential of Natpara® (recombinant full-length human
parathyroid hormone or rhPTH [1-84]) in poster sessions at ENDO 2013,
The Endocrine Society’s 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA.
Natpara is a bioengineered replica of human parathyroid hormone that is
being developed by NPS for adults with hypoparathyroidism, a rare and
complex endocrine disorder that is characterized by insufficient levels
of parathyroid hormone, the body’s principal regulator of calcium and
phosphorus.

“These findings suggest Natpara may provide an important new treatment
option for patients with hypoparathyroidism by improving the calcium and
phosphorus mineral imbalance associated with this complex disorder while
significantly reducing the dependence on calcium and vitamin D
supplementation,” said Roger Garceau, MD, executive vice president and
chief medical officer of NPS Pharmaceuticals. “Our growing collection of
clinical data for Natpara supports its therapeutic potential as the
first replacement therapy targeting the underlying cause of adult
hypoparathyroidism and we look forward to filing our U.S. Biologic
License Application later this year.”

Hypoparathyroidism is the only classic endocrine disorder without an
FDA-approved replacement therapy. Current treatment approaches focus on
symptom management through high doses of calcium and active vitamin D,
which can lead to serious side effects and long-term consequences.

Treatment with Natpara resulted in maintained serum active vitamin D
levels despite a significant reduction in active vitamin D requirements.

In a poster presentation on Sunday, June 16, lead study investigator
Dolores M. Shoback, M.D., Professor in Residence at the University of
California, San Francisco School of Medicine, presented results
analyzing the effects of Natpara on vitamin D metabolism in patients
with hypoparathyroidism in two clinical trials, a Phase 1 study and
REPLACE, a Phase 3 registration study. The results indicate that Natpara
treatment maintains serum levels of active vitamin D in the normal range
despite a significant reduction in active vitamin D requirements, while
maintaining serum calcium at or near baseline, and reducing 24-hour
urinary calcium in patients deficient in endogenous PTH secretion.

All patients enrolled were prescribed calcium and active vitamin D
supplements (calcitriol or 1 alpha calcifediol). In the Phase 1 study,
patients received two doses of Natpara (50 and 100 μg), separated by a
washout period of seven days or more.

In the Phase 1 study, serum active vitamin D increased to maximum
baseline-adjusted level of 27.2 ±18.3 and 19.6 ±11.0 pg/ml with the
50-µg and 100µg doses of Natpara, respectively. 24-hour urine calcium
excretion decreased by 13% and 23% with the 50- and 100µg doses,
respectively. Serum calcium levels showed maximum mean increases of 0.7
to 0.9 mg/dL 12 hours after the Natpara injection and remained above
baseline levels after 24 hours with either dose.

In REPLACE, 43% (36/84) patients treated with Natpara became independent
of active vitamin D and reduced daily calcium to less than 500 mg/day
versus 5% (2/37) patients in the placebo group by week 24 (P0.001).
Active vitamin D doses were decreased by 79% in the Natpara group (n=90)
and 30% in the placebo group (n=44) at week 24 (P0.001). Despite
reductions in active vitamin D use by Natpara-treated patients, active
vitamin D levels did not change. In contrast, vitamin D showed a greater
mean decrease at week 24 in the Natpara group versus the placebo group.

At week 24, mean urine calcium decreased by -74 ±190 mg/24 hours in the
Natpara group and -84 ±169 mg/24 hours in the placebo group (P=0.06). In
the placebo arm, reductions in urine calcium were mirrored by decreased
total serum calcium levels. In contrast, total serum calcium remained
above or near the baseline levels in Natpara-treated patients. Serum
calcium levels were significantly higher in the Natpara group versus the
placebo group at weeks 1-16 (P0.05) but not at week 24.

Natpara may provide better control of phosphate homeostasis in
addition to the improved control of serum and urinary calcium

In a poster presentation on Sunday, June 16, lead study investigator
Bart L. Clarke, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, MN, presented results analyzing the effects of Natpara on
serum phosphate levels in patients with hypoparathyroidism in two
clinical trials, a Phase 1 study and REPLACE, a Phase 3 registration
study.

In the Phase 1 study, patients received two doses of Natpara (50 or 100
μg per day), separated by =7 day washout. In the REPLACE study, serum
and urine samples were collected at various pre-defined timepoints
throughout the study for analyses.

Both studies demonstrated substantial effects of Natpara on serum and
urinary phosphate levels. In the Phase 1 study, doses of Natpara (50-µg,
n=6; 100-µg, n=7) decreased mean serum phosphate levels significantly by
a maximum of 1.5 mg/dL within five hours. Natpara also increased total
24-hour urinary phosphate excretion by 51% (50-µg) and 60% (100-µg). In
REPLACE, a marked decrease in serum phosphate in the Natpara group
followed initiation of study drug and was maintained throughout the
treatment period, with serum phosphate declining from baseline of 4.53
±0.7 to 4.08 ±0.7mg/dL at Week 24; serum phosphate did not change from
baseline in the placebo group. The Natpara group showed a significantly
greater decrease over placebo in serum phosphate values at all time
points (P≤0.003); at Week 24, the mean change from baseline (least
square±SE) was −0.47 ±0.07 mg/dL for Natpara versus −0.06 ±0.10 mg/dL
for placebo (P0.001). In both groups, 24-hour urine phosphate excretion
was reduced from baseline at Week 24; these results were not
statistically significant (P=0.07).

About the REPLACE Study

REPLACE was a randomized, double-blind, dose-escalating,
placebo-controlled Phase 3 registration study that investigated the use
of Natpara for the treatment of adults with hypoparathyroidism at more
than 30 sites in North America and Europe.

The study consisted of an average 10-week screening and stabilization
period followed by a 24-week treatment period marked by randomization
(2:1) to 50µg once daily Natpara or placebo. Following randomization,
subjects underwent staged reductions in calcium and vitamin D
supplementation, while maintaining stabilized serum calcium. If needed,
step-wise up-titration of study drug (Natpara or placebo) to a dose of
75 µg and then if necessary to 100 µg over a six to eight week period
was performed. Subjects continued on their final dose through Week 24. A
follow-up period without study drug lasted from Week 24 to Week 28.

In an intent-to-treat analysis, 53 percent (48/90) of Natpara-treated
patients achieved the primary endpoint versus 2 percent (1/44) of
placebo-treated patients (P0.001). The primary efficacy endpoint of
REPLACE was to demonstrate by Week 24 at least a 50 percent reduction
from baseline of both oral calcium supplementation and active vitamin D
metabolite/analog therapy and a total serum calcium concentration that
was normalized or maintained compared to baseline (≥7.5 mg/dL).

At Week 24, 43 percent (36/84) of patients treated with Natpara were
able to achieve independence from active vitamin D therapy and required
only a calcium supplementation dose of 500 mg/day or less, as compared
to five percent (2/37) of patients treated with placebo (P0.0001).

Despite the large reductions in supplementation, serum calcium remained
at or above baseline levels for the Natpara-treated patients. In this
study, Natpara was generally well-tolerated. Overall rates of adverse
events during the 24-week treatment period were similar (90% vs. 96%
Natpara and placebo, respectively). The spectrum of adverse events
reflected underlying disease pathophysiology with most common being
paresthesias, muscle spasms, headache, and hypocalcemia. Based on these
study findings, Natpara may show promise as an effective replacement
therapy for hypoparathyroidism.

About Hypoparathyroidism

Hypoparathyroidism is a rare endocrine disorder in which the body
produces insufficient levels of parathyroid hormone, the principal
regulator of calcium and phosphorus. When the body has too little
parathyroid hormone, blood calcium levels drop and phosphorus levels
increase, which can cause a number of physical and mental symptoms,
including uncontrollable muscle spasms and cramps, tetany, seizures,
fatigue, anxiety, and depression. There is currently no FDA-approved
replacement therapy for hypoparathyroidism, which is currently managed
with large doses of calcium supplementation and active vitamin D therapy
to raise the calcium levels in the blood and reduce the severity of
symptoms. Over time, calcium may build up in the body and result in
serious health risks, including calcifications in the kidneys, heart or
brain. Hypoparathyroidism is believed to affect as many as 100,000
Americans.

About NPS Pharmaceuticals

NPS Pharmaceuticals is a global biopharmaceutical company pioneering and
delivering therapies that transform the lives of patients with rare
diseases worldwide. The company’s lead product, Gattex® (teduglutide
[rDNA origin]) for injection is approved in the U.S. for adult Short
Bowel Syndrome (SBS) patients who are dependent on parenteral support.
Teduglutide is also approved for adult SBS in the European Union under
the brand name Revestive®. NPS is also developing Natpara® (recombinant
full-length human parathyroid hormone or rhPTH [1-84]) for the treatment
of adult hypoparathyroidism and, subject to the resolution of certain
manufacturing issues, expects to submit its Biologic License Application
(BLA) to the FDA in 2013.

NPS’s earlier stage pipeline includes two calcilytic compounds, NPSP790
and NPSP795, with potential application in rare disorders involving
increased calcium receptor activity, such as autosomal dominant
hypocalcemia with hypercalciuria (ADHH). NPS complements its proprietary
programs with a royalty-based portfolio of products and product
candidates that includes agreements with Amgen, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen
Pharmaceuticals and Kyowa Hakko Kirin. Additional information about NPS
is available through its corporate website, http://www.npsp.com.

“NPS,” “NPS Pharmaceuticals,” “Gattex,” “Natpara”, “Preotact”, and
“Revestive” are the company’s trademarks.

Disclosure notice

Statements made in this press release, which are not historical in
nature, constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe
harbor provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
These statements are based on the company’s current expectations and
beliefs and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that
could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in
the forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements include, but
are not limited to, statements concerning the company’s future financial
performance. Risks associated to the company’s business include, but are
not limited to, the risks associated with any failure by the company to
successfully commercialize Gattex (teduglutide [rDNA origin])for
injection, including the risk that physicians and patients may not see
the advantages of Gattex and may therefore be reluctant to utilize the
product, the risk that private and public payers may be reluctant to
cover or provide reimbursement for Gattex, the risk that the company may
be unable to resolve the manufacturing issue in order to submit its BLA
for Natpara, the risks associated with the company’s strategy, global
macroeconomic conditions, the impact of changes in management or staff
levels, the effect of legislation effecting healthcare reform in the
United States, as well as other risk factors described in the company’s
periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,
including its Annual Report on Form 10-K and Form 10-Qs. All information
in this press release is as of the date of this release and NPS
undertakes no duty to update this information, whether as a result of
new information, future events or otherwise.

Contacts

NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Susan M. Mesco, 908-450-5516
smesco@npsp.com

Shane Charter’s gentle voice belies his imposing physique. Picture: Chris Scott
Source: Herald Sun

SHANE Charter was a wiry kid. Tall, skinny and quick on his feet, he’d always been a decent football player.

In fact, he was captain of the Castlemaine under-18s. It was when he stepped up to the seniors that he realised the game wasn’t all about skill.

He was getting knocked around every other week – more rag doll than ruckman. He needed bulk and muscles, and fast. “So I hit the gym and never came back,” he says. “I put on 10kg and never went back to football. I loved it.”

Embracing the performance-enhancing drugs then in vogue – nandrolone, boldenone, Stanozolol, Dianabol, ephedrine and more – he sculpted himself into a bodybuilding and powerlifting champion.

Yet for all the tanning oil and vein-popping poses that define this strange subculture, Charter says it’s less about vanity and more about chemistry.

“When you first start, you feel like superman, like you can walk through walls,” he says.

“Conversely, when you ‘dump’ (complete a cycle of treatment) the depression is extreme.”

He knows people who have killed themselves as a result of the debilitating lows that can accompany steroid abuse.

Impotence, shrinking testicles, sterility and the growth of unwanted breast tissue – what’s known in the industry as “bitch-tits” – are other hazards.

Shane Charter before he hit the gym .

Charter has never been one to shy away from baring his chest but he says it’s the addictive nature of the highs – not necessarily the need to look ripped – that keeps most users coming back.

He should know. A man who walks the talk, the 45-year-old has been on “the gear” all his adult life.

If he’s pushing steroids, he’s using them. If he’s promoting peptides, he’s injecting them himself. If he’s treating sportsmen with platelet-rich plasma, he’s tried it on his own dodgy knees.

While researching a paper on steroid detection in rats for his university biochemistry degree, Charter used some of the steroids on the animals and kept the rest for himself.

Research and development, an enterprise that allows scientists to legitimately import a range of chemicals into Australia with a permit, remains part of the work Charter does at his Melbourne anti-ageing clinic, Dr Ageless.

Dr Ageless began his professional life as a pharmaceutical salesman for global medical research giant AstraZeneca, building his own business as a personal trainer on the side in the late 1990s.

He began attracting some star clients – football players such as Luke Darcy, Nathan Brown, Simon Garlick, Scott West and Shane Woewodin.

So impressed was Woewodin with Charter’s dietary advice, the Demons star praised him during his acceptance speech for the 2000 Brownlow Medal (Woewodin has since issued a statement saying he received nutritional advice, and nothing more, from Charter).

Shane Charter lifting weights. Picture: Chris Scott

Another of Charter’s star clients from that period was James Hird, the football legend now at the centre of the peptide storm gripping the AFL.

Charter says it was he who introduced Hird to the world of supplements. He is adamant the Essendon coach had always been a stickler for anti-doping rules.

“Hirdy wouldn’t touch them before he met me and he never took anything that was against the rules,” he says.

He says Hird introduced him to club chairman David Evans, who took him on as a consultant at investment firm JB Were for about three months, guiding executives on health and wellbeing.

On meeting Charter, it’s easy to understand how he was able to ingratiate himself with the big end of town.

With a gentle voice that belies his imposing physique, he presents himself as a man who knows his science. An expert, a businessman, a professional.

Everything is milligrams, hormones, fragments, molecules, volumes, kilograms, hydration, fat, composition, muscle and more.

He documents his correspondence with the diligence of a librarian and watches his bank balance like an accountant.

Shane Charter in the gym. Picture: Chris Scott

His multi-million-dollar vineyard home in Sunbury, on Melbourne’s outskirts, features a fully equipped gym, the walls of which are plastered with anatomical drawings and charts.

Biology textbooks are piled high on his office desk and pictures of famous sports stars he has worked with line the walls.

Less visible, however, is evidence of his criminal clients.

In Charter’s catch-all approach to business, everyone is welcome – underworld figures, athletes, lawyers, executives.

Over the years he has treated a range of colourful characters including an alleged major drug trafficker who is aligned with the Calabrian mafia.

Boxer Barry Michael was once a client. So were bikie enforcer Toby Mitchell and his family, as was Tony Mokbel’s former girlfriend, Danielle McGuire.

Charter knows Tony Doherty, the well-known gym operator whose Brunswick facility operates next door to a Bandidos bikie clubhouse.

He baulks at naming his famous football friends, but in talks with the Herald Sun has mentioned controversy-prone North Melbourne hero Wayne Carey and West Coast bad boy Ben Cousins, who Charter says he has twice chaperoned to a rehabilitation clinic in Thailand.

He met “Cuzzi” through their mutual mate, the late underworld figure and sports manager John Giannarelli.

Cousins’ battle with illicit drug addiction has been well publicised, but Charter has no reason to believe he ever used anything in a performance-enhancing capacity.

His sporting interests extend further than football.

Charter says he has given dietary advice to past members of the Australian swimming team and admits telling one international swimmer who won Olympic gold in Sydney how to “optimise” his growth hormone levels.

Charter’s first and only brush with the law came in 2004 during Operation Macer, a joint investigation by Victoria Police’s major drug investigation division and Customs. Before that, he had never been on the law enforcement radar.

So it was no surprise when he turned Crown witness in the drug prosecution that saw a number of figures jailed over a large-scale steroid and pseudoephedrine trafficking operation.

County Court judge John Smallwood noted Charter had been a genuine witness and seemed confused about why he would throw away a successful career by turning to crime.

“You clearly were very good at what you did and gave advice to high-powered people and organisations,” sentencing judge Smallwood said.

“Why you commenced this offending is beyond me.”

The judge remarked that if not for those crimes, Charter’s conduct throughout his life would have been “exemplary”.

Charter struggles to explain it himself.

“When you are mixing in a world of sporting stars, high-powered businessman and criminals, a lot goes on that the general public are never aware of,” he says.

“Unfortunately when you get too close to a hurricane you can get sucked in.”

Charter had been introduced to steroids by a powerlifter who the Herald Sun has established has links with a group called the Council of Australian Powerlifting Organisations.

Based in Albury, on the Hume Highway, CAPO operates a competition that is not subject to anti-doping rules. Some of its members have drug convictions and one of its competitions allegedly once took place in a Rebels bikie clubhouse.

Charter prefers not to revisit these links, saying he’s not proud.

But it is his tangled past that makes him an asset in the biggest anti-doping probe in the history of Australian sport.

He knows all the right people in all the wrong places and, more importantly, understands the science behind manipulating performance-enhancing drug testing regimes because he has done it himself.

Privately, Australian regulators concede that they are losing the fight against performance-enhancing drugs in sport and believe this will change only with big reforms to the way performance-enhancing substances are regulated.

Charter says even the latest biological passports, which track changes in an athlete’s blood for evidence of doping, are not foolproof.

“These biological passport tests are limited and can be manipulated,” he says.

He is assisting the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority in its efforts to unravel the “exotic” supplements program adopted by the Bombers last season.

Charter alleges that he sourced a range of substances for sacked sports scientist Stephen Dank while Dank worked for Essendon.

He has supplied ASADA with a list of peptides and hormones he claims Dank had requested.

Of the substances Dank allegedly requested, Charter has records that indicate he supplied him with growth hormone six, CJC-1295, Melatonan II, Thymosin beat 4 and mechano growth factor.

Separately, he recalls that Dank had also asked him for advice about using what is known as a Myers Cocktail.

Popular among bodybuilders, it is a 45-minute intravenous infusion of various vitamins and minerals. And at about $800 per drip, it’s not cheap.

Charter says he ordered the required equipment, but Dank never collected it.

Dank denies any wrongdoing in relation to his work with footballers. And the Herald Sun does not suggest any of Charter’s clients named in this article obtained illegal drugs from him.

What the future holds for Charter isn’t clear. On the home front, the father of three plans to have another child. He and his wife have previously conceived using IVF. (His steroid use had rendered him temporarily sterile and had led to a heart attack before he’d turned 40.)

He and his wife intend to use the remaining embryos from their earlier treatment, this time through a surrogate.

In the meantime, Dr Ageless has celebrity agent Max Markson helping him get a book about his life and times on to the shelves.

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Hendra Rusly
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A new study shows the benefits of walking for 15 minutes after every meal.

If you’re at risk for developing type 2 diabetes, then take a 15-minute walk after every meal.

A study, out today, shows that moderately-paced walks after meals work as well at regulating overall blood sugar in adults with pre-diabetes as a 45-minute walk once a day.

And there’s an added benefit of walking after every meal, especially dinner: It helps lower post-meal blood sugar for three hours or more, the research found.

Walking after a meal “really blunts the rise in blood sugar,” says the study’s lead author Loretta DiPietro, professor and chair of the department of exercise science at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.

“You eat a meal. You wait a half-hour and then you go for a 15-minute walk, and it has proven effective in controlling blood sugar levels, but you have to do it every day after every meal. This amount of walking is not a prescription for weight loss or cardiovascular fitness — it’s a prescription for controlling blood sugar,” she says.

The Italians call the walk after dinner a passeggiata and know it aids in digestion, DiPietro says. “Now we know it also helps the clearance of blood sugar.”

Currently, almost 26 million children and adults (8.3% of the population) in the USA have diabetes, and about 79 million Americans have pre-diabetes. In diabetes, the body does not make enough of the hormone insulin, or it doesn’t use it properly. Insulin helps glucose (sugar) get into cells, where it is used for energy. If there’s an insulin problem, sugar builds up in the blood, damaging nerves and blood vessels.

DiPietro and colleagues worked with 10 overweight, sedentary volunteers, who were an average age of 71. All had higher than normal blood sugar levels and were considered pre-diabetic, which means they were at risk for developing type 2 diabetes, the most common type.

Each participant stayed in a metabolic chamber, a special room that helps researchers track the calories burned by the volunteers, for two days on three separate occasions.The first day on each occasion was considered a control day, and participants did no physical activity.

On the second day, the participants did one of three things: They walked at an easy to moderate pace (about 3 mph) on a treadmill for 15 minutes — about a half hour after each meal.

On the other days the participants either walked for 45 minutes at 10:30 a.m. or they walked the same amount of time at 4:30 p.m. Their blood sugar levels were measured continuously throughout the two-day period.

The research, published in the June issue of Diabetes Care, shows that the timing of walks is important for providing health benefits, DiPietro says. Walking is beneficial because the muscle contractions “help to clear blood sugar,” she says.

After dinner is a good time to get up and walk with your partner, a neighbor or your dog, she says. If you can’t go outside, then march in place for 15 minutes, she says.

After lunch, many employees go and sit down for another four hours, but based on these findings, companies and businesses should make it easier for employees to go out and take a walk after lunch, says Tim Church, director of preventive medicine research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge.

John Anderson, president of medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association, says it makes sense that a short walk would lower post-meal blood sugar. “What we don’t know is if it is going to make a big difference over time in people’s progression from prediabetes to diabetes — any more than the standard exercise advice of walking 30 minutes a day five days a week.”

Other research shows that amount of exercise and a weight loss of 5% to 7% helps reduce the risk of developing the disease, Anderson says.

DiPietro says the results of this study may also apply to pregnant women who are at risk for gestational diabetes, and the findings may also be helpful to people who aren’t able to walk for 45 minutes at a time but are able to do 15 minutes.

The study was sponsored by the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The government’s exercise guidelines recommend that:

• Adults get at least 2½ hours of moderate-intensity physical activity each week, such as brisk walking, or 1¼ hours of a vigorous-intensity activity, such as jogging or swimming laps, or a combination of the two types, to get the most health benefits from exercise. These aerobic activities should be done in at least 10-minute bouts.

• To get even more health benefits, people should do five hours of moderate-intensity physical activity each week or 2½ hours of vigorous activity.

• Adults should do muscle-strengthening (resistance) activities at a moderate- or high-intensity level for all major muscle groups two or more days a week. This should include exercises for the chest, back, shoulders, upper legs, hips, abdomen and lower legs. The exercises can be done with free weights or machines, resistance bands, calisthenics that use body weight for resistance (push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups), or carrying heavy loads or doing heavy gardening such as digging or hoeing.

Updated

June 10, 2013 20:33:17

Video: Australian men using testosterone as an anti-aging drug
(7pm TV News NSW)

Photo:
There has been an increase in men using testosterone in Australia following rising levels in the United States. (ABC TV)

It is touted as the fountain of youth: the hormone testosterone, which some men say helps them build muscle, lose weight and gain energy.

In the United States, prescriptions for testosterone therapy have increased significantly in the past 10 years, according to a study in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

The study found that 50 per cent of the men who received testosterone therapy had lower than normal levels of testosterone. 

But around 25 per cent did not have their testosterone levels tested before starting the treatment. 

In Australia, there has been a similar increase in men using testosterone, particularly with the introduction of two new testosterone products: a long-acting injection and a gel. 

Dr David Handelsman, from the Anzac Research Institute, found that testosterone prescribing increased in all states and territories from 1992 until 2010. 

The latest figures from the pharmaceutical benefits scheme show the number of men using long-acting testosterone injections has almost doubled. 

Dr Handelsman is concerned about the increase.

“It’s wasteful, it’s misguided, it’s not rational prescribing,” he said.

“The risks are accelerating cardiovascular disease and accelerating prostate disease. The risks are not facts yet but they are very good reasons to be cautious.” 

‘I feel fantastic’

But American patient Chris Running, 57, says testosterone is a wonder drug, helping him to lose weight and gain muscle.

“When I look in the mirror and I feel frigging fantastic,” he said. 

There are legitimate reasons for men to use testosterone.

Men suffering androgen deficiency or a condition called Klinefelter syndrome can be prescribed it as a treatment.

But Dr Handlesman says there has been no increase in men being diagnosed with that condition.

It is highly marketable with an easily confected popularity which creates a demand that bypasses sound clinical practice.

Instead he says it is being promoted with “speculative, non-approved indications such as andro-pause (male menopause) or male sexual dysfunction”.

He says there is a growing overuse of the hormone as an anti-ageing tonic and to boost sexual function.

“It is highly marketable with an easily confected popularity which creates a demand that bypasses sound clinical practice,” he said. 

Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is being looked at in clinical trials as a potential treatment for a range of conditions including obesity and diabetes. 

Preliminary results in a study by the Prince Henry Institute in Melbourne in 2010 into the use of TRT in aging and obese men found that participants experienced a reduction of body fat and improved muscle mass.

Trial underway to treat diabetes

The trial involved 40 obese middle-aged men who were monitored over a year to identify changes in abdominal fats and risks of cardiovascular diseases. 

Dr Carolyn Allan led the clinical trial in 2010 and says it was a promising pilot study. 

Dr Allan and her team are now part of a trial that is currently underway in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales looking into how testosterone treatment can be used to prevent type 2 diabetes in overweight men.

The study is looking for men who do not have any adverse factors, such as higher risk of prostate disease.

She says that they are also only working with men who have lower than expected testosterone levels for their age.

The aim of the trial is to see if men who are at risk of diabetes, who are obese and have low testosterone levels, can be treated with a weight-watchers program, as well as testosterone.

“We are not looking at men who already have healthy testosterone levels,” she said.

Men interested in being involved in the study can find out more here.

Topics:
mens-health,
australia,
united-states

First posted

June 10, 2013 14:57:41