• Drug Class: Growth Factor
• Average Reported Dosage: 60-1000mcg daily
• Water Retention: Diet dependent

Most athletes have heard of IGF-1 (Insulin like growth factor-1) and the amazing anabolic effects it has been reported to have upon protein based tissue such as muscle. Des (1-3) IGF-1 is over 10 times (1000%) more anabolic than IGF-1. Now that is amazing!!

This is one of the newer drugs appearing on the bodybuilding scene that I would like to comment only briefly on. The human body produces several growth factors that are mediators and intermediates. In short this means they translate or decrease/increase the effect of hormones and other growth factors.

Prostaglandins (PG's) are naturally occurring intercellular messengers. In fact, many of the actions of anabolic substances fail to exert their protein synthesis actions without them. It is a clinical fact that there is a parallel between the rise of some levels of PG's and the degradation of catabolism. So they may in part be the relay between receptor-sites and translation to specific responses, or secondary messengers.