There has been talk about how a messed up liver can cause decreased IGF levels. This article pretty much sums up why.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3788574/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3788574/
Not really. They speculate why critically ill patients with burns, trauma, sepsis (with nutritional and hormonal deficiencies, an out of whack immune system, etc.) have lower IGF production. None of that is relevant for how PEDs and other elements of bodybuilding lifestyle affect IGF1 production. Things like insufficient estrogenic activity, liver damage from orals, deficiencies of particular nutrients (e.g VitD) are what causes subpar IGF1 response in bodybuilders, and none of those factors are specifically discussed in the article.This article pretty much sums up why.
I agree.Not really. They speculate why critically ill patients with burns, trauma, sepsis (with nutritional and hormonal deficiencies, an out of whack immune system, etc.) have lower IGF production. None of that is relevant for how PEDs and other elements of bodybuilding lifestyle affect IGF1 production. Things like insufficient estrogenic activity, liver damage from orals, deficiencies of particular nutrients (e.g VitD) are what causes subpar IGF1 response in bodybuilders, and none of those factors are specifically discussed in the article.
Agreed. But they don't discuss liver damage at all in the study so it's also useless in that regard...I agree.
But I also think a broader take away point (not covered in that study) is that a liver that's stressed by alcohol, orals, fatty diet, other drugs, etc. is going to result in suboptimal IGF-1 conversion numbers when taking the same amount of exo GH as compared to an individual with a healthier liver. And even then, there seems to be a variance of conversion across individuals anyway.
I think it's a logically sound assumption that if you keep your liver healthy and your enzymes in range, you will have better IGF-1 numbers barring the other factors which we know also interfere with IGF-1.