Aicar impressive drug for fat-loss

Professional bodybuilders often talk freely about their nutritional, training and supplementation programs, aspects of bodybuilding that are of critical importance to their success onstage. One subject that is not often discussed is the role anabolic/androgenic steroids play in "assisting" gains in muscle size and conditioning at the pro level.

Many pro bodybuilders are reticent about their association with various steroids and other anabolic substances, although the fans and administrators know these enhancers are widely used to the point where there is now, and has been for quite some time, a reliance on these drugs among users who desire competitive equality.

Given the lack of discussion on AA steroids, one might be led to think they are not entirely necessary for competitive success, that they don't have any special growth enhancing properties.

Aicar (5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-β-D-ribofuranoside, 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleoside, acadesine) is each of several interesting things. First, it’s an important pharmacological research agent, used principally as an AMPK activator. It’s a compound which has shown extremely impressive fat-loss and endurance-enhancing effects in laboratory animals. Further, it has considerable mystique resulting from at least some use by elite European cyclists. And lastly, it’s readily available from research chemical sites and is being personally tried by many, though generally as part of stacks and combined with changes in training and diet. AICAR – full name  aminoimidazole carboxamide riboside (also with the drug name acadesine) is a drug under development and in clinical trials for various treatments.  The drug is a target for use in various metabolic disorders, obesity and possibly for use in heart operations to prevent damage to tissues.  During animal testing AICAR was evaluated for effects on endurance in mice.  The results showed an improvement of up to 44% in treadmill tests after 4 weeks using the drug without training!  Another study looked at whether GW1516 and AICAR combined was as effective at getting fit compared with GW1516 plus exercise.  The effects were very similar.  This means that gains can be made in fitness using GW1516 and AICAR without training!  This was dubbed ‘exercise in a bottle’ in the media a few years ago. The conclusion is that AICAR makes the body think it has exercised.  This trick is classed as ‘gene doping’ by WADA and AICAR is prohibited in all sports at all times.

Scientific study based on animal test subjects has detmined that AICAR can play a hand in boosting these processes because it contains the ability to penetrate cardiac cells and block the production of enzymes tied to regulating glucose intake and energy expulsion.  With these regulatory enzymes inhibited, the affected cells can in turn boost the amount of glucose that can be received, and it can also increase its level of energy conversion.  Additionally, the peptide’s presence has been determined to aid in lowering programmed cell death, a process that is also known as apoptosis.

Ultimately, all of these elevated processes combine to provide an animal test subject an easier time in which it can achieve a level of homeostasis.

Because of the way in which AICAR has been shown to function, scientific study based on animal test subjects has determined that the peptide can be responsible for the following elevated processes:

    - Increased endurance – Because AICAR has been shown to possess the ability to boost energy conversion and make the entire process happen more efficiently, scientific study based on animal test subjects allows for an animal test subject to experience a boosted level of activity for a much longer stretch of time.
    - Elevated rate of fat burning – Because AICAR causes an animal test subject’s cells to convert energy on a significantly elevated basis, scientific study has derived that the subjects’ bodies have a tendency to break down fat cells quicker as a means to balance out this efficiency increase.  That being said, these scientific studies have determined that this process is only effective in the event that animal test subject maintains a consistent diet and does not increase its intake of food.

According to scientific study that has been based on animal test subjects, it has been determined that AICAR possesses a positive link in combating insulin resistance.  This condition is physiological in nature, and is built on a cellular unit’s inability to respond to normal reactions brought about by secretions of insulin.  Studies have shown that the peptide has an ability to enhance a proper cellular response to insulin secretions.  The action of lowering insulin resistance within an animal test subject can be directly linked to AICAR’s faculty to promote the uptake of glucose; a process that is also vital for the overall growth and repair of muscular and skeletal tissue.

AICAR and Cardiac Arrest:
Scientific study based on animal test subjects has also determined that AICAR can play a key role in the prevention and treatment of cardiac arrest.  Because the presence of the peptide has been shown to promote a more efficient means of carrying glucose to cells, it is believed that this action can serve to counteract a deficiency in glucose carriage during an episode of cardiac arrest, a condition that is in part caused by a lack of fuel needed to convert the energy needed to provide homeostasis.  Furthermore, it has been deduced that these same abilities may allow the peptide to act as a stabilizing agent in the wake of cardiac arrest episode. Ultimately, AICAR is thought to be able to reduce the risk of cardiac arrest from occurring, or at the very least, minimizing the resultant damage if it does occur. Although there are tests available for AICAR in urine samples – published several years ago – it appears that no athletes have yet been caught using the drug. 

The method may not be in routine use as yet due to various difficulties in interpretation.  The drug is naturally present in urine, excreted by the kidneys, even if you have not used the drug.  There are various difficulties with this approach such as: the need to have a statistically significant sample for baseline evaluation; to ensure that there are not people who are naturally going to have very high levels (and be tested ‘positive’); to determine whether any illness or disease would increase the urinary excretion; to ensure those using the drug will be tested positive; and hopefully develop a second confirmatory method. A perfect candidate for this method would be isotope ratio mass spectrometry, which allows differentiation of naturally occurring compounds and pharmaceutical preparations and is currently used to detect testosterone administration.