The following essay is going to review advantages and disadvantage of pre-workout compounds and anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) and their effect on athlete health.
Pre-workout compounds and AAS are considered to be 2 major enhancers of athlete`s performance in short- and long-term respectively. Among large number of pre-work out compounds like NO-Explode (BSN), The Curse (Cobra Labs), Assault (MuslePharm), C4 (Cellucor), Jack3d is considered to be the most powerful pre-workout compound to be ever created. The difference between old and new mix of Jack3d (produced since 2012) is that older version of Jack3d included DMAA (1,3-dimethylamylamine). Just like any other pre-work-out compound, Jack3d include – caffeine, creatine monohydrate and arginine. In pre-work out compounds caffeine is used in order to increase mental focus and endurance of an athlete – these effects achieved due to release of norepinephrine (Dhar, Stout, Link, Homoud, Weinstock, and Estes). Side effects largely depend on the amount of caffeine consumed. On a general scale, caffeine consumption causes short-term raise in the systolic blood pressure and increase of heart rate (increased amount of calcium in heart cells). Long-term caffeine consumption can cause “caffeine intoxication” (anxiety, panic attacks, high blood pressure) (Dhar, Stout, Link, Homoud, Weinstock, and Estes). Creatine monohydrate (simplified – Creatine) is a non-essential amino acid that is synthesized by the human body from glycine and arginine. Once synthesized, creatine is delivered with blood to muscle tissue and transformed in the form of phosphocreatine which supplies energy for muscle contraction. In addition, any form of creatine tends to pull water into the muscle tissue which can result in high blood pressure. Arginine is conditionally non-essential amino acid that is used in order to achieve pump effect during training. Pump effect is achieved once arginine is converted into nitric oxide (NO) which causes blood vessels to open wider and improve the blood flow. Side effects include headache (as a result of vasoconstriction). Along with DMAA (1,3-dimethylamylamine) was previously used as CNS stimulant (10 times stronger than caffeine) – both increase norepinephrine release. In the same, unlike caffeine, DMAA sustains the body from epinephrine immediate break down. Side effects include coronary vasoconstriction, tachycardia and hypertension (Dhar, Stout, Link, Homoud, Weinstock, and Estes).
Most of AAS represent synthesized version of male hormone testosterone. Testosterone is a powerful ligand of the human androgen receptor in skeletal and myocardial tissues (Dhar, Stout, Link, Homoud, Weinstock, and Estes). It is also involved in transcription modulation, translation and enzymatic function in numerous tissues of the human body. Once taken externally, extra doses of testosterone can cause negative effect on CVS including direct myocardial injury, vasoconstrictions, hypercoagulability and lipoprotein abnormalities (Dhar, Stout, Link, Homoud, Weinstock, and Estes).
All things considered, new Jack3d formula is considered to be safe once consumed as per prescription due to the fact that DMAA was excluded from it. Recent studies proved that regular consumption of DMAA and AAS can increase potential risk of CV diseases for more than 50%. Most common diseases include high levels of hypertonia, atherosclerosis, myocardia hypertrophy.
Work cited
Dhar, Ritesh, C. W. Stout, Mark S. Link, Munther K. Homoud, Jonathan Weinstock, and N. A. Estes. "Cardiovascular Toxicities of Performance-Enhancing Substances in Sports." Mayo Clinic Proceedings 80.10 (2005): 1307-1315. Print.
