Exercise boosts IGF-1. Some studies suggest that the antiaging effects of DHEA use come from an increase in IGF-1 in the body. IGF-1 maintains both muscle and connective tissue, as well as brain and heart cells, so it’s not a stretch to think that having more IGF-1 will make you feel and possibly look younger. Recent human studies confirm the antiaging effects of IGF-1 and GH. Yet animals deficient in IGF-1 live longer and show no cancer whatsoever.

Clearly, that’s an example of how animal physiology may differ from that of humans. On the other hand, countless people who’ve used GH therapy say that they feel younger, but that’s rarely evident in their appearance. Excess bodyfat is associated with lower IGF-1 and GH. One recent study examined lifestyle factors that affect IGF-1 in college-age women and found a positive correlation with soy protein and the mineral selenium. Drinking alcohol blunted the effects of IGF-1 in the women.

The greatest future use of IGF-1 will without doubt involve gene therapy, which directly places genes that produce IGF-1 in muscle, usually by attaching them to an inactive virus or vector that penetrates the muscle cells. Studies with young mice show that the procedure results in a 15 percent increase in muscle mass, along with a 14 percent increase in strength. Gene therapy in old mice led to a 27 percent increase in strength, along with a total regeneration of aged muscle. In another mouse study, the IGF-1 gene was placed in the animals’ glutes and calves, which resulted in a 17 to 115 percent increase in muscle-cross-sectional area. One hopes the growth occurred mainly in the calves rather than the glutes!

Studies with the muscle-specific form of IGF-1 have yielded similar or better results. Some scientists speculate that once the procedure is perfected for humans, it will spell the end of age-related muscle weakness and frailty. They foresee an 80-year-old man who can produce the same muscle gains as a 19-year-old. Older people don’t gain as much muscle as younger people because satellite cell activity either doesn’t occur or is ineffective. That defect is completely repaired with IGF-1 gene therapy.

Some predict that gene therapy will replace drugs as the main form of doping in the future. No one has any idea of how to detect gene therapy doping yet. The only possible way would be a muscle biopsy, but even that would prove problematic because complete uptake of the IGF-1 gene may not occur, and the biopsy may reveal just normal muscle tissue.

Rumors abound that some athletes have already subjected themselves to IGF-1 gene therapy. That isn’t hard to believe when you consider that one of the therapy’s developers, H. Lee Sweeney, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, says he’s besieged by athletes and coaches from around the world who offer to be his guinea pigs. In truth, however, the technique is not ready for prime time, for some earlier gene-therapy experiments resulted in patient deaths. Future subjects could experience fatal immune reactions to the vectors used to place the gene in the body. Another danger is an inability to control the expression of the gene, which could translate into a rapidly spreading cancer. Or the expression of the gene could extend from skeletal muscle into heart muscle, resulting in excessive heart muscle growth that portends premature heart failure.

Last and perhaps not least, while IGF-1 injections work great on paper, real-world results are mixed. Most athletes suggest that using IGF-1 alone does little or nothing to boost muscle gains, which makes sense in light of the mouse study that linked only local muscle IGF-1 to mass gains. Many steroid manuals suggest that IGF-1 injections are best used with other anabolic agents, such as GH, testosterone and insulin. In that case, how do you ascertain just how well IGF-1 is working? The gains attributed to IGF-1 may in fact result from the other drugs in the combo. Nor can you discount the placebo effect. If you think something will work and truly believe that it will, it often does. Perhaps those who tout the “massive muscle gains” they’ve allegedly made from IGF-1 injections made those gains because they trained harder and believed from their head down to their diamond-shaped calves that the drug would work.

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What a RUSHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!