effects of cannabis vs opiates on test. levels

[tadpoleboy]

heres a nice little study i found relating to the effects chronic cannabis use and chronic opiate use have on endogenous (natural) testosterone levels. May not apply when testosterone is supplied exogenously (steroids)
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Friedrich G, Nepita W, André T.

Institut für Rechtsmedizin, Universität Freiburg.

The object of this study was to establish possible influences of long-term cannabis usage on plasma testosterone levels. The plasma testosterone levels of 66 male Pakistani who for years had smoked cannabis daily or drank cannabis regularly where measured after chronic and acute intake of the drug and compared with a material of 41 normal controls, i.e. persons who did not use cannabis. An evaluation of the results showed that there were no significant differences between the two groups. No influence of long-term cannabis usage on plasma testosterone levels was found. Furthermore we wished to find out wether long-term heroin abuse showed an effect on plasma testosterone levels. The concentrations of testosterone in the plasma of 102 heroin addicts assigned to a Methadone Program were measured and compared with the values of 29 male healthy students as controls. Plasma testosterone levels were found to be significantly decreased in heroin addicts as compared to controls.

PMID: 2241844 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

 

[tadpoleboy]

heres another interesting study relating to cortisol, gh - growth hormone (somatropin) - , test, lh - leutenizing hormone - and such after toking up. This is a good study, as it uses amounts that people actually smoke, as opposed to ridiculously high amounts that no one ever does...

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Four healthy male subjects smoked two marijuana cigarettes or one marijuana cigarette and one placebo cigarette, or two placebo cigarettes on separate days in a random order crossover design. Each marijuana cigarette contained 2.8% delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Plasma hormones and THC were measured before and after each smoking session. Plasma LH was significantly depressed and cortisol was significantly elevated after smoking marijuana. Nonsignificant depressions of prolactin, FSH, testosterone and free testosterone and elevation of GH also occurred........Although all the hormone effects were within normal basal ranges, interactions between these systems, and their effects on behavior cannot be discounted
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basically, smoking reefer doesnt have a great enough effect to really impact anything. If anything, the increased appetite offsets any negatives, and helps, unless you just eat shitty ass food.

 

[samoth]

Interesting, but abstacts can often obscure important factors and variables.

Chronic opiate [ab]use can severely damage so many aspects of the human organism in so many different ways... it's almost scary.

 

[tadpoleboy]

Interesting, but abstacts can often obscure important factors and variables.

Chronic opiate [ab]use can severely damage so many aspects of the human organism in so many different ways... it's almost scary.

no doubt chronic opiate use will destroy ones life, but chronic cannabis use, done responsibly, seems to be somthing that can be done with little impact (except legally). I actually found another study for herion addicts, and after a month of abstinence, endo test levels returned to normal... But yea, i doubt many people here use herion, moreso cannabis, so i thought these abstracts would be relevant. I referenced the abstract about herion vs pot since it seems a lot of people have ?'s about vicodin, lortab, and opiate/opiod painkillers and there effect on hormones. Furthermore, many of the abstracts contradicted each other for cannabis use and its effects on the endocrime system and hormones, bu the majority seemed to say that cannabis use did not have significant effect on test and such.

 

[tadpoleboy]

i also came across a study about the correlation between prostaglandins and anabolic growth. It essentially said that they play a part in muscle hypertrophy. For those of you that dont know, prostaglandins are the things that ibuprofen and NSAIDS get rid off to prevent pain. So you may be losing gains by doing so. Dont qoute me directly, ill have to search and find the study i dont have it on hand...

 

[ukkared]

I don't trust studies like this because they don't factor in lurking variables or other factors

 

[samoth]

I don't trust studies like this because they don't factor in lurking variables or other factors

Sure they do (as long as it's relevant to the research). But not in the abstracts.

 

[Big_Joe]

Heroin addicts tend to have very pour diets. I suspect this is a major factor in their test levels. I think a better study would be of people that are morphine dependant. This group of people are under a doctors care and tend to have more normal diets. In other word they don't eat out of dumpsters.