Cardarine (GW501516): Health Risks

Cardarine is a very dangerous compound.

In the early 1990s, researchers and scientists working with Ligand Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithkline discovered a chemical that they called ‘GW501516’. (1)

The discovery was part of their prolonged study into chemicals that could provide the elderly and the physically disabled population with the benefits of exercise, without actually performing physical activity.

In theory, that sounds like just what we need.

A magical drug that tricks your body into thinking that it’s exercising without you ever stepping off the couch.

It amplifies fat loss, improves insulin response and even increases lean body mass. Whew!

No wonder then that this research chemical soon found its way into the underground black market.

Athletes are buying bottles of Cardarine under the assumption that it is going to improve their endurance for cardio, which is something that everyone desires.

Think about it.

If you could go on for much longer during the HIIT sessions without losing steam.

If Cardarine could not only improve your cardiovascular endurance, but could also amplify fat loss.

And the icing on the cake would be if it could also improve lean muscle tissue in your body. It would turn you into a lean, long-distance runner.

Only, that’s a lot of ifs, for a chemical that was abandoned because of its ability to rapidly promote cancer growth in multiple organs in the body.

If you have been considering buying Cardarine, then here’s what you can expect from it.

What is Cardarine?

Cardarine is the first amongst a group of chemicals that are called PPAR delta agonists. (2)

The term PPAR delta stands for a gene that in normal circumstances, gets activated when you run.

So, activating this gene permanently, will trick your body into thinking that it’s constantly running. That’s even when you are busy munching on a big mac and fries while lazing on the couch.

Your body then activates a series of processes that would otherwise only be activated if you were running incessantly.

It switches from glucose to fat as the primary source of fuel. Your levels of HDL, or high density lipoprotein increases. (3)

The muscle composition ratio begins to veer towards slow twitch muscle fiber which allows you to perform for longer.

While it was quickly dubbed as ‘exercise in a bottle’, the potential applications of Cardarine are not limited to burning fat or magically giving you abs.

Instead, it can be a very useful drug for metabolic syndrome and reversing conditions such as diabetes, by improving insulin resistance.

That said, in a performance enhancement setting, Cardarine’s effectiveness is minimal and extremely controversial.

The effects of Cardarine in a performance enhancement setting

So, let’s assume that you were to run Cardarine at the doses which are supposedly being termed ‘normal’ on messaging boards on the internet.

What are the benefits that you will get?

Here’s a brief overview.

Your breathing capacity might improve:

A lot of athletes describe the first effect of Cardarine as having an additional pair of lungs.  That’s a fancy way of saying that they can breathe easier while performing any strenuous activity. Like climbing a flight of stairs. Or running 5k a day. You will be more energetic than you would normally. If you are running anabolic steroids that can hinder your ability to do cardio, like Trenbolone does (4), adding Cardarine will make it a lot easier.

It might amplify fat loss:

Like we mentioned briefly, after a few weeks of using Cardarine, your body will switch to stored body fat as the primary source of fuel. Club this with the fact that you are now able to go on for longer during cardio sessions. This might amplify lipolysis at some level. Some athletes mentioned that the fat loss that they experienced from cardarine was more pronounced when they were obese. Once they got lean, the supposed fat loss was more difficult to notice. This means that if you are already very lean to begin with, then Cardarine cannot really make a huge difference to your body composition.

Your cholesterol profile will improve dramatically:

Possibly, the only reason why someone might want to consider adding Cardarine to their fitness routine is the positive benefits it has on cholesterol levels. Your LDL and triglyceride levels will drop and your HDL levels will increase. This makes it a great adjuvant to add to any oral steroid cycle that can trash your lipids. (5)

The risks of running Cardarine

All said and done, Cardarine was abandoned by Glaxo in 2007, just before they were all set to initiate a large Phase III clinical trial.

That’s because the compound was found to trigger rapid tumor growth in Winstar rats. Tumors were formed in multiple sites, right from the tongue to the intestines. (6)

There is a possibility that the results in humans might be entirely different. But is that a risk that you are willing to take?

On messaging boards, there is a theory that’s peddled repeatedly by sellers that the human equivalent of the doses that were given to the rats are extremely high.

Also, considering that Winstar rats have a lifespan of about 4-years, they were administered cardarine for more than half their lifespan before the tumors manifested.

But the rat-human dose conversion is not as simple as it is often made out to be.

Besides, the study clearly states that the rats developed Cancer even at the lowest dose administered to them. We cannot discount the possibility of tumor even at doses lower than the minimum dose.

That’s not all. It can also cause liver fibrosis. If you have a stressed liver due to steroid use or long term medication use, that’s not good news at all, is it?

Should you risk it with Cardarine?

Don’t let people fool you into believing that Cardarine is risk free.

Or that anything can give you cancer, so using Cardarine is justified.

Glaxo abandoned this trillion-dollar drug prospect. That alone is enough to raise a red flag about its safety.

Also, what is it that forces you to use a risky compound such as this one?

Are you physically disabled? Do you have something that severely limits mobility, like Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy?

If yes, then probably the risk to reward ratio is even. Else, it’s just toying with your life because you are too lazy to put in some extra effort.

References:

1. Cardarine (GW501516): Benefits, Dosages, Side Effects, Safe Alternatives
2. Discovering highly selective and diverse PPAR-delta agonists
3. 8 Reasons Why Cardarine is used as Fat Burner
4. Trenbolone: Doing a lean bulk with Tren
5. Anabolic Steroids: History, Cycles & Stacks, Side Effects and Alternatives
6. The Toxicology of Ligands for Peroxisome Proliferator