The interaction of testosterone and cortisol is essential for building muscle mass. How they act among themselves, and will be described in this article.
The effects of androgenic substances on cortisol can be indirect or direct. There is one theory that the substances of this group can have a stimulating effect on cell receptors, which causes the growth of muscle tissue. They can only inhibit the catabolic effect of cortisol on cells.
Most scientists believe that androgenic substances are capable of blocking cortisol receptors, which means they are more anti-catabolic than anabolic. But in practice, things are completely different.
The described theory has a number of significant drawbacks. Moreover, it is not very difficult to find them. One has only to ask the question: what are the androgen-type receptors for when anabolic steroids act only on cortisol. It should also be noted that the research of scientists proving the anti-cortisol theory is initially based on not entirely correct assumptions.
Perhaps one could even say that these assumptions are completely wrong, and should not even be published. All experiments were based on the assumption that skeletal muscle lacks androgen receptors. It is clear that such an assumption was made on the basis of earlier publications.
Clinical studies took place back in 1975, and scientists should have approached this issue more thoroughly. The androgenic receptors in muscle cells were discovered in the early 70s by Professor Etienne Bellew.
The authors of the erroneous theory were Rosen and Meyer, who noted that androgenic substances bind in muscle tissues due to certain receptors. They were convinced that they simply could not be of the androgenic type and, therefore, could only be cortisol receptors.
Subsequently, a lot of studies were carried out to confirm the Mayer-Rosen theory, but they were not successful. Currently, the main problem is precisely this theory, which continues to be referred to. Moreover, this is done not only by athletes, but also by scientists.
However, this does not mean that testosterone is not able to affect cortisol. It just doesn't happen at the receptor level. It has already been experimentally proven many times that androgenic substances can reduce blood cortisol levels under the influence of physical activity.
Simply put, during the stress received in the classroom, testosterone stops the synthesis of cortisol, limiting its effect on muscle tissue synthesis. They try to achieve this effect when using drugs like phosphatidylserine.
Watch a video about cortisol and testosterone:
Perhaps someone will have a fair question: can more powerful drugs be created to suppress cortisol in comparison with testosterone. The answer is no. According to the latest research, muscle tissue growth stops at both high and low cortisol levels. For effective muscle gain, it is necessary to keep the level of this hormone in the middle range. Phosphatidylserine preparations are able to suppress cortisol activity by about 30%.
