posted July 27, 2000 06:50 PM         

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First, I would like to say that I'm still speechless over the guy who injected his asshole. That out of the way...

The beef industry makes billions of dollars through increased meat production from feeding their cattle long term low dosages of antibiotics. They use the cheapest antibiotics they can find, and use low dosages, so I'm assuming any kind of antibiotic will do and that it won't take much. Apparently, these mild doses of antibiotics are extremely condusive to packing the mass onto the cattle, boosting production by a very substantial amount. I was wondering if anybody has ever heard of this tried in humans. If it beefs up cattle, it should help anabolism in humans. It would be cheap and possibly effective. There is oppostion to the use of antibiotics in this way becuase it contributes to harmful bacterial strains becoming resistant to antibiotics, but if you don't care about the ethics behind that, it could be interesting.

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posted July 27, 2000 06:59 PM            

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My doctor told me abouthow antibiotics are becoming less and less useful. He mentioned that thing about the bacteria resisting the antibiotics. So it seems to me that even if it did work at building muscle, if we all used them all the time then they wouldn't work against bacterial infections anymore. But that is just my 2 cents. And what do I know anyway. This is interesting though.

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posted July 27, 2000 07:04 PM         

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I think that the antibiotics usefulness against an infection causing bacteria is not an issue regarding their anabolic properties. Right now, what cattle producers are using is mainly pennicilin (old school pennicilin, not any new synthetic types) , which doesn't really stop any infections anymore (becuase almost everything is resistant to it) but it is still producing results in size and growth. It is producing anabolism by another mechanism aside from stopping infections, so even "useless" bacteria could produce gains in size.

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posted July 27, 2000 07:07 PM         

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I mean '"useless" antibiotics', not '"useless" bacteria'. Sorry.

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posted July 27, 2000 07:08 PM            

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That is very interesting. Premed student or what?

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posted July 27, 2000 07:15 PM         

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Biological engineer. I had to take plenty of "Pre-med" classes, though. I actually learned about cattle and antibiotics in a medical ethics class.

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posted July 27, 2000 07:19 PM            

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I can verify this use of low dose antibiotics, back on the farm we did this all the time. Not sure why I never thought of it contributing to muslce mass.... Then again, as a young kid, all I was wish'en for was to finish chores and hit the road for some fun!

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LAte

Lobo

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posted July 27, 2000 08:24 PM            

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Chemdaddy...are you familiar by what mechanism/s the antibiotics are exerting the "anabolic" effects ... I am a scientist so feel free to expound..thanx

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posted July 27, 2000 08:34 PM         

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Unfortunately I do not know the mechanism by which it works. I was hoping somebody (perhaps a vet would know since it concerns beef cattle) would know by what mechanism it works so that I could figure out if it would be feasable in humans. I could take a stab at it, but it would only be speculation and nothing better than what a scientist like yourself could come up with. Perhaps it aids in digestion, nutrient transport, or reduces the load of biological recourses required to maintain the immune system thus leaving more recources for anabolism... I really don't have a clue.

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