First: Nearlythere was being an ass. Time and again around page 10 of the thread, he accuses Jones of not being scientific, demands medical studies to back up every statement made, shrilly screams that Jones is wrong, and then posts nothing to back up his own claims. By page 13 SS4 steps in and tries to get things calm again, and everyone thanks him. If you read back, Jones has been levelheaded for the last many pages. It’s Nearlythere whose been supplying all the screaming. Jones hasn’t been unreasonable since he finished responding to hobby, whose accusations were also presumptuously condemning. It’s not until page 22 that Jones goes rude again and calls Southpaw ‘uninformed and wrong’. Bad Jones! Naughty boy! On the whole, I think that Jones has been very mature, however. On reading the whole thread I’ve seen him get blatantly insulted, and he stays levelheaded more often than he cracks. He’d make his points better if he didn’t go defensive at all, but we’re all only human.
I have to like Rocco’s chime in here - he did the homework on the thread that nay-sayers weren’t willing to do and posted the answer. With a bit more spirit like that, we’ll have a much better discussion. I’m glad to see that nearlythere has toned down his responses and included more backing towards the end of the post, too. (Although he’s still being snippy and throwing in pejoratives like ‘kid’ into his responses to Jones.) Keep it levelheaded guys. I know it’s a struggle.
I’m quite disappointed at Iamaru for his banning of Jones. I’m going to have to agree with Northstar’s take on this almost 100%. Given that Jones WAS beset from all sides, it would be impossible to have answered all the questions put to him in full - unless he wanted to make a 4 hour a day job of Responding to Thunder’s Place. I don’t blame him for making his answers shorter at the end. I’d be getting sick of running around in circles too, in his place. It’s not a case of “one set of rules for Jones different from all the rest” as penissmith suggested. It looks to me like Jones was trying, and it was just too much for him. As girth says, as moderator, you have to make tough decisions. I think you made the wrong one, this time, however, Iamaru.
Second: It’s spelled ‘prove’. Not ‘proove’. I know you don’t care about spelling Jones, or grammar much, but messing this up will rile up all sort of intellectual prejudices against you. It’s a prejudice, but it’s one that you’re going to encounter for the rest of your life. It’s also one that you can avoid. Take the time to learn how not to set this one off.
Now my own thoughts on the issue.
Arguing about what this pro-hormone converts to in the body is interesting, and necessary for final understanding what’s going on. It has safety ramifications. However, the continuing debates over what things convert to and whether or not they will have any effect on the penis neglects the fact that both sides of that equation are carrying huge unknowns right now. There is no consensus over exactly what causes penile growth in the endocrinological community. The exact action of this pro-hormone and its related compounds (which will certainly taint the mixture somewhat) is also not known.
This is biology we’re dealing with here. It’s the most abstract of the core sciences. (Physics, Chemistry, Biology.) Cut and dry answers regarding what’s actually going on are a bit much to ask for. When your experiment deals with a ball, an inclined plane, and a stopwatch, THEN you can get cut and dry answers. When your experiment deals with macromolecular interactions, multiple organic systems that make even the complexity of a cell look paltry, and the psychology of people making the measurements rather than a single scientist… it’s time to break out the statistics. Statistical answers are as good as it’s going to get short of millions of dollars and decades of study, and what that will give you will be a better defined statistical answer.
So, in the end, the question is this: What happens when I rub 4AD gel on my dick?
Jones suggests that said dick will be larger at the end of a month than it was at the start. This is what we hope for. Do our observations back up this result? What do the side effects seem to be?
To me, the most promising case would be that the 4AD converts to some other novel compound in the body. Most drugs aren’t naturally occurring chemicals in the body - they resemble naturally occurring chemicals. The difference causes them to have a unique effect. Pinning the success of 4AD on whether or not it actually converts to T or DHT is misguided. It could convert to something nearly like DHT that is far more effective at stimulating penile growth. The difference could be nothing more than a change in isomerism. Biology is screwy enough that often that’s all it takes.
Second: Studies on microphallic patients regarding the efficacy of androgen exposure don’t prove the efficacy of androgens for normal adult males. Microphallic patients respond to general body androgen replacement, so the topical results aren’t proving anything new here. Studies that I’d heard of so far were generally interpreted to mean that androgen reception leading to growth in the penis shut down at the end of puberty and thus microphallic people could be treated by just about any form of androgen replacement. This would work because not having been through a full fledged or proper puberty, their receptors had never shut down. If topical androgens can lead to growth in normal adults, then it suggests that this model is incorrect or that something peculiar to the androgens tested is side-stepping the normal mechanisms of growth. (Yes, I do see the post that suggests that down-regulation of receptors is not the correct model.)
Hopping back to the former point, imagine it is the case that DHT is the agent of phallic growth during puberty, and that those receptors that translate DHT presence to growth do close down at the end of puberty. What if 4AD converts not to DHT but to a molecule that can trigger the receptor that has been closed off to DHT? No, that’s not my theory for what’s happening. All I’m trying to point out is that this is a whole freaking human body we’re discussing here. The possibilities for what actually happens are complicated to say the very least.
Third: On the DHT vs. early death thing.
The evidence is that death is a necessary partner with sex for sex, from an evolutionary standpoint, to function properly. I recommend the most excellent (and readable) book, “Sex: A Natural History”. It makes sense that a sex hormone would also trigger mortality.
Yeah, it’s a long and rambling response. It’s been 47 pages getting here and I feel entitled. Bear with me.
Oh, and chalk me up for the guinea pigs. I’ll try 1 bottle of the stuff per the directions here and report my results back. I’ve always been a slow gainer, so anything that helps is welcome. Plus, I like guinea pigs. They’re soft, and warm, and they tremble in constant mortal terror of you, which is something that every mad scientist needs.