BROMO

[Easto]

Bromo...all you need to know by ikedani
BromoFAQ

Most of you have been waiting with bated breath for an update regarding my experiences with the dopaminergic drug, bromocriptine maleate (BM), something I've talked about before here in this column and at the T-Mag forum.

[Editor's note: Bromocriptine's approved use is for treating Parkinson's and other neurologic disorders.]

I've continued to use Parlodel (brand name bromocriptine maleate) as I'm fortunate enough to have an enlightened physician friend who's legally prescribing it for me. While previously I was excited by the theoretical fat loss potential of BM, I have to say that practically, the results surpassed even my expectations.

Currently, I'm 174 pounds at under 6% body fat as measured by calipers. Now I'm sure some of you out there are going to say, "sh*t, man, you're tiny!" Well then, this segment of "Useful Stuff" is not for you! If you're interested in becoming a 250-pound monster, my experiences and my opinions are probably of minimal interest and use to you. Lots of luck, fellas. But if you're interested in more of an underwear model type of look (a look that women seem to appreciate a whole lot more than the Conan the Barbarian look), read on.

Are you still with me? Good! BM has helped me lose just over sixteen pounds of adipose tissue in about two months. So how did I do it? I started by taking 2.5mg of BM per day before bed back in the middle of the summer. This was actually a mistake. For starters, the dose was too high for me to start with and taking this before bed was probably not a smart idea. Unfortunately, BM has some CNS stimulatory effects (at least on me) that caused me to have a heck of a time falling a sleep. A few days into this experiment, I opted to switch from taking it before bedtime to taking it around 6 or 7 A.M. in the morning. If you're planning on using BM, I'd strongly suggest that you not take it at night.

However, even switching to the daytime didn't eliminate all the side effects. I still felt "twitchy"… I suppose that's the best way to describe it. Suspecting that the dose might still be too high, I opted to cut back to 1.25mg of BM per day and titrate my way up. I feel this method is the absolute safest and best way to use BM. So I'd also suggest that if you're going to try BM, start at 1.25 mg.

I titrated up as high as 6.25 mg per day which was the threshold of tolerability for me (and then I dropped down to 5.0 mg which is where I am now). The way I titrated up was to increase the dose by 1.25 mg every five days. This seemed to minimize the CNS and psychological side effects that BM can impart.

So how did BM make me feel and what did I use with it? Well, I ended up adding in a small amount of Cytomel around the third week (25 mcg of T3 per day to be exact). I'm not sure how necessary this is for everyone, but I noticed that I was "cold" in the mornings about two weeks after I started the BM. My body temperature was down about 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit and I decided that this could adversely impact my quest to metabolize fat (so hence, I added in enough T3 to get by body temperature back to baseline). I'm not sure if the drop in body temperature was caused by the BM or the change in my diet, but it's surely something you might want to look at and be aware of when you start using BM. Adjust accordingly.

Dopaminergic agonists tend to have a stimulant effect. I actually like the way BM makes me feel; it seems to "up my energy" but not in a speedy, ephedra sort of manner. I'm more alert and less drained when using BM.

It also affected my diet in an unconscious manner. I've always craved carbohydrates — this flaw has always been the demise of any dieting program I've undertaken and made keto dieting (especially Fat Fasting) exceedingly difficult. I noticed that BM tended to blunt my craving for carbs. It also blunted my appetite.

I wouldn't characterize BM as an appetite suppressant in the manner that phenylpropanolamine or phentiramine resins are, but I noticed that instead of eating everything on my plate because it was there, I only ate until I was satiated. So yes, my caloric intake dropped by about 500 calories per day (this is an average and a guesstimate) and I consumed less carbohydrates (this was unintentional).

Upon reflection, my diet looked a lot like the old Isocaloric Diet that Dan Duchaine used to espouse where you eat an almost equal ratio of carbs, fats, and proteins. It's important to add that all of these changes in my diet were unconscious and I never felt hungry or unsatisfied. My tastes just changed quite a bit while using BM.

My results thus far with BM look like this: when I started this experiment, I weighed 196 pounds and held about 13.2% body fat. Yesterday, I weighed in at 174 pounds at approximately 5.5% body fat (it's hard to be exact with the calipers when your skin folds get thinner). This represents just over a sixteen-pound loss in body fat in two months. I realize this may not seem spectacular when compared to keto dieting, after all, this merely represents a two to three-pound weight loss per week. Heck, people do that with Slim Fast. But there are a few things to keep in mind that make this truly interesting, if not downright amazing:

1) My loss of lean body mass was minimal. Of the 22 pounds I dumped, less than six pounds of that was LBM. Had I opted to use a mild anabolic or MAG-10, I'm sure I could've eliminated any and all loss of LBM.

2) I made no conscious effort to change my diet! This is truly huge. Even though my diet did change substantially, it wasn't a conscious effort. All I intended to do was take a few extra pills per day, not suffer through some Draconian dieting scheme. This was very easy!

3) I feel fantastic. When was the last time you heard of anyone feeling truly fantastic while trying to lose weight?

I'm sure I could've lost more fat in this time period had I "known what I was doing" (remember, this was an experiment). I'm going to continue using BM at 5.0mg per day for the next sixty days or so. Expect another, more in-depth update at that time.

I'll leave you with a few final thoughts about using BM for weight loss. I'd suggest not using any ephedra based products (or yohimbine or synephrine) with BM as even the smallest dose of ephedra (8mg) caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand straight up. You'll most likely not enjoy the way you feel with stimulatory alkaloids if you're on BM. I'd also suggest that you consider adding an anabolic with BM (MAG-10 will work fine). If you do choose to use BM, drop us a line here at T-mag and let us know your results.

[Easto]

Bromo as related to sexual function...


By Serge Kreutz
October 2002


Bromocriptine is a well-established drug for two conditions, increased levels of the hormone prolactin and Parkinson's. The best-known brand name is Parlodel. The standard tablet dosage is 2.5 mg.

Bromocriptine also has a sexuality-enhancing effect, though it is not commonly sold for that purpose. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that in many people, bromocriptine will support sexual response. The reason why the drug is not specifically sold as impotence or frigidity medication: a sufficient number of studies to achieve FDA approval for the purpose of sexual enhancement have not been conducted.

In view of the enormous marketing success of Pfizer's Viagra, many pharmaceutical companies are interested in distributing substances that enhance sexual response. However, for "old" drugs, the patents of which have expired, there is little incentive to invest into the necessary clinical trials.

The sexually enhancing effect of bromocriptine is very different from the effect of Viagra (generic name: sildenafil citrate). Viagra works primarily on the sexual organ, providing chemically for better rigidity, or some rigidity in the first place.

Bromocriptine, on the other hand, works on the brain, making a person more receptive for sexual stimulation and creating a frame of mind for more powerful orgasms. Both effects are a logical consequence of the way, bromocriptine is traditionally used… to lower levels of the hormone prolactin, and to increase levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

High levels of prolactin are generally associated with a decreased sex drive. So, by lowering levels of prolactin, especially when they are high, bromocriptine increases the interest in sex.

A similar effect is achieved by bromocriptine through the neurological route. Bromocriptine is used as a medication in Parkinson's because it will cause higher levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Parkinson's is a disease caused by dopamine levels that are too low. Low dopamine levels normally also cause a loss of interest in sex, and an increased sex drive is a common "side effect" of many Parkinson's medications. One person's side effect is another person's cure.

While the increase in sex drive caused by bromocriptine may be hard to measure, the effect on orgasms is more obvious. Orgasms become more powerful, ironically because they are better controlled. The pre-orgasm plateau phase can last for minutes on bromocriptine, and orgasm will be accompanied by a pronounced histamine reaction (stuffed nose).

Bromocriptine is a prescription drug most everywhere, though in many countries of the world, prescription drugs can be bought over the counter. In countries where prescription drugs are indeed only sold on prescriptions, it is within a physician's discretion to prescribe a drug for conditions for which it has not originally been approved. To get a prescription for bromocriptine, please proceed to http://online-consultation-prescriptions.com. The site offers a straightforward deal. You subscribe and are referred to a doc who issues prescriptions for sexual enhancement (doc’s fee not included in the subscription price). If, for any reason, you should be denied a prescription, the subscription price will be refunded, and the doc won’t charge either. Prescriptions are issued for men between 25 and 65 years of age.

For a substance to be approved as a medication, an illness has first to be defined for which it is a cure. Nowadays, there are many newly defined illnesses, such as clinical depression, attention deficit disorder, erectile dysfunction … conditions, which have previously not been considered illnesses but just part of the individuality of a particular human being.

Some members of our species are smarter than others, and some are happier, and some of the males are more virile than their neighbors. Not to be as smart as a genius, and not to be as virile as one's neighbor aren't diseases in the classical sense. But new illnesses are constantly defined, because the pharmaceutical industry has on hand a medication to overcome the condition. So, if there will soon be a medical condition named Weak Orgasm Syndrome, or Clinical Sex Drive Loss, bromocriptine is a sure medication candidate.

Bromocriptine belongs to a group of drugs derived from the ergot fungus. A more concentrated dopaminergic drug that is also derived from ergot is Dostinex. Dostinex is a new, patented drug, which is why clinical trials have been financed to look into its application to improve sexual function, especially the enhancement of orgasms.