Matt, you are out of your depth here on this subject. The prescribed Serostim dosage for HIV+ patients is up to 18iu a day. Several otherwise reliable sources have said Ronnie did 36iu a day at some points in his career. The reason most don't do that much is cost. Nasser also said he had done 30iu. Lots of amateurs and pros have experimented with very high gh, around 40iu.
The orals is what jumps out as an immediate danger. The TUDCA may help a little for bile flow and to prevent cholestasis and jaundice but this is a ton of orals.
This is also how you get the most out of insulin, 100iu Lantus as base. Not good in the long run but it will make you big.
Well, good sir - I think one thing you may know about me is that I am fully willing to admit when I am out of my depth in a particular subject area, and cede territory to those who obviously have far more expertise - such as yourself.
I know certain topics very well - pro level gear usage is not one of those topics. That said, I can form certain positions based on threads I have read online, as well as what pros themselves have told me. I have found that pros are extremely open to sharing their cycles with other people. Some may say that they can't speak about it, or change the subject [I have never asked directly - merely overheard other people shooting the breeze with pros, and got a lot of good info that way].
When someone suggested that Ronnie used 12 ius of GH daily [or 16 ius, I can't recall - it's been over a decade since I read that], another person called him out on that. But this was Mayhem, where everyone catered to pros, and were unwilling to even offend them slightly. So to be honest, I would not be surprised if Ronnie did use 12-16+ ius of GH daily. I found that MuscleMayhem was often in denial.
But as you said, the cost would be prohibitive for many, so I don't see every Mr. Olympia competitor being able to afford it. And that's kind of sad - you have Mr. Olympia earning around $1 million to $1.5 million per year, with #2 to #10 earning $150,000+, and guys outside of the top 10 earning under six figures and still requiring jobs as personal trainers to pay the bills.
Do you recall that video that Jay Cutler did with Bodybuilding.com? Live Large? In that video, he stated he spent a whopping $100,000 a year just on deep tissue massages!! He also said he spent $100,000 per year on...food I think - or was it just sushi alone? That would be $275 a day. But he spent, in his words a "hundred grand" on deep tissue massage, and another "hundred grand" on something else. I just can't recall if it was food, or something else.
Think about that - if Jay was basically just throwing around $100,000 on individual components of bodybuilding, is there any reason why he would not be willing to spend $100,000 on GH, or steroids, or some other drugs - or even $100,000 on every single one of these categories of PEDs?
Meanwhile, you have guys placing outside of the top 15 who literally can't afford to make it to the Olympia.
Do you remember in 2010 when Melvin Anthony stated that he couldn't afford to compete at the Mr. Olympia that year?
So you have a bodybuilder who won the Phoenix Pro, and was definitely in or around the top 10 in the world not being able to afford to compete. Basically, you have a situation where the top three bodybuilders can afford far more gear than those placing 10 spots lower.
