The right Cardarine dosage is 10 to 20 mg a day, depending on the goal, and it only pays off if you do the cardio. In the book, Cardarine shows up in five chapters, with four different schedules. This page puts all of them in one place, together with the part most sites skip: what the cancer studies in animals actually found.
Cardarine, also called GW-501516, is a research compound that GlaxoSmithKline developed in the 1990s as a drug for cholesterol and metabolic disease. It was never approved, and development stopped in 2007.
People call it a SARM, but it is not one. SARMs work on the androgen receptor. Cardarine works on a completely different receptor, PPAR-delta, and it has no effect on your testosterone. That is why it fits in Natural Plus: zero hormonal suppression.
PPAR-delta is a switch that controls which fuel your muscles burn. When Cardarine turns it on, your muscles shift from burning glucose to burning fat, and they build more mitochondria to do it. Cardarine also activates AMPK, the same energy switch that berberine and metformin hit.
So you get two effects. First, endurance goes through the roof. What used to be a grind on the bike becomes nearly effortless. Second, your lipid profile improves. In a 12-week human trial in people with low HDL, GW-501516 raised HDL and lowered triglycerides and LDL [1].
For older men battling high LDL and low HDL for years, that second effect matters. Their doctor is telling them to take a statin, and on the protocol their lipid panel improves as well. Still, never drop a medication your doctor prescribed without talking to them first.
GlaxoSmithKline stopped developing Cardarine in 2007. Later, studies in rats and mice given the drug for their whole lives showed tumors in several organs, even at the lowest dose tested [2]. In 2013, the World Anti-Doping Agency warned athletes about it and said it would never be approved [3].
What that means for a person running 10 to 20 mg in cycles is unknown. No human study has tested it. In all my years of experimenting, I have not heard of a single person diagnosed with cancer after using it. Still, it is a non-approved research chemical. If you have cancer, or a higher risk of it, don’t use it, and get screened regularly if you do. The full data is below.
Below is the full Cardarine dosage table by goal, the timing and cycling rules, the complete cancer data, labs and stacks.
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This page documents Dr. Tony Huge’s research and self-experimentation. It is journalism and education, not medical advice, and it creates no doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Tony Huge holds a Juris Doctor; he is a lawyer, not a physician. Read the full Legal Disclaimer.