Cardarine (GW501516)
GW-501516, GW1516, GW-1516, GSK-516, Endurobol
A PPARδ agonist, not a SARM, developed by GSK for cholesterol disorders and abandoned after it caused cancers in rodents; often grouped with SARMs.
Legal status: Never approved and not legally sold as a medicine; prohibited at all times in sport as a metabolic modulator, and several athletes have been banned.
What it gives
What people use it for and what the sources report. Strength is a general category from the literature: mild, clear or strong.
Purpose
Taken for endurance and fat loss ('Endurobol'), based on mouse studies. In short human trials it raised HDL and lowered triglycerides and LDL; it was never approved.
What people seek and what studies show
In mice, PPARδ activation with training raised the share of oxidative muscle fibers and running endurance; later work showed it spares glucose and delays exhaustion in animals. Short human trials, in healthy volunteers and in adults with low HDL cholesterol or excess weight, measured metabolism rather than performance: fat oxidation rose, liver fat and triglycerides fell. Endurance in people has never been tested.
Effects
Evidence: Limited human data — some human studies, small or short
Possible side effects
With an extreme-risk substance some of these can be life-threatening or permanent; no dose, test or early sign makes it safe. Below — what each risk looks like; the signs that need urgent help are in block 04.
3 possible side effects
level · how often it is reportedHow to lower the risks
Extreme risk. No measure makes using this substance for sport safe: severe, including life-threatening, consequences are possible. The only reliable way to avoid these risks is not to use it.
Warning signs that need urgent help are listed in block 04.
Check-ups and blood tests
For an extreme-risk substance there is no testing schedule.
Get medical help at once if
- A new lump (including in the neck), trouble swallowing or persistent hoarseness, unexplained weight loss, or blood in stool or urine — see a doctor promptly.
In an emergency, call your local emergency number.
For women
Non-hormonal, so no virilization, but the cancer signal from animal studies applies to everyone.
Myth & fact
“The cancer risk applied only to mice on huge doses.”
Cancers appeared rapidly in several organs in both rats and mice, enough for GSK to drop it and for WADA to warn the public. No human data show it is safe long term.
Combinations
Both activate the same receptor, PPAR-delta, so the second adds no known benefit. Cardarine's development was stopped after long-term animal studies found cancers; GW0742 acts the same way and was never tested for this, so together they only add exposure to that pathway.
GW0742 (PPAR-delta agonist)