Anabolic Steroids

“Anabolic Steroids” you just cringed in your seat or had a rush of adrenaline due to the excitement; either way there is no doubt, the words “anabolic steroids” have an emotional effect on most all who hear them. So what are anabolic steroids? Let’s start with what they are not. When you go to the doctor to get a shot in your knee or elbow to reduce inflammation, a steroid shot is very common place. The drugs administered here are not anabolic steroids; they are anti-inflammatory steroids or more aptly corticosteroids. There are literally hundreds of different steroidal hormones flowing through the human body but when it comes to anabolic steroids these are derivatives of the male sex hormones and they are typically administered for the purpose of increasing lean muscle tissue as well as for increasing strength.

Anabolic steroids have been prevalent for nearly one-hundred years as a means for aiding in increasing performance, to use as part of a healing process in some muscle wasting diseases and to perform and aid in the transgender process for those who desire to have their natural sex changed. Odds are you’ve heard of anabolic steroidsa number of times, especially when it comes to their use in professional sports. From baseball to football and everything in-between, anabolic steroids make the news on a regular basis.

Questions many are left asking when it pertains to anabolic steroids; why all the hype, why are they illegal and why do so many risk breaking the law? We’re told anabolic steroids kill people; yet there is no evidence. We’re told anabolic steroids cause serious health risk yet no scientific evidence exist to even begin to infer serious health risk exist. We are told anabolic steroids cause “Roid Rage” yet almost every study done shows the results to be too small to measure. We are told anabolic steroid use can lead to suicide yet no credible scientific or medical evidence exist to connect this claim. If that’s not enough to make you scratch your head try this on for size; in 1990 the United States government passed the steroid control act against the will of the four health and drug agencies it called upon to back its legislation. It was deemed by these agencies, which included the American Medical Association (AMA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that there was in-fact no concern or reason for alarm in terms of safety and personal use; things that make you go “hmmm?”

When it comes to the specifics of anabolic steroids another avenue of confusion that surrounds them by many is the simple fact that there’s not just one. Have you ever seen a movie where there’s a guy taking steroids? He’ll pull a bottle out from under his bed labeled “Steroids” and if you’re lucky and it’s a good movie it’ll have a skull and crossbones on it. The truth; as there are many types of steroidal hormones there are literally countless anabolic steroids. Various forms of Testosterone, Trenbolone, Nandrolones, Methandrostenolone, Oxandrolone, Boldenone, Oxymetholone and the list goes on and on and then it goes on some more. Part of the problem regarding steroid education is often all steroids are lumped together and as you can see just from the short list you’ve been given there are many very different types of anabolic steroids alone. Although many anabolic steroids have a similar purpose and function, each one is unique unto its own and serves a function only it can serve. Various anabolic steroids serve stronger in terms of gaining mass, others promote strength to a stronger degree; some anabolic steroids have attributes that bring about a leaner quality and as the list of anabolic steroids goes on and on so does the list of possibilities.

In the end anabolic steroids have a common theme shared by all and that is their ability to increase protein synthesis. Many who train and lift are familiar with the hormone Cortisol, the enemy of protein synthesis by the pure fact that it inhibits it. One of the great things about anabolic steroids is they have the ability to prohibit and hold back Cortisol a naturally occurring hormone in the body that can promote fat storage and muscle loss. That alone makes anabolic steroids so very appealing to the many that use them and is reason alone to know why they will always be around.