juice, Gear, Stacker, Arnold's, Roids these are some of the street names that Anabolic Steroids, the drugs favored by bodybuilders to give their biceps a boost.
You've no
doubt heard about steroids in the press how athletes have been caught with
them in their systems, how people want skinny have suddenly in remarkably beefed
up their bodies, but what's the big deal what does steroids actually do to the body
and why have they got such a bad rap?
First things
first, let's get our definitions right because chemically speaking a steroid is
any organic molecule with 17 carbon atoms arranged into 4 rings
other elements and structures glued onto those, 'there's actually no glue',
determine exactly what kind of steroid you have but at the basic level they all
have those four carbon rings and there are loads and loads of different
steroids occur naturally and have different functions in the human body.
Cholesterol for instance is a steroid, that's
found in all of our cell membranes and the male hormone testosterone is
a steroid too, which you'll want to remember for later.
Steroids are
typically prescribed as anti-inflammatory drugs to treat things like asthma
and IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) but these are not the roids we're looking
for. The much-maligned muscle maximizing molecules we're talking about our Anabolic
Steroids or if you prefer even more a mouthful Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids.
Anabolic steroids are basically a group of molecules that have a very similar structure and function to the male sex hormone testosterone. Hormones are effectively chemical messengers in our bodies traveling around in the blood and attaching onto cellular receptors to trigger specific processes in specific locations.
And testosterone
is no exception. The sex hormone is well known for triggering the development
of masculine features and characteristics, it's said to have both androgenic
effects that are producing male features like facial hair and anabolic
effects stimulating muscle and bone growth by making proteins. Men naturally
produce a lot more testosterone than women which explains why men are
usually more manly, but there's a limit to how much testosterone the
body can produce naturally and that means there's a limit to muscular growth, time
to enter Synthetic-Anabolic steroids these substances are prescribed by
doctors to treat wasting diseases like Cancer and AIDS or stimulate
male puberty, but they've also been adopted illegally by the body and
performance conscious sporting community, in an effort to attain the supposedly
ideal muscular figure.
These
steroid users will routinely inject themselves or swallow tablets containing 10
(ten) to 100 (hundred) times the medical dose, with the goal of getting
bigger, leaner, and stronger.
So, let's
take a look about how about actually works, when we workout we put a strain on
our muscles our skeletal muscles, that's the muscles that make our bones
move like our biceps or glutes our calves is made of muscle fibers that slide
past each other when the muscles contract and expand. If we lift a weight, that's
just a little bit too heavy, some of those fibers are physically broken and
need to be fixed so that the muscle can function properly again, for this extra
proteins come in and reinforce the fibers making them physically thicker and
the muscle increases in size, the process is known as muscle hypertrophy
but it's normally limited because natural levels of testosterone aren't
high enough to allow much protein to be created, but taking anabolic
steroids changes that. With more testosterone-like chemicals around
and provided their enough building blocks enough amino acids in the
blood much more reinforcing protein can be created making the muscles bigger
and bigger.
Interestingly,
the steroids won't work on their own without the right exercise and a protein-rich
diet.
Scientists
cunningly found this out by subjecting rats to different steroid levels and
different types of exercise including unbelievably a specially designed rat
squat machine, so you take the steroids and your muscles get bigger, 'it
sounds good, right', well injecting yourself with testosterone substitutes
can have some unexpected and unwanted side-effects. Let's not forget
that these anabolic steroids are hormone messengers that travel
all around the body not just to that particular muscle, that you want to upgrade,
so by pumping such large doses into your body the chemicals can play havoc with
your normal bodily functions, and I'm not exaggerating here, the list of
possible adverse effects is long and scary so you've got acne, high
blood pressure, blood clots, baldness, liver tumors, breasts developing in men,
facial hair in women, erectile dysfunction even shrunken testicles,
all caused by one very potent molecule interfering with the way things are
normally done.
High doses
of anabolic steroids are even reported to have psychiatric effects
as the chemicals affect nerve cells in the brain into bursts of manic
aggression called Roid Rage. Some hardcore steroid users attempt to
dodge these grisly side effects by carefully controlling their steroid-taking
routine. One technique cycling where users take regular breaks in their self-medication,
another is stacking where they combine several different anabolic
steroids, and pyramiding that involves gradually increasing the dose
over time, but the one tiny problem with all of these routines is that none of
them have been scientifically proven to mitigate side effects what so ever.
In fact, the scientific understanding of steroid
use is still so incredibly limited, we don't really know how these drugs affect
the body as a whole.
My point of
view doing bodybuilding with using steroids is probably little bit risky
because you know the side effect of steroid. So, I think you probably changed
your mind.
Body
building is not the way to get heilther lifestyle if there is steroid, for
healthier life you can simply take
fitniest classes.
So, if
you're needed any extra persuading not to do illegal drugs then the potential
for uncontrollable unpredictable and possibly even irreversible physical and
mental changes should be it, plus it's just possible to look too ripped right, 'that's
my excuse for my fantasy chocolate', anyway if you found this article interesting
be sure to leave your suggestions in the comments below: see you next
time:
0 Comments
Be helpful in the comments below: