What are Anabolic steroids?
Steroids are the synthetic versions of the hormones which the human body naturally produces. Sometimes the amount the body produces is insufficient, so these synthetic hormones help to meet the requirements. Anabolic steroids or Anabolic androgenic steroids which are the best-studied class of appearance and performance-enhancing drugs (APEDs), mimic the function of the male sex hormone testosterone found in the body. Testosterone is the primary sex hormone in men. It is responsible for developing male sex characteristics, including increased facial and body hair, muscle growth and the deepening of the voice. Testosterone is also found in women’s bodies but in much smaller quantities. Anabolic steroid use is becoming popular among bodybuilders and athletes because they can imitate testosterone functions in the body. Bodybuilders and athletes use anabolic steroids to promote muscle growth and a masculine body. People in the entertainment industry or with physically challenging jobs also use anabolic steroids to look more muscular or to improve strength and endurance. Doctors recommend anabolic steroids to treat some medical conditions, including hormone problems in men, delayed puberty, muscle loss from other diseases, and some types of anemia. Doctors never prescribe anabolic steroids for bodybuilding due to the side effects and withdrawal symptoms.
How do steroids work?
Steroids work by imitating the hormones the adrenal glands in the human body naturally produce. Anabolic steroids mimic the role testosterone plays in the human body. Anabolic steroids can help to gain muscle mass very quickly. Anabolic steroids can also help to increase the body’s performance and endurance. They can help bodybuilders in their intensive training sessions by reducing the recovery time and giving them more time to train themselves. Anabolic steroids also help to minimize tissue damage. After consumption, the anabolic steroid goes to the muscle tissue, which travels to the androgen receptor. After being delivered to the muscle cell, the anabolic steroid interacts with the cell’s DNA, stimulating the protein synthesis process and increasing cell growth.
Different ways to take steroids
There are several ways to take anabolic steroids. Steroids are taken orally, injected intramuscularly, used topically as creams, gels and ointments, inhaled into the lungs, and as nasal sprays. The steroid users prefer taking these anabolic steroids orally, who want them to clear out their system earlier to pass the drug tests. People who use anabolic steroids take doses up to ten to a hundred times the ones prescribed for treating diseases. People who want to increase their muscle size use different techniques to achieve the desired results. These people use cycling, a technique in which people use steroids for a specified time, and then their use is stopped. After this, they start using these steroids again. Another technique used for this purpose is stacking, in which people take two or more anabolic steroids or use oral and injectable steroids simultaneously. Another technique used is called pyramiding which typically spans six to twelve weeks. In this technique, the user starts with a small number of steroids which is gradually increased until the mid-cycle stage and then the dose of these steroids is gradually decreased to zero to complete the cycle. After completing this cycle, the user completes another cycle in which he continues exercising without consuming steroids. Another technique is plateauing, in which people try to avoid developing a tolerance to these anabolic steroids by switching, overlapping and replacing one anabolic steroid with the other.
How to use steroids properly
Anabolic steroids can help promote muscle growth and improve strength and endurance but depending only on these steroids will not serve the purpose. Along with these anabolic steroids, many other factors contribute to promoting muscle growth. The proper use of steroids depends upon these factors to provide the desired outcomes. The most crucial factor to be considered in this regard is using a protein-rich diet which will help your body compensate for the muscle loss. Diet should have more proteins with fewer carbs and fats. Also, your calorie intake should be higher than the calories you burn in a day to promote muscle growth. Other significant factors are proper sleep and training, which are crucial for promoting muscle growth. During sleep, our body releases human growth hormone, which promotes muscle growth. Training also helps to promote the growth of muscles.
Conclusion on how to take steroids
Anabolic steroids are extremely helpful in promoting muscle growth and are becoming increasingly popular among bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts. They provide you with the desired results in a short period which are almost impossible to achieve only through diet and training. But it should be considered highly significant that misusing these anabolic steroids can cause several medical conditions and severely damage your health. When used in high doses, they can cause heart failure and strokes, severe acne, depression, severe mood changes, irritability, insomnia, hair loss, liver disease, kidney problems or failure, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, blood clots, fluid retention and aggressive behaviour. Also, anabolic steroids also cause some withdrawal symptoms including loss of appetite, insomnia, restlessness, fatigue, and steroid cravings. So anabolic steroid drug abuse can result in several undesirable consequences. These steroids should never be taken in high doses and only be used by the prescription of a doctor.
References
- Momaya, A., Fawal, M., & Estes, R. (2015). Performance-enhancing substances in sports: a review of the literature. Sports Medicine, 45(4), 517-531. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25663250/
- Graham, M. R., Davies, B., Grace, F. M., Kicman, A., & Baker, J. S. (2008). Anabolic steroid use. Sports medicine, 38(6), 505-525. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.2165/00007256-200838060-00005#citeas
- Simpson, N. S., Gibbs, E. L., & Matheson, G. O. (2017). Optimizing sleep to maximize performance: implications and recommendations for elite athletes. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 27(3), 266-274. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/sms.12703
