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11/26/08
Steroids in layman’s terms are strength enhancing drugs taken by body builders and athletes who want to perform extraordinarily in their competition. They normally fall under two categories, this is anabolic and corticosteroids. Corticosteroids include drugs like cortisone, which many doctors prescribe to treat body inflammation. They are used by doctors to control conditions like asthma and lupus. They are not very harmful if they are taken with a doctor’s prescription.
Anabolic steroids or androgenic steroids on the other hand are synthetic hormones enhances the ability of the body to form muscles and prevent them from breaking down.
This is the reason why a few people in athletics use them so that they can improve on their performance, be it running faster, lifting heavy weights, swimming faster, cycling faster, jumping higher, or simply having a lot of endurance in whichever sports.
Using this type of steroid is however very dangerous since they are prohibited in very many states. You can be convicted in the United States for the use of anabolic steroids without a doctor’s prescription.
Anabolic steroids have similar chemical structure with that of the body’s sex hormone namely testosterone. Testosterone is used by the body to enhance male physical characteristics such as facial hair growth, deep voice, increase in muscle mass, and it has a crucial role to play in male puberty stage of development.
Anabolic steroids when taken in the blood stream, they enhance the growth and development of muscle tissues. In the long run however the effect of having a lot of testosterone in the body can be very dangerous.
Anabolic steroids or androgenic steroids are dangerous because of two reasons; they are not legal and if taken in large amounts can cause health problems to a person. You may naturally assume that you have escaped the side effects of taking steroids only to feel the full effect later on in life.
The aftermaths of taking steroids are listed below;
1. Leads to the suppression of the natural hormone
The suppression of natural hormones affects many people who take anabolic steroids be it teenagers or grown ups. The body’s endocrine system will stop creating a hormone if it is introduced from another source. So as to achieve homeostasis, the body will send down to the testicles that they reduce or sometimes even stop the production of testosterone if there is a lot of it circulating in the body.
2. Liver damage
When you take steroids the liver is used to break them down so that they can be eliminated from the body. Steroids usually overwork the body since they can not be easily broken down and hence cause liver damage.
3. Gynocomastia
This is a condition where the male individuals develop breast tissues as a result of taking anabolic steroids. This normally occurs because they have a lot of estrogen in their body as a result of taking steroids. This condition will start with a simple itch in the nipples and before you know it you have breasts.
