Anabolic steroids are essentially synthetic hormones designed to help grow muscles, all over the body. They are also thought to precipitate mood swings in the user, though these mood swings are not that extreme. But these steroids, are thought to boost vitality, endurance and stamina , which is why these performance enhancers are one of the most widely abused drugs that one can purchase OTC (over the counter). Here are some of the associated positive and negative effects that comes with prolonged exposure to these performance enhancing drugs.
Positive effects of anabolic steroids:
These synthetic hormones have a short term effect on the human body and as such, for an athlete to use this to improve his muscle tone, he would have to take these steroids on a daily basis, for it to have any effect. On consuming these hormones daily, the user can expect
- Improved stamina
- Improvement in concentration
- Higher endurance levels
- Ability to handle greater stress
- A boost in confidence
- Improved muscled tone
These are exactly the reasons why most sports organizations have banned the use of anabolic steroids as they consider it to be cheating. Some of the other positive effects of using anabolic steroids are listed below –
- Increases protein synthesis: Using these steroids should enable your body to replace damage proteins and replace the same with healthy ones, within a short space of time. This is why your endurance level goes up and you have better stamina
- Increase nitrogen retention: Essentially, the more nitrogen you retain in your body the bigger muscles you can build. With these steroids, you should be able to do just that and increase your retention of Nitrogen.
- Increase in testosterone levels: Anabolic Steroids, leads to your testosterone levels ramping all the way up; a higher testosterone level usually translates to more muscular growth, higher endurance levels as well as faster recovery times.
- More red cells: These steroids actually causes your body to produce more red cells which in turn should keep your body well oxygenated thereby enabling to increase your stamina in the short term.
These are some of the positive effects of consuming anabolic steroids.
Negative effects of anabolic steroids:
For starters, these hormones are synthetically manufactured and are artificial; in short, they are not natural and come with side effects which can impact your health in both the short term and long term. Some of the negative side effects associated with Anabolic Steroids are listed below.
- Physical changes: Prolonged usage of these steroids is known to have some permanent side effects and can cause your body to change physically. It is widely believed that over consumption of anabolic steroids can cause you to develop man boobs as well as limit your sex drive.
- Acne: While on the outset, this side effect may not seem much like one – the fact that you are developing acne as a result of these artificial hormones is enough to cause you both pain and discomfort.
- Hair loss: Prolonged exposure to these steroids can have a lasting impact on your scalp, namely your hair. It is widely believed that using these steroids for long periods may actually speed up hair loss.
- Blood pressure: Steroid usage can cause your blood pressure to shoot all the way up. Hypertension is not a joke and it can have a debilitating effect on your health.
- Lowered sex drive: As mentioned earlier, using these steroids will lead to lowered sex dive, lowered testosterone levels which in turn impacts your libido directly.
- Liver damage: It has been shown medically that prolonged usage of anabolic steroids can even cause your liver to shut down and even cause liver cancer.
These are some of the reasons why you may want to do a rethink where anabolic steroids are concerned. While these steroids do provide you with some key benefits and even help improve your health, the side effects are too varied and too many to list it all down here. Most of these side effects can have a lasting impact on your body and health. Some of the associated side effects like loss of hair can have a lasting impact and will rack you both physically and mentally.
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