The Double-Edged Sword of Steroid Use: Medical Benefits and Risks of Abuse
When you ask people who take Steroid why they do, you would see that they have hope that it would do one thing or the other but when you look at why they continue to take it, you would realize that it is a matter of overindulgence and addiction. While certain steroid can save lives, taking them without proper understanding, and prescription can be fatal, leading to death.
To define Steroids, I would call it Synthetic growth hormones that the adrenal glands produce normally. So what are hormones actually? Hormones are chemical messengers in the body that tells the cells the biological processes to carry out. An example of hormone is Insulin, and Insulin tells the cells to take in sugar from the bloodstream using it to create ATP. Other hormones that you might have heard about is Testosterone, and Estrogen which are responsible for physiological changes in people's lives such as muscle growth, Cholesterol Metabolism, Mood and Cognitive Functions, maintaining bone density in women (Estrogen), Sex Drive and Reproductive Function among others.
At the hospital, another type of steroid that is given are Corticosteroids which have anti-inflammatory properties which allows them aid in the recovery properties of many medical conditions. You might then ask "what type of steroids do bodybuilders use?" Well, body builders use anabolic-androgenic steroid and these steroids can be dangerous even when they are used to build muscles in the body.
You might want to underestimate the importance of steroids but let's take Asthma patients for instance. When a person with Asthma is unable to breath, it is as a result of long term inflammation leading to swollen muscles in the airway making it difficult for the person to breath. As a result of this inflammation, the body releases mucus that also makes it difficult to breath but when the person uses inhalers, the allow steroids and bronchodilators in the inhaler to relief the swollen muscles and inflammation, allowing the person to breath again after the muscles have gone back to their normal sizes.
Other types of diseases and infections that steroids work against includes Eczema, inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's disease, IBS and so on, and steroids are responsible for reducing the inflammation helping the body to get back to normal. While steroids are best in treating so many inflammatory diseases, it can cause certain side effects for the patients such as increased appetite, mood changes, and difficulty sleeping.
Steroids mimic hormones, so there are changes that would occur with using steroids and this is where we talk about the negative impact of using steroids unprescribed. There have been talks about the use of steroid leading to fits of rage, and low sperm count but compared to these, there are other negative effect of Steroids especially the ones from anabolic-androgenic steroids.
Anabolic-androgenic steroids is a synthetic form of Testosterone which is produced majorly in male but also found in women. Since anabolic-androgenic steroids tricks the body to think that there is enough testosterone in the body, it would trigger muscle growth. With this, a lot of bodybuilder use it in an unhealthy way just to create their desired result.
In most sporting competitions, using Steroid is not allowed but even though it is not allowed, pumping the body full of steroid is really bad. When people use these steroids, the brain requires more energy and to do so, people will eat a lot. Anabolic-androgenic steroids is a combination of Anabolic steroids which signals the body to promote nuscle growth, while androgenic signifies the development of male sex trait. Both chemicals are needed to get the desired results in the body.
While people using anabolic-androgenic steroids would get their desired result, they become aggressive, and prone to mood swing as a result of imbalance in the chemical composition in the body. People who use anabolic-androgenic steroids can also suffer from Roid rage, distorted view of ones body where people want to get more increased muscles leading to the use of more steroids which leads to addiction.
What anabolic-androgenic steroids does to the brain chemistry make users want to have more of it so they can be in a shape better than what they are now as their brain would want them to get more. While it is not regarded as an addictive drug, users tend to be addicted to it as a result of the change in brain chemistry. With Steroids, the liver would have to work excessively to filter blood, and break down the chemicals in the steroid and the liver becomes overworked leading to liver failure over time. Abuse of anabolic-androgenic steroids can also lead to Gynecomastia where the breast gland tissue to increase in male. Excessive use of anabolic-androgenic steroids can also lead to hypogonadism.
Post Reference
- https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/anabolic-steroids
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/are-steroids-bad
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36644692/
- https://nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports
- https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugfacts/anabolic-steroids
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7832337/
- https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/anabolic-steroid-misuse/
- https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/steroids/
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