A Look at Anabolic Steroids
When taking about “Steroids”, people always related to some illegal activity or testosterone-fueled competition. Steroids naturally generate in both men and women.Like testosterone and Estrone. On the other hand, Anabolic Steroids are synthetic manufactured drugs derived from the sex hormone. Anabolic steroids first introduces as clinical drugs for dealing some hormones related disease conditions such as androgen deficiency states and delated male puberty. Other than that, many athletes use it too for improving performance. Let’s take a closer look at Anabolic Steroids.
Anabolic effects are characterized by the building properties on several organ systems, such as heart, kidney, and prostate. Steroids act as hormones to control a wide range of physiological responses.
There are three different kinds of Anabolic Steroids. Oral, Intramuscular and transdermal agents.
Examples of oral agents are Chlorodehydromethyltestosterone, Danazol and Mesterolone. For Intramuscular agents, there are Drostanolone, Stanozolol, Nandrolone decanoate etc. And testosterone for transdermal agents. Each type has their pros and cons. For example, Transdermal agents with less pain on the application. However, it is less powerful than the other two types of agents.
Research has found that applying Anabolic Steroids in adult athletes will have body composition and performance effects.Such as increase of body mass and lean body mass, muscle strength and so on. Let’s see the list of results of the research in the table below:
Researchers also find that Anabolic Steroids may promotes possible side effects such as suppression of hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, testiclar atrophy, reduction of sperm production etc. That’s why it sparked controversy on whether to use anabolic steroids either for therapeutic use or for athlete to enhance performance.
Until recent years, we heard of an alternative product for Anabolic Steroids which getting all the benefits, few of the risks. It no longer a dream to have the perfect solution to have a potent treatment with no unwanted side effects. That are, Selective androgen receptor modulator (SARMs) and Selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERMs). The selective characteristic which makes them so different and special. They specifically bind to a receptor and exert agonistic or antagonistic effects on target organs.
Thus, SARMs and SERMs seem to be good alternatives to Anabolic Steroids which eliminate most of the unwanted side effects. Many pharmacies are still working hard in the lab and researching for even better SARMs or SERMs.