Posts Tagged ‘Steroid users’

This question often arises in people seeking to use steroids for usage in sports, body building or simply enhancing their musculature for good looks.  However, if one intends to use these over a long period of time, it becomes imperative to know if steroids being employed are safe or not.

A simple answer to this is, yes, there are safe anabolic steroids but the user must know what are they and how can they be recognized.

The best way to detect whether the steroids being used are safe or not are ‘safety seals’. Such steroids are manufactured in quality controlled pharmaceutical environs. It also works to know the names of some well known pharmacies such as Pfizer, Choinon and Schering who guarantee the delivery of safe steroids only. Many safe steroids are also available in black markets but one should have reliable sources to get them at those nodes.

Often sportspersons and athletes obtain banned medicines as well as safe anabolic steroids from their physicians, pharmacists and retail outlets as well. In order to know about which steroids are safe, one can read health and lifestyle magazines, talk to gymnasium instructors, coaches, fellow athletes or the internet. There is great rage now a days of buying steroids over the internet. Though there is no harm in doing so, but it is better to know the credibility of the site before purchasing the drugs. Some risk is definitely involved over uncertainty of the content but you have to be smart enough to fathom that.

A good rule of thumb to ensure steroid administration safety is to never use old needles, or shared syringes. Individuals using safe anabolic steroids typically use a combination of oral and injectable drugs during a period of 6- to 12-week cycles. The injectable anabolic steroids are highly favored by users as they are less hepatotoxic than oral preparations.

Steroid usage is catching rage among people by the day, especially the younger players. Where its use is in no way fatal, it would still remain in one’s best favor if they are taken with the help of a medical expert. Many people think that reading about them in magazines or the internet is enough. Where knowledge imparted through these mediums is not wrong, there are minute things that one must know while practically administering steroids.

Hence do not, under any circumstances skimp on your doctor’s visit if you are following a steroid regime. This also becomes necessary because many a times excessive usage can lead to serious illnesses. So let’s have a look at three components of fitness that a user should focus at while administering anabolics.

These are his:

• Cardio-vascular health
• Muscular strength and endurance
• Flexibility

So to ensure that your fitness levels are maintained during the administration of  steroids, it is imperative to keep up with cardio along with plenty of stretching. This will greatly help in regulating the cholesterol level of the user as well. Flexibility will aid in circulation as well as assist with injury prevention.

Many steroid users often say that their cholesterol levels shoot up to great level after a cycle but are readily brought back to normal with proper nutrition and aggressive cardio workouts.

For flexibility, stretching at least three times a week for 20 minutes each time greatly helps. Also, it is becomes important to hold any given stretch for at least 20 seconds at a time. This is because durations less than that can serve to make the muscle contract and tighten up, thereby making it to become counterproductive to flexiblity and injury prevention. The user will feel a slow release when one holds a stretch steadily for over 20 seconds and stretching of the muscle will begin to happen. This is called stretching in its true sense and is what we should aim for.

Cops are always on a look out for people they doubt for taking Anabolic Steroids. Some are screened by observation and there are some who happily advertise themselves and fall prey to them easily. This is to say that laws in many countries are getting strict by the day over using illegal steroids for body building or any other purpose.

You won’t be surprised to find many people in your gym who love talking about their cycles, oblivious of the fact that there can be cops around too in his workout clothes, listening to him. If you also happen to be one of them, it’s time for you to start flexing your brain cells and exercise some caution.

A simple reason behind this is if you are caught, you’ll have to face nothing less than a year’s imprisonment that is if you are caught with any banned steroid substances. We must not forget that we are living in times especially post 9/11 attack, which have become highly sensitive to illegal activity. Even if you are not indulging in anything unlike, a slight suspicion can make you go to jail.

Hence it will remain in your best favor to try and keep your ‘beauty’ secrets with yourself as much as possible. However, if you have someone around you talking about his steroid regime, make sure you do not entertain him much. The reason being if he can talk about his own usage with such ease, he will not have any conviction in keeping your secrecy as well.

Be careful if someone asks you about your increased muscle mass for it could be a camouflaged inquiry going on. Apart from this you should start understanding you own mood swings and libido changes after you have started administering steroids. There are times when even changes like these bring your usage in apparent light. There are women (and men) out there who will turn you in to the authorities for vengeance when they are jilted.

Yes, they do! Steroids do cause with drawl symptoms when taken in very high measures and then stopping them suddenly. This usually happens among athletes abusing steroids who take them in a ‘cycling’ pattern in very high doses for a period of weeks or months. Then they stop taking them which indeed leads to more psychological effects that physical.

The most common among these being depression, fatigue, insomnia, loss of appetite, dissatisfaction with body image followed by more craving for steroids. Steroids users have been cautioned a number of times that administering oneself with too much of this drug without fair knowledge of its proper intake can prove to be hazardous.

It has been observed that there are two phases of with-drawl symptoms seen in men after taking excessive anabolics!

The first phase during the first week of withdrawal symptoms reveals flu- like symptoms such as pain in the joints, running nose, diarrhea and high temperature. Where these signs   seem quite common to any other disease as well and might be ignored, one must keep in mind that their occurrence after stoppage of steroid usage is a matter of serious concern. However, if these symptoms still go unseen, the person enters the second phase which may last up to many months followed by depression and acute craving for steroids. Ideally this state should be diagnosed much before the person seeps into this stage.

Thus, if possible, withdrawal signs from steroids should be monitored by a medical professional under all circumstances.

Phase two symptom such as depression is a silent sign which might not become visible until the person is minutely observed. Hence it is best to know the pros and cons of excessive steroid usage before they are taken.

Steroids, we all know are hormones, mostly artificially administered in the body for various purposes by people. What tempts people towards using these substances are the results they show on human body which indeed makes them irresistible. However, what needs to be taken of is the age at which one begins to take these ‘juices’. Though these substances do enhance one’s body, knowing what adverse effects they might have if taken without precaution or fair knowledge is imperative.

Ideally, the younger the person administering these is, the more he is at the risk of side effects of anabolic steroids. Studies reveal that two thirds of steroid users starting using them at the age of 16. Also of the 1 million steroids newbies, three fourths are still in high school. It is when these adolescents starting abusing these drugs those issues about steroids being harmful come up. Here are some effects steroids cause in adolescents during puberty.

Anabolics affect bone growth in young men administering it. There are plates called ‘epiphyses’ present in the arms and legs at birth in the human body. The bone starts lengthening from there until a certain point in time. Also the bones of legs and arms are already growing in this age. However, when steroids are ingested, the body’s natural steroid hormones cause the epiphyses to end, turning it into a solid bone instead.  Hence after it closes, the body’s long bones stop growing locking the person into a shorter adult height.

Other effects that might trouble adolescents are severe acne. To make it worse there are times when drugs prescribed to treat acne like tetracycline and isotretinoin become toxic if steroids taken by the user are taken in larger quantities than necessary.

Male pattern baldness is also seen to occur in both male and female steroid abusers but it is said that hair growth returns after the steroids are stopped.

Ideally the right age for using these starts with 25 years of age, when people start participating in sports like body building and athletics. Until then it is best to let the body use the natural genetics of the body.

This article is a gist of first hand experiences of steroid users who’ve been administering it over a long period of time.

The first thing that every sportsman or a body builder says after his prolonged steroid usage is, ‘Our health is precious and fragile and although our bodies are incredibly resilient machines, they so have their limitations.’ However, this does not mean that steroid intake is not right for the body. It means that while starting to use steroids in its first phase, one should be fully aware and cautious about the rightful ways to administer it.

Most people indulge in taking too much of these drugs without proper knowledge of their side effects and up sacrificing a lot for their hobbies.

Here are quotes from one of them:

“I have so far been lucky to have bodybuilding and AS in my life as an enhancement to my life and relationships, and as a springboard to other successes. I work hard to keep it that way and hope that I never have to suffer unmanageability as a result of lopsided values in this sport and from supplementation.”

Thus you should never forget that retirement from your health is something no one wants even if retiring from the sport seems expected. Hence, even if you intend to be a pro in your field and employ anabolics to enhance your performance, always remember to balance it out by taking them under proper medical care.

Do not start using them at too early and age. Learn what is the right age of starting to use them rightly and in what way. Always stay connected with a health expert during their administration and even after that.

The clear message here is that if you truly intend to master something, it is better to control it rather than you being in control of it.