By Marco D. Angelo
We all know that, in order to achieve the physique of our dreams, there comes a time where (hopefully) we’ve already explored our genetic potential to a decent extent with proper training and dieting, and must resort to something extra, in the form of androgenic-anabolic steroids (AASs).
AASs, given you continue training and eating properly, will make you bigger, faster, stronger, able to recover faster, allow you to eat more, improve your metabolism, make your bones denser, among other effects. However, and this seems to be often forgotten, AASs don’t work just the way you want. Once in your body, they will bind to whichever tissues have androgenic-anabolic receptors available, including organs, skin, hair follicles, glands, bones and even your brain.
The effects of these bonds, although not completely understood to this date, mainly due to the lack of studies and clinical trials involving humans on AASs, can range from involuntary erections, temporary hair loss and increased sebum production (resulting in acne), increased blood pressure and dyslipidemia (meaning your arteries start getting blocked and constricted by cholesterol build up), testicular atrophy, all the way to severe depression, anxiety and other mental health issues, multiple organ failures, which may eventually lead to death.
In this piece, we’ve selected some of the most dangerous AASs commonly used by bodybuilders and gym-goers:
We all know that, in order to achieve the physique of our dreams, there comes a time where (hopefully) we’ve already explored our genetic potential to a decent extent with proper training and dieting, and must resort to something extra, in the form of androgenic-anabolic steroids (AASs).
AASs, given you continue training and eating properly, will make you bigger, faster, stronger, able to recover faster, allow you to eat more, improve your metabolism, make your bones denser, among other effects. However, and this seems to be often forgotten, AASs don’t work just the way you want. Once in your body, they will bind to whichever tissues have androgenic-anabolic receptors available, including organs, skin, hair follicles, glands, bones and even your brain.
The effects of these bonds, although not completely understood to this date, mainly due to the lack of studies and clinical trials involving humans on AASs, can range from involuntary erections, temporary hair loss and increased sebum production (resulting in acne), increased blood pressure and dyslipidemia (meaning your arteries start getting blocked and constricted by cholesterol build up), testicular atrophy, all the way to severe depression, anxiety and other mental health issues, multiple organ failures, which may eventually lead to death.
In this piece, we’ve selected some of the most dangerous AASs commonly used by bodybuilders and gym-goers:
- Trenbolone: a very powerful AAS that you’ve probably heard of before, will indeed make your body change, causing muscle gain, fat loss and strength gains at the same time, all while giving you that 3D-look really fast. In fact, it’s so powerful that when you stop taking it, you will feel like nothing else works and will go back to taking it, causing you to become dependent. For women, can cause severe virilization given its insane androgenic ratio of 500, can cause “tren cough” when you administer it, severe suppression of your HPTA axis, meaning you will experience a severe crash once you stop it and will need a long, complicated PCT (losing most of your gains), has a wide range of psychological symptoms, including anxiety, aggression, mood swings, depression, night sweats and insomnia. Personally, I’d only use trenbolone in the last few weeks of a show prep or an important event, never just to look good at the gym or the beach;
- Anadrol (oxymetholone): Being an oral drug, it’s metabolized very fast and starts acting minutes after you’ve taken it. Can cause extreme weight gains in a short period of time, much like dianabol does, severely increasing blood pressure and the strain on the cardiovascular system and kidneys;
- Stanozolol: It has decent effects for muscle gain and fat loss, allowing you to keep your weight while losing fat. Also, it reduces the blood circulation of SHBG in the body, meaning you’ll have increased free available testosterone to bind to your muscle tissue. Severely increases your bad cholesterol levels (LDL), while making your HDL plummet, dries up all of your joints and tendons, making injuries much more likely, high liver toxicity, and can cause serious virilization when used by women;
- Dianabol (methandrostenolone): considered the most powerful steroid available, mg per mg. Causes a very significant increase in body weight, even if a good portion of it is just water retention. It has high liver toxicity, making your transaminases (ALT and AST) rise really fast, and also is a risk to the cardiovascular system due to dramatic increase in weight in a short period of time;
- Halotestin (fluoxymesterone): normally used for its insane strength gains, which makes it more popular among powerlifters. Enhances aggression, raises blood pressure, causes serious dyslipidemia, and has high liver toxicity.
