Dear Anne, I've recently started lifting weights but I'm having trouble bulking up.Are anabolic steroids a safe way to build muscle? -- Tim
Perhaps South Park's newly-buff Cartman expressed it best when he let loose the guttural cry "BEEFCAKE!"On some level, most men echo our tubby, 2-D friend's sentiment: The ideal male is a muscled one.With evolutionary and societal pressures backing this image, it's not surprising that anabolic steroids present such a powerful lure.But what exactly are these steroids, and how do they work to transform Cartman from a waddling doughboy into a rippled, no-necked manbeast?
Commonly referred to as "Roids" or "Juice," anabolic steroids are derivatives of testosterone, a naturally occurring organic compound found in both men and women. These drugs were discovered in the 1930s and were initially used to treat delayed puberty in children. It wasn't long, however, before weight lifters began to take advantage of their muscle-building properties, and soon anabolic steroids became the unofficial Wheaties of the lifting elite. Soon after, athletes in other sports began relying on anabolic steroids to enhance performance in a trend that persists today. Many other users take these drugs less for performance enhancement and more to attain a certain sculpted physique, often even though they're quite fit and defined without steroids on board.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that two to three percent of American adults have taken these compounds at some point, while usage among heavily-oiled weight trainers is estimated to be around 15 to 30 percent. According to surveys from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, between five and 14 percent of college athletes have used anabolic steroids. Although most users are male, 145,000 U.S. women have also used anabolic steroids, indicating that men aren't the only ones who want to be Beefcake.
The term "anabolic" refers to the ability to amp up protein synthesis while slowing its breakdown, which adds up to a dramatic increase in lean body mass.The medical name for these compounds is actually anabolic-androgenic steroids, however, because they do far more than build muscle. During human development, testosterone plays a crucial role in separating the boys from the girls and the men from the boys.The term "androgenic" refers to these masculinizing capabilities. In addition to bulking up lean mass, testosterone is responsible for defining the reproductive anatomy in male embryos and the development of secondary sexual characteristics in adolescent boys, enlarging genitalia and endowing that bearded 6th-grade bully with his powers of intimidation.
Testosterone also fuels the libido in both men and women, but before you start spiking your girlfriend's smoothie, note that it also causes male-pattern baldness, facial hair, breast reduction and clitoral enlargement in women. Androgenic side effects in men can be similarly undesirable and include impotence, decreased sperm counts, testicular shrinkage and gynecomastia (that's a fancy name for man-boobs). If these two sets of side effects sound paradoxical, it's because they are: It's easy to understand why synthetic testosterone makes women more masculine, but why do anabolic steroids have such feminizing effects on men? Some of the excess male hormones are actually converted to estrogens, endowing men with the kind of rack they've always dreamed about... just not for themselves.
The synthetic derivatives of testosterone craved by Cartman and his bodybuilding colleagues aim to maximize the hormone's anabolic properties while blunting its androgenic effects. All AAS, however, retain some of these properties at high enough doses. Your average man produces about seven milligrams of testosterone a day, while women run on around one tenth of that.The American Journal of Sports Medicine reports that most AAS users self-administer between 250 to 3200 mg of drug a week, which puts them frighteningly far above physiologic levels.
This means that in addition to sexual symptoms, AAS can create a host of other problems. Other scary side effects of steroids include liver damage, acne, infections at injection sites and cardiovascular problems like increased blood pressure, heart arrhythmias and decreases in good cholesterol. Many studies have found an increase in mood liability and aggression in AAS users, prompting their implication in more than one Pro-Wrestler's bad behavior.
The bottom line is that although anabolic steroids may do wonders for your washboard, the bads (Beefcake) far outweigh the goods. Stick with building muscle the old-fashioned way and you'll be in much better shape... even if Cartman could still beat you up.
Anne Mills is a Cavalier Daily Health & Sexuality Columnist. She can be reached at mills@cavalierdaily.com or through the Sex & Balances submission page at cavalierdaily.com/sex.asp. This column should be used for educational purposes only and is not meant to substitute advice from your doctor.
Read More
U.Va. students and physicians team up for another year of free kidney screenings
By Merrill Hart | November 5, 2024Saturday’s screening marked the first by KDSAP at Portico Church, near IX Art Park.
U.Va. Health sees a spike in COVID-19 cases
By Emily Horn | September 4, 2023U.Va. Health ended their vaccination requirements in August, and masks were made optional in most hospital areas in early April.
U.Va. Cancer Center harnesses $12 million grant to support opportunities for undergraduates, ongoing research and new center
By Ellen Wu | January 12, 2023The grant provides an opportunity to establish the Center for Systems Analysis of Stress-Adapted Cancer Organelles, which seeks to find the cause of cancer in individual organelles.
