Anabolic steroid
Anabolic steroids are a class of natural and synthetic steroid hormones that promote cell growth and division, resulting in growth of muscle tissue and sometimes bone size and strength. Testosterone is the best known natural anabolic steroid, as well as the best known natural androgen.
Most anabolic steroids act by activation of androgen receptors. Results of androgen receptor activation are traditionally divided into anabolic and virilizing effects.
Examples of anabolic effects:
- Increased amino acid incorporation into protein synthesis
- Increased muscle mass and strength
- Increased appetite
- Increased bone remodelling and growth
Examples of virilizing effects:
- Growth of a child's penis or a clitoris (an adult penis does not grow indefinitely even if exposed to high doses of androgens)
- Increased growth of androgen-sensitive hair (beard, chest, limbs)
- Increased vocal cord size, deepening the voice
- Increased libido
- Suppression of endogenous sex hormones
- Impaired spermatogenesis
Many androgens are metabolized to compounds which also cross-react with estrogen receptors, producing an additional set of (usually) unwanted effects:
- Accelerated bone maturation (in children)
- Increased breast growth (in males)
A hormone with purely anabolic effects would have many uses, but in many cases the usefulness is limited by unwanted virilizing effects. Many of the synthetic anabolic steroids were produced in an attempt to find molecules that produced a higher degree of anabolic rather than virilizing effects.
There is still much to be said about steroids from the medical perspective.
Abuse
During the 1990s, anabolic steroid abuse became a national concern in the United States. These drugs are used illicitly by weight lifters, bodybuilders, shot putters, long distance runners, cyclists, professional baseball players and others to give them a competitive advantage and improve their physical appearance.
According to the 1999 Monitoring the Future Study, the percentage of eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders who reported using steroids at least once in their lives has increased steadily over the past four years (an average of 1.8 percent in 1996, 2.1 percent in 1997, 2.3 percent in 1998, and 2.8 percent in 1999). In addition, steroid use to enhance athletic performance is no longer limited to high school males; a 1998 Pennsylvania State University study found that 175,000 high school girls nationwide reported taking steroids at least once in their lifetime.
Concerns over a growing illicit market and prevalence of abuse combined with the possibility of harmful longterm effects of steroid use led the United States Congress in 1991 to place anabolic steroids into Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The CSA defines anabolic steroids as any drug or hormonal substance chemically and pharmacologically related to testosterone (other than estrogens, progestins, and corticosteroids) that promotes muscle growth. Most illicit anabolic steroids are sold at gyms, competitions, and through mail operations. For the most part, these substances are smuggled into the United States. Anabolic steroids commonly encountered on the illicit market include: boldenone (Equipoise), ethlestrenol (Maxibolin), fluxoymesterone (Halotestin), methandriol, methandrostenolone (Dianabol), methyltestosterone, nandrolone (Durabolin, DecaDurabolin), oxandrolone (Anavar), oxymetholone (Anadrol), stanozolol (Winstrol), testosterone (including sustanon), and trenbolone (Finajet). In addition, a number of counterfeit products are sold as anabolic steroids.
Physical side effects include elevated blood pressure and cholesterol levels, severe acne, premature baldness, reduced sexual function, and testicular atrophy. In males, abnormal breast development (gynecomastia) can occur. In females, anabolic steroids have a masculinizing effect, resulting in more body hair, a deeper voice, smaller breasts, masculinized or enlarged clitoris, and fewer menstrual cycles. Several of these effects are irreversible. In adolescents, abuse of these agents may prematurely stop the lengthening of bones, resulting in stunted growth. Serious medical illness can result from external hormone use. Enlargement of the heart (the heart is a muscle and thus affected by the muscle-building qualities of the hormones) is a risk, which increases the chance of a cardiac event occurring in later life. Another major health risk is long-term liver damage, particularly if the anabolic steroid compound is 17-alpha-alkylated.
Anabolic steroids are believed to have been inadvertently discovered by German scientists in the early 1930s, but at the time the discovery was not considered significant enough to warrant further study. In the 1950s, however, scientific interest was rekindled, and methandrostenolone (Dianabol) was approved for use in the United States by the federal Food and Drug Administration in 1958 after promising trials had been conducted in other countries.
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