What Body Building Steroids Do To You

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Lately, every time you pick up a fashion magazine or turn on the television, all you see is handsome men flaunting their chiseled bodies, with hulked-up biceps, strong chests and six-packs.

Well-built muscles have become synonymous with good looks these days.

Most celebrities nowadays spend hours at the gym, lifting weights and altering their diets to become toned and muscular.

Naturally, many men out there feel that body-building can give them an appealing look and increase their confidence.

Also Read: Side Effects Of Injecting Steroids In The Body

Today, we see many men hitting the gym and putting in a lot of effort to attain the much-hyped six-packs and those huge biceps.

While it is healthy to stay fit and go to the gym on a regular basis, we should also know that anything in excess can be harmful.

To speed up the process of gaining muscles and getting bigger, many men resort to using steroids that promise great results.

Body-building steroids, also known as anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS), are taken to increase the level of testosterone in the body, artificially.

This can help build the muscle tissues faster and aid a person to build bigger, stronger muscles quickly. Steroids can either be found in the form of pills or injections, and they are known to come with a lot of negative side effects.

So, before you make a decision to use steroids to help you gain better muscle mass, you should know about the potential side effects that they can cause.

1. Mood Alterations

Studies say that, steroids increase the testosterone levels in the body, and this may be directly linked to extreme aggression and violent streaks. In addition, steroids can also cause anxiety, depression, constant moods swings, etc, in a person who uses them regularly.

2. Baldness

Long-term use of body-building steroids is known to be a major factor in causing baldness in men due to the high levels of testosterone, which can shrink and damage the hair follicles.

3. Risk Of Coronary Diseases

Studies claim that steroids increase the cholesterol levels in the blood. So, cholesterol accumulates on the walls of the arteries, hampering blood flow, thereby increasing the risk of conditions such as heart attacks, strokes and other heart-related disorders.

4. Bad Skin

Regular and heavy steroid use can cause the skin to become rough and dry. Additionally, due to high-testosterone levels, the hormone balance in the body can go haywire and cause acne on the face, back and chest. Steroids can also cause stretch marks due to the quick growth of muscles.

5. Muscle Tear

Increased levels of testosterone in the body can make a person feel extremely energised. This may in turn lead them to lift weights in the gym that are heavier than necessary and also allow them to workout for longer hours, which may increase the risk of damage to the muscles and tendons in the body.

6. Kidney Damage

Steroids are known to increase the blood pressure, and this may lead in clotting of the blood in the veins. Kidneys are organs that help to flush out the toxins from the body through urine. When there are blood clots formed in the kidneys due to high blood pressure, it becomes harder for the kidneys to flush out the toxins, which may result in a fatal damage.

7. Bad Breath

A lot of body-builders, who regularly use steroids, complain about foul odour in their mouth. Studies have linked this to the high level of testosterone and hormonal imbalance.

8. Liver Damage

Since steroids are very difficult to be metabolised in the body and take a long time to breakdown and get into the blood stream, the liver's ability to digest it becomes lower. This leads to the accumulation of toxins in the liver, which may cause an irreversible damage.

9. Impotency

Steroids produce testosterone artificially, so the long-term use of synthetic testosterone can stop the ability of the male testes to produce this hormone naturally. When the testes does not produce testosterone, it can lead to erectile dysfunction and impotency.

10. Affects The Immune System

Due to the hormonal imbalance that occurs in the system from the regular use of steroids, your immune system can become weaker, thus making you susceptible to various diseases.