7 Things You Need to Know Before Taking Steroids
Educate Yourself Before Making A Life Changing Decision
As the fitness industry continues to explode through social media and YouTube I have noticed a massive shift in the reliability of information that is being produced for people like YOU. Content creators are basically selling their souls for LIKES, SHARES and FOLLOWERS and are talking about physique enhancing drugs like they are no big deal. As a whole, the fitness community is becoming so used to seeing professional athletes on high or low doses of drugs like steroids that people who don’t know anything about them just assume there is no health risk. On one side you have information coming from people on juice or sites selling juice saying that gear is perfectly safe and on the other side you have sensationalist media or magazines saying you are going to die tomorrow. So what is really the truth?
With that being said, I have decided that I want to create some articles and approach this subject more realistically to help educate people who are on gear or are thinking about getting on it. But before we begin, I have to start by saying that I am natural, I am never going to juice and I will never promote the use of illegal anything. Also, this article is not meant to judge anyone. I have close friends that are professional bodybuilders that are on gear and are amazing people. It is strictly a PERSONAL decision. In this article, as well as futurearticle, I will cover topics related to steroids and other muscle and physique enhancing drugs in hopes that, whether or not you decide to do them, you at least have ALL the information you need to make this life changing decision understanding the risks and commitment required as opposed to reading comments from bros on juice in forums who offer little to zero guidance.
Be sure to let me know in the comment section below if these articles are something you’re interested in and let’s get started!
ONCE YOU STOP JUICING, YOU LOSE YOUR GAINS
A lot of people think: “Well, I can escape all the side effects if I just do a few cycles and then stop.” Well, I have bad news for you: once you stop the gear, your body gets back to its maximum natural potential. What this means is that the juice will make you bigger but once you stop, you will get back to whatever your physique would be at its biggest naturally. So if you are like me, for example, who has been lifting for a few years and you are at your max potential or close to it, juicing for a few cycles will do nothing for you. That’s why people say that steroids are addictive because people cannot bear to get bigger and stronger and then go back to normal. They end up staying on it all the time. Competitors do something that some people call “blast and cruise” which means taking high amounts of gear during competition season and then reducing the amount in the off season to manage all the side effects but still keep their size and strength.
YOUR TESTOSTERONE LEVELS MAY NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN
Once you are artificially supplying testosterone to your body, there is a chance that it will no longer want to produce it naturally. During the cycle you will feel like a sex machine, but when you stop you might pay the price. Also, there are certain steroids that might give you the opposite effect even DURING the cycle and you will have problems maintaining an erection even when on gear. Now, there are medications to counteract this side effect and a common one is called proviron. But one word of caution: by the end of this video, you will probably see that you will need a medication to fix a problem created by another medication used to fix a problem created by a side effect created by the juice! So because you can take medictions to counteract everything, this doesn’t mean you are not creating other issues.
Now back to testosterone. You cannot take playing with your hormones lightly. Messing with your testosterone can mean a screwed up sex life, shrunken testicles with low sperm count, and man boobs amongst other issues. This is something you really need to think about before starting gear. Steroids might be worth it for you if your ultimate life goal is to be a professional bodybuilder or if you are shooting to be an Olympian champion some day and you are planning on living this lifestyle forever. There are many people who have achieved fame, fortune and recognition for their incredible physiques this way and the rewards might be worth the risks and dealing with the side effects in this case. It is like being a NASCAR driver. You are taking incredible risks, but it might be worth it for you because you are rich, famous and you are doing something you love. It is strictly a personal choice.
NOW, if you are like the vast majority of the population that trains hard to get a great body and look aesthetic but you plan on having a normal life, I do not believe the risks are worthwhile at all. Think that you might not be able to have children, you can stop performing in bed, which for me is all I need to know, and you can mess up your well-being with depression and psychological issues just to name a few. I used to watch a reality show with Jose Canseco, and for those of you don’t know him, he is a famous baseball player that got crucified for revealing that players were juicing to perform better. This show was on TV years ago on A&E and they showed his personal life and part of it was following him on his medical appointments and dealing with his testosterone problems. What happened was that, because of the steroids, he developed A.S.I.H. or anabolic steroid induced hypogonadism which means low or no natural testosterone production and it was very sad. Also, let me say that this was a professional athlete with the BEST CARE, coaching and medical monitoring! A lot of proponents of juice say it is perfectly safe if done responsibly and that the bad side effects are only seen in dumb people who overdo it. This is not true at all. The consequences depend largely on your personal makeup and genetics. You might be on tons of gear and have no problems at all or you might do a little and have major issues.
Anyway, it was terrible to see everything he was going through. Because of the low testosterone he had zero sex drive, his fiancé was obviously unhappy because he never wanted to have sex, and he was always depressed. His life was miserable and that was after years of fame and money and to me that showed me what people on juice never show! We only see the glamour and the awesome pics with those ridiculously shredded physiques but nobody posts the shitty stuff! We don’t see picks of them shooting the juice, the doctor appointments, the post cycle therapy and all the crap you need to take to control the side effects.
Try surfing random forums and you will see kids in their early twenties asking about medications to get their testosterone back on track after their cycles and talking about Cialis and Viagra for sex drive. It is real guys and my final thought on this one is this: If all you are getting with juice is winning a few competitions, some photoshoots, Instagram likes and followers and free product from some companies, you need to rethink your priorities because that is fake and temporary fame. Most people in this category make no real money and put up a front of celebrity. It is all superficial guys! Most of these people’s bank accounts look nothing like the number of their Instagram followers.
YOUR SKIN CAN LOOK HORRIBLE
Steroids cause your sebaceous glands in the skin to secrete more oil causing the gross acne you see on people that juice and that is usually one of the telling signs of steroid usage. There are things you can do to help the situation like taking antibiotics and putting medication on the area but it is not a bulletproof solution. Here is a question you need to ask yourself: If you are into fitness to become the next Ronnie Coleman or a Physique Olympian Champion, this probably doesn’t matter. Now if you are into fitness to look good, make yourself happy or get girls, how is this helping you at all?
SERIOUS HEART PROBLEMS SUCH AS HEART ATTACKS & STROKES
Juicing can seriously affect your cardiovascular system and you need to understand this before making a decision. I read a study where the 12 year mortality of steroid users was calculated to be 4 times higher than non-steroid users. This means that you are 4 times more likely to die in the next 12 years if you are using steroids versus the non-steroid users. So keep in mind that a lot of the issues don’t happen right away. The dudes that look great RIGHT NOW and are telling you juice is cool might be going through an agonizing death 5 years from now with liver failure. Actually, we are now starting to see the effects of juice on bodybuilders from the 90s. Don’t believe me? You need to check out an article on T-nation.com. They published a list of 31 bodybuilders that died from steroid complications and many of these were not the idiots that people say are the only ones dying from juice. Many of them were professional athletes with proper monitoring!
When it comes to the heart, steroids cause a series of side effects that INDIVIDUALLY are already bad, but when you combine them, it becomes an even more serious risk.
Side Effects
- Steroids cause your good cholesterol to go down and your bad cholesterol to go up. There was a study done where Aids patients were given steroids, actually oxandrolone, to help fight the muscle loss that AIDS causes, and in only 12 weeks, researchers reported that good cholesterol had plummeted and bad cholesterol was significantly higher! Based on these cholesterol results, they estimated that the risk of heart attack with 20mg of oxandrolone a day was 60% higher. If you are taking more, like 40mg per day, the risk increases two fold and this was in only three months! You can absolutely take medications to help and control your cholesterol, but understand that they have a series of side effects as well.(1)
- High Blood Pressure. High blood pressure is the number one risk factor for a stroke and it is also a major factor for atherosclerosis because it damages the lining of your arteries. All types of gear have some impact on your blood pressure but the worst ones are the ones that have a higher rate of conversion to estrogen which is the female hormone. A few examples are testosterone and dianabol. It is believed that the juice causes an increase in sodium and water retention that, coupled with exercise and weight gain from the rapid muscle growth, cause higher blood pressure. As always, you can take something to counteract this like a diuretic but diuretics are not meant to be taken long term and again have OTHER side effects such as mineral imbalances. You can also take prescription blood pressure medication but these also have serious side effects such as not being able to hold an erection or even hair loss.
- The third one is starting to be more researched now but studies are showing that use of gear impairs your heart capability of pumping blood causing it to work harder and become weaker over time. (2)
Now, think about all these negative effects happening together in your body and how much you are increasing your risk for a problem. Now add a bunch of other medications to counteract all these problems and it should be clear the kind of roller coaster ride you are putting your body through.
HAIR LOSS
In very simple terms, testosterone is converted to DHT and higher DHT levels combined with a genetic predisposition, are the recipe for male pattern hair loss or baldness. Understand that juice will not cause hair loss on EVERYBODY, but if you have a genetic predisposition, it will initiate or accelerate the hair loss process.
SERIOUS LIVER PROBLEMS SUCH AS LIVER CANCER
When you take testosterone, you have a few options.
- Option 1- You can take unmodified testosterone which can be inconvenient because it cannot be taken orally as a pill. The most common way to take it is to inject it into your muscles.
- Option 2- You can take testosterone that has been modified by esterification which makes it more potent and prolongs its action. Some examples of this type are testosterone propionate and testosterone cypionate.
- Option 3- Is Alkylated testosterone which is made by alkylation of the C-17 position of the molecule. This modification allows the testosterone to be taken as a pill and it prevents the testosterone from being broken down in the liver so it can get to your bloodstream. This option is very popular because no injections are needed. Some examples are dianabol, stanazol, oxandrolone and halotestin.
Now how your liver reacts depends on which type you are taking. The C17 alkylated oral option is the worst for your liver and its high toxicity causes problems from high levels of enzymes in your blood to jaundice and ultimately cancer. But here is a misconception: people think that if, instead of taking the pill they inject the testosterone, they will not have any issues with their liver or liver cancer. The truth is that any reliable piece of literature will tell you that there is a risk for liver problems with esterified testosterones as well, especially after prolonged use.
According to one of my references, I will put the link below (3), Tumors are typically detected after five to ten years of use but reports of onset as early as two years have been made after use of esterified testosterone. I actually have a personal friend that developed a liver tumor due to steroids and right now was given two years to live. With that being said, I see in forums some ridiculous discussions saying steroids are the same as alcohol when it comes to your liver. Seriously? Come on guys! Yeah, maybe if you are an alcoholic drinking loads of alcohol every single day working towards cirrhosis, but even so, the risks with juice include not only the liver but also heart problems, thyroid problems, hormonal problems and many others. I read once, and I am not saying that this is right, but I read that 5mg of say oxandrolone is equivalent to one shot of alcohol a day. Well if this IS correct, let’s do the math: typically a low dose of oxandrolone is 20mg a day. That’s four times 5mg so it would be four shots of hard alcohol every day or twenty-eight shots of alcohol every week. Now let me ask you a question… What normal person has almost thirty shots of hard liquor every week? And that’s not counting the rest of the gear in your roid stack because most people don’t take only one thing. No, it is not the same, I rest my case.
YOU BETTER HAVE SOME SPARE CASH!
Guys, you’ll need to be prepared to spend some serious money not only on the juice itself but medications to counteract the side effects and medical monitoring! If you do decide to get on gear, don’t be like most morons who buy the stuff from the bro at the gym and go lift like they are just takin Vitamin-C. Most dudes have no idea what they are doing so you need to be prepared to spend some dough to do it right like the professionals. By this I mean you should have experienced professionals prescribing you which drugs to take, how much of which and for how long. You will also need to buy the medications to counter act the side effects such as anti-estrogens to avoid things like man boobs, diuretics, testosterone replacement or T-boosters for your post cycle therapy, blood pressure medications, and the list goes on. And lastly, like the professionals, you will need regular visits to your doctor to monitor hormonal levels, liver function, cholesterol, thyroid, etc because you cannot take this lightly.
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
When making a decision this important, make sure you understand the risks and are prepared to minimize them. Beware when people say “safe”. Safe is a relative term. Understand that you are deciding to inject testosterone directly into your muscles that is produced in underground illegal labs using cooking oil, benzyl alcohol and benzyl benzoate which are used as paint and dye solvents. Does that sound safe to you?
Also, most studies out there only created an understanding of the impact of individual types of juice on the body and these effects are already pretty bad. Now, what we don’t know is the impact of Testosterone COMBINED with all the other crap people take: GH, insulin, Clen and T3, which are drugs used by most PHYSIQUE CATEGORY guys to get shredded. Also, add all the meds to counteract the side effects!
I surf forums on many different sites to see what people are asking to research content for YouTube and my site and it blows my mind how people portray steroids as a very trivial thing to do. Just because people talk about it as if it is normal and safe, doesn’t mean it is guys. There are forums and outlets online where you can find out and talk about most illegal or despicable things. For example: There are forums talking about heroin! Talking about how to get the drug, how to safely inject it, how to better recover from the crash, and the list goes on. There is even a YouTube video on how to inject heroin! So when you are in these sites, they make you feel like these things are normal and acceptable when in reality they are not!
When people do something they know is wrong or bad for them, they want to convince others that what they are doing is cool and safe. It’s human nature. They feel better about themselves when others do it too because it validates what they are doing. It’s reassuring. Don’t fall for this guys. Have a critical mind! Think for yourself and before you decide on doing anything, research BOTH sides of the story! Pros and cons! And then make an educated informed decision. And for God’s sake don’t go to a roid user site or a site selling steroids to get your info! They OBVISOULY will tell you that if you do it right, it is perfectly safe!
And the last thing I want to say is that I cannot sit here and guarantee you will have a problem or not. We are all different and react differently to everything. I know people that take large amounts of gear and are just fine and people that had minimal controlled doses that have developed serious problems.
It’s like a game of Russian Roulette and the worst is not even dying, it’s living with a crooked face after a stroke or dying an agonizing slow death after liver failure or waiting for your death as you suffer in the hospital hoping for a transplant. The bottom line is: You do not know for sure and what you need to ask yourself is: do you fully understand the potential impact of your decision and are the risks worth the rewards?
I hope this article opened your eyes to take your decisions a bit more seriously and again, if you have suggestions for FUTURE videos around this type of content, please leave suggestions below!
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