An Abbreviated History of Anabolic Steroids

Steroids having been around for nearly 40 years now, anabolic steroids are considered relatively old drugs. Unlike the more glamorous designer drugs produced of late, anabolic steroids are primarily derivatives of testosterone that act on the body’s hormonal axis.

In the 40's, injectable testosterone was manufacture primarily for the treatment to people suffering severe malnutrition, mainly POW's. In the early 50's, scientists became convinced that testosterone was responsible for masculine characteristics in men. At around that time, athletes in the eastern world were already using anabolic injections in an effort to increase their strength.

As Russian athletes crushed weight lifting records with surprising regularity some members of the medical community became convinced that the use of anabolic steroids were responsible. Since that time, as fitness in general and bodybuilding in particular "came out of the closet" in the 70’s and became an accepted passtime of the mainstream, anabolic steroid usage has become increasingly prevalent (6 & 60). Today, of all recreational drugs used by the general population, anabolic steroids are by far the most common. Steroid abuse is the fastest-growing form of drug abuse in the U.S.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration estimates nationwide that there are 500,000 heroine and 500,000 crack cocaine abusers. Some recent estimates suggest that in excess of 4 million athletes have used anabolic steroids for physique or performance enhancement in the United States.

The Four Primary Benefits to Bodybuilders from Anabolic Steroids.

Anabolic Steroids react on the body in four primary ways.

1. Anabolic steroids increase the deposition of protein as muscle or protein biosynthesis.
2. Anabolic steroids increase oxygenation of the blood

3. Anabolic steroids promote the retention of nitrogen -- and indication that protein is being converted to muscle.

4. Anabolic steroids prevent catabolism, or the naturally occurring breakdown of lean muscle tissue.

Proteins

There are approximately 20 or so amino acids that can make up protein. Eight of them are considered essential and the body cannot make them on its own thus they are required from diet.

Technically, the non-essential aminos can be made from the essential aminos.

There are also amino acids considered "conditionally" essential under certain conditions and or populations.

If you link several aminos together you get a peptide. Keep linking peptides together and you get a protein. The shape of the individual amino acids and resulting proteins is quite unique and highly specific.

Proteins have many different roles in the body beside simple muscle. Protein, or more appropriately amino acids, is the only macro-nutrient that supplies nitrogen to drive lean tissue growth (anabolism).

Although athletes usually focus on the effect that protein has on skeletal muscle, it is equally important for people to understand that there are other disposal sites of amino acid nitrogen in the human body.

In simple terms, these include structural proteins, DNA, RNA, phospholipids, enzymes, immune function and bile acids to name a few. Bottom line? There are many uses for protein in the body unrelated to just building muscle.

We need protein to build or regenerate skeletal muscle. However, many people don't understand the other functions protein has within the body, as alluded to above.

Upon digestion, amino acids from ingested proteins enter what is called the "free amino acid pool." The amino acids can be diverted to different areas of the body for utilization depending on what the body needs. For example, some amino acids are used as an energy source through their conversation to glucose, using a process called gluconeogenesis.

Protein can also be converted to fat, though this is a very inefficient process in humans and is not a major source of body fat, contrary to what you may have been led to believe by some nutritional "authorities."

Protein is also a very thermo genic fuel substrate in the body, meaning that its digestion, metabolism and storage require a great deal of energy, which is released as heat. Have you ever wondered why you may feel hot after a large protein meal?

This could be the reason.

In fact, it has been shown that ingesting large amounts or protein can account for upward of 20 percent of daily energy expenditure.

This means that as much as 20 percent of the calories from protein you eat are lost as heat and can't be stored as fat on your glutes or hips! From a thermal, hormonal, and biochemical point of view, protein is the least likely macro-nutrient to be converted to body fat.