Anabolics vs Metabolics

The good, the bad and the ugly truth

It is interesting how some simple words can dramatically impact our daily lives. For instance, mention the word “steroids” as a topic of casual conversation and you will set off an amazing range of emotions among crowds. Anything from mild and innocent curiosity to an intensely terrifying panic. Somehow this word has created a horrible “bad taste” in our mouths. It may perhaps be one of the most misunderstood words of the English language. Mainly to blame is the media’s overwhelming and irresponsible ignorance and lack of education on the subject in combination with the associated and much anticipated high ratings that go along with “sensationalistic” journalism. There are a lot of misconceptions and controversies surrounding this simple word. This is particularly the case when using the word “steroids” in combination with the word “anabolic” as in “anabolic steroids”. In order to shed some understanding and clear some of the confusion, for the sake of our discussion when we talk about “steroids” there are two main types of compounds to be considered along with their respective definitions: (1) Metabolic and (2) Anabolic hormones.

Metabolic hormones are also known as “endogenous” or naturally produced hormones. Endogenous hormones are by definition compounds that are naturally produced or synthesized inside the human body. These natural hormones have both metabolic as well as anabolic properties. Metabolism is an important set of chemical (metabolic) reactions that happens in all living organisms in order to generate energy from the daily nutrients (carbohydrates, fats and proteins) consumed, to maintain life. The energy derived from these metabolic reactions is strictly used to maintain vital physiologic functions of the body needed to live. Anabolism represents the synthetic phase of metabolism which uses the energy derived from these nutrients for the buildup of new cells and tissue regeneration particularly, the synthesis of new proteins in order to build lean muscle mass.

Metabolic hormones are the ones naturally found in our bodies and are produced by our own endocrine system. These important compounds are necessary in order to carry on key complex physiologic interactions between organs which are essential to every living organism. Their unique role as “chemical messengers” provides the only means of cellular communication in which important signals are relayed throughout each and every cell of every organ in the entire human body. These important messengers are exclusively responsible for the proper integration and careful coordination of normal physiologic functions in all organ systems. An identical molecular replica of these compounds can be naturally found in plants in the form of Bio-identical Hormones. These are the natural identical derivatives of our own biological hormones. They are not by any means synthetic. Some of these include DHEA, Thyroid, Testosterone, Estradiol, Progesterone and Pregnenolone.

Through Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) these types of natural hormones are exclusively used for the effective treatment of conditions of hormonal deficiencies/imbalance such as premenstrual syndrome, peri-menopause, menopause and post-menopausal syndrome in females and for andropause also known as Low T syndrome or male menopause.

Anabolic hormones are also known as “exogenous” or synthetic hormones. They are the man-made compounds which are usually manufactured by pharmaceutical companies and are commonly referred to as “anabolic steroids”. These synthetic hormones are mostly related to the male sex hormone Testosterone and tend to be predominantly more anabolic in nature with very limited metabolic value. Unlike the metabolic hormones, anabolic steroids play no major important biologic role in the maintenance of life. Anabolic steroids are mainly designed to promote lean muscle mass production, increased strength, and increased ability to train longer and harder. Bodybuilders and athletes often use these anabolic compounds to build muscles and improve athletic performance, but using them this way is both illegal and unsafe.

The potential for abuse of these compounds is extremely high because of their fast-acting ability and fairly quick externally evident results. Over dosing is often common practice frequently under the wrong guidance and presumed assumption that “more must be better”. Because they are several times (sometimes up to 10 times) stronger than metabolic hormones, anabolic steroids have been linked with many health problems ranging from serious liver damage including cancer (liver & kidney), high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes to mental and psychiatric issues, severe acne, baldness and infertility. The use of anabolic steroids in medicine remains very limited, reserved only for a few conditions and always under the strict supervision of a medical professional.

The word “steroid” is generally used in the medical and scientific community to describe a certain family of naturally occurring metabolic hormones structurally derived from the cholesterol molecule.

Cholesterol is a steroid molecule which serves as the main structural backbone for these types of hormones. These metabolic hormones play an important and unique role as main chemical regulators of all physiologic human processes. Five major groups of metabolic steroid hormones are generally recognized according to their chemical and physiologic properties: (1) Mineralocorticoids (i.e. Aldosterone) which works on the kidneys to help maintain salt and water balance; (2) Glucocorticoids (i.e. Cortisol) which are involved in carbohydrate, protein, and fat metabolism, have very powerful anti-inflammatory properties and regulates body functions during stressful events; (3) Estrogens which is mainly responsible for reproduction and secondary sexual characteristics in females; (4) Progesterone which along with Estrogen plays an essential role in female reproduction; and (5) Androgens (i.e. Testosterone) which is responsible for reproduction and secondary sexual characteristics in males.

These hormones, although mostly metabolic in nature also have anabolic properties. In other words, all steroid hormones are both metabolic and anabolic. In the true medical sense, the combined term “anabolic steroid” should simply mean a natural compound, in this case a hormone derived from cholesterol (a steroid molecule) which has very important and significant synthetic (anabolic) properties.