Steroids and Muscle Building: Do You Want to Play Russian Roulette?

They say that you cannot place a value on your health and that much is true, for our health directly dictates the quality of the life that we lead as well as our happiness. 

However we humans seem to be programmed to make foolish and dangerous choices during the course of our lifetime, and a prime example of this can be plainly seen with the usage of anabolic steroids for muscle building.

Steroids are the health version of Russian Roulette although it must be noted that Russian Roulette has the small mercy of being instant and painless. 

There has been a wealth of scientific study commissioned by the medical community in order to ascertain the specific risks that anabolic steroids pose to users, and there has been a shocking new development. 

People who habitually use anabolic steroids are at a much higher risk of contracting the HIV virus.

There are several reasons for this, which are listed as follows.

Impairment of the immune system

For those of us who do not have a degree in medicine or physiology, the immune system can be summed up rather quickly as the defence system of the body, or even the police force of it. White blood cells patrol the body, looking for intruders (infections) and seeks to detect them and then neutralise them.

Therefore, just as the number of police is reduced the crime rate will increase, so too does the reduction of white blood cells have an equivalent effect. The HIV virus is nothing more than another form of infection and from this perspective alone, anabolic steroids are a risky choice.


Intravenous drug injection

One of the most common methods in which anabolic steroids are administered within the body is by intravenous (IV) injection. 

This poses a threat because if the needle has not been sterilised, this means that the trace amounts of blood which are residual on the point of the needle can be enough to directly inject the viral payload of the HIV virus directly into the bloodstream.


Impairment of judgement

The usage of anabolic steroids makes a person more impulsive, aggressive and short tempered. They need constant stimulation, and when we combine these issues with the fact that anabolic steroids also happen to be very addictive, this means that users are at risk of needing their next dosage so much that they do not take basic precautions such as sterilising the needle.