Raw Steroid Powders

Some athletes frequently take two or more anabolic steroids together, mixing oral and/or injectable types, and sometimes adding other drugs, such as stimulants, painkillers, or growth hormones. This is called "stacking." The athlete believes that different drugs will produce greater strength or muscle size than by using just one drug. What they don't know, or choose to ignore, is the damage to the body that abuse of these drugs can cause.

Supplements
Over the counter dietary supplements, such as creatine, should be used with caution. Manufacturers claim they can build muscles and improve strength without the side effects of steroids. Taken in small doses, nutritional supplements may not be harmful. Before taking any over-the-counter nutritional supplements or adding them to your regimen, talk with your doctor. When taken in large doses and combined with alcohol or aspirin, or when combined with stimulents such as caffeine or ephedrine, nutritional supplements may become dangerous.

Creatine can cause short-term cramping and diarrhea. While less is known about long-term use, creatine has been linked to muscle injury and kidney problems.

Creatine and other dietary supplements are gaining popularity. Manufacturers claim they can build muscles, and improve strength and stamina, without the side effects of steroids. Dietary supplements are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and are not held to the same strict standards as drugs. If abused, they can have harmful effects. Creatine and certain other dietary supplements are banned by the NFL, NCAA and the Olympics. New York State law bans the sale of dietary supplements containing the stimulent ephedra.

The Dangers of Anabolic Steroid Abuse
When improperly used, anabolic steroids can cause serious health problems such as high blood pressure and heart disease; liver damage and cancers; and, stroke and blood clots. Other side effects of steroids include: nausea and vomiting, increased risk of ligament and tendon injuries, headaches, aching joints, muscle cramps, diarrhea, sleep problems and severe acne.

Blood
Development of cholesterol patterns associated with coronary heart disease, obstructed blood vessels, or stroke

Heart
Increased cholesterol
Increased blood pressure

Liver
Impaired liver function
Peliosis hepatitis (blood-filled cysts that can rupture and cause liver failure)
Tumors

Skeleton
Stunted growth, caused by premature closing of cartilage-like growth plates in adolescents
Increased reate of muscle strains/ruptures

Skin
Appearance of, or increasing acne and other skin rashes or ailments
Male pattern baldness
Edema (water retention/swelling)
Striae (stretch marks)

Immune System
Hep B or Hep C, HIV infection (if needles are shared)

Psychological
Mood swings
Aggressive, even violent behavior
Depression
Psychotic episodes
Addiction

Because anabolic steroids are derived from testosterone, they can have profound effects on the hormone levels of both male and female abusers.

These effects can cause any or all of the following problems in men
Temporary infertility or sterility (reversible)
Altered sex drive
Prostate enlargement, and increased prostate cancer risk
Irreversible breast enlargement
Painful erections
Shrinkage of the testicles
Reduced levels of testosterone
Abnormal sperm production
Increased levels of estrogen

Health care providers have reported the following problems in women
Increased risk of cervical and endometrial cancer
Increased risk of osteoporosis
Temporary infertility or sterility (reversible)
Altered sex drive
Birth defects in future children
Changes in fat distribution
Growth of facial and body hair
Deepening of the voice
Shrinkage of the breasts and uterus
Clitoral enlargement
Menstrual irregularity

Changes in the male reproductive system are often reversible, if anabolic steroids have not been abused for a long period of time. Unfortunately, some of the changes in women are NOT reversible.
Prolonged abuse of anabolic steroids very often results in physical addiction. Abusers must undergo a strict, medically-supervised withdrawal program.

You will get your injection via a needle. The procedure varies depending on the purpose of the shot. Your doctor typically inserts a needle under your skin at the site of the pain. In some cases, you'll get a local anesthetic to numb the spot where your doctor gives you the steroid injection.

But some injections require a more complex process. Your doctor may use imaging technology, such as a CT scan or ultrasound, to guide the needle to the part of your body that needs treatment. Once it's in the right position, you'll get an anesthetic to numb the site, followed by the steroid injection.

Steroid injections may also be given via an IV infusion. In this type of procedure, a health care provider inserts a needle into your vein, and the steroid enters your bloodstream over a certain period determined by your doctor. You'll have an IV infusion in the hospital or an outpatient infusion center.

Steroid injection sites
Often, you'll receive your steroid injection directly into the part of your body that it's meant to treat, such as a painful joint. Common injection sites include:
Feet
Hands
Hips
Knees
Shoulders

Spine
If you are getting an IV steroid injection, the injection site likely will be a vein in your arm. That will allow the steroid medication to move through your bloodstream to the parts of your body affected by inflammation.

Systemic steroids
When inflammation occurs throughout your body, you may need systemic steroids, which circulate in your bloodstream in order to reach various places. Diseases such as lupus and systemic vasculitis (inflammation of your blood vessels) require systemic steroids. They are administered in a few ways:
Intravenously
Injected into a muscle
Orally, via pills

Local steroids
Local steroid injections treat specific areas of inflammation. For example, if you have painful arthritis in a toe, you will receive a local steroid injection directly into that toe. When possible, doctors choose local steroids over systemic steroids to reduce the side effects of treatment.

Sterols
A large group, the sterols, is composed of the common 3-monohydroxy steroids of the cholestane, ergostane, and stigmastane series and their methyl sterol biogenetic precursors: lanosterol, cycloartenol, and certain derivatives of these sterols, such as lophenol. Most sterols have a 3β-hydroxyl group, and many (though not the 4-methyl sterols) have a double bond between carbon atoms 5 and 6. Various sterols have double bonds at other positions in the nucleus corresponding to stages in the biosynthesis of cholesterol and other steroids that resemble it in the structure of ring A. Animal sterols, especially in embryonic tissues and skin, and phytosterols (e.g., stigmasterol) also may have a double bond in the side chain. Sterols of feces (e.g., coprostanol) have a 3α-hydroxyl group and cis- (5β-) linked rings A and B; they are formed by metabolism of other sterols by intestinal bacteria. Certain sterols are transformed to calciferols (D vitamins) by ultraviolet light; this process occurs naturally in the skin and is used commercially in the manufacture of vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) from ergosterol and of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) from synthetic 7-dehydrocholesterol.

Bile acids and alcohols
The molecular structures of metabolites of cholesterol form an evolutionary series from the bile alcohols, such as myxinol and scymnol of the elasmobranch fishes (e.g., sharks and rays) and the related alcohols of some bony fishes and frogs, through the 5β-cholestanoic acids of crocodiles and alligators, to the 5β-cholanoic acids of the birds and mammals. They are not exclusively confined to the species indicated; for example, chenodeoxycholic acid is a major bile acid in humans and many other mammals, and cholic acid is found in many nonmammalian species, together with primitive bile acids or alcohols that are not found in mammals.

Estrogens
The estrogens of the ovary of vertebrates are steroids that are abundant in the urines of pregnant mares and of stallions. The most potent natural estrogen is estradiol; the less-potent estrogens—estrone, estriol, and other oxygenated phenolic steroids—are metabolites of estradiol. Some species, notably the Equidae, secrete the less-active estrogen equilenin. Estrone, synthesized from diosgenin, has been used as a starting material for synthesis of androgenic and progestational steroids lacking a C19 methyl group (19-nor steroids). Synthetic estrogens, such as estranol or mestranol , commonly used in oral contraceptives and for other therapeutic purposes, have acetylenic (containing triple bonds between carbon atoms) substituents. Nonsteroidal synthetic estrogens—e.g., diethylstilbestrol and related compounds—are used clinically and also in animal husbandry to promote fattening of livestock and poultry and to improve the quality of their meat.

Androgens
Testosterone and androstenedione are the major testicular androgens. Several other less-active androgens occur naturally. Major metabolites of testosterone are androsterone and etiocholanolone. The latter compound is androgenically inactive, but it is a pyrogen (e.g., a fever-producing agent) that has been associated clinically with some febrile conditions.

Ecdysones
The molting hormones (zooecdysones) of insects and crustaceans are generally derivatives of cholestane. All possess a ketone group at position 6, a double bond between positions 7 and 8, and 2β-, 3β-, and 14α-hydroxyl groups. The side chain is hydroxylated at C22 and variously at C20, C25, and C26. Some of these compounds occur in plants, many of which also contain potent ecdysone analogs (phytoecdysones) with ergostane and stigmastane side chains.