Anabolic Steroids

Anabolic steroids, without question this is a topic of enormous debate. However, when it comes to anabolic steroids very few people actually understand what they are. If you ask the average man what these compounds are, he'll state they have strong muscle building properties, but in most cases, he'll make some strong links between anabolic steroids and recreational drugs like cocaine or heroine. While anabolic steroids share nothing in common with recreational drugs, it's not surprising that many tend to equate them as one in the same. This is largely due to the massive amount of misinformation that's been spread and touted as the truth despite no evidence given to back up the claims. Countless physicians and medical experts tout the dangers of anabolic steroids, but when asked to provide data that supports such claims they rarely produce any credible evidence. Even so, most tend to believe them; after all, we trust such individuals to provide us with the best information possible.

When it comes to anabolic steroids, we have a topic that is largely discussed on the basis of emotion rather than facts. When Galileo made claims that the earth was not the center of the universe, the emotional outcry was enormous. The facts made no difference to many people, as they were content to base their argument on emotion rather than hard, concrete evidence. When it comes to anabolic steroids, the same thing can be said. The issue of anabolic steroids is for all intense purposes the same kind of thing, it's the modern day version, and those who purport the false information are more or less modern day witch hunters. This brings us to one important question, what are anabolic steroids? Let's take a look and see what we can find.

Anabolic Steroids 101:

Anabolic steroids are synthetic hormones based on the primary male sex hormone testosterone or a structurally altered version. Testosterone itself is the primary anabolic steroid, but dihydrotestosterone (DHT) makes up a large portion of the steroid grouping as well. DHT is simply a byproduct of testosterone. The testosterone in the body has the ability to reduce to DHT through the 5-alpha reductase enzyme. Many testosterone based steroids have this ability as well, and some anabolic steroids are already in their DHT state.

With all anabolic steroids, there can be structural alterations to the testosterone hormone that give us a unique anabolic steroid. There are actually numerous anabolic steroids to choose from. Contrary to the movies you've seen, someone doesn't buy a bottle that is labeled �steroids� any more than they go to the grocery story and buy a jar labeled �food.� The term steroid is rather generic, and it simply refers to a large class of hormones.

When structurally altered, there are numerous changes that can occur to the primary hormone. For example, by taking an anabolic steroid and adding a methyl group to the carbon 17^th alpha, this allows a hormone to be ingested orally. By introducing a double carbon bond at atoms one and two, this will reduce a steroid's andrgenicity giving us a completely different anabolic steroids; more on androgenicity shortly. Then there are 19-nortestosterone compounds like Nandrolone, which is simply testosterone lacking the carbon atom at the 19^th position. There truly are limitless combinations we can come up with when it comes to anabolic steroids.

Regardless of the anabolic steroid in question, all anabolic steroids carry an anabolic and androgenic rating. These ratings are based and measured against testosterone, which carries a rating of 100 in both categories. By providing structural alterations to a hormone, we can increase or decrease its anabolic or androgenic nature. For example, by taking the DHT hormone and replacing the carbon-2 A-ring with an oxygen atom, this gives us the anabolic steroid Anavar (Oxandrolone) and it provides it in a way that greatly increases its anabolic rating (630) and decreases its androgenic rating (24). What's more important than the ratings, which are based on a steroid's structural nature, is how the anabolic and androgenic activity translate into real life. It's not uncommon for certain steroids to produce far more or far less activity in either category despite its rating implying otherwise. Nandrolone would be a primary example, it carries a relatively low androgenic rating, however, often displays androgenic traits a little higher than it's rating implies. As for the meaning behind anabolic and androgenic, anabolic refers to muscle building, while androgenic refers to the male sexual characteristics.

Anabolic Steroids �Foreign Substances:

Anabolic steroids often receive a lot of bad press on the basis of being foreign substances to the body. Based one what we discussed above can we actually call anabolic steroids foreign substances? The answer would be yes and no. They are synthetic hormones, and on that basis you could possibly make a foreign connection. However, they are synthetic hormones of the identical hormones our body naturally produces. The human body naturally produces testosterone, dihydrotestosterone and nandrolone, and when it comes to synthetic forms of say testosterone the human body does not know any difference. Granted, these hormones can be structurally altered in order to enhance or minimize specific traits, but it doesn't really change the base hormone itself. In some ways, anabolic steroids are more natural to the body than some vitamins and minerals. After all, human beings cannot naturally produce vitamin-c, but we all produce testosterone.

Types of Steroids:

There are numerous types of anabolic steroids, seemingly countless. For example, if you take the basic testosterone hormone in its pure form, that's one anabolic steroid. You can then attach an ester to it, and that gives you another anabolic steroid. Esters are often attached to steroids in order to control their release time, but they do not affect the actual hormone's natural mode of action. Then you can take the same testosterone hormone and start making structural alterations to its carbon atoms or things of that nature, and low and behold you have another steroid. While there are countless anabolic steroids, those who supplement will normally only use a few. There are 24 specific compounds that represent the most common compounds, and most who supplement won't even use all 24. Absolutely, there are numerous anabolic steroids beyond the primary 24, but when you understand the primary 24 you'll generally be able to understand the rest.

With various types of anabolic steroids in mind, we have listed the primary 24 below by compound name (hormone & ester if applies) and the compounds most well-known trade name. We have also included the steroids anabolic and androgenic rating, and how its rating translates. From there we will move to our second chart, chart B will simply list the primary 24 anabolic steroids by their most commonly associated name including their half-life and recommended administration frequency.

Compound	Trade Name	Anabolic Rating	Androgenic Rating	Translation
Oxymetholone	Anadrol	320	45	ADG +
Oxandrolone	Anavar	630	24	ABC-
Nandrolone Decanoate	Deca-Durabolin	125	37	ADG+
Nandrolone Phenylpropionate	Durabolin (NPP)	125	37	ADG+
Methandrostenolone	Dianabol	210	60	ADG+
Boldenone Undecylenate	Equipoise	100	50	ABC-
Trenbolone Acetate	Fina	500	500	PT
Fluoxymesteron	Halotestin	1,900	850	ABC-,
Drostanolone Enanthate	Masteron E	62	25	PT
Drostanolone Propionate	Masteron	62	25	PT
Testosterone Mixture	Omnadren	100	100	PT
Trenbolone Hexahydrobenzylcarbonate	Parabolan	500	500	PT
Methenolone Acetate	Primobolan	88	57	PT
Methenolone Enanthate	Primobolan Depot	88	57	PT
Mesterolone	Proviron	150	40	ABC-
Testosterone Mixture	Sustanon-250	100	100	PT
Testosterone Cypionate	N/A	100	100	PT
Testosterone Enanthate	N/A	100	100	PT
Testosterone Propionate	N/A	100	100	PT
Testosterone Suspension	N/A	100	100	PT
Trenbolone Enanthate	N/A	500	500	PT
4chlorodehydromethyltestosterone	Turinabol	100	0	PT
Stanozolol	Winstrol	320	30	PT
Stanozolol	Winstrol Depot	320	30	PT

PT: Perfect Translation

� ABC-: Anabolic translation less than rating implies

� ADG+: Androgenic translation greater than rating implies

Compound	Half-Life	Administration Frequency
Anadrol	8.5hrs	M: 1x/ed P: 1x/ed
Anavar	9hrs	M: 1x/ed P: 1x/ed
Deca-Durabolin	15 days	M: 1x every 1-2 wks P: 1-2x/wk
Durabolin (NPP)	5 days	M: 2x/wk P: EOD
Dianabol	5hrs	P: ed
Equipoise	14 Days	P: 1-2x/wk
Fina	3 Days	PEOD
Halotestin	9.5hrs	M: 1x/ed P: 1x/ed
Masteron E	8 days	P: 1-2x/wk
Masteron	2.5 days	P: EOD
Omnadren	15 Days	M: 1x every 2-3wks P: 3x/wk-EOD
Parabolan	6 Days	P: 2x/wk
Primobolan	5hrs	M: 1x/ed P: 1x/ed
Primobolan Depot	10.5 Days	M: 1x every 1-2wks
Proviron	12hrs	M: 1x/ed P: 1x/ed
Sustanon-250	18 Days	M: 1x every 2-3wks P: 3x/wk-EOD
Testosterone Cypionate	12 Days	M: 1x every 1-2wks P: 1-2x/wk
Testosterone Enanthate	10.5 Days	M: 1x every 1-2wks P: 1-2x/wk
Testosterone Propionate	3.5 Days	M: 2-3x/wk P: EOD
Testosterone Suspension	24hrs	M: 1x/ed-EOD P: 1-2x/ed
Trenbolone Enanthate	8 Days	P: 1-2x/wk
Turinabol	16hrs	P: 1x/ed
Winstrol	9hrs	M: 1x/ed P: 1x/ed
Winstrol Depot	24hrs	M: 1x/eod-every 3 days P: 1x/ed-EOD