You might have heard about steroids being harmful to your bodies.

While they are often used to build muscles, it's crucial to understand their potential impact on heart health.

Karetrip is here to help you understand how steroids can affect your heart and cause damage.

Understanding Steroids

Steroids are compounds often used in gyms by athletes or in other physical fitness fields to ensure high muscle mass, lower fat, and increased stamina. However, steroids can have both beneficial and harmful effects.

Are steroids really bad? Let us look deeper into the issue.

Steroids have severe side effects including impotence, heart diseases and many more.

However they not only have a bad side. They are also used in other medical settings.

Steroids are used medically for conditions like inflammation, eczema, and during organ transplants to prevent rejection by lowering the immune response.

We understood that steroids have both beneficial and harmful effects.

Thus, whether steroids should be a strict NO depends on the situation.

Steroids and Heart Health

While use of steroids can be beneficial in the medical field, their high dosage usages for long-term can threaten your heart’s health.

People using steroids usually other than medical purposes gradually develop dependency towards them leasing to long-term exposures of steroids. Thus unaware of the possible complications invite severe health conditions.

Studies suggest that the people under steroids for inflammatory disease such as inflammatory bowel disorders have an increased chance of cardiovascular diseases and heart attacks.

The risk of cardiovascular diseases are directly proportional to the dose and duration of the steroid treatment.

Glucocorticoids are one of the common steroids prescribed for inflammatory conditions.

Long-term anc high doses of glucocorticoids are likely to cause cardiovascular diseases, heart attacks and stroke.

Anabolic Steroids and Cardiovascular Diseases

Anabolic steroids are synthetic derivatives of male hormones. They are used to build muscles and are used to improve one's masculine features.

They are also used by doctors to treat several conditions including delayed puberty and certain types of cancer, but under restricted use.

Effects of Anabolic Steroids on Cardiovascular Systems

Cardiovascular diseases are a major threat to a person’s overall health and well being.

Diseases comes under this category include

• Hypertension,
• Arrhythmia,
• Cardiomyopathy, and
• Thromboembolism.

Cardiovascular systems of steroid users are generally unhealthy and prone to severe other health conditions.

Anabolic steroids have an effect on structural and functional changes of one’s heart.

Steroids affect the left ventricle of the heart. Left ventricle is the main pumping chamber of the heart.

Studies pointed out that synthetic steroid users exhibit a higher mass index, thicker walls and concentric geometry of the left ventricle compared to non steroid users. This reduces the efficiency of heart functions.

Functionally, it can create an imbalance between the good and bad cholesterols (HDL and LDL) in our body. These imbalances can cause plaque in our body leading to narrower arteries and restricted flow of blood and oxygen.

This increased the risk of atherosclerosis causing heart failures and strokes.

Impact of Steroids on Heart

Long-term use of steroids can change your heart structurally and functionally.

The possible impacts of steroids on your health include:

• sudden cardiac death or ischemic stroke
• dyslipidemia
• cardiomyocyte hypertrophy
• impaired coronary arterial function
• reduced cardiac β-adrenoreceptor sensitivity,
• induced oxidative cardiac stress,
• lowers arrhythmic thresholds
• myocyte apoptosis
• myocardial dysfunction
• myocardial fibrosis,
• increased coronary artery calcification.

Risk Factors of Cardiovascular Health

Hypertension Hypertension is considered one of the major cardiovascular risk factors.

Some steroids cause fluid retention and cause high blood pressure leading to heart diseases.

e.g., Corticosteroids are anti inflammatory steroids with a risk of hypertension.

Arrhythmias

Arrhythmias are a possible effect of steroids. It is caused by the sudden electrolyte shift due to steroids.

Arrhythmias can be bradycardia, tachycardia , atrial fibrillation, and palpitations.

Tachycardia is considered a severe side effect of steroids.

How to Protect Your Heart

Eating a heart healthy diet: A proper heart healthy diet can reduce chances of developing heart diseases

Limit salt consumption: High salt intake can cause hypotension (high blood pressure)

Include potassium rich food in your diet: Steroids can deplete potassium in your blood. Include fruits like banana, apricot, oranges, tomatoes and raisins in your diet.

Reducing steroid exposure: Long-term and high dosage steroids can be fatal that it can even cause sudden death Regular Exercise: Exercise can regulate the blood flow and keep the heart healthy. Yoga and meditation can also help. Avoid smoking and alcohol consumption Sometimes taking steroids can bring you harm. Other times not taking them makes you sick.

For someone stopping steroids can build you, other times stopping them can break you.

Depending on the usage it can be life threatening as well as life saving.

Steroids can be used for therapeutic purposes as long as the harm they cause are lesser than the benefits they cater. It is better to follow strict adherence to doctors advice in your choice of taking steroids.

Use alternative methods for building muscles and enhancing personal appearances like eating protein rich food and proper exercise. Steroids can make you look better but will make your body feel worse.