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Everything you need to know about oral steroids

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Everything you need to know about oral steroids

Oral steroids can be either liquid steroids or solid steroids. Steroid medicines are man-made versions of natural steroids. Steroid medicines exist in different forms such as oral steroids, injectable steroids, creams, drops and sprays, and inhalers.


 Types of oral steroids

The most commonly used group of steroids is glucocorticoids and this group includes steroids such as hydrocortisone, prednisolone, dexamethasone, betamethasone, and methylprednisolone. The other group of steroids is known as mineralocorticoids and it is a type of steroid used for replacing steroids that the body is not producing itself and the commonly used is the fludrocortisone.


 What are oral steroids prescribed for?

The main purpose of oral steroids is to treat a number of conditions such as allergies, inflammatory bowel disease, joint and muscle diseases and croup.


 The use of anabolic steroids in bodybuilding

Some anabolic steroids are injected intramuscularly, others are taken orally and others are provided in creams or gels that are applied to the skin. A lot of users begin with oral steroids and progress to injectable forms since the latter causes less damage to the liver. However, some people who prefer oral steroids argue that they clear more rapidly from the body and this makes them a preferred route for people concerned with drug tests. On the other hand, some people misuse oral steroids and such people may use them ten to a hundred times higher than the doses used for treatment.


 How to use anabolic steroids

There are different modes of using liquid steroids for bodybuilding. Most people use steroids in patterns known as cycling. This is whereby someone takes multiple doses of anabolic steroids over a specific period and stops for a period and then starts again. People who misuse steroids stack them. This means that they take two or different anabolic steroids, mix injectable and oral types and sometimes take compounds designed for veterinary use.

They believe that different steroids interact to produce an effect on the size of muscles that is greater than the effects of each type of steroids individually. This is a theory that hasn’t been tested scientifically.


 Pyramiding

This is another mode of misusing steroids. It involves taking steroids in cycles of 6 to 12 weeks, tapering their use gradually rather than starting and completing a cycle abruptly. At the beginning of a cycle, the user starts with low steroid doses and slowly increases the doses. During the second half of the cycle, the doses are decreased slowly to zero. This may be followed by another cycle in which the user continues to train but without using the drugs. Users believe that pyramiding allows their body enough time to adjust to higher doses and allow their bodies enough time to recuperate during the drug-free cycle.


 Plateauing

There is also a mode of using liquid steroids known as plateauing where steroids are overlapped, staggered, or substituted with other types of steroids to avoid steroid tolerance. The effects of plateauing, cycling, and pyramiding have not been backed with scientific research and are all based on steroids users’ experience.

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