TestoFuel Blog : Make Gains & Pack on the Muscle
There’s nothing more dangerous when it comes to supplements as steroids. Yes they can offer some great benefits, but for practically everyone it’s far outweighed by the risks.
It’s not only the risks you take during a course of steroids that’s the problem either. It’s what happens after you finish your cycle… and that’s where post cycle therapy comes in
If you considering taking steroids and want to learn more about post cycle therapy, you really need to read this article.
Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are synthetic versions of testosterone taken either orally or injected. They are created in a lab, rather than naturally.
Steroids are taken to provide the body with massive, supra-physiological amounts of testosterone so that muscle growth, strength and body composition all improve.
The problem is though that whilst there may be some benefits, there are also a large number of potential side effects of steroid use too. These include:
Whenever there is an increase in a hormone in the body, the brain registers it. And as a sort of master computer, if the brain feels that hormone level is getting too high it’ll do all it can to tell your body to stop making it until levels are normalised. This is called a negative feedback loop.
When you take steroids you hit yourself with a massive amount of it naturally. And that makes sense – why would your body waste energy making more test when there’s enough in the blood anyway.
The testes pretty much shut down and stop making testosterone. Steroids suppress your natural male hormone levels.
Some of your testosterone is converted to estrogen in the blood by a process called aromatization. This is a normal process and in men that are of normal weight, this isn’t a problem.
But more testosterone mean more estrogen.
When you’re on steroids, estrogen will begin to increase past the healthy upper limit. It does this to try and counteract the surge in testosterone from the steroids.
But when you come off steroids your testosterone is still suppressed. That means there’s a period of time where your estrogen is elevated but you’ve not got enough testosterone n your blood to fight it. And that’s not good.
All of a sudden you’re in a world where estrogen is through the roof… but testosterone is in the basement.
It needs fixing. And that’s where post cycle therapy comes in…
Key Point: Steroid use shuts down natural testosterone production, allowing estrogen levels to rise dramatically once you stop taking them.
High estrogen and low testosterone levels lead to a number of side effects. These include:
Post cycle therapy (PCT) is a course you run after you’ve taken steroids.
It is intended to stimulate your own natural testosterone production and help your hormones recover.
For that reason, it’s a simply cycle put in place to help you overcome the side effects associated with hormonal imbalance.
As we know, after a steroid cycle, your natural anabolic hormone levels will be suppressed, more often than not quite severely.
Post cycle therapy means taking additional drugs after your steroid cycle to fix your hormone levels.
Although different PCT drugs restore hormones by activating different mechanisms, most either directly block estrogen or override the negative feedback loop to stimulate the testes to produce more testosterone. They also help to reduce levels of sex hormone binding globulin in the blood too, which means higher free test levels.
It depends on the specific PCT drugs that are used, but most cycles last 2-4 weeks.
Key Point: Post cycle therapy (PCT) is a second cycle of drugs (taken after steroid use has stopped) used to kick-start natural testosterone production and reduce estrogen levels.
As with any drug use, there are always risks.
The initial risk of course isn’t from the PCT but from the steroids. These adverse effects can include liver and kidney damage, changes in blood lipid levels and blood pressure, risk of stroke or heart attack and changes to your personality.
Because most steroids are purchased illegally you never know what you’re getting. That could mean your steroids are under-dosed or even fake – what’s called bunk steroids.
There’s the risk that your steroids could be contaminated and contain additional hazardous substances that you don’t know are there.
You can also get infections or abscesses from microbes entering the body due to intramuscular injections, and even severe muscle or nerve damage from regularly injecting yourself.
There’s also a real risk that your test levels might never come back to normal, regardless of the PCT used.
If you’ve got to a point where you’re coming off steroids and starting PCT, the risks don’t end there.
Again, it can be risky getting the right PCT drugs and making sure they are clean and uncontaminated.
The cycling of PCT drugs can also be very time sensitive, with drugs often being layered in order to systematically bring testosterone back to normal levels. If timings are incorrect or scheduling isn’t executed properly you can down-regulate test production, making it much harder to elevate in the long-term. There’s a lot that can go wrong.
Yes there is.
You can still elevate your testosterone levels in a natural way. That way you can avoid the need for steroids as well as post cycle therapy.
TestoFuel is an all-natural test booster that helps you build strength and muscle mass without the risks of steroids or PCT.
Forged with extensively researched nutrients such as D-aspartic acid, magnesium and vitamin D, TestoFuel is your key to a more aesthetic, athletic physique.
