We often hear people talking about “Supplements” and “Steroids”. We hear about how Protein powders are harmful to health as they contain Steroids, and how people are hesitant to take Vitamin supplements as they are pills and treat them like medications.


But, do people really understand the difference between “ Steroids” and “Dietary Supplements”? … The answer is NO !!

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Steroids are synthetic (man-made) substances similar to male sex hormone, Testosterone. Steroids are performance enhancing substances which cause an increase in muscle mass and physical strength. They stimulate growth in tissues, especially bones and muscles. Steroids are injectable, or can be taken orally. Some common examples of Steroids: Testosterone, Stanozolol (Winstrol), Oxandrolone (Anavar), Nandrolone (Deca), … Some athletes may abuse Steroids to build muscle mass. This leads to some serious side effects like organ damage (Liver disease, kidney disease, heart disease), impotence, fat deposition on the chest, severe acne, , shrinking of testicles, absence of sperms in semen, increased aggression, mood swings, depression, high blood pressure, etc …


On the other hand, Dietary Supplement is any product which is consumed orally and which contains dietary nutrients intended to supplement the diet. Dietary supplements may include Amino Acids, Vitamins, Minerals, Glutamine, Creatine … Nutritional or Dietary Supplements are, in simple words, foods in a concentrated form. The advantage of taking Dietary Supplements is that they provide adequate quantity of superior quality of nutrients, required at a particular time of the day. People who are into intense exercise regimes, athletes and bodybuilders are the ones who need Dietary Supplements to repair the wear and tear in their body, and to grow and maintain healthy muscle mass. Dietary supplements are safe enough to be consumed by all of us. They are concentrated foods. But, simply consuming Dietary Supplements just for the sake of taking them is not right. Even natural substances can cause undesirable side effects, if taken in high doses.


There is always a general fear that Supplements may contain Steroids. Due to the ignorance amongst the public, people easily confuse Dietary Supplements with Steroids. Steroids are Drugs that abnormally affect hormone levels in the body, whereas, Dietary or Nutritional Supplements are concentrated forms of naturally occurring food nutrients like Proteins, Carbohydrates, Omega 3 Fatty Acids, etc …


As most of us can already guess, the average person using Steroids will generally get better results in terms of building muscle and improving performance than someone who is natural . People getting Steroid injections and not doing any form of weight training will even still gain more muscle than the natural guys who are training !!


How crazy is that? YES this is the ugly truth!!


Steroids and Drugs allow stuff that shouldn’t work to still work anyway. Which means that Drug use can make up for a shitty diet or a bad workout program. You waste your effort trying every diet and workout on the planet seeking impossible results. You waste your time searching for something that doesn’t exist (naturally, at least). It all happens because you have unrealistic expectations about what can be accomplished naturally, and the Steroid use of others is often the cause.
And then of course we have the idea that someone with a perfect physique must obviously be a trustworthy source of information on that subject. But in fact, the guy with the awesome body could be simply clueless. How can that be if he looks so awesome?! Simple … Steroids and Drugs!!
The worst advice is often coming out of the mouths of people with the best bodies, because Steroids can make people look a lot smarter than they actually are.


I’m not saying that everyone with an awesome body is clueless. That’s obviously not true!! My point here is that an awesome body does not tell you everything about how knowledgeable that person is. He could have gotten that body thanks to years of researching, learning, eating right, and training intelligently. Or he could have used Steroids, eaten and trained like a dumb, and still ended up getting great results in spite of it all.


DRUGS CAN MAKE IT POSSIBLE !!
                                                          By ELY ZEER – Fitness Trainer