mike1991 said:
Oh for heaven sakes. AAS are no where near corticosteriods and no offense that is just plain stupid. AAS has been shown to increase T-cell count as with a large number of benefits that was not mention. What about cancer pt or people who have severe burns? Seems to be to me if AAS is immunosuppressants that would be the last thing you would want them to get. Since the majority of these people are on reverse isolation.
First off, I never said corticosteroids and anabolic steroids are the same. I just said they are both immunosuppressants. Yes, I do in fact realize that anabolic steroids increases T cell count as well as RBC and WBC. However, in burn victims anabolic steroids are of course used for their anabolic properties since the elevation in WBC is mild at best with anabolic steroids compared to a colony stimulating factor such as filgrastim, pegfilgrastim and the lesser used sargramostim.
1: J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 1990 Sep;37(1):71-6. Links
Anabolic steroid effects on immune function: differences between analogues.Mendenhall CL, Grossman CJ, Roselle GA, Hertelendy Z, Ghosn SJ, Lamping K, Martin K.
Department of Medicine, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio 45220.
As an untoward effect of chronic anabolic steroid use, immunologic alterations may be induced. To evaluate this possibility five commercially available steroids with various types of structural differences were studied in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Animals were divided into five groups and treated with testosterone (Group 1), testosterone propionate (Group 2), testolactone (Group 3), oxandrolone (Group 4), and stanozolol (Group 5). Androgenic anabolic steroids were administered daily, subcutaneously dissolved in oil, at a dose of 1.1 mg/kg. Immune alterations were assessed by skin-test responses to phytohemagglutinin.
After five days of treatment (1.1 mg/kg/day) a significant immuno-suppression was observed with all groups. Using oxandrolone as the model stimulant, serum testosterone levels were significantly suppressed, while castration abolished the stimulatory effect. These observations indicate that immune alterations do occur with anabolic steroids which are immuno-suppressive. It appears that these changes are associated with altered gonadal testosterone release.
PMID: 2242353 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Of course since it is considered unethical to do studies in patients with dosages of AAS that bodybuilders use, it's impossible to tell the degree of immunosuppression we get at the dosages we take. In the drug monograph for testosterone enanthate immunosuppression is listed as 2-3% and flu-like syndrome is listed at 1%. We all know that more than 1 out of every 100 people using AAS gets flu-like syndrome though. This is because immunosuppression is a dose-related adverse effect of anabolic steroids use. I practice evidence-based medicine, but as a bodybuilder it is impossible to do so with non-existant studies done in humans at such high doses.