+ 15 Don't Let This Happen to You ☕
I know no one wants to hear this, but it could save your life.
We all know that steroid use adversely impacts cholesterol elevating LDL, VLDL, and lowering HDL.
So, over years of steroid use, one is setting the stage for coronary artery disease.
With a number of the steroid compounds, homeopathic cholesterol control remedies and even Rx statins have little to no effect.
So, we resign ourselves to this side effect and continue on. With some compounds it can take months for a lipid profile to return to “acceptable” after cessation of use.
About 10 years ago, I was in a business meeting and developed very pronounced jaw pain, felt a little short of breath, had to excuse myself and went out into the hall to pace back and forth until it went away. I really wasn’t concerned and just thought it strange. When I got home, it happened again. Well, I’ve never had a cavity in my whole life or any dental work and my jaw was excruciating. I went to the ER. Textbook angina symptom for a man it turns out. I’m a bodybuilder in my late 20’s in excellent condition, so I thought. They did some imaging – the artery that supplies blood to the left ventricle called the LAD artery was 85% blocked. They put me in a helicopter and airlifted me to another hospital where they could put a stent in the artery. That’s what they did. A cut off of blood flow via a blocked LAD is the only type of heart attack that is always terminal. Since then, I have had other stents placed but I didn’t wait until it was almost too late.
Remember, you can have acute coronary artery disease and be asymptomatic.
So, what’s your point GearHead?
My point is this. If you have been a steroid user for many years, time to get some cardiac imaging done. Time to see if there are any coronary arteries clogging up.
Get a PET scan of your heart. What is that?
Quoting from my reference:
• PET scans use radioactive material called tracers. Tracers mix with your blood and are taken up by your heart muscle.
• A special “gamma” detector that circles the chest picks up signals from the tracer. A computer converts the signals into pictures of your heart at work.
• A PET scan shows if your heart is getting enough blood or if blood flow is reduced because of narrowed arteries. It also shows dead cells (scars) from a prior heart attack.
• A PET scan can help in determining if you’ll benefit from a cardiac procedure (PCI) or surgery to restore blood flow. The tracers used for PET scans can help identify injured but still living (viable) heart muscle that might be saved if blood flow is restored.
If you take the time to get imaging done before there is too much of a problem, getting stents put in can save your life and is only 1 night in the hospital. The PET scan can be done in many cardiologists' offices that have the equipment.
But GearHead, I’m only in my 30’s and coronary artery disease doesn’t run in my family.
Yes? So what? Did your relatives run steroids for 3 or 5 or 10 or 15 years or more?
Two bodybuilding legends died last year, both from heart conditions – Greg Kovacs and Nasser El Sonbaty. They were in their 40’s.
So, in the end, you may not be able to control the impact on cholesterol of many common steroid compounds, but you can see if it’s having any negative effect on you with plenty of time to get it fixed.
Reference:
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HeartAttack/SymptomsDiagnosisof...
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Anon+1.
Non-gear user at the time. Triple bypass age 40. Same. Undiagnosed heart disease, based on 'you're looking good and healthy' from all my docs over 20 years.
Regular bloods weren't a thing for regular 'healthy' people back in the day.
geez...one hell of a way to get hit with a dose of reality
sorry to hear about that but really glad everything turned out well and you're okay. also thanks for sharing your experience and looking out for us, without guys like you sharing this life saving info, eroids wouldn't be the family it is
bigKountryThanks a other brother,just had a cardio ablation done myself,have a whole new level of gratitude towards working out,be safe peeps,+2
Very informative. Thanks
Great post! Thanks for taking the time to share that with the community! +1
Damn that's some info thank u for keeping eriods safe plus one
Great post +1
Good read. Thank you.
great post gear head these are things I am trying to get looked at as of now for a few reasons +1 my man
Very useful information. I also heard that arimidex as an ai can negative effect cholesterol levels on top of the gear doing damage. Aromasin however, does not negatively impact cholesterol.
Great read gearhead, scary stuff, but like you said we gotta be proactive and fix things before it's too late. Knowledge is power +1
Scary shit. Somehow either genetically or the supps I use kept everything in check on cycle. Gonna get it done in a few weeks and see how it looks after coming off anavar. Didn't get if done on the var but I can imagine it doesn't look great.
zschlitz1What supps u use?
I take 2400mgs of red yeast rice twice a day and 20mgs of policansol once a day plus these triple stregnth 1400mg fish oil 3 times a day. But I always took the fish oil adding the other two dramatically improved my lipid and I was on cycle at the time.
Var will make a mess of your lipid profile for sure. If it doesn't we need to clone you somehow and make some kind of genetic medicine for the rest of us. I know you're young iron, but remember I was a walking time bomb at 27 after only 6 years of steroid use.
In probably 2 weeks I'll get full panel done. That will be roughly 3 weeks off the var. My lipids looked perfect after superdrol and that stuff is notorious for trashing them. And pre cycle I got blood work done and my triglycerides were like 140 or so and LDL was around the same and I started a few natural supps and got bloodwork done 8-12 weeks later can't remeber exactly but it was Actualy 3 weeks after I finshed superdrol and my LDL and triglycerides were around 70. So on cycle on my stack of supps I was able to cut them in half. 2400 mgs of red yeast rice twice a day and 20mgs of policansol once a day is all I added. I take a lot of fish oil year round anywaus so I can't say that helped. Let's hope these bloods look good as well. I hate seeing bad blood work. Haven't yet knock on wood but I'm sure it's not a great feeling.
Word let us know how it goes iron.
Will do.
So when we run a cycle and our cholesterol is out of wack, our arteries are being clogged with plaque which only can be removed by surgery right? I'm thinking twice about my future cycles now. How long at an elevated level would you say we're at risk for this plaque? should we be sticking with test only? You make it seem like stents are no big deal but I'm scared to get that done. I heard about potential heart issues before but I realize the risk now so thank you for this post
The plaque can't be removed. A metallic gauze tube is inserted into the artery where the lesion is and inflated. The metallic stent will after so many months actually become part of the arterial wall where it is located as the arterial wall grows over it. Stents are no big deal. We are not talking about invasive open heart surgery at all. The stent is inserted by making a small incision in the femoral artery in one of your legs and feeding it all the way up through your circulatory system until it is placed in the exact location in the heart where it remains for life. Also, it takes a number of years for arterial plaque to build up - not something that is gonna happen after a few cycles.
Thank you