Prohormones - A Safe Alternative to Anabolic Steroids?

Natural or synthetic substances that have little influence on body functions by themselves, prohormones are the building blocks or precursors the body uses to make its own anabolic, muscle-building hormones. Prohormones have recently surged in popularity among the body building community. This is, in part, because other steroids are illegal, while prohormones made for a nice alternative.

Just because prohormones aren't illegal, doesn't mean they are completely safe. What do you need to know about this muscle-building hormone and how it may effect your body? Is there maybe a safer way to build muscles that doesn't include taking any hormones?

Prohormones and Body Builders

Over the last ten years, since anabolic steroids have been declared illegal and enforcement of the laws has strengthened, many athletes have turned to prohormones to enhance their body building efforts. Recently in the USA, the Food and Drug Administration has begun to crack down on prohormones, too, further limiting enhancement options for body builders and professional athletes.

 

Everybody uses prohormones

As the building block of hormones, prohormones are found in the bodies of every human being on earth. The classic example of a prohormone is proinsulin, the storage form of insulin made in the pancreas. Insulin moves sugar out of the bloodstream into the cells that need it. Since we actually eat for just a few minutes every day, most of the time there is not a lot of newly digested sugar in the bloodstream requiring insulin for transport. Right after a heavy meal is digested and leaves the stomach, however, a flood of sugar enters the bloodstream, requiring more insulin than the pancreas can make at one time. To keep sugar flowing into the muscles for fuel and tissue building, the pancreas “unzips” the proinsulin molecule to make the massive amounts of insulin hormone the body needs for short periods each day.

Androstenedione used to be the athlete's prohormone of choice

The now-banned natural supplement prohormone androstenedione is the natural building block of testosterone, the male sex hormone that fuels muscle growth and mental agility in male athletes. It can be taken as a supplement, but it is also made in the body itself. After testosterone injections became illegal for professional athletes, “Andro” became the popular alternative. In men, the enzyme 17-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (which is supplied by the body itself) turns androstenedione into testosterone. In women, the enzyme aromatase turns the supplement into estrogen. Mass-produced by San Francisco chemist Patrick Arnold, dozens of American professional baseball players, notably hitting phenomenon Mark McGwire, started taking this supplement when testosterone itself was banned in the 1990's.