Avoid Liver Issues While Using Steroids

The liver is a vital organ that you must protect throughout your life as long as you plan on feeling good and looking good. If you plan on using anabolic steroids, you must learn how to use them responsibly. As you may already know, they can potentially cause side effects. It is your duty to use them wisely and safely to minimize the risks of side effects and organ damage.

Today, we’re going to talk about your liver health and anabolic steroids, to make sure that you will keep your liver in good condition as you continue making muscle gains and burning fat with the help of steroids.

Liver Health and Anabolic Steroids

It is important to understand that there are hepatotoxic steroids. By using them, your liver will take a hit. That’s part of the reason why it is so important to use steroids responsibly and not abuse them in order to minimize the damage to your liver. However, not all steroids are hepatotoxic (liver damaging). There are also non-hepatotoxic anabolic steroids too. Using them will not cause any issues for this crucial organ.

However, if you plan on using any hepatotoxic steroids, you should take into consideration its hepatotoxic part. Usually, hepatotoxic steroids are oral steroids. That’s because most orals are C17AA, an alkylation that is important to add to oral steroids because this way, they remain highly bioactive after passing through the liver when administered orally by mouth. Without this alkylation, the oral steroids wouldn’t be bioactive (have no effects upon administration). So, the C17AA “protects” oral steroids when they pass through the liver, making them effective. However, this C17AA makes their liver toxic. Not all oral steroids are hepatotoxic, however. There are examples of orals such as Proviron (mesterolone) and Oral Primobolan (methenolone acetate) that are not hepatotoxic. However, some suggest that huge doses administered for very long periods can still cause some liver inflammation. But it is significantly less than actual hepatotoxic steroids.

Even when talking about liver toxic steroids, not all of them pose the same risks. There are those with harsher hepatotoxicity than others. Check below examples of hepatotoxic steroids, with the first being the least hepatotoxic, gradually increasing in hepatotoxicity as they go (the last is most liver toxic).

Hepatotoxic Steroids

• Anavar (oxandrolone)
• Turinabol (chlorodehydromethyltestosterone)
• Dianabol (methandienone)
• Winstrol (stanozolol)
• Superdrol (methasterone)
• Halotestin (fluoxymesterone)
• Oral Tren (metribolone)

Yet, it is important to understand that not only oral steroids are liver toxic. There are LOTS of products that you may be using on a daily basis that are hepatotoxic, without you even knowing it. Lots of OTC and prescription medications are hepatotoxic (such as Tylenol, Aspirin, and others). Alcohol is liver toxic. In fact, there are lots of foods that are hepatotoxic too.

The point is that you should minimize the damage to your liver during the cycle of oral steroids (hepatotoxic ones) because it already takes a hit from the cycle of these steroids.

Liver Friendly Steroids

As said, not all steroids are hepatotoxic. Most orals are (with a few exceptions), whereas most injectable steroids are not hepatotoxic (with a few exceptions). Injectable anabolic steroids do not pass through your liver, they are injected directly into the bloodstream. Therefore, they do not need the C17AA part, making them safe. Yet, there are some exceptions. Winstrol (stanozolol) remains hepatotoxic even if you choose to inject it. There is also Trenbolone that doesn’t seem to be liver toxic, however, some suggest that using it in high dosages and for longer periods could still pose some risks to this vital organ.

Anyway, check below the liver friendly steroids that will not touch this organ in any way, regardless of the dosage or cycle length you use:

• Testosterone (any ester)
• Nandrolone (any ester)
• Drostanolone (any ester)
• Boldenone (any ester)
• Methenolone (any ester)

You can use them even if you have some liver issues. Or you could use them for longer periods without any issues too.

Understanding Liver Health

As said, there are a lot of products that you could consume/use on a daily basis that are hepatotoxic, without you even knowing about it. Luckily, our liver is an organ that can take a lot of damage and it manages to heal and repair itself. Nonetheless, you should not abuse it, otherwise you are likely to develop permanent liver damage.

As you use something hepatotoxic, your liver starts working in order to flush out of the system. During this, it starts an inflammation process. In case you’re abusing something hepatotoxic, it could lead to overwork of it and too high liver inflammation. It is extremely important for you to protect it because this is a vital organ, without which you just can’t feel normal, perform normally, and ultimately – achieve your bodybuilding goals.

Therefore, by using oral (hepatotoxic) steroids, your liver starts working and it does so until you stop the cycle. As you stop, it continues working to clean / heal itself. So, it is important to avoid the use of steroids in case you already have pre-existing liver issues. You can check its health with blood work. There are liver function tests, but the first and most popular way to check your liver health is to check the Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) enzymes. High levels of these enzymes may be a sign of liver problems. You shouldn’t use steroids if the enzymes are high before even starting the cycle, because they will increase during the cycle of oral steroids. You can only use the non-hepatotoxic steroids in case you already have high enzymes because they won’t increase those enzymes even more.

Protecting Your Liver

As said, using non hepatotoxic (injectable) steroids will not increase the liver enzymes. However, using hepatotoxic (oral) steroids will inevitably increase them. That’s why you shouldn’t use oral steroids in case you already have any liver issues. The good news is that oral steroids are never “a must”. They are not a base, injectables such as Testosterone are. But orals are always only optional, you may or may not use them. They are increasing the benefits/results during a cycle but may increase the risks of side effects.

So, assuming your organ is in proper health condition, you may add orals, but you must learn how to protect your liver. Check below some of the most important ways.

• Only use orals in the recommended dosage and cycle length

It is quite obvious that the higher the dosage – the higher the hepatotoxicity. And the longer the cycle length, the more your liver has to work. This is the reason why oral steroid cycles last 4-8 weeks (6-8 weeks only with the mildest orals, 4 weeks is the maximum for most toxic steroids), at the time that you can use injectable steroids for 16-20 weeks. Some are used for the entire life (such as Testosterone for TRT/cruise) – simply because they are not affecting your liver health.

• Don’t use anything liver toxic during the cycle of orals

As said, your liver enzymes will inevitably increase when you use oral steroids. What you must do is to minimize this increase. You do so by avoiding the use of anything that is liver toxic, such as alcohol, medications (unless absolutely necessary), and even the stack of other hepatotoxic steroids. That’s why I don’t recommend the use of 2 oral steroids concomitantly. Unless you use them in tiny doses. It is still less liver toxic to stack two of them in low doses, than just one in huge dosage. Pay attention to the type of steroid. Most liver toxic ones shouldn’t be stacked. You can only stack the milder ones (such as Anavar and Winstrol) in lower doses.

• Provide the necessary break in between cycles

The enzymes increase during the use, and then the liver starts healing/cleaning itself post-cycle. But it needs time to do so. That’s why it is important to avoid starting another cycle too often after you stop the previous one. This way, your liver has enough time to recover itself. You can start the next cycle (after a previous hepatotoxic steroid cycle) only if you can confirm that your liver is in good condition (check AST/ALT enzymes). Or waiting at least as long as you’ve been on the previous cycle. For example – if you used it for 6 weeks, then don’t start using orals again anytime sooner than 6 weeks.

• Use liver protecting supplements during the cycle

You try to exclude anything that damages this vital organ during the cycle of oral steroids but aim to add compounds that actually help minimize the damage. It can be a liver friendly diet and supplements that can help protect/cleanse your liver. Some examples are NAC, TUDCA, N2Guard, Milk Thistle, Dandelion, LIV 52, and others. We have LIV 52 for sale at Body-Gear.to, but you can go for whichever other that you can buy in local or online supplement stores. You use them exactly as stated on the box/label during the use of oral steroids. Use them for as long as you use the cycle. You can use them even longer (post-cycle) and/or in higher dosages and/or stacking multiple supplements. This won’t cause any issues, but it is just more expensive, of course.

Conclusion

We’re not here to sell you compounds, we’re here to help you out. Body-Gear.to is the place where we try to help you achieve your goals without sacrificing your health. And there’s no need to buy LIV 52 from our site, you can buy whatever liver protecting supplement whenever else. Lots of customers ask us which is better – there’s no better than the other. Just find the one that works best for you.

What I’m trying to say is that we’re trying to help you, by selling products that can help you achieve your goals, but we also provide information on how to use them so you can stay safe as you achieve your goals. The Body Gear team is here to provide you with everything you need so you can be on your way to your bodybuilding goals and we try our best so you will stay safe during the process!

In the end, it is important to protect your liver health, while it can take a lot of damage and can heal, clean, and repair itself, abusing is never a good idea, leading to high risks of side effects and permanent damage!