Check Your Hematocrit During AAS Use
By William Llewellyn
If the concentration of red cells gets too high, it can make the blood too thick, leaving the individual prone to stroke or heart attack.
A case study appeared in the journal Case Reports in Neurology, which serves as a reminder to check your hematocrit during anabolic steroid use.1 Hematocrit is a measure of the percentage of blood volume comprised of red blood cells. It is determined with a simple blood test, no doubt one that has been run on you at the doctor’s office many times before (hematocrit is considered one of the very basic health markers). Red blood cells, which contain hemoglobin, dictate the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood. A slightly higher concentration can be a good thing, as the body may be able to perform (especially endurance-related activities) a little better. However, if the concentration of red cells gets too high, it can make the blood too thick, leaving the individual prone to stroke or heart attack. Though exact numbers vary, we generally say a normal/safe hematocrit level is between 41-51 percent in men and 36-45 percent in women.
This incident involved a 40-year-old male bodybuilder who was presented to the hospital after experiencing symptoms of right-side weakness and numbness. The man had a history of anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) use, particularly with the compounds Superdrol, stanozolol, testosterone and trenbolone. Upon admittance, his blood pressure was elevated (210/100), as was his hematocrit at 56.9 percent. His hemoglobin concentration was also high at 20.6 g/dl (13-17 g/dl is normal). The physicians later diagnosed the man with lacunar stroke, which is a stroke caused by a blockage in one of the arteries supplying blood to deep brain tissues. The doctors believed the stroke was secondary to AAS-induced polycythemia, which is the medical term for elevated hematocrit. While rare, these types of incidents do occur. They may also be avoidable. Checking to be sure your hematocrit is within the normal range can be done fairly easily. Adjusting your steroid dosage, or removing some volume of blood (phlebotomy), can lower your hematocrit back to a safe level. But you won’t know to do this if you never check! Just a reminder.
Effects of AAS in Youngsters
A study in the journal Neuropharmacology suggests we might have another reason to try and dissuade youngsters from experimenting with anabolic steroids.2 The paper suggests that early exposure to AAS could have long-term consequences with regard to long-term emotional/cognitive development. These conclusions were based on studies with young rats, which were given injections of nandrolone decanoate (ND) from the age of 40-53 days. The estimates vary a bit as to what this relates to in human age, but generally speaking this should be the adolescent period in rats, somewhere around the ages of 12 to 16 in human years. The rats were then taken off the anabolic steroid and were later assessed – around the time the rats reached adulthood (age 68 days). During these assessments, the researchers noticed significant deviations from normal rats that had never been given the steroid.
The assessments used in this study involved a variety of physical tasks that would help identify behavioral changes in the animals. The researchers also used electrophysiological recordings to look for changes in the activity of serotonergic and noradrenergic neurons. The researchers found several things. First, ND exposure predisposed the rats to depression-like activity. This was reflected by increased immobility during a forced swim test, and reduced sugar intake during a sugar preference test. The rats treated with ND also exhibited anxiety-like behavior, such as decreased time in the central zone of an open field, or in the open sections of an elevated maze. With the electrophysiological recordings, they found ND exposure to decrease the firing rate of serotonergic neurons while increasing the firing rate of noradrenergic neurons. This might help explain the changes in behavior. These are early animal experiments, of course, and do not provide conclusive evidence of such effect in humans. Still, they provide enough reason to be cautious. As I’ve said before, I believe AAS use should only be a careful decision made in adulthood. There are too many concerns to recommend this in adolescence.
William Llewellyn is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the use of performance-enhancing substances. He is the author of the bestselling anabolic steroid reference guide ANABOLICS and CEO of Molecular Nutrition. William is an accomplished researcher/developer in the field of anabolic substances, and is also a longtime advocate for harm reduction and legislative change. He built the website anabolic.org, an extensive online database of information on anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.
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References:
1. George WJ Harstona, Farzana Batt, et al. Lacunar Infarction Associated with Anabolic Steroids and Polycythemia: A Case Report. Case Rep Neurol 2014; 6:34-37.
2. Rainer Q, Speziali S, et al. Chronic nandrolone decanoate exposure during adolescence affects emotional behavior and monoaminergic neurotransmission in adulthood. Neuropharmacology 2014; Apr 7. pii: S0028-3908(14)00120-8.
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