Many of us work and train very hard to achieve a fit and healthy physique. However, there are people out there who do not have the patience and look for an alternative to achieve the so called ‘perfect body’. Yes I am talking about androgenic/anabolic steroids (AAS), the wonder drug to many untrained eyes. The main purpose for writing this section is to give an understanding on how cupping (Hijama) can help if you are on anabolic steroids, and looking to come out of it. I am not going to dive into detailed molecular level lecture here, as there are immense amount of knowledge already available on the internet regarding anabolic steroids. Another reason why I am writing this section is because I know there are a lot of novices out there who are looking at anabolic steroids, who fail to do their research ending up harming their body. I understand the temptation of the dunya and how strong it can get inside a humans body, as I was close to taking anabolic steroids in the past.
Okay so you have different types of anabolic steroids in two categories, which is ‘Bulking’ and ‘Cutting’. Anabolic means growth of tissue for repair; examples of bulking steroids are Dianabol, Deca, Testosterone Enanthate and etc. For cutting/lean you have steroids go by the name of Primobolan, Winstrol, Masteron etc. Some of those drugs come in oral and injectable forms. There is a huge debate if anabolic steroids can be taken safely or not, there are people out there who have taken steroids and managed to achieve a muscular physique without any side effects. Then you have the question ‘can anabolic steroid cause deaths? If so where are the bodies and evidence?’ The debate goes on and people still do steroids. Anabolic steroids has shown to give very bad side effects but bodybuilders go on something called post cycle therapy (PCT) these are separate drugs to minimize the risk of these unwanted side effects. Everyone’s body is different and will respond differently to the drugs.
Top biomedical scientists have stated that the drug plays around with the endocrine system of the body, which I like to call it the hormone factory, as long it affects this system then the drug is not safe, end of story. It would be like playing Russian roulette, if you are genetically strong and your body can recover from steroid use then you may be lucky but if you’re not then steroids can get the best of you and you will wonder and regret why you went down that road.
In a male testosterone is the primary male sex hormone. This is the hormone that is responsible for keeping you a man e.g. body hair, beard growth, deep voice, sexual behaviour, libido (sex drive), development of the penis, sperm production etc. That’s a lot of major responsibilities, is it worth messing around with this system? Your body you be the judge. Allah created the human body balanced, your body’s aim is to survive and that is why it accumulates fat and stores it in case of emergency. Our body was not made to look so muscular with low fat otherwise everyone would’ve been born like that. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want you guys to go and eat your way to obesity, blaming the body ‘Oh Lord my body likes to store fat what am I suppose to do?’ Take a look at our beloved prophet (saw) one third food, one third water and one third air. Enough calories for the body to survive, our prophet wasn’t fat his wives use to describe his stomach as folded paper meaning six packs. So we Muslims need to take a look at our prophet’s way of life before looking at alternatives. Going back to the primary building block of muscles, that’s right testosterone! So how does it work? How does it trigger muscle growth? I am going to briefly explain this but will try my best to associate metaphors for better understanding. The human body naturally produces roughly about 50-70mg of testosterone every week that is enough to keep you a man. Bodybuilders inject 300-1000mg a week! Now you can imagine why they go huge. Oral anabolic steroids (pill, tablet form etc) obviously enters through your mouth, then to your stomach, to your small intestine, which absorbs it and then delivers it to the liver, the liver is ready to search and destroy! So most of the anabolic steroid gets destroyed when passing through the liver, this process is called the first-pass metabolism. Most oral steroids are altered at the molecular level by scientific boffins, so they add this extra carbon atom to the steroid molecule at the 17th position, and the anabolic steroid becomes 17-alkylated it’s like a chain, just imagine a shield has been added to the molecule so the liver finds it hard to destroy the anabolic steroid. This puts a lot of stress on the liver and produces other strong chemicals to destroy the steroid, so at this metabolic rate a lot of toxins are produced and the liver can go weak. To avoid this risk of liver damage, people turn to the injectable form so it doesn’t have to go through the first pass. But eventually it goes through the kidneys and out from the system. There are other side effects the liver is just one of them.
Okay how does it work? Once the anabolic steroid enters the blood stream the testosterone needs to be activated. Okay imagine the testosterone as the master key and then you have androgen receptors in your body, which I like you to imagine as key holes. Now there are androgen receptors (key hole) for muscles, the testosterone flies in the androgen receptor and BOOM! Muscle growth is unlocked and activated. Unfortunately you have androgen receptors for acne, hair loss, nervous system etc and the key seems to fit in these receptors as well. So there is no pick and choose kind of thing with anabolic steroids.
So what prevented me from taking steroids, well as soon as it arrived I looked at it and got scared, yes that’s right fear and doubt just went in me. Then I did more research and found out that most of the males were facing erectile dysfunction, some were serious others were facing light side effects. This happens because when the body receives excess amount of testosterone, it signals the testicals to stop producing the natural testosterone because it is receiving enough. So what happens is when a person finishes his anabolic steroid cycle the natural testosterone is very low or has stopped, and if it stopped permanently you are in BIG trouble my friend. So when testosterone is low that means your sex drive is low or zero and estrogens level is high, and that is why many men face breast tissue growth like a female. So to prevent these side effects post cycle therapy is followed to kick back the testosterone system to normal, but these are another set of drugs. So a lot needs to be considered if you are planning on taking anabolic steroids and it’s not worth it at all.
How can Cupping (Hijama) help if one is on steroid? Like I said earlier when you are on anabolic steroids the metabolic rate increases, through the metabolic rate a lot of toxins are created, which the body needs to work hard to get rid of. Anabolic steroids also increases red blood cells (RBC), one of the major reasons a lot of people face heart attacks is because the increase of platelets causing the blood to clot. That is why CUPPING (Hijama) can used as an extra tool to help the body become balanced again. Remember to eat healthy and work out naturally, the body will naturally increase your testosterone rate safely. I hope this information helps insha Allah, we all ask Allah to help and cure us. Ameen
Source: globalhijama.com
