How to protect liver during steroid cycle

Steroids are blamed for many negative effects on human body, one of them being liver toxicity. But not all of them are responsible for damaging the liver. All alkylated anabolic steroids are proved to have bad influence in liver function. What are these steroids? All oral anabolics with the most common of them in the top: Dianabol, Anadrol, Anavar and of course Winstrol.

Non-alkylated steroids are injectable steroids like Testosterone, Masteron, Equipoise, Deca Durabolin, Primobolan and others. If you want free of liver effects steroids than choose one of this group. This is especially important for those who are susceptible to liver problems.

Liver has the role to clean our body of toxins. Steroids are toxins, hence when they enter the body begin to eliminate them, without letting them get in ten blood. To avoid being breakdown into liver, oral steroids were modified in a way that inhibits the excretory function of the liver. It is not able to eliminate toxins; hence they accumulate in the body causing serious health problems.

We wrote about how oral steroids destroy liver, so will will not detail too much this subject. To read more about it click  on this article “Oral Anabolic Steroids, Liver Enzyme Tests and Liver Function“.

The intend of this post is to show how to break through a steroids cycle keeping your liver fully functional. Read further and find how exactly you can do it.

Use a non-alkylated steroid as base

The use of oral steroids alone is contraindicated. It put a high pressure in the liver and it may cede. Even you have a healthy liver, always stack an injectable with an oral. Such a mix has also a great synergic effect. So that you do not only manage to protect your liver, but also accomplish great results, whether you are bulking or cutting.

The dosage has to be no higher than 350-750mg per week of stack. A higher dosage will inhibit liver function even the gains will be better then you expected. You may get bigger or slimmer, but your liver is goanna be deeply affected. Just to know, individuals can live only 2-3 days if liver function is shut down.

Read this ” Building muscle using therapeutic dosages of steroids to find out how” to understand that staying on minimal dosage still can provide you with nice gains.

Cycle duration has not to exceed 6 weeks. Of course there are many steroid users taking oral anabolics for much longer time without apparently damaging the liver. Acting so is a a big mistake. What they miss is that with every week steroids cause scar tissue which is undetected. They worsen in time as steroids consumption don’t let them heal. The finality is that you get not only with big muscle, but also big scars which put you at risk to develop cancer.

Six weeks are the frame time within the activity of liver is still normal and steroids influence is not devastating. With proper manipulation great results can be achieved even within “short steroid cycle”.  High steroid dosage for long time are too dangerous for your health to risk it.

Choose short steroid cycle over long cyles. Read here why -  The pros of using short steroid cycles

If still want to make your cycle longer, than replacing orals with injectables is a must. For every gram of Winstrol or Anadrol take Testosterone, while Anavar can be replaced with Trenbolone in a 2:3 basis. Search for the injectable which carry the same effects the oral did and make the substitution beginning with the 7th week of cycling.

No bridging between cycles

Alkylated steroids cycles have to be followed by the same amount of time if not more. Allow body time to get back to its normal function. Liver regenerate if time is allowed. And so do hormones and other vital organs.

Don’t know exactly how long the break between cycles should be ? Find here -Time between steroids

It’s common nowadays to not stop taking steroids using bridging. Aside of damaging your liver, such a method is not productive. The more steroids take, the higher resistance body builds to it so that they become inefficient after a period of time. That’s why take breaks and let the body detach from toxins that entered it during time. After a while, you can get back in cycling.

Take supplements to protect liver

Despite of caution steroid use, including liver supplements in your diet is necessary. Lecithin, Liv-52 and Milk Thistle, Essentiale are some products to take in consideration but you are not limited to them. Buy from reliable sources to make sure you ingest high quality products. And this is available for anabolics too.

No alcohol or liver toxic medications

When cycling avoid drinking alcohol at all and be caution to drugs that shows liver toxicity properties. The liver activity is already perturbed, don’t worsen the situation.

Bottom line. Before get involved in oral steroid cycle make sure your liver function is normal. The same do when cycle is over and you are ready for the next one. Throw away the idea of oral cycle if you already have liver issues. It’s not for you. In all other cases keep in mind the above mentioned tricks and liver activity will not be affected in a degree that put your health in danger.

Liver damage while on oral steroids

Steroids consumption is associated with a range of side effects, but when it comes to oral steroids liver damaging is the most common. For this main reason, most of steroid users advice to use injectables instead of orals which bedevil the good activity of liver.

In spite of this, oral steroids continue to be largely used by people worldwide. How this can be explained? First of all, injectable steroids can be detected in the blood long time after ending a steroid cycle. In case of orals, traces can be found few weeks after the last ingested pill. It may seem a long time too, but in compare with injectables this frame of time is quite shorter.

On the other hand, there are individuals who fear needles and will do all to avoid dealing with them. In this case, oral injectable is going to be used to replace the gains injectable can cause in human body. Oral steroids are more convenient to use, but are while less effective than injectable.

How is liver damaged while running oral steroid cycle?

Liver is one of the most important organ in human as that if it shuts down we have only 2-3 days to live.  It’s the “cleanser” of  the body, helping to get rid of toxins. Fortunately for us, liver has the capacity to regenerate and be functional even when 75% of it is damaged.

All 17A oral steroids are modified in a way to avoid degradation in the liver and be able to get in the blood. These kinds of steroids are toxic to liver because they inhibit the excretory function of the liver. Likewise, liver can get rid of toxic and they accumulate in the body. Known as cholestasis this is the most common disease caused by 7aa oral steroids are blamed for.

If no action is taken then after a while this disease worsens and may turn into cirrhosis, a stage where the activity begins to slow down. Worth to be mentioned cholestasis is not a lethal disease and is reversible if needed measures are taken on time. The best is to avoid getting to this stage at all, as ideal is to keep your liver safe instead of trying to treat.

The things get worse when two 17A oral steroids are taken concomitantly. Never admit this mistake. Always try to cycle an oral steroid along with an injectable one, this being the smart way of using steroids.

What are the most liver toxic oral steroids?

Don’t put all oral steroids in the same light as not all of them are liver toxic. Some of them are more toxic than others, while a minority has no bad influence on liver at all.

Top most liver toxic oral steroids are:

Superdrol

Dymethazine

Halodrol

Epistane

DHEA

Epiandrosterone

The more potent is the steroid, the higher is the toxicity level it carries on. Therefore, avoid using a powerful oral steroid when looking for fast and impressive muscle gains.

Top of less liver toxic oral steroids:

Winstrol,

Dianabol,

Anadrol.

So, only 17-aa steroids are liver toxic, while all other steroid have minor to no influence at all. A good idea is to stack a 17aa steroid with a non one in order to keep your liver functional while enjoying noticeable gains in muscle mass.

Symptoms of a damaged liver

When your liver function is perturbed because of oral steroid use there are series of signs that you have to worry about. Pay a close attention to your overall feeling when running a steroid cycle to be able to prevent any disease before it will to late.

Here are some of signs that should alarm you when taking orals:

-Lowered appetite;

-Fever associated with nausea (many take it as a cold , but it is not);

-Itchiness;

-Yellowish skin or eyes;

Whenever one of these signs occurs is time to take a break and revise what you are doing wrong. The earlier you acknowledge what happens in your body and give a hand of help, the higher chances to pass through a cycle with your liver function untouched.

The best would be not to wait for these signs, but simply take enzymes before and after steroid cycle. Few weeks later after the cycle is finished repeat the tests and see how it shows. This way you will have a closer look on your liver situation.

Products that help keep liver health while on steroids

As we said is better to prevent than to treat. A range of supplements available online are able to ensure a proper function of liver while taking 17aa steroids. LIV 52 and Milk Thistle, Essentiale  are just few of them, while a simple search on Google would list you a  longer list. Whatever you choose, make sure you have one of these supplements in your cycle.

If you already have liver problems than taking 17aa steroid is a bad idea. Thier use will worsen your condition so that it can turn into something irreversible. Go with injectable in this case or use non-17 aa anabolics.

Protect your liver before it is too late. Make sure your liver is 100% health before getting involves in a 17aa steroid cycle and make sure you add in some supplements able to help you liver cope with bad effects of steroids. Do you tests and keep an eye on signs which talks about a liver problem.

How to Protect the Liver During Anabolic Steroid Use

Liver harm from anabolic steroids comes principally or entirely from alkylated anabolic steroids. Where the steroids are non-alkylated and estradiol levels remain normal, there’s almost never harm to the liver from steroid use.

Example non-alkylated steroids are testosterone, Masteron, trenbolone, boldenone (Equipoise), nandrolone (Deca Durabolin), and Primobolan.

Keeping liver safety in mind, an effective cycle should have one or more of these steroids as the base, or even as the entirety of the cycle.

About 350-700 mg/week of a steroid stack, though, may be an alkylated compound. The most common alkylated steroids are Dianabol, Anadrol, oxandrolone (Anavar), and Winstrol.

Alkylated steroid use is preferably limited to only six weeks at a time, though of course many who go longer don’t suffer lasting harm. However, sustained use of oral anabolic steroids absolutely can cause undetected formation of scar tissue in the liver. This effect can be cumulative, as the scar tissue does not heal. And thoroughly excellent gains can be achieved without “pushing” the 6-week rule.

If cycle length is greater than 6 weeks, then appropriate amounts of testosterone can substitute for the orals. I replace Anadrol or Winstrol with testosterone on a milligram for milligram basis. I replace Dianabol on a three-to-two basis, or in other words, 50 mg/day Dianabol is replaced by about 75 mg/day of testosterone.

Oxandrolone, on the other hand, is replaced with Masteron on a three-to-two basis, or trenbolone on a two-to-three basis.

Each period of alkylated steroid use should be followed by about twice as much time not using alkylated steroids, or longer.

Estradiol preferably will be kept in the normal range, or not much above it, as elevated estradiol is slightly liver toxic. In and of itself estradiol toxicity is not greatly important, but in combination with alkylated steroid use, it adds to the toxicity.

Obviously hepatotoxic drugs and excessive alcohol use should be avoided, as should heavy use of NSAID’s, aspirin, or acetaminophen. Cautious use is fine.

In terms of supplementation for liver health, lecithin may be taken in amounts such as 3-7 g/day together with B vitamins. With regard to milk thistle, steroid-induced cholestasis results from reduced activity of the bile salt export pump, and silymarin and silibinin (components of milk thistle) act at this point and can partially block the adverse effects of steroids. However, cheap milk thistle products don’t provide much of these substances.

Liver protection supplementation may safely be omitted when the above principles are followed. Supplementation shouldn’t be a license to use alkylated steroids less carefully.