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What Are Natural Steroids?
The body naturally makes steroids that are like human hormones and help build muscles.
They can be found in plants, herbs, or other natural sources. These compounds mimic human hormones and help the body with important processes such as building muscle tissue.
Supporters believe they work the same way as anabolic steroids, which increase testosterone levels in the body to make it stronger.
Natural steroids are also called legal steroids. They are made of many ingredients that can be bought from a store.
Creatine
Creatine is a type of medicine that you can take. It’s not like other medicines. The FDA has approved it for short-term use (less than 7 days). It helps people do sports better. Studies have found that taking creatine for 5-7 days significantly increases strength, power, and sprinting performance.
No other compounds are approved by the FDA or backed by studies. However, some compounds may help you build muscle or improve your athletic endurance and resiliency.
Ashwagandha
Ashwagandha is a plant that is used in Ayurvedic medicine. It can be used for different things, like rejuvenation and longevity. One study looked at how taking ashwagandha could help you get stronger muscles. The study measured the strength of healthy people who took 500mg of ashwagandha every day for 12 weeks while they did resistance training 4 days per week. The people who took medicine got stronger muscles than those people in the placebos group.
Tribulus Terrestris
Some people think that Tribulus Terrestris might imitate testosterone and related hormones. And there is some evidence that it can improve muscle function and testosterone levels. However, scientists need to do more research to understand whether it is safe and has a therapeutic effect.
DAA
Some studies say that D-aspartic acid is related to the production and release of testosterone. But most of those studies have been done on animals. More human studies are needed to support their findings.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is important for bones. It may also be important for muscles, but we need to do more research before we know it. A 2017 study found that women with lower body fat and moderate body composition had higher levels of active vitamin D.
The researchers say this may be because vitamin D helps in fatty tissues, which can affect muscles.
Zinc
Zinc is a necessary trace element that helps control muscle growth and repair. Researchers have studied how zinc affects muscle for quite some time, but it may also help with age-related muscle loss, called sarcopenia. In 2018, an observational study showed that taking zinc may help with performance in older adults. However, we need to study more before we can determine the role of zinc in physical performance.
Magnesium
Magnesium is important for enzymes that make muscles work. Magnesium can also help keep muscles healthy even when you are doing exercises. For example, a study found that taking magnesium helped reduce muscle damage in 18 male professional cyclists who took 400 mg of magnesium a day for 3 weeks.
DHEA
Dehydroepiandrosterone is a precursor molecule that the body converts into testosterone and estradiol. These hormones increase protein production and consumption, which increases muscle growth and strength.
Ginseng
Some studies have found that ginseng may help prevent certain conditions, such as diabetes or aging. This is because ginseng triggers muscle loss and makes people’s muscles grow larger, wider, and thicker.
Some studies find that ginseng might help you to stop having certain problems like diabetes or growing old. For example, a study done in 2017 showed that black ginseng helped cells grow bigger and stronger in the muscles.
Benefits
Companies that sell natural steroids may say they help with:
- improving endurance
- improving strength
- increasing exercise efficiency
- increasing tolerance for increased intensity training.
But creatine is the only product commonly marketed as a natural steroid that currently has FDA approval. Natural steroids may carry fewer side effects than traditional anabolic steroids, but more studies are needed to understand their potential health concerns and drug interactions.
