Cholestasis
Cholestasis is the most common form of liver damage that is characteristic of the use/abuse of oral anabolic steroids.[4] As already stated, it is the condition whereby bile is unable to properly flow throughout the liver and into the duodenum (the first section of the small intestine that connects to the stomach). This can occur as the result of a physical (also known as a mechanical) blockage, such as gallstones or a tumor formation causing blockage. The other form of blockage is in the form of a chemical blockage (also known as metabolic cholestasis), which is cholestasis that is resultant of a disruption of the hepatic cells' ability to properly manufacture and flow bile. C17aa anabolic steroids cause metabolic (chemical) cholestasis. Metabolic cholestasis can also be the result of a hereditary genetic dysfunction, and there are plenty of other substances, drugs, and medications that can cause cholestasis as well. In order to understand cholestasis, it is important to know what bile is and what it does for us.
Bile is a dark green/yellow to brown fluid that is manufactured by the cells of the liver, and consists of 85% water, 10% bile salts, 3% muscuous and pigments, 1% fats, and 0.7% inorganic salts. The primary function of bile is to digest fats that are consumed in food, making it a very important component in the digestion and processing of food. Because it is involved in the digestion and breakdown of fats, it is very important for the proper breakdown and absorption of fat-based and fat soluble compounds (such as many types of vitamins). In addition to this, bile serves to act as an excretion vehicle for the transport of metabolites out of the liver, such as bilirubin which is a metabolic byproduct as a result of the liver cells recycling red blood cells. Finally, an additional function that bile serves (and this is very important) is the neutralizing of acidity of the contents of the stomach (as a result of stomach acid) before it enters the intestines. A simultaneous role bile plays in that process is also a disinfectant, killing bacteria that could be in the ingested food.
When the C17aa anabolic steroids inhibit the flow of bile in the liver, bile will build up in the small bile ducts of the liver forming plugs (known as canalicular bile plugs). The cells of the liver (hepatocytes) will continue to attempt to excrete bile as they normally would, but as bile accumulates due to the plugs, enough pressure will build until the lining cells of the bile ducts rupture. As a result, bile spills out onto other cells and tissue, resulting in cell death. Cells will begin to build up with bile as well (more common in intrahepatic chemical/metabolic cholestasis), and without proper flow of bile, the cells will die. This build-up of bile is known as a bile pool, and while not all of the bile acids contained in the bile pool are hepatotoxic, most of them are, and this is why the bile pool accumulation results in liver cell death. C17aa anabolic steroids cause intracellular bile retention within the hepatocytes (bile accumulation inside the liver cells).
Symptoms of Cholestasis:
Nausea
Malaise
Anorexia, loss of appetite
Vomiting
Abdominal pain/burning (almost like heartburn/burning sensations due to the lack of bile being excreted to neutralize the acidity of stomach content entering the duodenum).
VERY IMPORTANT: what is commonly mistaken for heartburn by many people while using oral C17aa anabolic steroids is actually varying stages of cholestasis.
Pruritus (itching)
Clay colored dark stool
Pale stool (strong indication of physical/mechanical cholestasis rather than metabolic/chemical cholestasis)
Dark amber colored urine
Jaundice (strong indication of physical/mechanical cholestasis, but can occur with metabolic/chemical intrahepatic cholestasis if it reaches worsened stages)
Although cholestasis can normally be recovered from if C17aa steroids are halted early enough, the body might require months before liver function is properly restored, and this is why it is very important to maintain proper liver function during the use of C17aa compounds with the supplementation of a proper liver support compound.
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