SARMs: What They Are, How They Work, and If They’re Safe
Everyone seems to want to get as big as possible, whether they’re stepping on stage or the average gym-goer, regardless of any potential negative side effects. To each their own, and I’ll never tell someone what to do with their body, but there’s still a lot of things out there that we just don’t know enough about yet. However, that hasn’t stopped the increasing popularity of SARMs (selective androgen receptor modulators).
SARMs are similar in nature to anabolic steroids, but are supposed to target specific cell tissues rather than affecting your entire body and bodily functions. They help bind to receptors based on the cellular makeup and activity, and can help stimulate such activity for improvements in performance, strength and fat loss. Without as much risk as traditional anabolic steroids, more and more people are turning to SARMs to expedite their progress.
SARMs allegedly come with less risk of male producing characteristics like hair loss and acne, making them more popular amongst the bodybuilding community. Although there are many articles that are pro-SARMs, and they’re being used in more clinical settings, it’s still hard to make a blanket statement saying they are “safe” for use.
What Are SARMs?
In short, SARMs (selective androgen receptor modulators) have been labeled as a “safer alternative to steroids.” SARMs are a type of anabolic steroid that has been synthetically created to differentiate the receptors it binds together, making it more selective to muscle tissues than traditional steroids. This has been promoted to help reduce certain, unwanted bodily changes like hair loss or a deeper voice.
If someone opts to use SARMs, they’re more than likely taking a much lower dose (or should be) than if they used traditional steroids. Since these are more specific to the tissues that take priority on being bound together to enhance performance, the dose does not need to be as high. More potency should allow you to use less of it and keep as much of your natural bodily functions working properly without synthetic interference.
In theory, SARMs like the greatest thing since sliced bread. However, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. There’s undoubtedly some science behind them, but there’s not enough to be FDA approved nor enough to consider them “safe.” We’ll get more into the safety of SARMs later in the article.
How They’re Effective
There have been a handful of different applications with SARMs, and not all just for bodybuilding purposes. SARMs are being studied and tested to be treatments within various clinical environments.
Clinical Use
Within the medical field, researchers are studying the effects SARMs may have on things such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, and osteoporosis to name a few. It is not FDA approved, but there has been some promise in particular situations.
Cancer
With the use of SARMs for cancer treatments, it is particularly being utilized to reduce the amount of muscle atrophy that happens. Since treatment is often very harsh on the body, the use of receptor modulators can keep muscle mass up and help maintain proper bodily functions.
This is not saying that SARMs can help treat cancer, but can be a useful aid in trying to give the body the best fighting chance against the cancer.
Just Here for the Gains
Say you’re just interested in using SARMs for muscle gain. To each their own, but be sure to do your own research first. SARMs are also a banned substance on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list, so any athletes that fall under their rules and regulations are banned from using them at any time.
SARMs definitely work. There’s no question about it. So what types of benefits are people seeing from their use of SARMs?
Increase in muscle mass
Induces fat loss
Improves strength and endurance
Enhances athletic performance
Promotes better recovery between sessions
Less likely to experience unwanted side effects as you would with traditional steroids (hair loss, acne, deeper voice, etc.)
If you really want to experiment with them, then that’s an individual choice. But if you are new to that territory, then it might not be a bad idea to make sure you have someone guide you through it to yield the least amount of risk possible.
Are They Safe to Use?
The real question, what’s the tradeoff? This is a pretty gray area. SARMs are continuously being researched for clinical use, but also have a lot of data for anabolic gains as well. However, there is still a fair amount of uncertainty on long term effects and if SARMs can actually be deemed “safe.”
There have been findings that SARMs being sold for anabolic use often do not contain the amount of chemicals as marketed. People are being shorted and getting about half their money’s worth when buying SARMs off the black market. This is dangerous because now the question becomes, “If there’s only about 50% of what I need, what else is in this?”
At the end of the day, look at what your end goal is. Is something like SARMs actually necessary? Have you dialed in on every other aspect like sleep, nutrition, training to where the only next option is something synthetic?
The other side of the coin is that we have a lot more information on the short and long term effects of steroids versus SARMs. Not that steroids are unsafe, but doctors and medical professionals used to dealing with those substances are able to be a lot safer than before since there is so much science behind them. SARMs is new, not known as well, but still a hot trending new supplement.
Conclusion
It’s tempting these days to look at something like SARMs and immediately jump on it for the sake of gains. I’ve thought about steroids, and still do. But at the end of the day, what would they get used for? People can do whatever they want with their bodies, but be sure to do a lot of your own research (and get the help of medical professionals if warranted) before cycling with a new and fairly unknown product like SARMS.
Eventually there might be a product that has anabolic effects with zero chance of long term negative effects, but maybe look into everything else in your routine before going towards something synthetically made. SARMs might not be as harmful as some traditional steroids, but there doesn’t seem to be enough research to confidently say how safe they are or are not one way or another.
*None of the content in this article are to be used or interpreted as medical advice and is strictly informational. Always consult with a doctor before altering your medical or health routine.*