Today’s Topic Is About Steroids
This is my first post about science, to be specific, biochemistry. Although this is not my major, I am still fond of knowing more about it to expand my interest and knowledge. Steroids is most infamous because its usage on sports events, and athletes, as well as rule makers responsible for fairness of sports, seem to get stuck into the “Game Theory’’. Athletes will use more complicated chemicals, which cannot be tested by current equipment, but it in return stimulates the advance of testing equipment and techniques. But usage of steroids is not limited to this. Actually, it plays an important role in our bodies. Steroids have one prominent advantage compared to other kinds of chemicals when serving as information to regulate gene expression in our cells. Steroids can pass through membranes of cells, combine with some other chemicals in the cell and direct gene expression, instead of combining with some proteins on membranes and producing corresponded chemicals in the cell itself to influence gene expression. Going directly into the cell means it speeds up the influence, therefore some steroids can help to ease acute disease. Because it can influence gene expression in the immune system, steroids can help to handle self-immune diseases, like rash, which means that your immune system begins to attack your normal cells. Steroids can lower the immune system’s ability and thus decrease the attack on your own cells, but such methods cannot help people get rid of what causes the overreacted immune alarm. If the alarm happens over and over again, then patients need to take long-term steroids. But in return, it will cause some side-effects.
In conclusion, steroids play an essential role in our body by regulating our gene expression. Its usage is not limited to just stimulants, it is also active in controlling your immune system as medicine.
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