Steroid abuse risks diabetes precursor

Abuse of anabolic steroids can raise the risk of impaired insulin sensitivity, a European conference has been told.

Dr Jon Rasmussen, of Herlev University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark and colleagues say that anabolic androgenic steroids triggers a steep rise in plasma androgens and has side-effects on the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis, but its effect on abdominal fat distribution and insulin sensitivity are less clear.

So they recruited 100 men below the age of 50 and compared those who were currently misusing anabolic androgenic steroids, those who had done so previously, and those who had never taken these drugs.

Men who were current of former steroid abusers scored lower for insulin sensitivity than the non-users. At the same time, current steroid abusers had the greatest lean body mass and lowest total body fat percentage of all the groups, although higher visceral adipose tissue.

Details were presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting held in Munich, Germany from 12-16 September.

"The current data suggest that a history of anabolic androgenic steroid misuse leads to impaired insulin sensitivity, even several years after cessation, compared with healthy controls who had never used anabolic androgenic steroids. This effect could be mediated by increased visceral adipose tissue as the primary metabolically active fat tissue."

Further analysis of the figures suggested that both the higher visceral fat and impaired insulin sensitivity could be caused by reduced levels of ‘cardiac natriuretic peptides’, which are key regulators of water and sodium stability in the cardiovascular system.

"Our results show these cardiac peptides are clearly suppressed by anabolic steroids and additionally that reduced levels are linked with impaired insulin sensitivity," they conclude.

Rasmussen, J. et al. History of anabolic androgenic misuse is associated with impaired insulin sensitivity and increased visceral abdominal fat among younger men. Presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting held in Munich, Germany from 12-16 September 2016.