What Are Medical Steroids?
Medical steroids may have a couple of differing definitions. First, they may refer only to steroids that are anabolic or that are similar in composition to hormones like testosterone, which is primarily produced in the male body. In this context, the adjective “medical” is used to differentiate between prescribed steroids and unauthorized steroid use for things like body building or performance enhancing, which are discouraged by the medical community. Alternately, medical steroids could refer to all steroids including corticosteroids that may be used to treat medical conditions. In this second definition, medical steroids include corticosteroids, which may be used as anti-inflammatory drugs. A number of conditions are treated with corticosteroids including severe asthma, allergies, autoimmune diseases, transplant rejection, and inflammatory bowel or intestinal conditions like Crohn’s disease. Medications like prednisone and budesonide (Entocort®) are some of the most common corticoste
