One of the side effects of steroid use is organ hypertrophy, but honestly, why is that bad? Like, wouldn’t a heart hypertrophy mean your body can circulate more blood with each beat? Why is that necessary bad?
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I believe hypertrophy is an indicator that something bad is happening less so than hypertrophy causing bad things to happen.
I think it differs by organ and context. Hypertrophy occurs in the heart as it does with any muscle – you give it more work to do, and it gets larger. With the liver, the hypertrophy represents scar tissue. The liver can minimally heal itself, and in the process leaves excess scar tissue behind. And in the spleen, it’s because there’s extra blood products that’s causing it to fill up.
You mentioned the heart specifically. I’ll note two things about that here:
1. Heart hypertrophy commonly happens when the heart has to use more effort to push blood along. This can happen if the aortic valve is stuck shut, or if blood pressure is really high. Just like your glutes, if there’s more work put in over a period of time, the heart muscle will grow. In these cases, whatever’s causing the hypertrophy should be investigated.
2. If the heart keeps growing, it can start causing its own problems. For one, swole muscles of the heart wall can get in the way of heart valves, causing them to lose function. Second, ventricles can get so swole that muscle starts taking up area where empty space should be. When this happens, the chamber can’t hold enough blood, and the blood gets backed up into the atria. If the backup occurs for long enough, the atria begin dilating, leading to increased risk of arrhythmias. On top of that, if the ventricles can’t hold a lot of blood at once, then they can’t pump a lot of blood to your body either. It’s a whole thing.
I believe hypertrophy is an indicator that something bad is happening less so than hypertrophy causing bad things to happen.
I think it differs by organ and context. Hypertrophy occurs in the heart as it does with any muscle – you give it more work to do, and it gets larger. With the liver, the hypertrophy represents scar tissue. The liver can minimally heal itself, and in the process leaves excess scar tissue behind. And in the spleen, it’s because there’s extra blood products that’s causing it to fill up.
You mentioned the heart specifically. I’ll note two things about that here:
1. Heart hypertrophy commonly happens when the heart has to use more effort to push blood along. This can happen if the aortic valve is stuck shut, or if blood pressure is really high. Just like your glutes, if there’s more work put in over a period of time, the heart muscle will grow. In these cases, whatever’s causing the hypertrophy should be investigated.
2. If the heart keeps growing, it can start causing its own problems. For one, swole muscles of the heart wall can get in the way of heart valves, causing them to lose function. Second, ventricles can get so swole that muscle starts taking up area where empty space should be. When this happens, the chamber can’t hold enough blood, and the blood gets backed up into the atria. If the backup occurs for long enough, the atria begin dilating, leading to increased risk of arrhythmias. On top of that, if the ventricles can’t hold a lot of blood at once, then they can’t pump a lot of blood to your body either. It’s a whole thing.
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