Diff betw. hormones and steroids???

Question

Hello folks. I think I already know the answer to this question but I just need some confimation and clarification from my fellow scientists. Is a hormone and a steroid the same thing? If yes, what is it that makes them the same? If not, why not? Can a steroid be a hormone? Can a hormone be a steroid? Can you give me an example? The reason I'm asking is 'cause I don't understand why GROWTH HORMONE i illegal. I mean a lot of my guy friends are into working out and I don't understand why growth hormone is in the same category as steroids, ya know what I mean? someone clear up the science part of that for me please.... thanks muchly

Answer 1

"Hormone" and "steroid" mean two different things. But some substances are a hormone AND a steroid. A steroid is a type of molecule with a particular structure. I don't know if you've seen molecular diagrams in a chemistry class, but steroids look like little bits of chicken wire (like 4 little hexagons stuck together). They are all slightly different and have slight different effects.

A hormone is a substance produced in your body that travels through the blood and has effects on other parts of your body. There are probably thousands of hormones, controlling things like growth, metabolism, sexual development, etc. Hormones have different chemical structures - some are proteins. Growth hormone is a protein. Some are other types of chemicals. Some hormones are steroids - they have that chicken wire structure. Examples are testosterone, oestradiol, cortisol, progesterone, aldosterone.

The "steroids" that body builders take are either testosterone or synthetic chemicals with a similar structure based on testosterone. Predictably, they have 'masculine' effects like building muscle, making people more aggressive, etc. They also fool the body into thinking that it has plenty of testosterone and doesn't have to bother making any. Testosterone is normally made in the testes, so these will probably shrink and eventually become inactive.

Growth hormone is a protein (a 'peptide hormone') and has different effects. I don't know why guys trying to build muscle would use it, I'm not sure how it would help them. It certainly won't make them grow. Adults who have too much growth hormone (for example because they have a brain tumour that's producing it) develop very abnormal growth of some of their bones and start to look strange, it's called acromegaly. They also develop diabetes.

I live in the UK and as far as I know, steroids and growth hormone are prescription-only drugs - meaning it's illegal to take them without a medical prescription. This is because they are very harmful unless they are used for a good reason and under medical supervision. This has nothing to do with whether they are steroid hormones or any other type of hormones, it's just because of their potentially dangerous effects. And obviously anyone taking part in sport cannot use illegal drugs or performance-enhancing drugs.

Answer 2

Steroids are one of chemical class of hormones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormone

"Chemical classes of hormones

Vertebrate hormones fall into three chemical classes:

- Amine-derived hormones are derivatives of the amino acids tyrosine and tryptophan. Examples are catecholamines and thyroxine.

- Peptide hormones consist of chains of amino acids. Examples of small peptide hormones are TRH and vasopressin. Peptides composed of scores or hundreds of amino acids are referred to as proteins. Examples of protein hormones include insulin and growth hormone. More complex protein hormones bear carbohydrate side chains and are called glycoprotein hormones. Luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone and thyroid-stimulating hormone are glycoprotein hormones.

- Lipid and phospholipid-derived hormones derive from lipids such as linoleic acid and arachidonic acid and phospholipids. The main classes are the steroid hormones that derive from cholesterol and the eicosanoids. Examples of steroid hormones are testosterone and cortisol. Sterol hormones such as calcitriol are a homologous system. The adrenal cortex and the gonads are primary sources of steroid hormones. Examples of eicosanoids are the widely studied prostaglandins. "