Steroids Research Paper

Steroids are natural substances with many different effects in the human body, which begin over several days. The primary use of steroids in health care is to reduce inflammation and other disease symptoms. Steroids make the whole immune system less active, which can be very useful in illnesses where there is an immune component. Steroids are the ultimate anti inflammatory drugs. Steroids are a family of lipid molecules that includes cholesterol, steroid hormones, and bile salts. These amphipathic molecules are derived from two-carbon acetyl-CoA units, whose combination leads to the formation of five-carbon isoprene molecular units, and finally to the formation of a seventeen-carbon tetracyclic hydrocarbon, the steroid skeleton. The fused six membered cyclohexane rings each have the chair conformation . Each member of the steroid family has a structure that differs from this basic skeleton in the degrees of unsaturation within the ring system and the identities of the hydrocarbon side chain substituents attached to the rings. These substituents are in most cases oxidized to alcohol, aldehyde , ketone , or carboxylic acid functional groups. …show more content…
If you believe the popular media, you would think that there is simply no level of cholesterol low enough. If you are over a certain age, you are likely to be tested for how much cholesterol you have in your blood. Some people might be prescribed a cholesterol pill if their cholesterol is higher than about 200 mg/100 ml (5.1 mmol/l). Millions of people around the world take these pills, thinking that this way they are taking good care of their health. What these people don’t realize is just how far from the truth they are. The truth is that we humans cannot live without cholesterol. Let us see