5 Reasons Not to Take Anabolic Steroids.
December 15, 2007 by Liz Lewis
Filed under Abs, Addiction, Drugs, Health, Misc., Morning News, Pro Sports
Steroid use and abuse is back in the news again with the recent release of the Mitchell Report, the result of a 20 month investigation into performance-enhancing drug use amongst professional baseball players. Disturbing but apparently not all that surprising news.
I guess, in a way, it’s kind of understandable why anabolic steroid use is so prevalent in the professional sports arena. And, let’s face it, they are all adults and in theory know what they are doing and what the risks are. But you have to wonder if they understand the full extent of what they are doing to their body and health.
Yes, performance-enhancing steroids can give you bigger biceps, triceps, and pecs. But in using them, you also get a whole lot more than you bargained for.
1. They cause serious health problems. Continual steroid use can cause liver tumors, heart disease, and a weaken immune system leading to internal bleeding, heart attacks, strokes, and viral infections.
2. They cause hormone imbalance, especially in teens who already have enough hormone imbalance going on to last a lifetime. Anabolic steroids will simply confuse the issue. Boys can end up with shrunken testicles, reduced sperm count, and breasts. Girls can become more masculine, with deeper voices, reduced breasts, and excessive body hair, including beards. Plus, steroids can stunt the growth spurt, resulting in staying short for life.
Let’s face it, getting through High School is difficult enough without having gender mix-up issues as well.
3. They are addictive. Steroid use can result in having to maintain an expensive drug habit. And withdrawal will hurt as users have to deal with mood swings, fatigue, loss of appetite, insomnia, restlessness, and steroid cravings. Many will also suffer depression (often for years following withdrawal) to such a degree that they might even decide that suicide is the only option.
4. They mess with your head. Initially, steriods can cause irritability and depression. Continual use can result in delusions and mania. And in the end, they can turn an otherwise meek and mild mannered person into a raging homicidal maniac, otherwise known as ‘roid rage’.
5. They are illegal. This doesn’t seem to bother users much. But here’s the facts. Anabolic steroids are classified as a controlled substance and as such, are only legally allowed to be sold by a pharmacist via a doctor’s prescription. If you obtain steroids any other way, you risk a jail sentence of up to five years.
And if all that doesn’t discourage you, then how about this…
You’ll get CAUGHT (witness Marion Jones, the Baseball League, etc) or DIE (Chris Benoit, Rob Garibaldi)
By the way, if you’re concerned about someone possibily using Anabolic Steroids, here’s a few resources that might be worth checking out: MedLine Plus, Anabolic Steroid Abuse, and NIDA for Teens
They can also cause shrinking in men, if you know what I mean. Not that that’s as important as some of what you listed, but it could be disastrous to some mens egos.
Absolutely!!
Can steroid use cause an increase in the chance of getting pancreatic cancer?
I had a friend who was a health nut. Perfect, heathy body, ate the perfect diet, never smoked, the only thing he did do was take steriods at one time. He was diagnosed at 48 with pancreatic cancer and died 39 days later. He was the opposite of everything that points to pancreatic cancer. Steroid use is the only thing I can think of that would cause this disease in this type of person.
Hi Maria,
Sorry to hear about your friend.
To be honest, I don’t know if there is any connection between steriod use and pancreatic cancer. I haven’t seen any when I was research information on the dangers of steriod use.
Stop using scare tactics. 1. roid rage is a myth if ur jackass to begin with your even a bigger one while on it. 2. No one ever uses AAS for a long time and death lol come on. 3. Any side effect is reversible like testicle shrinkage they grow back. If anyone is planning to do AAS don’t do it until your atleast 21 and have done all your research before trying it.
my granddaughter has asthma, she been onsteriod for a long time. when she go to the dr. he give her a steriod iv bag,a steriod shot plus steriod to take at home. can taking all of this hurt her.
hi rachel, there’s a big difference between steriod usage for medical conditions such as asthma and steroid usage for sports. Doctor monitor steriod usage for respiratory conditions is common.
Additionally Rachael the type of Steriod your granddaughter is taking are known as Catabolic (meaning shrinking) Steriods and are not in the same class with Anabolic (Growing) Steriods. The doctor she is seeing is the best person to direct these types of questions to. Many people make the mistake of calling Androgenic Anabolic Steroids simply Steroids. Investigate, ask questions, consult physicians but dont assume that all steroids are lumped into the same boat.
Usual scare tactics, based on moral posturing, do a google for cancer caused by smoking, hard research results come up, do a search for cancer caused by steroids, and this type of crap comes up, no hard facts, just a bunch of drones like this author saying
drugs are bad m’kay
Bottom line, steroids have their place, instead of using scare tactics that will keep someone from using steroids when they are needed for medical reasons, it might be a better idea to instill a sense of integrity in the youth of the next generation, something which seems to be missing more and more, like this author here, willing to lie and exaggerate the truth just to push some personal moral agenda , which ironically is immoral because its deceptive.
Okay,
Listen PLEASE, I NEED HELP HERE.
My bestfriend is a 13 year old(about to be 14) kind of nerd at his school. The bully of the school wants to fight him. He has gotten into fights before but he thinks he will get beat up in the fight. He wants to use steriod JUST for the fight then stop after he beats up the school bully. What will happen to him if he takes it?
Will it make his life time shorter if he takes anabolic steroids just for about a week or so, so he can get a little bigger and can win the fight, will it shorten his lifetime?
And lifting weights wont work because they will take like 3 months and he doesnt have that much time.
PLEASE SOMEONE REPLY TO THIS COMMENT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, I NEED HELP WITH THIS NOW, IT WOULD BE VERY HELPFUL IF SOMEONE COULD REPLY TO THIS COMMENT SOON.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!