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Steroids -
Steroids 2008
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Written by Frank Mangano
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Wednesday, 03 September 2008 01:20 |
‘Roid Ruse
It probably seems somewhat gratuitous – a natural health guy deriding the use of anabolic steroids (big surprise!) – but with the prevalence of its use in the sporting and bodybuilding world, I think there are a lot of young adults out there that truly believe the benefits of steroid use outweigh the risks.
When you think about it, this belief is at least somewhat understandable. After all, internal investigations into the use of steroids in Major League Baseball revealed its rampant use among several athletes, many of whom broke home run records as outfielders and threw high heat in their 40s as pitchers, leading to considerations for MVP and Cy Young awards. And in their contract years, these same gentlemen inked incentive-laden contracts worth millions of dollars. Granted, talent certainly had something to do with their improved play (and pay), but these fellas wouldn’t have used steroids if they didn’t work. And as their performance on the mound and at the plate indicated, boy did they work!
Non-professional athletes have paid attention – young ones, in particular – and the attention paid has not just been among males. One study shows that approximately 7 percent of teenage girls have taken steroids to “make weight” for their sport. But steroid use hasn’t been relegated to female athletes. According to a June 2007 study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 5 percent of the 7,500 girls questioned in a nationwide questionnaire admitted to having used anabolic steroids, the majority of them not participating in team sports. They also found that these girls were more likely to have participated in other high-risk behavior, such as sexual promiscuity (before the age of 13), drinking and driving, illegal drug use and attempts at suicide.
You may have already known that steroid abuse doesn’t discriminate among males and females or athletes and non-athletes, but the prevalence of its use by professional may lead you to believe that it’s not as bad a substance for the body as some suggest it to be. Perhaps you’ve asked yourself, “People in baseball and football who’ve been linked to its use seem to be living a healthy life; does it really do the kind of harm that it’s perceived to do?” Ask that question to friends of Chris Benoit, the WWE wrestler who committed suicide after killing his wife and 7-year-old son. Toxicology reports revealed his bloodstream contained steroids. I think they’ll give you a definitive answer. Or ask that question to the family of 1996 NL MVP Ken Caminiti, who died of a heart attack at the tender age of 41. Caminiti admitted to abusing steroids throughout his baseball career not long before he died. They’ll likely offer an opinion on steroid abuse as well.
The fact is, steroids do serious damage to the body’s internal organs, the heart particularly. Dr. Eric Braverman, who practices medicine in New York City, says that the use and abuse of steroids causes the heart to grow in size. And if the steroid abuser stops taking the steroids, the heart decreases in size. In other words, steroid use can be something of a catch-22: go off the steroids and your sperm count and other maladies associated with steroid use go away, but at the same time, your heart decreases in size – certainly something the heart muscle itself has a hard time enduring.
But if gambling with one’s life is not something that causes aversion to steroids, perhaps what happened to the chest of a 21-year-old bodybuilder will be enough. You can view the pictures at MSNBC’s health blog, The Body Odd, or by clicking here.
Have a barf bag available.
Steroids leave permanent scars, whether they’re in the cosmetic form – as the pictures indicate – or in the emotional form – as the wounds of steroid victims’ family members indicate.
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