Anabolic steroids

Anabolic steroids are synthetic coumpounds formulated to be like the

male sex hormone testosterone. Many athletes use anabolic steroids male

and female alike, such as body builders , weightlifters, baseball players,

football players, swimmers, and runners. They do so because they mistakenly

believe that they will gain strength and size.

In a male testosterone is released by the leydig cells in the testes. The

testosterone has two main functions androgenic and anabolic. Androgenic is

the development of male sex characteristics. Anabolic is the development of

muscle tissue.

To treat patients who suffer from a natural lack of testosterone

pharmacoligists alter one form of testosterone slightly, increasing th length of

time the drug is active. Testosterone was first isolated in 1935, soon forms of

testosterone such as dianabol, durabolin, deca-durabolin, and winstrol were

produced.


One of the main effects of anabolic steroids is to increase the number

of red blood cells and muscle tissue without producing much of the

androgenic effects of testosterone. There are only four legal uses for steroids

treatment for certain forms of cancer, pituatary dwarfism, and serious

hormone disturbances.


There are two forms of anabolic steroids those taken orally and those

injected. The immediate effects of both are mood swings of many different

kinds. In one study, physicians Ian Wilson, Arthur Prang, Jr., and Patricio

Lara found that four out of five men suffering from dippresion when given a

steroid suffered from dillusions. A research team from Great Britian Found

that a patient given steroids became dizzy, dissoriented, and incoherent.

Physicians William Layman and William Annitto have had a case of a

young man who was diagnosed as schizophrenic took steriods to help with

his wieghtlifting. After taking these drugs he suffered severe deppresion and

anxiety and had trouble sleeping.

Most people who use steroids do not have side affects this severe.

Steroids make changes in the electroencephalogram (an image of brain

ellectrical activity). Researchers believe that these changes are responsible for

some of the behavior changes in users of steroids like increased hostility

and aggressivness.

Even though there not supposed to some of the masculinizing effects

of testosterone still show on users of anabolic steroid . People who use

them sometimes develop acne, deepend voice, abnormal hair growth. Some

of these side effects can not be reveresed. Men who use steroids may become

more or less interested in sex.

The most severe effect of anabolic steroids is on the liver they call it

peliosis hepatis or blood filled cysts in the liver. If the cysts rupture they can

cause liver failure which can kill a person. After stoping the use of steroids

though these cysts may become smaller and dissapear. Steroids can also

cause cancerous tumors in the liver that can also kill they can also dissapear

if the drugs are not used anymore. Steroids are also increase the risk of

getting gallstones.

Use of steroids also effects your cardiovascular system. There are two

kinds of cholesterol in your body high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL)

and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. HDL is good for the body but LDL is

very hazardous to your health. Using steroids lowers the number of HDL in

the body in most of the users. The lowering of the amount of HDL in the

body puts the person at a higher risk of developing high blood pressure and

blood-clotting problems. Some of the physicians also think that steroids also

cause abnormal fat deposits in the body and changes the way the body

processes carbohydrates.

Men who use steroids also can develop serious reproductive system

problems. Steroids lower the amount of sperm in the semen which makes

conception difficult or even impossible. A mans testes will decrease in size,

and the amount of natural testosterone and the hormones that nourish them

also decrease. In some users the prostate gland will get larger. Most of the

symptoms of the drug use goes away after the drug is not used anymore but

some of them stay such as abnormal tissue in the liver, testes, and prostate

gland.

There are also serious effects that take place in women as well. besides

the masculinizing effects the steroids lower the amount of female hormones

for example estrogen and progestrogen which are essential to the function of

a womens menstrual cycle. Some women claim to stop menstruating

completely.

Steroids are prohibited in any competion wether it be international or

national. Even though this is true many top athletes as well as amateur

athletes use steroids. Athletes first used drugs in compettition in 1954 when

the team physician for the world weight lifting team, John Ziegler, went with

the team to the world championships in Vienna, Austria. Ziegler then met the

Russian team doctor that told him that the Russians where using testosterone.

Ziegler brough the news back to the united states and soon every weight lifter

was using steroids. Thirty years later it was said that four out of five weight

lifters where using steroids.

I told you earlier that there is only four legal uses for steroids but in a

recent report it was said that only 20-30% of the steroids produced where

used for those purposes. Another study taken of where the athletes got these

drugs said that 36% of them got them from a physcian, 10% got them from

trainers, 9% from pharmacists, and 45% said that they bought them illegally.

Now the big question. Why do atheletes use this drug? Well its

because of the false information that steroids will get you bigger and stronger

than a person that is dieting and training hard. Researchers have concluded

though that using steroids does not get the user any bigger or stronger but

only increases hostility and aggresiveness. Some researchers say that the

added aggresivness and hostility may make a person train and work harder.

Part of the body size contraversy is about the type of tissue

growth that drugs promote. Now, every researcher agrees that steroids do

make the users gain weight, but some researchers think it's in real muscle

tissue and others think that it's in abnormal muscle tissue and that the weight

gained is due to water retained in the body. The ASCM states that steroids

gain weight only in the lean mass compartment of the body.

In May of 1986 the federal government set up a task force with the

U.S Department of Justice, the Food and Drug Administration, and the

Federal Bureau of Investigation to prosecute anabolic steroid users as well as

dealers. The first athlete to go to prison on steroid use charges was former

british track star David Jenkins. He was sentenced to seven years and was

fined $75,000 in 1987. By 1990 there was 125 legal actions on steroid related

charges in twenty seven different federal districts. About eighty five people

recieved charges totaling up to eighty years in jail time on steroid related

charges. They were fined $1.2 million and the government has siezed about

$18 million dollars worth of anabolic steroids that includes counterfeit,

diverted and smuggled supplies. The Food Drug Administration has limited

the number of anabolic steroids that can be sold and because of this it is

estimated that the black market makes about $400 million a year on

anabolic steroids alone.

Most pharmacies that manufacture anabolic steroids have improved

their security efforts. Some of the steroids have actually been taken off the

market which makes it even more difficult for the black market dealers to

obtain legal manufactured drugs. New ways for the dealers to make and buy

the drug have been created to serve the demand for them. The government

now believes that most of the steroids now produced and being sold are more

of a health risk.

A spokesman for the Justice Department anabolic steroid offenses are

"a high priority item" for the government. One of the highest concerns is

steroids and there attraction to younger people because they are exposed to

drug dealers so much. Many of these kids buy drugs that are unsterile and

have been manufactured under filthy conditions.

So far in this report all I have been talking about is the bad things that

anabolic steroids have been asssociated with well now its time to talk about

some of the good things that they are good for. Anabolic Steroids are used for

some medical applications such as chronically ill patients during nutritional

support, patients with cronic anemias, patients undergoing kidney dialysis,

patients with osteporosis, patients with a defiiciency of testosterone.

Following trauma or major surgery patients usually respond to the

stress with a catabolic response which is attributed to increased body

demands for proteins and calories for wound healing and energy production.

If these demands by the body are not met a significant wasting of body

tissues will occur. The wasting of body tissue is vital to the patient. So

doctors give patients anabolic steroids in this stage till the patient gets back to

his or her normal stage.

Throughout my research of this topic I read alot of diffferent stories

about anabolic steroids. I read from the researchers that anabolic steroids

show few if any effects at all and I read from athletes that there is a very

large effect on muscle gain and endurance. I came across only one book

though that addressed this issue between researchers and atheletes. The book

sayed that The American College of Sports Medicine stated a report on the

use and abuse of anabolic steroids. It stated that for many people any benefits

of anabolic steroids are small and not worth the health risk. Yet almost all the

athletes who use anabolic steroids feel that the steroids had a great effect and

that they would not have been successful without them. The big gap between

researchers and athletes has caused a big contraversy athletes say one thing

and researchers say another. The researchers have found a reason that maybe

is the cause that anabolic steroid users see efects that researchers say are not

possible they call it the "placebo effect".

The placebo effect works by the power of suggestion athletes believe

that the steroids will improve there performance so they do. The placebo

effect is real the performance is improved and the gains are not imagi