The Use of Anabolic Steroids in Society Today

1216 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Negative affects of steroids on atheletes

The Use of Anabolic Steroids in Society Today

The use of steroids in our society today is very common, that is with prescription. But that is not the kind of steroids I am talking about, I am talking about Anabolic Steroids. Anabolic steroids are a very sensitive issue in the world of sports today. Even though the side effects are life threatening, men and woman alike continue to submit their bodies to this illegal drug. Anabolic steroids are taken either through pills or injected directly into the blood stream with a needle. In 1994, 1,084,000 Americans, or 0.5 percent of the adult population, said that they had use anabolic steroids, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Under Federal Law it is illegal to possess or distribute anabolic steroids for nonmedical uses. However, heavy demand has generated a black market with estimated sales of up to $400 million a year, according to a NIDA Research Report, Anabolic Steroids: A Threat to Body and Mind (NIDA July/August1997).

Anabolic steroids are drugs derived from the male hormone testosterone. They promote muscle growth and increase lean body mass. Although anabolic steroids have many approved medical uses, some athletes and others seeking to improve performance and physical appearance abuse them. These nonmedical uses are illegal and carry many health hazards. There are many signs that one can look for in a person who is suspected of using Anabolic Steroids. There is dramatic gain in weight and muscle mass over a short period of time (NIDA September1997). Another is severe acne. Others could be water retention, baldness or hair loss, even in the worst cases severe and sometimes violent mo...

... middle of paper ...

...nry no knows steroids are not worth the risk. “I am here to tell people and especially young people that yes it can happen and yes it will happen to you” (Mask p.1-2)

Bibliography:

References

Anabolic Steroid Use. (1997, September). NIDA Capsule Series, http://www.drug-

abuse.com/information/anabolicsteroid/steroid1.html.

Questions and Answers About Anabolic Steroids. (1997, July/August). vol.12,

http://www.nida.hih.gov/NIDA_Notes/NNVol12N4QASteroids.html

Mask, Dr. Allen. (1996, July). Steroid Abuse (9 paragraphs). WRAL OnLine.

Ullis, Dr. Karlis. Journal of the American Medical Association. 1999; 283: 0209-1.

King DS. Effect of oral androstenedione on serum testosterone and adaptations to

resistance training in young men: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of the

American Medical Association. 1999; 281: 2020-2028.

Show More
Related

  • Anabolic Steroid Use in Professional Sports

    1264 Words  | 3 Pages

    Anabolic steroids have become an epidemic amongst athletes since the 1950's when a Swiss company by the name of Ciba Pharmaceuticals introduced what was to become the most popular anabolic drug for athletes called methandrostenolone. “By this time, the era of the steroid athlete was well underway and world records were being shattered and re-shattered with remarkable regularity.” (Oklobdzija & Weyrauch, 1989, para 3) From then on, there have been many cases throughout professional sports where athletes are reported or caught using anabolic steroids.

    Read More

  • Consequences of Steroids in Sports

    3000 Words  | 6 Pages

    Every year high school, college, and professional athletes try to get just ?a little bigger,??a little stronger,? and to increase the amount of weights they lift by, ?just a few pounds.? To achieve these goals athletes often turn to anabolic steroids to aid them in achieving their goals. Anabolic steroids are a quick, but dangerous way to increase muscle mass, and they can carry many risks including some life threatening side affects. Years after taking steroids athletes can live to have serious heart problems, sterility, or possibly not even live, all because of foolish decisions they made in the past. These potentially fatal drugs are not widely known by young athletes at all, because they don?t know about the risks that can go along with them. In school, every student is taught about marijuana, cocaine,heroin, sex, liquor, and all those other health risks, but they?re never taught about ?roids? or ?juice.? (slang words for steroids) That should be changed, because it is known that student athletes often use steroids, not knowing the risks. Many times they take the risk because they hear about professional athletes taking steroids. But, despite their widespread use in sports, steroids can have more negative than positive effects on athletes of all types. Steroids are chemical substances that can be made naturally by the body or produced synthetically. There are many different types of steroids that are used for different things other than just athletes enhancing muscles. For example, there are types of steroids that can be used by women as birth control pills, and other types that are used for menopause treatment. The abuse of steroids is almost always found to be in the case of athletes, and that is the focus of this paper. ?All anabolic steroids are synthetic compounds whose molecular structure is similar to that of the natural male sex hormone testosterone. Testosterone affects development of the male body in two important ways: it has an anabolic effect - increases growth, especially of muscular and skeletal tissue - And an androgenic effect - increased development of male sexual characteristics. Anabolic steroids are constructed stythetically in such a way that they maximize the anabolic effect of testosterone while minimizing the androgenic effect.? The way that steroids work can easily be interpreted by a foo...

    Read More

  • The Facts About Anabolic Steroids

    1315 Words  | 3 Pages

    Steroids are used daily in America in body building, medicine, and food production. There are three main types of steroids, Corticosteroids, Anabolic steroids, and hormone steroids. Corticosteroids are the kind of steroids doctors prescribe to patients when they are sick or have some kind of medical issue. These steroids reduce overactive immune responses and reduce swelling. Anabolic steroids are used for building muscle. They also contain a lot of testosterone. Testosterone is naturally produced by one's body but too much can cause a vast variety of problems. Hormone steroids are the steroids people put in animals (DeNoon).

    Read More

  • The Use of Steroids in Major League Sports

    816 Words  | 2 Pages

    Steroids have been around for a long time. “The first people to use anabolic steroids for athletic enhancement were the Russians who discovered the drug and had great success.” They stared to use the steroids in the 1950’s. The steroids they used had many side effects. When they started to use them, they had a high chance to die of heart disease and many other things. During the Olympics in 1950 and a little beyond the Russians were know as the best weight lifters in the world. No one knew that they used steroids. After a while, their secret was out and the Bulgarians started to use them.

    Read More

  • Anabolic Steroid Use by Athletes

    3175 Words  | 7 Pages

    Steroids are used as much in sports now as they have ever been in the past, even with stricter testing and knowledge of the harmful side effects. Olympians are especially prone to use these drugs because of the great pressure put on these athletes, but it is becoming wide spread through all sports. For the most part, the athletes get away with steroid use because of new technologies and using patterns which make the steroids undetectable to the tests.

    Read More

  • Effects Of Anobolic Steroids

    1390 Words  | 3 Pages

    You’ve all seen them, the enormously large muscle-heads at the gym, the participates of the World’s Strongest Man Competition, the amazing offensive tackles, and the lightning fast runners. They were all unnaturally strong, and looked like gods. You tend to obsess over how beautiful their bodies are, how strong they are, or how fast they can run. All you can think about is reaching that level of athletic excellence, and nothing will hold you back. At times like these some people tend to take the quick fit to get closer to their idols, in the form of steroids. But what individuals tend not see is the horrible side effects that accompany the use of these anabolic steroids. These powerful drugs have both positive and negative results from their use. Along with increased strength and size, users of steroids suffer from a wide range of sicknesses such as cancer, shrinkage of testicles, bad acne, hair loss, damage organs, intense mood swings, and impotence.

    Read More

  • The Safety of Using Anabolic Steroids

    1530 Words  | 4 Pages

    Even if you didn't have any or little knowledge of steroids and were asked this question, you would probably answer no. Why? Would it be because a high school kid somewhere in California died from taking them? Or would it be because you read it in Readers Digest? Many people think you are selling your soul to the devil when you take steroids. There is an incredible amount of myths, misinformation, and misconceptions about anabolic steroid use and their dangers. Although there are risks, most people are misinterpreting them.

    Read More

  • ANABOLIC STEROIDS

    366 Words  | 1 Pages

    Anabolic steroids are drugs containing, or hormone-like substances, that are used to increase strength and promote muscle growth. They were first developed in the 1930s in Europe to treat undernourished patients and to promote healing after surgery. Competitive weightlifters began using steroids in the 1950s as a way to increase their athletic performance. Use gradually spread throughout the world among athletes in other has been estimated that at least one in 15 male high school seniors in the United States--more than a half-million boys--has used steroids. Some are athletes attempting to increase their strength and size; others are simply youths attempting to speed up their growth to keep pace with their peers. In some countries, anabolic steroids are available over the counter. In the United States, a doctor's prescription is necessary.

    Read More

  • Steroids Essay

    655 Words  | 2 Pages

    Anabolic Steroids or simply put, “Steroids”, is a medicine which has become increasingly popular in the last few decades, specifically in the world of professional sports and body building. In a literal term, the word anabolic means building of the body muscle and by using anabolic steroids, the potential user becomes stronger, sharper, larger and tougher than he would normally be. The consequences of these steroids could be much bigger to a human body and the usage of such illegal products could put an individual’s body at great risk (Haupt & Rovere, 1983).

    Read More

  • The Negative Effects of Anabolic Steroids

    2110 Words  | 5 Pages

    The intent of this essay is to show that steroids have many negative effects and that steroids, and other natural supplements, should be closely studied by the FDA.  This essay will also support the claim that the professional sports industry needs to eliminate steroid use and set a good example for younger athletes.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Speech: Steroid Use Among Athletes

    1241 Words  | 3 Pages

    My issue over the concern of athletes have been struggling with the usage of steroids has widely spread among athletes and others; not only do steroids give an athlete a hard times but it’s also an unfair advantage to the other athletes and what they’ve accomplish. “Besides making muscles bigger, anabolic steroids may help athletes recover from a hard workout more quickly by reducing the amount of muscle damage during the session” (“Steroids in Sports”,2005). Now a days steroids are everywhere as an athlete. Many males and female young athletes preferably take it because they want to look and feel good when it comes to impressing someone and trying to become someone they look forward too. Young teens and adults try to cheat themselves in the career of their dreams. When it comes to a sport, teen athletes are not aware of what type of consequences may happen to them at the time. It may come to the time where it’s too late to take care of. In other cases, some athletes may like feeling the aggressive they get when they take drugs such as steroids. Athletes shouldn’t take steroids as the harmful health effects of the anabolic steroid in population wise. Many people have had their lives ruined by the use of illegal steroids and yet the desired effects are overwhelming that people tend to forget about the results and consequences that may effect. Athletes on steroids believe taking steroids will enhance their performance, strength, and size without having to put necessary work. These benefits, however, are associated with much short-term and long term risk.

    Read More

  • Steroids Essay

    615 Words  | 2 Pages

    Steroids are being used more commonly today in normal people's lives. They are also being used so athletes can become stronger, but they have many consequences that follow the advantages. Most people believe that steroids are a false measurement of an athletes ability, and others believe that steroids are good because athletes can become stronger and make their sports more exciting to watch. This is a very important issue today because athletes today are using steroids to gain an unfair advantage over the other athletes.

    Read More

  • Steroid Use By Athletes Should be Banned

    2039 Words  | 5 Pages

    Steroids became an option to athletes in the Olympics and other major sporting events during the 1950’s. But this use of steroids among athletes only became widely apparent when Canadian sprint runner Ben Johnson tested positive for steroid use after winning the gold medal for the one hundred-meter dash during the 1988 Olympics (Francis, 45). Now a skinny fifteen-year-old can just walk down to the local gym and find people who either sell or know how to get in contact with those who sell the drug that will make him envious of his friends. Steroids are an attractive drug. While steroids seem harmless to the unaware user, they can have a risky effect. Most of the time whether the users are new or experienced, they do not know the dangerous consequences steroids can have on their bodies and their minds. Though steroids cause a relatively insignificant number of deaths in our society, the banning of steroids is justified because steroids have a lot of side effects not known to the uninformed user.

    Read More

  • Should Performance-Enhancing Drugs Be Banned?

    1125 Words  | 3 Pages

    Steroids can seem harmless to the uninformed user but they actually have harmful side effects. According to the article “News examines relationship between steroids and heart-related deaths,” published by New York Daily News, “The study (presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions in Chicago on Nov. 12, 2006) shows that deaths jumped from 476 from in 1980-1992 to 987 from in 1993-2005. Overall, 1,463 young athletes died between 1980 and 2005”(NY Daily News). This is a terrifying statistic and will only continue to rise.

    Read More

  • Effects of Different Drug Use: Short Term and Long Term

    1346 Words  | 3 Pages

    Another dangerous substance is anabolic steroids. People use anabolic steroids as an illegal way to enhance their testosterone within their body as well as increase their muscle mass. Every time someone uses anabolic steroids it is considered abuse because using anabolic steroids is never recommended for you by any officials. Side effects of the drug can result in paranoid jealousy, extreme irritability, delusions, and impaired judgment from a large ego. (Steroids) Long term effects include euphoria, confusion, sleeping disorders, pathological anxiety, paranoia, and hallucinations.

    Read More

More about The Use of Anabolic Steroids in Society Today

Open Document