Steroid Pros and Cons

The effects of steroid use has been widely documented, especially in the past couple of years with all the high profiled athletes subjecting themselves to a tainted legacy because of the need to keep there competive edge while there skills where slowly diminishing with age. Sending shock waves through the sports world and fans feeling disappointed and confused, athletes have been slowly coming out in the public eye for their past and current steroid abuse. These athletes have been emotionally distressed and this I imagine is extremely hard to adapt to and handle. But what about the physical damagetheir bodies are enduring with these powerful anabolic drugs? This is where a lot of different opinions come in to play, between the so-called experts and the self proclaimed experts. The so called experts being doctors and self proclaimed experts being “JUICERS” in the bodybuilding world. Some people would say “_Well look, he is a doctor he must be right” _ and I would say that I rather take advice after a bad break up from a friend with the same experience than a happily married radio show love expert telling me what is politically correct. But it is very hard to argue science, which leads me to read up on many different articles from the other side. Rick Collins a writer for elitefitness.com had a interesting article in 1999, that stated how the public was fooled by the physicians into thinking that steroids was not a performance enhancer and did not make people stronger. He then went on to say that congress, was more worried about making competitive sports pure and not so much on the actual health of steroid users. This being his own belief (not fact) says to me that he might be right. The United States of America has a way of punishing athletes who use these drugs as criminals with huge penalties. This makes Rick Collins argument strong. Something that I also found pretty interesting was that the same physicians who said in the 1980’s that steroids did not enhance ones performance retreated form that theory in the 1990’s.This left a bad taste in the sports communities mouths and made Doctors not look so bright. Where the physicians believed to be credible sources anymore? A majority of the sports and bodybuilding community said yes, they should be credible but just not when it came to steroids. There is a large population of steroid users that believe the “JUICE” had a positive impact on their life. These feelings probably came from people who did the drug in proper dosages. But like anything, too much can be unhealthy. Example tanning, alcohol, sleeping and so on. What I feel bothers America about steroids is not so much the health risks. Turn on a TV and flick through the channels. I would say you can probably come across something to do with steroids, but how much you want to bet it will be about a sports figure. Do the same thing on the internet, Google steroids. Bet you won’t get a story of a death due to steroids. Is it because there aren’t any stories on everyday people and steroids. No. I’m sure there is someone who is suffering from side effects from steroids. But who cares? It’s truly about integrity of competition. And I believe it is truly blown out of proportion. I am so sick of seeing these ball players getting smashed through the media, getting critiqued on every little thing they say and do. When the concerns are not about health in the news it is always about an athlete who “Cheated” .Always drama, I feel like newspapers and media in general are basically glorified tabloids. That is why I chose to research articles on two writers sitting on the other side of the fence on this topic.