Why Do People Use Anabolic Steroids

Steroids (also known as 'roids, juice, hype, or pump) are any drugs or hormonal substances chemically related to testosterone, a male hormone that helps muscle growth. Anabolic means "building body tissue." Anabolic steroids help build muscle tissue and increase body mass by acting like the body's natural male hormone, testosterone.

People usually take in high doses of steroids to boost athletic performance and to do extremely well in competitions and sports, but sports and athletic competitions are not the only reason why steroids are used. Outside of sports, they are used because someone wants to change or make his or her physical appearence better, usually based on them thinking or having the problem that he or she is obese, underweight,
too weak or other personal views. Abusing Anabolic steroids is when athletes and other people want a shortcut to becoming bigger and stronger.

There are more than 100 varieties of anabolic steroids that have been developed, but only a limited number have been approved for human or veterinary use, and each of them require a prescription in order to be used medically in the United States.

Many of the illegal steroids are smuggled in from other countries, illegally taken from U.S pharmacies or made in secret laboratories. Estimates show that there are more than $400 million worth of black market (illegal) sales of steroids per year.

Physicians hardly ever prescribe steroids today, and the few remaining medical uses for them are generally limited to treatment of certain kinds of anemia, severe burns, and some types of breast cancer.

Anabolic steroids were first invented back in the 1930's, before the term steroid was even used. It was invented by a group of scientists, to help men whose bodies produced not enough amounts of the natural hormone that is needed for the development of masculine characteristics that occurs at puberty, such as lowering of voice, and growth of body hair, and sexual functioning.

Later, during world war two, it was found that the artificial form of testosterone could be used to help malnourished soldiers gain weight and improve their performance. After the war, athletes began to use steroids to make their performance in competitions better. In the 1956 Olympics, athletes, especially wrestlers, performed at exceptionally high levels.

After learning that those athletes were using testosterone, Dr. Zeigler, an American physician created a more particular form as what we know as anabolic steroids. In the 1970's, steroids became increasingly popular with not just olympic athletes but also professional sport players and high school atheletes. In 1975 the International Olympic Committee finally banned the use of steroids in olympic competiton.

Black market (or illegal) sales continued to increase in the following years and in 1988, a major federal rule of steroids was introduced as part of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, making heavy penalties for the sale and the possession of steroids. Previously steroids had been unscheduled and controlled only by state laws. Today, illicit sales of steroids are still accepted and surveys show that adolescent use of steroids is increasing and that a great number of adults are actively using sterioids.

There are two ways of taking steroids, some anabolic steroids are taken orally, others are injected into the muscle, and others are provided in gels or creams that are rubbed on the skin. Doses taken by abusers can be 10 to 100 times higher than the doses used for medical conditions.

Steroid abusers normally "stack" the drugs, meaning that they take two or more different anabolic steroids, mixing oral and/ or injectable types and sometimes even including compounds that are designed for veterinary use.
Abusers think that the different steroids work together to produce an effect on muscle size that is greater than the effects of each drug individually. That theory has not been tested scientifically.

Often, steroid abusers also "pyramid" their doses in cycles of 6 to 12 weeks. At the beginning of a cycle, the person starts with low doses of the drugs being stacked and then slowly increases the doses. In the second half of the cycle, the doses are slowly decreased to zero. This is sometimes followed by a second cycle in which the person continues to train but without drugs. Abusers believe that pyramiding allows the body time to adjust to the high doses and the drug-free cycle allows the body's hormonal system time to recover and do better. As with stacking, the benefits of pyramiding and cycling have not been approved scientifically.

Steroids make everything seem bigger and better than normal. People take steroids mostly because it helps them acheive something that they would probably not be able to do without them. Here are some reasons why people take steroids and what it does for them:

· Athletes involved in sports tthat rely on strength and size, like football, baseball or
wrestling.

· Endurance athletes, such as those that do track-and-field and swimming

· Athletes involved in weight training or bodybuilding

· Anyone interested in building and defining muscles

They take steroids because it makes their muscles and body abnormaly stronger so they dont have to do as much work.
They also think it makes them look alot stronger and better.

Steroids cannot improve an athlete's agility or skill. Many factors help determine athletic ability, including genetics, body size, age, sex, diet, and how hard the athlete trains. It is clear that the medical dangers of steroid use far outweigh the advantage of gains in strength or muscle mass.

Steroids can cause serious health problems to both men and women. Many changes take place inside the body and may not be noticed until it is too late. Some of the effects go away when the use of steroids stop, but some may not and can change you and out you in alot of danger. High school students and athletes need to be aware of the effect steroids have on growth. Anabolic steroids, even in small doses, have been shown to stop growth too soon. Adolescents also may be at risk for becoming dependent on steroids. Adolescents who use steroids are also more likely to use other addictive drugs and alcohol.

Here are some effects that can happen to both male and female:

· heart disease, kidney cancer, lung cancer, tumors,
cysts

· heart attacks/ strokes, blood clots, high blood pressure

· urinary and bowel problems (such as diarrea),

· depression, mood swings,hostility & aggression.

· sterility,

· eating disorders, nausea and vomiting

· beard and unwanted hair, or baldness

· risk of HIV,

· Jaundice (yellowing of the skin), Yellowing of tissues and body fluids,

· Swelling of feet or ankles, muscle cramps, Aching joints, headaches,

· Bad breath, oily hair and skin, acne

· Nervousness, Trembling,

· overdeveloped muscles and bones on an immature body,

· stunted height,

· Increased risk of ligament and tendon injuries,

· sleeping problems.

males

One of the more disturbing effects of steroid use for males is that the body begins to produce less of its own testosterone. As a result, the testicles may begin to shrink. Here is a list of some of the other effects of steroid use for males:

Reduced sperm count

Enlarged prostate (gland that mixes fluid with sperm to form semen)

Baldness

Development of breasts

Impotence

Females

Since steroids act as a male hormone, females may experience the following side effects:

Breast reduction

Increase in facial and body hair

Deepened voice

Menstrual problems

Steroids do not only effect the physical parts of people it can also effect people emotionaly.

Emotional effects

Steroids also can have the following effects on the mind and behavior, here are somethings that can happen to you emotionally if you take steroids:

· "Roid rage" which is severe, aggressive behavior that may result in violence, such as fighting or destroying things

· severe mood swings

· hallucinations - seeing or hearing things that are not really there

· paranoia - extreme feelings of mistrust and fear

· Anxiety and panic attacks

· depression and thoughts of suicide, etc.

Steroids effect the team and the sport because it is a form of cheating and shows that the person is not playing the game or sport the way its intended to be played. Success in sports takes talent, skill, and most of all, practice and hard work, but it wouldnt be fair if everyone else has to work very very hard and a drug just does it for them. It may help them win if it's a team sport but its cheating and may make you sick and have to sit out on other games.

Steroids doesnt have much impact on society in general, but it does make the standards of competitive sport a lot harder for honest athletes who just want to do their personal best. Because there are people out there making it harder for others by using steroids, the honest athletes find it hard because theyre not as good so they sometimes consider taking steroids themelves which may ruin their lives in the end.

As with any kind of illegal drugs, performance enhancing drugs will continue to be a huge problem in professional sport in the Future. It will be an ongoing process for scientists to come up with new tests to detect new drugs and steroids which are constently being developed and sold on the black market.