Report: The Dangers of Anabolic Steroids

Many teenage body builders and athletes mistakenly believe that taking steroids involves all gain and little risk. Steroids do work, but what are the most probable consequences and side effects if you starting taking them?

Scientific Truth VS Scientific Fiction

Anabolic steroids are synthetic derivatives of the male hormone testosterone that are taken to build muscle, enhance performance, and improve appearance. The drug’s anabolic or "muscle-building" effects help the body retain protein, a necessary building block for the growth of muscles, bones, and skin.

These artificial substances were developed in the 1930's originally to help men whose bodies produced inadequate amounts of the natural hormone that is responsible for the development of masculine characteristics occurring at puberty, such as lowering of the voice and growth of body hair.

Now don't misunderstand some things here. You won't get huge if you start injecting yourself every day with one of the many "testosterone treatments" or with GH (Growth Hormone). If you don't eat huge quantities of food and train like a real warrior in the gym, nothing good will happen to you, no matter what.

The best thing that steroids can do is help those who use them to recover from their workout much faster than a natural bodybuilder. When natural bodybuilders need at least 48 hours rest before they train again in order to continue increasing their muscle bodymass, steroid users need just a few hours!

When most of us should not train more than 3-4 times per week, and every time we train we should not spend more than 1 hour in the gym, people that use steroids can easily train 6 times per week, splitting their sessions in morning and afternoon training, as well as they are able to spend easily 2 hours in the gym, getting stronger and bigger, week after week. (That's something that would make any natural bodybuilder get overtrained in no time!)

Consequently, these people are able to train longer and recuperate faster, making it much easier for them to increase their muscle mass as well as their strength.

The major side effects of anabolic steroid use include liver tumors, jaundice (yellowish pigmentation of skin, tissues, and body fluids), fluid retention, enlargement of the heart, (a precursor to heart failure), high blood pressure, atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries, (a precursor to coronary heart disease) elevated cholesterol levels, heart palpitations, heart attack, and finally steroids can impair the kidneys leading to kidney stones and kidney disease.

Some others are severe acne and trembling.

Additional Side Effects

Additional side effects include the following:

For men - shrinking of the testicles, reduced sperm count, infertility, baldness, development of breasts.

For women - growth of facial hair, changes in or cessation of the menstrual cycle, enlargement of the clitoris, deepened voice.

For adolescents - growth halted pre maturely through premature skeletal maturation and accelerated pubertal changes.

Changes

Athletes that use steroids can be identified by:

a) Quick weight and muscle gain
b) Purple or red-colored spots on the body
c) Swelling of feet or lower legs
d) Trembling
e) Unexplained darkening of the skin
f) Bad breath
g) Increased aggressive behavior ("roid rage")

Finally you should not forget that some physiological effects of steroid use can have profound effects on the mind, causing temporary personality changes in some. Users may exhibit uncontrolled aggression and violent behavior called "roid rage", in addition to severe mood swings, manic episodes, and depression.

The facts and the scientific evidence that we have to support how hazardous the use of anabolic steroids can be for your health is plenty. But I would prefer to present to you 5 of the most profound examples. After searching a lot and spending a lot of time trying to find the 5 best, here they are!

My first two facts will be based on the most important muscle in the human body. The heart! When one uses anabolic steroids, they do because they want their muscles to grow right?

Ok, as we said, steroids do make your muscles grow more (that's the good part), but they affect ALL the body's muscle growth (including the heart of course, and thats the bad part). The heart is a muscle that is also affected by steroids and the health consequences can be very very serious.

Fact 1

They found that during steroid cycles the users had left ventricles (the main pumping chamber of the heart) that were 25% greater in mass than the non-users! This increas in mass caused the walls of the steroid user's heart muscle to be almost 20% thicker while on steroids! Although the heart was bigger during active steroid use, the cardiovascular fitness of these individuals was nearly 18% less than non-users.

When the steroid users were off the steroids, their heart size decreased, but never fully returned to its normal size!(1,2) Now, if some of you think that it was just a "coincidence" and nothing more, read very carefully the second fact.

Fact 2

They were described in the study as "extremely large with profound muscular hypertrophy". They had won several state and national titles in bodybuilding and powerlifting. The twins had bodyfat levels below 10 percent, and followed the same diet and training regime on a yearly basis.

The primary test to access their cardiac function was echocardiography. (As I previously said, it's a machine that uses reflected ultra sonic waves to show the structure and function of the heart.)

Both men showed normal blood pressure readings. The drug-free twin showed a testosterone level of 6.2 nanongrams per mililiter of blood, and the steroid twin had a higher than normal level of 11.5 ng/ml! (The normal range for testosterone is 2.8-8.8, and as you can easily understand, the steroid twin had testosterone levels almost 3 times the high normal level)

The echocardiography tests showed that both men, with similar genetic backrounds and the same training and diet regimes, showed little difference in gross heart function. However, the steroid user showed a LARGER left ventricular wall size with a decreased ventricular compliance. (That means that the pumping chamber of his heart was LARGER than his brother's, while also being a bit stiffer!)

The heart stiffness that occurs in steroid-using bodybuilders is thought to be brought on by an increased sensitivity of heart muscle to catacholamines, such as epinephrine, induced by steroids. And guess what friends, this scenario may have played a role in the sudden deaths due to heart failure that have occured in a small percentage of regular steroid users.

Fact 3

Ten men used a steroid drug and eight men served as controls (placebo). The two groups were equal in their physical and competitive characteristics. The scientists found that serum lipoprotein (L-a) a genetic determinant of risk for cardiac disease, was reduced. (HDL-C over LDL-C was reduced).

That means that lipid profile investigations of individuals taking anabolic steroids have shown that high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C, a.k.a good cholesterol), decreases, while low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C a.k.a bad cholesterol), increases! (3)

Fact 4

Fact 5

More recently, one very famous bodybuilder (I won't say his name but I bet most of you will understand immediately to whom I am refering), said that according to his doctors who treated him for leukemia, it was not his use of anabolic steroids that caused the disease, but rather the growth hormone injections he has also taken!

(Also you have to know that there is research showing an increased incidence of leukemia in Japanese children being treated for growth hormone deficiency and dwarfism!) (4)

Conclusion

After reading these 5 facts, I hope you have realized that steroid use is totally worthless for you. There is no point in getting a great body, then also a "sick" body. There is no point in looking good now, just to look terrible after 10-20 years. (If you can stay alive.)

Every person's priority should be to live longer and healthier!

Excerpt by John Stamatopoulos, Bodybuilding.com