Essay on The Epidemic of Steroid Abuse in America

Many people believe that drug use in professional athletics is not a serious problem, however it is more widespread and serious than people think. In professional athletics the use of drugs is looked upon as somewhat of a serious problem, but is also very discrete and low key. Every once in a while one might see a prominent figure in a certain sport being reprimanded for the use of some outlawed drug, however this is just one of the many who happened to get caught. Athletes today seem to find no moral problem with using performance-enhancing drugs, or in other words cheating. Also many of them feel that because they are "stars" there should be no repercussions for their illegal activity.

Whether it be from a world news headline or a small excerpt in a sports magazine, most everyone has heard of a steroid abuse scandal involving a big name athlete. However, it isn’t just the heavy hitters who are doping up. Ordinary people in search for the upper hand in athletic performance are following similar steroid cycles as the pros. As it stands, anabolic steroids are illegal for any person to buy without a valid prescription. Regardless of this law the steroid epidemic of the common person hasn’t died down, in fact, it’s been growing since steroids invention during World War 2. The attempt to curtail the steroid epidemic has failed because of the rise in steroid use. Instead of stiff legal punishment, there needs to be more preventative action against steroids such as early education.

Respectively, there are many effects from steroid use. First of all, increase in steroid use is the main effect when steroids are easy to obtain. Students wanted to try more in steroid when it is inexpensive and easy to obtain in the gymnasium, chat rooms, and workout center (Lipsyte 2). Therefore, the percentage of steroid use had been increased from 3% in 1995 to about 5% in 2001; as well as 43% of 12th graders said steroids were readily available, as did 30% of 10th graders, and 20% of eight graders ("Steroid Use"). They keep increasing every year even though there are some warns about that. Even though it increased a couple years ago, steroid use seemed to declined and limited more nowadays.

Steroids (anabolic) are a drug that was discovered and made by medical scientists in the last 1930’s to help with medical problems. The drug was made to help with many medical problems such as testosterone, growth, sexual functioning, and other medical problems such as helping people with HIV to help grow musical. It also helps with many other diseases. Like any other drug on the market people learn that the drug can be used for many other ways. Steroids can enhance athlete’s performance as well as bodybuilders and is used in almost every sport out there. The use of steroids has become a widespread problem. Steroid use has caused many help problems with the misuse of the drug and has caused the drug to be illegal for people to use them in

The video presented opened my eyes to the effects steroids has on the body and the effect society has on steroids. Before watching this video, I had assumed steroids were a “bad” synthetic drug. Though in reality, it’s a synthetic testosterone and if administered properly it can be used in a healthy manner. Physicians prescribe it for male patients who cannot produce testosterone, or to treat muscle loss, anemia, stunted growth and delayed puberty (CITE). However, most people using steroids do not have an issue producing testosterone, nor any other clinical reason. These people have recognized that steroids are able to enhance their physical performance –strength, speed and enlarged muscles. Unfortunately, those using this substance are putting

Specifically, steroids have many bad side effects. Steroids increase the level of low-density lipoprotein and decrease the level of high-density lipoprotein, which could lead to a condition where there could be a disruption of blood flow, further leading to a heart attack (National Institute on Drug Abuse). By allowing PED use by athletes, the use of steroids would go up. If steroid use goes up, there’s a greater risk of athletes having heart attacks or strokes. Another possible side effect that comes with the use of steroids is liver tumors and peliosis hepatis. Both of these have been known to cause internal bleeding which is very dangerous (National Institute on Drug

The debate about steroid use is important so that the uses of steroids can be more clearly articulated, such as health, competition, sports and personal fitness. Steroids should be legal for people to take if they choose to do so because if used not habitually they can be very beneficial to the average weight lifter. Steroids have always had a bad wrap. From the constant jokes about juice head bodybuilders, to sports coaches talking to their student athletes about why steroids are bad and not a good choice for them. Steroids are seen as cheating. Steroids took on the national media’s attention in the late 1990’s

Primarily, steroids are a kind of medical aid that have turned into a problem in professional sports. “In the professional ranks these drugs are often abused in order to gain a competitive edge on other athletes, and to help recover more quickly from training sessions and injury” (steroidabuse.com). These add muscle and, as an example for baseball players, assist in hitting the long ball. Performance-enhancing steroids are used normally by men at the middle age and younger. To elaborate, “Males between the ages of 19 and 40 are the most common abusers of AAS” (steroidabuse.com). This age of adults are the common users because from the age of 19 to 40, they are still able to compete at their best. To add, “In another study NIDA found that 1,084,000 Americans, or 0.5% of the adult population, admitted to using AAS” (steroidabuse.com). This use has quickly increased in the last couple decades especially.

Recently a documentary was released by National Geographic Channel on The history, advantage and disadvantages on Steroids, revealing several people, famous and prominent individuals have lost their lives; Eddie Girero died at 38 years due to heart disease, Brian Pilman a professional wrestler died at the of 35, also of heart disease. Both men were addicted to steroids. Ben Johnson a Canadian, who want gold medal for the United States in the 100 meter race, got his gold revoked, because he was a steroid addict. However Steroid’s side effects are still yet to be investigated from the medical point of view.

In the past three decades, steroids has been becoming a serious problem more than ever in the athletic field. Steroids are anabolic drug "to build" growth hormones that include the androgens (male sex hormones) principally testosterone and estrogen and progestogens (female sex hormones). Steroids were first developed for medical purposes. They're used in controlling inflammation, strengthening weakened hearts, preventing conception, and alleviating symptoms of arthritis and asthma. Unfortunately research has shown that steroids have been abused in almost every kind of sport. Although steroids contribute to a muscular body, usage should remain illegal because they physically deteriorate and mentally destroy the body.

Legalizing steroids is dangerous because they are not controllable. Steroids are becoming popular, but no one is stopping to take a look at all the facts about the use of them. Remy an avid steroid user who regrets using steroids suggests, “There is no controlled way to use steroids” (Campbell 3). Everyone’s bodies react different to what steroids can do. Some more dangerous than others. Controlling steroid use is impossible because everyone uses different amounts and even a little can be dangerous. Harrison Pope a professor of psychiatry at Harvard’s McLean Hospital says, “The preliminary data on steroids suggest that long-term use damages the muscle of the heart, significantly increasing the risk of an attack” (Butterworth 2). A continued use of steroids would do damage not only on the heart but the whole body as well. Heart damage is very likely while using steroids. Views of the opposition suggest that they are not worried about the un-controlling factors. Tim Cowlishaw a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette states, “I think if we made everything legal, we would learn eventually which drugs and creams, and heaven forbid, antler sprays actually have benefits and what their risks are” (Cowlishaw 1). If society made steroids legal, controlling amounts would not be imaginable. Anyone could get their hands on it, which could lead to over-use and endangerment of human health.

The reason athletes take steroids is to obtain the short term effects gained by the substance, such as increased muscle mass, higher stamina, and a “manlier” appearance. However, these “gains” are soon hindered and replaced with many health declines that are fatal, will shorten your lifespan, or make it complete misery. Some of these negatives are: mood swings, aggressive behavior, early balding, severe acne, and hypertension. These are the least to be worried about. The more severe consequences include liver damage, irregular heartbeats, increased cholesterol levels, tumor growth, and the risk of hepatitis (if injected with a needle) (Healthresearchfunding.org). In 1992, former NFL defensive lineman Lyle Alzado passed away from brain cancer caused from his strong drug abuse when in competition. He was only 43 years old and admitted to spending $30,000 a year to support his addiction (Puma, ESPN). The strength of the addiction many athletes develop to these PED’s is incredible. The drugs become their only focus and they lose sight of other things, such as what's best for their family because the drug is taking over their lives. According to Puma, Alzado's ex wife said she called the police at least five times during the course of their marriage because her husband often physically abused her due to his mood swings. There is strong

Doctors warn that steroids elevate blood pressure among other things. They also say that they increase LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) and lower HDL cholesterol (the good kind). If these do not eventually ruin a steroid user’s life, something else will. They have been known to take a toll on some of the most important parts of the body through various ways including enlargement of the heart, liver damage, and kidney failure. With men, large doses of steroids can even cause the body to shut off its own production of testosterone, leaving the steroids as the only supply. Eventually, the lack of this hormone leads to a reduction in the amount of sperm a man can produce which eventually can put him at risk of infertility. Synthetic steroids sometimes cause enlargement of the prostate gland, which causes pain when urinating and some studies have shown links of steroids to prostate cancer, among other types. These are just a few of the countless medical risks that come with. (Bjornlund

Steroids can also be an addiction. If you have been taking them for the past 8 weeks, assuming good diet and training, chances are that you became very big, strong and quick. You feel unstoppable after the 8 weeks of use. Suddenly you taper them off, up until you completely stop their use. After a few weeks you will feel depressed due to low testosterone levels and may have suicidal thoughts. According to Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse if left, untreated some depressive symptoms associated with anabolic steroid withdrawal have been known to persist for a year or more after the person stops taking the drugs. So it’s no wonder that there are people out there that never stop using them.

(The use of performance-enhancing drugs is becoming relatively mainstream. Approximately 3 million people in the United States have used anabolic steroids (Silver 2001), with usage rates as high as 12% among young men and 2% among young women (Bahrke, Yesalis & Brower 1998). Not only are newscasts filled with reports of steroid use by both Olympic and professional athletes, but studies indicate that even teen athletes are using these performance enhancing