The Effects of Steroids on the Human Body and Steroid Abuse

The Effects of Steroids on the Human Body and Steroid Abuse by Athletes For many years, the use and abuse of anabolic-androgenic steroids have been linked closely to athletes. Steroids come in different forms. They can be taken in pill form or injected straight into the user’s muscles by a needle. There are many sports that are associated with steroid abuse like weightlifting, basketball, and track and field. Anabolic-androgenic steroids are synthetic forms of male sex hormones, like testosterone.They speed up the growth and development process of muscles in the body. Steroids were originally developed around the 1930s in order to treat hypogonadism, which is a disease that prevents the male testes to not produce enough testosterone for its functions. Once scientists began to test steroids on animals, the same effect of increased muscle size was present in the animals. This immediately led to the abuse of steroids by body and weight lifters, and then closely followed by athletes from all kinds of different sports to enhance their performances.Whet her the user is male or female, certain sexual mannerisms of the male body will begin to produce in their body. There are several temporary and permanent side effects of abusing steroids. Temporary side effects include acne, increased breast size in men, and aggression. The sebaceous glands in the skin become inflated with excessive steroid use. Once this happens, the oils in the glands are increased which causes the skin to break out with acne. Another effect would be gynecomastia (increased breast size in men).This occurs when the body converts extra testosterone into female hormones, like estrogen, and female breast tissue is sometimes formed creating breasts on the man. Females will also experience male characteristic changes to their bodies. They might notice that their voices may be deepening because the testosterone from the steroids sends male signals to the brain. Facial hair and body hair with begin to grow rapidly on the female’s body, along with coarse skin and sh runken breasts. Both men and women will experience â€Å"roid rage† which is a heightened aggression for no certain reason.This anger can lead to irritability, stress, and violence. The long term side effects can include HIV, cardiovascular problems, stunted growth, and weight problems. HIV, not taken very seriously by must steroids abusers, is one of the most dangerous and deadliest side effects of steroids. This is because people don’t think they can get HIV even though most of the time they are sharing their needles with a numerous amount of other users. HIV could be spread from one person to another just by using one needle.Using steroids can increase one’s blood cholesterol which can lead to heart problems, heart attacks, and even strokes. The new weight of the user’s muscles puts an unnecessary strain and pressure on the heart, because it has to pump more blood to so much more tissues in the muscles. Stunted growth mainly affects teenagers going thr ough puberty because once the brain senses a certain amount of hormones in the body; it sends a message to the bones to stop growing to the teenager will most likely be shorter than the average height for their gender, ge, and weight. One last long term side effect of using steroids would be weight gain and other weight problems. People who eventually stop abusing steroids often end up having a weight problem. If they bulked up with lots of muscle, these muscles will turn to an absurd amount of fat on their body. They also have an issue with losing the excess fat because the muscles were so used to being injected with steroids. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has written a list of banned drugs that all athletes are not allowed to use to enhance their performance.The list includes steroids that can be taken orally or steroids that can be injected by a needle into the abuser’s muscle. There have been thousands of athletes that have been banned from the respective sports bec ause of doping (using steroids) while training and/or participating. Several doping scandals in the athletic world have unfortunately come up in the past. One example would be the steroid scandal of Marion Jones. She had won the 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, and the 4Ãâ€"1 meter relay in the Sydney Olympics.Around 2005, there was an investigation to see whether she was doping or not. Marion denied ever using steroids before or during the Summer Olympics. But in 2007, she admitted in court that she lied to the investigators and two grand juries saying she had in fact used steroids during the Summer Olympics. Because of this confession, she was sentenced to six months in 2008 prison for lying to the prosecutors who were investigating her case. In an interview with Oprah, Marion Jones admitted that she most likely could have won in the Sydney Olympics without the use of steroids.Honestly, if she was confident enough to know that she was going to win without doping, what was the poin t of taking steroids in the first place? It makes me sad to hear that there are hundreds of thousands of doping scandals like this and even in other sports. If you’re good enough in what you’re doing, I think that you don’t need to over-do it by adding steroids into the mix. Marion was stripped of her gold medals from Sydney. Nowadays, WADA and other anti-doping agencies are cracking down harder on drug testing athletes several times before and after games and races.If you know you’re not good enough and you feel like you have to take steroids, don’t bother wasting your time because sooner or later someone is going to find out and you’ll end up embarrassing yourself and your family. It feels better to win knowing that all you did was work hard, keep to eating a healthy diet, and train as much as you could, instead of getting lazy and buying steroids. I understand people need to see that they are â€Å"the best† instead of just believi ng it, but there are other ways to improve your performance and do well in whatever sport you play.