Before telling what the side effects of steroids in sports are, I’d like to give a quick and simple explanation of what steroids are what they do to the human body.
What are steroids?
The term “steroid” is a chemical name for any substance that has a characteristic structure consisting of multiple chemical rings of connected atoms. Common examples of steroids are:
- Vitamin D
- Cholesterol
- Estrogen
Steroids are essential for keeping the body running smoothly. Various steroids have important roles in the body’s reproductive system and both the structure and function of membranes.
As you can see, there is nothing wrong with regular steroids. The steroids I want to talk about are “Anabolic Steroids”.
To the next question: What are Anabolic Steroids?
Anabolic steroids are synthetic substances related to the male sex hormones (androgens). They promote growth of skeletal muscle (anabolic effect) and the development of male sexual characteristics (androgenic effects).
The proper term for these compounds actually is “anabolic / androgenic” steroids:
“anabolic” refers to muscle-building
“androgenic” refers to increased masculine characteristics
“steroids” refers to the class of drugs
Now that we have the explanations behind us, let’s jump to the side effects of steroids in sports. It’s no secret that anabolic steroids gets abused by either athletes, top entertainers or just regular people like you and me, that want to build a body builder like body. And abusing anabolic steroids can lead to serious health problems, some of which are irreversible. Major side effects of abusing anabolic steroids can include:
- Roid Rage
- Liver Damage / liver tumors
- Baldness
- Cardiovascular Problems
- Cancer
- Jaundice (yellowing of the skin due to an excess of bile pigments in the blood)
- High blood pressure
- Kidney tumors
- Acne
- Trembling
- Prostate Enlargement
- Prematurely halt of growth
- Growth of facial hair (women)
- Deepened voice (women)
- Menstrual changes
- Breast development (men)
I think this list includes most of the major side effects of abusing anabolic steroids. And as you can see, it can get pretty bad if you don’t know what you are doing. Or you know what you are doing, but you’re just being ignorant.
Today’s lesson: Don’t abuse anabolic steroids!
What do you think about using or abusing steroids?
Tue, Apr 22, 2008
Sport