Some Common Answers About Steroids and Sports
Posted on Feb 09, 2008 under Uncategorized |In the heat of the accusations of drug use for pitcher Roger Clemens, a survey came out about how professional athletes can influence younger athletes to use steroids and other performance enhancers. The survey showed that majority of grades 8 to 12 students confessed that they used anabolic steroids in order to achieve their goals in sports. They confessed they would use a pill or a powder even if they knew it would be bad for their health.
To enlighten a lot of people, Dr. Edward V. Craig gives some answers to common questions about the use of steroids and performance enhancers.
When asked if it were more dangerous for younger athletes to use steroids than for older ones, he replied that steroids are more dangerous for younger athletes. He explained that steroids supply a lot of synthetic testosterone to the body, which can lead younger players to premature puberty. One effect of this is that the growth in height stops. Steroids can also affect the mood and may cause either depression or aggressive behavior in young people.
When asked what the effect of anabolic steroids to the body is, Dr. Craig said that they increase the number of muscle cells. This leads to hypertrophy.
Dr. Craig also revealed that young athletes also take other performance enhancers like creatine, a protein powder that is mostly used as a nutritional supplement. Some teenagers take androstendione, a hormone that becomes testosterone when in the body. He added that though these may not be as harmful as steroids, taking them early in life may later lead them to taking greater-risk substances or drugs.
