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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Side Effects Of Anabolic Steroids On Athletes

By Ashton Taylor

The sporting industry is a million dollar industry, and many athletes go to great lengths to enhance their performance in order to give their best in the field. This is one reason why the intake of steroid has risen in recent times, and why the testing prior to an event includes testing for drug and steroid abuse. This protects athletes from using unfair means to increase their performance.

One performance boosting drug that is very popularly used is known as "Anabolic Steroids," and some familiar brand names for this incorporate Dianabol, Deca Durabolin, and Sustanon.

Anabolic steroids in fact work by resembling androgenic hormones similar to testosterone. Since our hormones provide us energy and power, these thus help weight gain, muscle building, speed, and stamina in the field. These kinds of drugs are quite usually consumed in sports including weight lifting and field events. Apart from being just popular, these are quite controversial drugs and scientists are not certain of whether or not they actually help improve performance.

Conversely, athletes that consume these swear by them and insist that their increased performance is payable to the steroid use.

One of the reasons behind the dissimilarity in these opinions is the "placebo effect". As athletes think that the drug will assist them in recuperating their performance, they put in more effort into their game and consequently do better. One more reason is that the testing is carried out by using much lower amounts of drugs as compared to what is normally consumed by athletes.

These drugs work by means of testosterone which is the hormone that helps male human beings develop during their puberty and adolescence stages. Testosterone brings about changes in sexual features caused due to the androgenic properties which includes but is not limited to hair growth, penile growth, amplified aggressiveness, and minor characteristics such as growth in muscle density, bone building, etc which is the result of the anabolic properties of testosterone.

Anabolic steroids imitate these changes while trying to bring down the androgenic effects and having just the anabolic properties play a role (thus the name), but this is not entirely possible and this causes harmful side-effects in the athletes who use these steroids.

With the increase in the amount of testosterone, the most prevalent side effect in males is unproductiveness where the body stops generating testosterone on its own to recompense for the amount being taken in through the drugs. These steroids will also cause liver damage, cholesterol build up, and growth of breast tissue in males.

An additional side effect of this is increase in fierceness. In women, the testosterone causes increase in facial hair, changes in the menstrual cycle, and deepening of the voice.

These drugs may be taken orally, via injections, or via creams and gels. Dosages taken by athletes are extremely high, and generally well over one hundred times greater than the suggested dosages.

Generally athletes take two different types of the drug at the same time to generate enhanced results, starting from lesser dosages and increasing these for twelve weeks after which they taper them back to a lower level. This is believed to assist the body adjust to the drugs.

Disclaimer: The anabolic steroids information provided in this editorial is for instructive and amusement purposes only. This article does not, in any way, disregard the prohibited position and/or consumption of anabolic steroids for purposes other than those accepted by the FDA or other officially recognized authoritarian bodies.

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