Steroids figure in sports headlines for the past three decades constantly in the bad light. Why not? They were responsible for the downfall of the most illustrious and promising athletes in America. Some of the most prestigious sports organizations and international sports bodies were under fire. Coaches resigned. Athletes quit, in shame and in defeat.
Steroids spell doom for sports stardom and are a sure train wreck to budding careers. Ben Johnson realized so in the worst possible way in 1988 Summer Olympics. In 1998, the whole Festina team was not allowed to join Tour de France after their team car was found out to have contained performance-enhancing substances. All high profile cases, all bad sports scandals.
But are steroids a new means to enhance performance? The Greeks were the first among the ancients who had found a way in boosting energy and power to outdo others on the field. Wikipedia noted that anecdotal references to steroid-like products were first found in the tale of Dromeus of Stymphalos in 480 B.C. Allegedly, he won the marathon on account of his diet that consisted mainly of meat. Today experts find out that meat contains a lot of Vitamins B and Creatine, which when combined would produce startling results in rapid muscle formation and stronger body.
Other notable practices of the old were eating the testicles of cattle, particularly sheep and goat. Protein-rich meats, dairy products, and cheese were purportedly chief sources of extra energy and undeniable edge in sports. In the 1980s, Lasse Viren of Finland thanked his consumption of reindeer milk for the gold medals he had harvested. Hence, the history of steroids or any of their kind has spanned for more than two thousand years!
It is not hard to understand then that negative effects of steroids are not only modern consequences of research. Or that they were known only in our time. For many years, steroids and their predecessors, and medicines in general whether crude or advanced, always have trade-offs and have been meeting controversies.
What however is apparent today is that the side-effects of steroids or other drugs are given more room to be discussed and feared than their beneficial properties. With the added scandals that consumes and demands media mileage, the more that the public are goaded to believe on the effects behind performance-enhancing substances.
Food and Fitness dictionary defines steroids as artificial hormones whose properties resemble to that of testosterone. They come in many forms: tablets, powder or injection. Steroids are developed with the purpose of increasing muscle groups and their formation, improving body strength, and providing an extended amount of endurance and power. For these and many other results, it is no wonder then that athletes are among the first groups of people who were attracted to the promises and potential advantage that steroids can give them. Testosterone, a hormone that the body secretes naturally, can do the work most of the time. Steroids will actually just speed up the effects that testosterone would produce in the body.
With proper prescription and guidance by competent medical personnel, steroids can deliver the promises a lot faster than what the normal body without steroids would have. The increasing body weight and the gain in muscle mass have to be coupled with aerobic, oftentimes vigorous, exercise in order to prepare the body for the added weight.
Steroids are feared to produce undesirable side-effects. Children’s Health Disctionary says foremost of steroids’ side-effect is the transformation of females to males, the process called masculinization. These are irreversible growth of body hair, vocal cords are affected and would produce booming voice, and the size of clitoris would increase. For the males, particularly those that have undergone puberty, side-effects are frequent urination, breast tenderness and enlargement and frequent erection. The metabolism of steroids would also cause liver diseases, upset stomachs, and effects on the lower extremities.
Effects also include “roid” rage, which is aggression and hostility associated with administration of steroids. This means that those who are using steroids are likely to become aggressive in the least, or in the absence, of conceivable provocation. Psychological effects have been reported to include depression, increased state of euphoria, and the dullness or insensitivity to pain and fatigue. Steroids have also been reported to have negative interaction with other drugs.
With all these things being considered, is it safe to take steroids? Most of the cases for psychological effects have not been scientifically proven and are results of misconception and hasty generalization. Remember that these side-effects would only be very certain only in the absence of professional help.
- Post Time: 05-16-13 - By: http://honorbiopharm.com