Steroids : Not So Good After All

Steroids : Not so Good After All

In recent years there have been many stories of athletes, especially in baseball, that have gotten caught using steroids. People single out the idea that the competitor did not abide by the rules. Because of this narrow-minded act, they tend to not look at the harmful effects these drugs have on the body. Steroids are extremely damaging physically and psychologically. There are multiple ways in which a human can experience long and short-term effects from the use of these horrible drugs. The most common effects include diseases and severe brain problems. While HGH and Anabolic steroids are a serious concern for sports, it is a more prominent problem in baseball, but the frightening part people fail to recognize, is that the drugs cause life-threatening problems.

Steroids were invented by “A doctor by the name of Dr. Ruzicka, who in the early 1930’s created it for medical purposes, essentially to fight conditions like cancer and AIDS” (Steroids in Sports).The drugs are mainly byproducts of the male hormone called testosterone. When a person takes steroids, they are putting extra testosterone into their body. Excessive testosterone eventually leads to rapid muscle growth.

As humans use steroids, they can be faced with horrible health problems such as “high blood pressure, HIV/AIDS (when taken with shared needles), fluid retention, depression, anxiety, mania, low sperm production, and over-exertion” (Steroids in Sports). Additional effects include development of breasts in men, growth of facial and chest hair in women, faded testicles, pattern baldness, and increase risk of prostate cancer. In addition, steroids can bring about psychological consequences. Several of the many psychological side effects include “edginess, impatience, paranoid feelings, severe mood swings, obsession with body image, and angry and violent outbursts that people call “roid rage”” (What Steroids do to a Body). These conditions are not pleasurable for a person to have to live with. If the abuser has a family in which they provide for and take care of, the psychological consequences make tasks like these that much more difficult. Nobody should exhibit these horrifying characteristics to their loved ones at any point in their life.

One of the most common short-term side effects of steroid use is Edema, or in other words, water retention. Edema causes “swelling in the ankles, knees, feet and wrists. This condition can be constant for some people while taking steroids” (Mayo). Abusers with Edema can easily feel uncomfortable and their bones may not properly function. Another very probable short-term side effect is the “atrophy of the testicles. This condition causes the testicles to shrink and is caused by testosterone coming from another source other than the testicles themselves, causing them to shrink” (Christopher). Finally, the last common short