Performance-enhancing drugs: Know the risks #2

Anabolic steroids

Possibly the most well-known of the performance-enhancing drugs are the anabolic steroids.  Steroids, in various forms, have been around in the body building arena for decades and other ‘power’ sports for almost as long.  They are still in use because of the fact that if you want to develop big muscles they do work, despite the long-term health impacts and the many side effects.  Read on to learn more.

What are they?

Some athletes take a form of steroids — known as anabolic-androgen steroids or just anabolic steroids — to increase their muscle mass and strength. The main anabolic steroid hormone produced by your body is testosterone.

Testosterone has two main effects on your body:

• Anabolic effects promote muscle building.
• Androgenic effects are responsible for male traits, such as facial hair and a deeper voice.
• Some athletes take straight testosterone to boost their performance. Frequently, the anabolic steroids that athletes use are synthetic modifications of testosterone. These hormones have approved medical uses, though improving athletic performance is not one of them. They can be taken as pills, injections or topical treatments.
• Why are these drugs so appealing to athletes? Besides making muscles bigger, anabolic steroids may help athletes recover from a hard workout more quickly by reducing the muscle damage that occurs during the session. This enables athletes to work out harder and more frequently without overtraining. In addition, some athletes may like the aggressive feelings they get when they take the drugs.

Designer steroids

A particularly dangerous class of anabolic steroids are the so-called designer drugs — synthetic steroids that have been illicitly created to be undetectable by current drug tests. They are made specifically for athletes and have no approved medical use. Because of this, they haven't been tested or approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and represent a particular health threat to athletes.

Risks

Many athletes take anabolic steroids at doses that are much higher than those prescribed for medical reasons, and most of what is known about the drugs' effects on athletes comes from observing users. It is impossible for researchers to design studies that would accurately test the effects of large doses of steroids on athletes, because giving participants such high doses would be unethical. This means that the effects of taking anabolic steroids at very high doses haven't been well studied.

Anabolic steroids come with serious physical side effects as well.  

Men may develop:

• Prominent breasts

• Baldness

• Shrunken testicles

• Infertility

• Impotence

Women may develop:

• A deeper voice

• An enlarged clitoris

• Increased body hair

• Baldness

• Infrequent or absent periods

Both men and women might experience:

• Severe acne

• Increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture

• Liver abnormalities and tumors

• Increased low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the "bad" cholesterol)

• Decreased high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the "good" cholesterol)

• High blood pressure (hypertension)

• Heart and circulatory problems

• Prostate gland enlargement

• Aggressive behaviors, rage or violence

• Psychiatric disorders, such as depression

• Drug dependence

• Infections or diseases such as HIV or hepatitis if you're injecting the drugs

• Inhibited growth and development, and risk of future health problems in teenagers

Taking anabolic-androgenic steroids to enhance athletic performance, besides being prohibited by most sports organisations, is illegal. In the past 20 years, more effective law enforcement in the United States and Australia has pushed much of the illegal steroid industry into the black market. This poses additional health risks because the drugs are either made in other countries and smuggled in or made in clandestine labs in the country of sale. Either way, they aren't subject to government safety standards and could be impure or mislabeled.

Next cab off the rank is Androstenedione.  Check in tomorrow for the full rundown.