What's the big deal about steroids you've been hearing about?

Alot!  There are a few key things you should know about them.

First is that from the standpoint of many sports fans, the use of anabolic steroids or hGH, or any other performance enhancement substance, is cheating, pure and simple, by which they mean an unfair advantage, not available to all competitors.  The playing field is NOT level.

Second is that these substances are dangerous to the health of anyone who uses, or abuses them. 

In my clinical practice I treated a lot of male body builders, as well as amateur and professional athletes mostly in football, baseball and basketball.  It was very easy for me to know, right off the bat, who was using anabolic steroids.  Their "bad side effects" were classic: acne, aggression, depression, hair loss, gynecomastia (male breasts), prostate enlargement, kidney and liver problems, water and salt retention, and high blood pressure.

Anabolic steroids are all artificial versions of the natural male hormone, testosterone.

Like the real thing, they all stimulate rapid tissue growth, especially muscles—resulting in increased bulk, endurance and strength. They also mimic other characteristics of testosterone, like increased aggression and suppression of the natural hormone's production (which results in the shrinking of a man's testicles, after a while).

When used in female bodybuilders, they cause male characteristics to develop, like very pronounced muscles, deepening of the voice, with growth of the "Adam's apple" cartilages of the larynx, shrinking of the breasts, and the enlargement of the clitoris (so it may actually resemble a small male organ).  Anabolic steroid use will lead to cervical and endometrial cancer and possibly infertility.  Useage includes damaging of the liver, increased cholsterol levels, weakened immune system and a strong possiblity for cardiovascular damage or heart attacks.  Women who use anabolic steroids alos experience problems with their ligaments and tendons because their muscular strength increases so quickly that the ligaments and tendons cannot keep up. Women run the risk of experiencing far more negative effects than men because their bodies are NOT used to the levels of testosterone they are subjecting them selves to.   

In high doses, because they are artificial, anabolic steroids have been linked to life threatening liver tumors.  There is no doubt that they are dangerous to the health of anyone to whom they are administered, especially with over-dosing and/or absent competent medical supervision.

Finally, they are illegal without a prescription and a bona fide indication (ie., a medical reason to take them, like hypogonadism, meaning a very low, subnormal natural production of testosterone).

Human growth hormone is somewhat different. It is produced in the master gland, the pituitary, while testosterone is produced mainly in the testes and the adrenal cortex. But it, too, stimulates very rapid tissue growth, greater strength, endurance and faster recovery from injury, or training.

Often hGH is injected in high (non-physiologial) doses and it, too, should be administered ONLY by a competent, licensed physician.

The problem here is that the long term risks are not known. Theoretically, hGH could as easily enhance the growth of a tumor, somewhere in the body, as it could enhance the immune system to kill any potentially cancerous cells. No one knows. And of course, it still enhances performance, in a super-natural way (meaning "beyond the norm," not like magic, or spirits, or anything of that kind).

I AM a big fan of enhancing your own endogenous growth hormone, that GH made and stored internally, in your own pituitary gland. GH does enhance your immune system, promotes lean muscle growth, helps burn fat and literally makes you physiologically younger.

But there's a BIG difference between using what your own body makes, at blood levels similar to your own, when you were in your teens or early 20's, and taking massive injected doses, far in excess of safe, physiological parameters.

To do the former, which I DO recommend you do, try taking a dose of the amino acid L-arginine, at bedtime.  As a Weight Loss Client of mine, you have acess to this all natural supplement that does no harm.


Body Builders and anabolic steroids: