lol I just wrote about steroids for an English assignment that seems relevant here. I'm just going to copy and paste it, would be cool if people could tell me what they think.
THE RECREATIONAL USE OF ANABOLIC STEROIDS
The use of Anabolic Steroids has been a controversial subject in sports for many years. Although it is very hard to pinpoint the exact date at which steroids became popular as performance enhancing drugs, it is believed that the Russian Federation (the former USSR) was using this performance enhancing drug as early as the 1952 Olympic games in Helsinki (2).
While I think the use of anabolic steroids in sports is nothing less than cheating and should be punished severely, I am indifferent to the use of the drug in a recreational manner, such as using it for purely cosmetic reasons. My personal opinion of the drug is; as long as the drug is not being used to gain a competitive edge in sport, a person should be able to do what they want to their own body as long as no one else comes to harm as a result as seems to be as a person being legally allowed to smoke, drink alcohol, use body building supplements, ingest diet pills, take medically unnecessary vitamin pills, have cosmetic surgery performed or have botulism injected into their tissues. All of these have health risks and benefits of their own in the same way that anabolic steroids have. While I am not necessarily trying to argue for the complete legislation of the drug in recreational use, my opinion is that steroid use should be decriminalised in such a way that enables people who want to take the drug, should be able to do so in a safe environment, without the risk of having to go through dangerous methods of obtaining the drug. The arguments that evidence my opinion are set out further in this essay.
Anabolic steroids are a formed from a series of drugs created in the 1930's which increase testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (The male sex hormone) in a person's body (6). The use of this drug can stimulate muscle growth, muscle regeneration and bone growth. While there are many different types of anabolic steroids some of which include; Anadrol, Oxandrin, Durabolin, Equipoise (4). There are two main ways in which they are introduced to the human body, either as oral steroids in the form of tablets or intramuscularly taken penetrating the skin and allowing the steroid to enter the muscle tissue. The most common areas for the inject able steroid are the gluteus muscle (buttock), thigh muscle and shoulder muscle (9).
The medical uses for steroids include, bone marrow stimulation, growth stimulation and stimulation of appetite in those with chronic wasting conditions (8) such as AIDS and cancer. Steroids are commonly used to stimulate male puberty in cases where puberty is delayed to an extreme extent (7). While the medical uses of anabolic steroids are easier to find and show evidence for, the non-medical use of this drug is more associated with gaining strength, endurance and muscle regeneration. The most typical use of these would be in amateur and professional sport and body building.
Side Effects/Research
The medical side effects of anabolic steroids are well publicised and they include (19):
· Liver Damage
· Increased risk factors for cardiovascular system damage,
- Erectile dysfunction, and impotence
- Enlargement of breasts (in men)
- Shrinkage of testicles
- A growth in emphasis on masculine features in women
The Psychological side effects however are much less researched, in particular, the phenomenon known as 'Roid Rage'. Which is a term given to people who act in very aggressive or hostile manner after taking large doses, usually on a regular basis, of anabolic steroids.
My research has found that "Roid Rage" has simply not been studied in enough detail to be able to associate violent and aggressive behaviour closely with the drug. The drug, especially in the media has typically come under fire with very little evidence and little understanding of the subject. In the case of Chris Benoit, the wrestler who killed himself, wife and son (10), steroids were blamed - but with no medical evidence or backing whatsoever. He did happen to have been taking the drug at the time, so the media deemed the drug to be responsible. However, what was completely ignored was research such as American Roulette (11), which was a study published by The Violence Policy Centre in America in 2006, which researches into murder-suicide rates in America. This research was published a year earlier than the Chris Benoit murder-suicide so it does not impact the research of the study. In the study the words 'steroid', 'anabolic', or 'roid' are not mentioned once as a possible result out of the 264 cases studied within the 18 page report.
On the other hand, even though the more well known side effects of steroids are largely over exaggerated or misrepresented in the media, there is strong evidence to suggest that a person can become psychologically addicted to and dependent on steroids. This is most commonly found in people using steroids who are self conscious to begin with. As they feel they are weaker and smaller than their peers and increase the amount a typical person would use or is recommended to use (13). In a psychological study of eight weight lifters, six of them showed signs of dependency on the drug. Even though the evidence that shows steroids can be addictive in certain cases it has not been proven that this is not through the person's own will and judgement. It is unknown, and hard to study whether the patient has a pre existing illness that could affect the probability of getting addicted to anabolic steroids.
Body Dimorphic Disorder is a mental condition which effects up to 2% of Americans (14), where those people affected are self conscious of their body image to an unhealthy extreme. Without evidence it is hard to link addiction to anabolic steroids on Body Dimorphic Disorder, but it is also hard to ignore that other factors contribute to people getting dependent on a non chemically addictive drug.
Supplements in weight lifting have been around almost as long as steroids. Eugen Sandow was called the first modern body builder, because he was one of the first people to take dietary needs into consideration as well as exercise to increase performance almost 100 years ago(16). In the 1950's the first example of a body building supplement was created and sold by Irvin Johnson. In America the supplement industry is worth $22 billion dollars per year (17). There are thousands of supplement brands on the market across the world. Very few have any information on the product at all, and even if there is, it is difficult and unwise to trust the source and integrity of the information. The manufactures are able to employ a 'scientist' or 'physician' to promote the benefits of the supplement, no matter how minor these may be. This method is very open to corruption due to the ease with which quick money can be made. The director of the documentary 'Bigger, Stronger, Faster'', Christopher Bell reveals how he creates his own fully legal supplement brand for $1.50 and markets it for $60 (18).
To compare steroids and supplements is very difficult because of the vague nature of supplements. Anabolic steroids are a chemical compound that cannot really be altered in meaningful ways. There can be different strengths of the drug and different ways of ingesting it, but for the most part the effect and impact will be relatively similar. However supplements have a huge range of what can be in them, do not need to prove how effective they are and undertake only the bare minimum of research on each brand, usually by a 'bought' expert, to demonstrate their possible benefits. The two major differences between steroids and supplements are; supplements are legal and anabolic steroids are illegal in most countries, in spite of the fact that anabolic steroids side effects, although relatively poorly researched from a recreational perspective, have had at least some proper and rigorous scientific studies conducted on the medical aspects over the years.
Before doing any research into anabolic steroids I knew very little about the subject. The only concerns I had over the drug was that it should be not used in sports to give an unfair competitive advantage over those not taking the drug. However, the scarcity of research of steroid usage in the recreational health industry is a cause for major concern.
Anabolic steroids may easily be a healthier alternative to supplements, diet pills or protein shakes, but there is so little research on steroids to find their non medical side effects, risks, short and long term effects on a recreational user that it is almost impossible to know. This appears to be short sighted considering the huge amount of unhealthy alternatives in the health industry. One could legally spend hundreds of pounds on supplements for losing weight, gaining weight, gaining muscle and muscle regeneration, even though very few brands even bother to prove their own claims. It is also extremely difficult to know what is actually in these brands as there is so much misinformation, lack of research and unethical marketing techniques designed to part a person from their money. The media representation of recreational steroid use is particularly poor as well. If an incident occurs where the person has used steroids, the media seem to find a way to link the drug with the incident , in spite of a seemingly vast lack of research into the psychological effects of the drug.
In summary, the side effects of the use of anabolic steroids simply to improve physique is deserving of far more research in order that the public can be informed and guided by evidence rather than anecdote and media coverage.
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