Steering Clear of Steroids. (Unit 4: Street Drugs).(the dangers of using anabolic steroids)

Guys on the big screen and in ads are totally buff. Some have proportions that are almost impossible to achieve--without the use of steroids. How much do these images influence teens? The Drug Enforcement Administration says that the number of teens who use steroids has increased by 50 percent in the last four years.

Steroids can and do hurt the thousands of young men and boys--and some young women and girls--who use them to get what they think is the "perfect" body. Liver damage, infertility, and severe acne are just a few of the possible hazards of steroid use. Surveys show that more than 60 percent of young people are unaware of these negative effects. Now is the time to get the facts about steroid use.

"Steroids" is shorthand for "anabolic-androgenic steroids." Anabolic means "muscle-building" and androgenic means "increasing masculine characteristics." They are chemically related to the sex hormones (testosterone, estrogen, progresterone) that create the physical characteristics of being male or female.

Anabolic steroids can legally be used by doctors to treat delayed puberty, some types of impotence, and the body-wasting that AIDS and cancer patients suffer. It is illegal under federal law to possess or distribute steroids for nonmedical use. People illegally use steroids because of their ability to increase muscle mass and strength. Athletes, particularly those in sports like football and wrestling, claim that steroids allow them to train harder and longer.

It's true that steroids can increase muscle mass and strength, but at far too high a price. Steroids cause serious physical and psychological damage, some of which is irreversible even when the drugs are stopped.

Teenagers are especially vulnerable to the negative effects of steroids. Normally when sex hormones begin to be produced at puberty, they stop growth of the long bones of the legs that determine height. Steroid abuse makes that growth stop sooner than it should, which means the steroid abuser will never get any taller.

One of the side effects of steroid abuse that gets the most attention is 'roid rage. That describes the wild mood swings, extreme irritability, aggressiveness, and uncontrolled anger that some steroid abusers develop.