Officially, the use of any kind of steroids for performance enhancement in sports is strictly banned by most of the sports authorities in the world. Despite this, everybody is aware that few sportsmen use these drugs for building up their muscles. People were engaged in steroid use a decade back and when it was caught by the sports authorities the restriction was imposed. However, in spite of that many people are often caught for using banned steroids.
What are the plus and minus points of steroid use?
Steroid use is not just limited within professional sports level, but these days many young sportsmen prefer to use them while participating even in college level sports activity and show unbelievable performance. If you believe in the statistics produced by FDA, about 4.9 per cent males of school level have used some of the anabolic steroid at least once in their life. Same data available for female is about 2.4 per cent.
In the United States of America, all steroids are listed as schedule III category as these steroids can be abused and may create physiological and psychological dependence. It is really very dangerous to know that people engaged in organized sports below the age of 25 often use hormones like testosterone. Since, at this age our body is still in developmental stage, where additional introduction of hormones can create many kinds of side effects. There can be various cardiovascular problems and various kinds of mood swing may develop that can ruin the life.
What are the dangers of steroids?
The worst part of the story is when steroids are taken by any sports person for non-medical use then they take much higher dosage as compared to the recommended level. There can be chances of various organ failures, which can be totally irreversible too.
Following are few dangers of taking these drugs regularly for nonmedical use.
- Development of acne – skin problem
- Mood swinging problem – depression and hypomania
- Hostility and aggressive behaviour
- Changes in immune function
- High BP or cholesterol
Drugs used by sports people
A number of websites meant for body builders and sportsmen often suggest certain alternatives of these steroids to mimic the similar effects. However, the concern is that even these steroid alternates are used in excess by most of the sportsmen to achieve better results that can pose serious problem at later stage.