Issue Of Teenage Steroid Use example essay topic

What are Anabolic Steroids? Anabolic steroids - or more precisely, anabolic / androgenic steroids - belong to a group known as ergo genic, or so-called 'performance-enhancing,' drugs. They are synthetic derivatives of testosterone, a natural male hormone. 'Anabolic' means growing or building.

'Androgenic' means ' or generating male sexual characteristics. Most healthy males produce between 2 and 10 milligrams of testosterone a day. web for Steroid Use The most common reasons people use anabolic steroids are to: increase muscle mass increase strength train harder reduce the recovery time needed after training Some people believe the benefit from taking steroids is physiological, they make people feel that they are stronger or faster. Others believe that they make people feel that the yare more aggressive and so they are able to train harder. Steroid Usage Among Teenagers Steroid usage has often been stereotyped to football players, weightlifters and bodybuilders. New research suggests that this is far from true.

Instead, most heavy steroid users are middle class white males, 35% of which do not intend on participating in sporting events. 26% of high school age steroid users cited personal appearance as their primary motive for using the drug. These new trends in steroid use have been attributed to the 'new male image' that is being splashed throughout advertisements and magazines. Teenage males develop a desire for the lean, mean and muscular look exemplified by Calvin K lien models and others. The quickest way to success is through anabolic steroids. Many of these teenagers will risk possibility of the side effects associated with steroid usage in exchange for respect.

Despite massive weight and muscle gains, many steroid users are never quite happy with their physique. This condition is being labeled as 'reverse anorexia' by psychologists and doctors. 'I have seen a kid gain 100 pounds in 14 months and still not be satisfied,' reports Neil Carolan of Bry Lin Hospital in Buffalo. Carolan has counseled over 200 teenage steroid users. Arnold Schwarzenegger, once a steroid user himself, addresses the issue of teenage steroid use. 'Teenagers should never take anabolic steroids in an attempt to build up the size and strength of their muscle structure.

During the teenage years, young males are already in their most anabolic state, with testosterone flooding the system. Adding synthetic anabolic at this point is totally unnecessary. ' history Greek Olympians used strychnine and hallucinogenic mushrooms to 'psyche up' for an event. In 1886 a French cyclist was the first athlete to die from using a performance enhance, called speedball's, a mixture of cocaine and heroin. In the 1920's, physicians inserted slices of monkey testicles into male athletes to help boost vitality. Athletes had already begun using the male hormone testosterone to boost performance by the 1940's. The first synthetic anabolic steroid was developed in 1953, having a strength building effect five times stronger than the natural hormone testosterone.

Not since the development of the anabolic steroid has any performance enhance been so effective and so desired by athletes. Today, black market sales of anabolic steroids are topping $400 million per year. One million Americans, half of them adolescents, use black market steroids. In an era in which many want optimal results but with minimal sacrifice, it is easy to understand the motivation behind athletes who use steroids: they would rather get big in half the time it would take to naturally get stronger by utilizing a quality weight program. : any of a group of usually synthetic steroid hormones that increase constructive metabolism and are sometimes abused by athletes in training to increase temporarily the size of their muscles.