And It's About Time There Was Some Support For Cushing's!
From: http://onhealth.webmd.com/ch1/redirect.asp?linkId=6671
Monday, January 22, 2001
Could Your Kid Be Taking Steroids?
Many Teenage Athletes Are Placing Performance Above Health
By Susan A. Steeves
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Dr. Aman Shah
Jan. 19, 2001 -- That temper tantrum your teenage athlete is throwing might not be caused by the
frustration of too much schoolwork or the violence he sees daily in television and movies. He may not even
be upset over losing a big game. The real culprit could be anabolic steroids, once associated primarily
with full-fledged bodybuilders but now taken by many teenagers to improve their bodies or enhance their
performance in sports.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is so concerned about a dramatic rise in steroid use by
middle and high school students that last year, the agency's director issued a Community Drug Alert
Bulletin. Alan Leshner, PhD, said that not only was there a significant increase in usage in 1999 compared
to 1998 figures, but also fewer 12th-graders even believed that the substances -- which are essentially
synthetic male hormones -- presented possible life-threatening, long-term health risks.
According to the "NIDA 1999 Monitoring the Future" study, about half a million adolescents are
using anabolic/androgenic steroids. Indeed, 2.7% of eighth-graders, 2.7% of 10th-graders, and 2.9% of
12th-graders admit that they have used the drugs at least once.
To understand the reasons youngsters take the drugs, you first need to understand their effects. And to
deter them from using steroids, experts say that you also need to understand the damage they can cause.
"They are basically male hormones that will enhance performance. It's become almost impossible to
succeed in professional athletics without them," says
Patricia Chandler, MD, of the Family Practice and Community Medicine Department at UT
Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. "But they have multiple, multiple negative side effects."
These negative effects include reduced sperm production, shrinking of testicles, impotence,
baldness, and irreversible breast enlargement in boys,
and decreased body fat and breast size, deepening of the voice, loss of scalp hair, excessive body hair
growth, and clitoral enlargement in girls. Both sexes
could be affected with increased acne and personality changes, including aggressive behavior.
Some of these problems are reversible if anabolic steroid use is halted, but other consequences could
alter your child's life or even shorten it. This includes stunting of their growth, liver cancer and cysts,
lowering of HDL (good cholesterol) and increased LDL (bad cholesterol), high blood pressure, and
higher propensity for heart attacks and strokes -- even in their teens.
Experts say there is no denying that taking any of the 100 or more varieties of the drugs will increase
muscle and decrease fat, thereby boosting athletic ability. And for many, the temptation is just too great.
"They take [steroids] because they have been told that they will increase their athletic prowess and to
bulk up. Boys are very interested in this just like girls want to be thin," says Adrian Dobs, MD, a professor
of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "This is very sad because they have a
distorted view of their body image."
Writing in the journal The Physician and Sportsmedicine, Perry Koziris, PhD, an exercise
physiologist at the University of North Texas in Denton, says that, ironically, many of the young
people abusing anabolic steroids are "otherwise
health-conscious persons who use a mix of muscle-building drugs."
He recommends further research to investigate the psychological and physiological effects of abuse of
the drugs, specifically on adolescents. In addition, Koziris suggests that physicians and other medical
professionals need to screen more thoroughly for signs of anabolic steroid use and that
communities need to create comprehensive substance abuse prevention programs.
Both Dobs and Chandler agree that education is key to curbing use of the drugs. But they know it won't be
easy.
"The teenage athlete is really hard to talk to about long-term effects," says Chandler, indicating that they
tend not to view their future health as a consideration. "It's best to talk with them about the short-term
effects such as acne and getting caught with drug testing."
However, Dobs says that effective programs do exist and that positive role models can make a difference.
She tells WebMD that Canada has launched a
prevention program that stresses a sense of fair play as a reason not to take anabolic steroids.
"We need to get to kids when they are very young and educate them about fair play and health
concerns," Dobs says. She points out that it "means
something" in the eyes of potential or current young users that many athletic organizations, such as the
NFL and the NCAA, have outlawed use of the
drugs.
Unfortunately, according to both Chandler and Dobs, effective testing for use of anabolic steroids is still
lacking.