Steroids not worth hype, fascination that goes with them
2006-07-02
I was asked the other day why I hadn't weighed in on the whole Barry Bonds affair.
It probably has more to do with the fact that I've never been much of a professional baseball fan -- at least until Doug Bochtler came to these parts -- and probably couldn't care less what a sullen, overpaid West Coast baseball player did or did not inject or ingest.
But the prevalence of steroids in sports should be disturbing to us all. For it surely follows that what happens in the colleges and the professional ranks reaches down and grabs much younger individuals such as our high school athletes, as the dream of getting bigger and better takes a terribly wrong turn.
Despite great alarm and congressional hearings, steroids are probably a bigger problem than we realize. In other words, the incidence of steroid use among college and professional athletes is likely at a much, much higher level than even the most negative of sports critics.
Medical professionals in the past have used the separate terms ``steroid use'' and ``steroid abuse.'' There is certainly an important place for the medical use of steroids, particularly in the medical field of rheumatology.
There is just as certainly no place at all for steroids in the athletic world.
None. Nada. Zip.
So, unless you have a medical reason to take steroids, steroid use IS steroid abuse.
Medical professionals, myself included, blindly proclaimed 20 years ago that there was no evidence that steroids made you bigger or stronger.
That's what we were told.
Discreetly, athletes were laughing at the ridiculousness of our proclamations, knowing that they were able to achieve significant gains in muscle mass and strength.
Grudgingly, we (those same medical professionals) admitted our mistakes and acknowledged the gains that could be made.
But at what price?
Well, as it turns out, the price is your health. Maybe even your life.
The evidence is indisputable. There are serious implications on your health with the use of steroids.
Sure, there are the obvious implications: acne, hair loss, maculinization (if you're female), testicular atrophy (if you're a male).
Unfortunately, many folks are willing to take those risks.
But we also know that steroids can cause a wide variety of serious, irreversible health problems.
Kidney problems?
Check.
Liver problems?
Check?
High blood pressure? Premature closing of the growth plates? Heart disease, cancer, and strokes?
Check, check, and check.
Steroids can have a detrimental effect on virtually every body system we have.
And then there is the ``dead'' thing.
Steroids can lead to premature death, which means you might die long before you were supposed to.
That sure doesn't seem worth it to me.
I wonder about that baseball player out in San Francisco.
If he were to die tomorrow, will he think it was all worth it?
