Mr

Our Nations Little Secret

Within every gym and athletic practice across the United States there are secrets. These secrets are kept by public gyms, membership health clubs and even high school sports. This secret is killing our youth and disrupting the sportsmanship of not only the United States, but also on an international level. What I am referring to is the use of anabolic steroids. This epidemic is spreading through our country like a wildfire. It is going unnoticed and misunderstood. Even our government has not found the money the man power or the time to deal with this killer. It can be bought wherever pleasure or illicit drugs can be found.

The people who push these drugs are usually the people teenagers look up to. The drug pushers are the kids teachers, coaches and even their parents. It seems to me that if a parent pushes steroids on their children that they are not living in reality. They are probably living the lives they never had through their children. When the children do not live up to the parents expectations the parents push the drugs to make the children the best they can be even if it kills him. It is a shame to see that the parents are living their dreams through their kids and killing them in the process. Along with the parents and the coaches, another big contributor to steroid use among teenagers are everyday sports heroes. If a professional sports figure is busted using any drug he should be banned from all competition and be forced to teach or attend classes that show what the drug does to your body and mind. Right now it seems that all professional figures caught using and abusing are given a slap on the wrist and a pathetic fine then sent on their way. They reap the benefits of being a sports figure and yet they are giving the youth of America the impression that drugs are good. In layman terms, they are killing our youth. They trick them into believing that drug abuse is ok, and that whatever enhances your abilities, should be used or taken. What the professionals do not tell you is what they go through off the field. The public does not see all the suffering and side effects the user goes through off the playing field. The public just sees the athletes playing at amazingly high levels and getting paid a lot of money for their so called talent. The only suffering the public sees is when the user falls ill and admits to his addictions. By this time the super star athlete is dying, and the admirer, usually the teenager, is already an abuser. All drugs are for losers, and people who sell, promote or use these performance enhancing drugs are cowards and cheats and should not be allowed to play any sports at all.

Anabolic steroids are synthetic versions of male testosterone, a hormone found only in the male body. Testosterone is the most abundant androgen in the male body and controls all the sex organs too. What this means to athletes is that "when manipulated, boys can add thirty to forty pounds a month to their weight (Mongale 11)." Anabolic steroids use results in leaner body mass and less fat. Steroids also increases strength and muscle definition in the common male. These are all very drastic increases, but most athletes use anabolic steroids for faster recovery time between work outs. Athletics are a very big part of my life and everyday routine. My regular training schedule for my senior year in high school was: swimming from 4:45-6:30a.m., then I would go to school in which I had a weight lifting class for a class. After school it was back to the pool for another two hours. I would then lift weights after workout 3 days a week. As you can see I could have benefited from using anabolic steroids. The faster you recover, the more workouts you could attend. In the long run the more practices you attended the better, but only if you were not using steroids. Anabolic steroids have serious side effects. Along with severe acne scaring, a male can become infertile, and the testicles will shrink. In teenage males the sex organs can become painfully large. Along with the stuff you can see, steroid users have internal problems to worry about too. Many users come down with both benign and malignant tumors on their livers and hearts. Users also run high risks of having heart attacks. Also, in some teenagers prolonged use can fuse growth plates together and stunt growth.

Steroid use also has serious effects on ones thinking and rationality. In males, they look at themselves in the mirror and instead of seeing a huge man, they see a dwarf. doctors call this "reverse anorexia (Schrof 61)." They just can't seem to get big enough. According to doctors, "14% of all steroid users say they are hooked(Schrof 59)." Millions of people are using this drug. And what surprised me is that "6.64% of all adolescent males have tried or are on steroids."(177) Even more alarming is that these so called rages can happen at the spur of the moment. People on steroids always seem to be uptight and very fidgety. According to Rozin "one in every twenty steroid users will be susceptible to these side effects and will have an absolute Jekyll and Hyde transformation while taking steroids. In rare cases, people on steroids have become homicidal and committed a murder." (63) It has gotten so bad that defense lawyers bring in special doctors to try to explain what a roid rage is. Being hooked on steroids and taking your own life is one thing. Taking the life of another because you could not control your own drug habit, that's a different story. After a hard practice I am very irritable and am ticked off very easily, I would hate to see what I would be like on steroids.

Women have basically the same reaction to the drug as men do. After long periods of steroid use, a common reaction is the loss of the individuals hair along with the deepening of their voice, permanently. Along with these reactions, body hair and facial hair also start to grow and darken. According to Dr. Yealis, a professor of health and human development at Pennsylvania State University, and a leading expert in steroid use, "these drugs can change a women into a man in not very big doses at all (Mongale 12)." This is a very scary thought. Both males and females "stack" steroids. This means that they use multiple steroids at a time. The common perception among users is if you use a variety, then you take less of each one. They already take ten to a hundred times the recommended amount. In researching this topic, I found that many users do not seem to see themselves as addicted. According to a recent poll of 49 weight lifters, 28 would be considered addicted. Another study done by Robert J. Dimfell, Donald A. Malone and John Lombardo showed "of 163 weight lifters who