Performance enhancing drugs have changed the way we look at many of the sports records of the past 20 years. Are steroid side effects worth the boost in statistics? Does having your name in the record books justify the damage it does to your body? As more research is done and we watch the players of the 80’s and 90’s age, the answer is increasingly “No!”
“Chicks dig the long ball!”
“Chicks dig the long ball.” That was an actual ad campaign slogan by Major League Baseball. The spots ran during the heyday of the steroid era and players were juicing like crazy to hit more homeruns. Of course it wasn’t just for the “chicks,” it was the huge paydays that came with a 50-homerun season. Much of that abuse was documented by former American League MVP Jose Canseco in his book, Juiced.
Pro baseball was ground zero for steroid abuse. High salaries enticed players to cut corners in order to puff up their stats. Those puffed up stats led to more money and more endorsements. Fans filled the seats because home runs were on the rise and baseball’s owners looked the other way. Of course, all those home runs had a dark side. That dark side was chronicled in a Sports Illustrated article about former National League MVP Ken Caminiti. It was the first public admission by any Major League player of steroid use. Caminiti confessed to using steroids during his 1996 MVP season and for the following two seasons. In the article, he disclosed that his testicles “shrank and retracted.” Caminiti died in October 2004 from complications of drug abuse and the side effects of steroids. Doctors reported he had suffered from an enlarged heart due to steroid use.
They Probably Won’t Dig This
If having your testicles disappear before your eyes isn’t enough to scare you away from steroids, here are some other good reasons to avoid them. The International Journal of Sports Medicine found that athletes using steroids died at a rate 5 times higher than athletes who avoid performance-enhancing drugs. Steroids have been found to:
1. Increase your risk of heart disease.
2. Raise your cholesterol.
3. Cause liver tumors.
4. Cause jaundice.
5. Cause high blood pressure.
6. Reduce sperm count.
7. Cause infertility.
8. Baldness
9. Increase the risk of diabetes.
10. And cause men to grow breasts!
Female Athletes Are Not Immune
Women aren’t immune to the negative side of steroids. Side effects for women include growing facial hair, altering or eliminating the menstrual cycle and deeper voices. It has also been shown to cause male pattern baldness, shrinking breasts, and course skin. With prolonged use, it causes infertility and increased risk of cervical cancer.
Teens Are Particularly Vulnerable
Teen athletes are under considerable pressure to compete and impress their peers. They can be particularly susceptible to the lure of performance enhancing drugs. Additionally, they aren’t immune to the dangerous side effects. For adolescents, steroids can cause growth to stop prematurely and accelerated puberty. Across all ages and genders, steroid users exhibited impaired judgment, paranoia, irritability and/or rage issues, and delusions.
The most serious of the damage done by steroids are the effects on the heart. Steroids can thicken the heart muscle (hypertrophy), which is similar to the causes of congestive heart failure.
With so much information available about the side effects of steroids, why do athletes continue to risk their future health by taking them? Many experts believe it is connected to the sense of invincibility that young athletes often have. Steroids actually increase this feeling of invincibility and it becomes a vicious circle. But, as more scientific studies show, steroid side effects far outweigh the performance benefits.