Joseph R. Anticaglia MD
Medical Advisory Board
Faust’s legend has been and continues to be reenacted everywhere in modern life. Sell your soul to the devil and Satan will quench your burning desire, in exchange for you being a slave to his every command. No country is out of reach and no person is exempt from its appeal.
The devil insinuates itself in politics, business, sports arenas, universities and in all walks of life. Some individuals with a relentless desire to achieve fame, power, money or youth will do anything with anyone at any cost to get what they want.
The bargain between the individual and the underworld has been has been portrayed in theaters and played out in sports arenas. You want to break Babe Ruth’s home run record? “You got it,” says the devil. You want an Oscar, an academy award in the film industry? “You got it.” You want an Olympic gold medal for weightlifting or winnning the Tour de France? “You got it.”
But what you got was a pyrrhic victory. The foolish bargain and use of anabolic steroids have made your life and too many lives miserable. Your fame and glory and lucrative endorsement contracts have proven to be short lived.
Anabolic steroids are a class of man-made (synthetic) drugs related to the male sex hormone testosterone. These drugs have the ability to promote muscle enlargement in response to physical activity.
Anabolic steroids are legally available only with a doctor’s prescription in the United States. They have been used to rebuild muscle and tissue that have been thinned out by injury or disease. Anabolic steroids plus a diet high in calories and proteins are necessary to get the best results. Some indications for their use are:
Weightlifters in their 20s or 30s are the people most likely to misuse illegal anabolic steroids. They and others might use steroids on the skin as a cream, may pop pills or inject steroids into muscle. They essentially use these drugs to enhance athletic performance and to appear more muscular. The doses can be 15 to 100 times greater than doses used to treat medical conditions. Such large doses have worrisome physical, mental and emotional side effects.
Female Side Effects
Male Side Effects
Male and Female Physical Side Effects
Male and Female Emotional and Mental Side Effects
Anabolic steroids do not cause the release of the brain’s dopamine — the “feel good high” — as in other drugs. What they do cause are dangerous side effects that can be irreversible. The illegal use of non-prescription anabolic drugs is simply not worth it.
‘Anabolic or anabolic-androgenic’ steroids
Anabolic means “stimulating or promoting growth”
Androgenic refers to increased male sexual characteristics
‘Steroid’ is short for corticosteroid
‘Sterol’ having a structure similar to cholesterol
Street names — “roids, juice, andro”
This article is intended solely as a learning experience. Please consult your physician for diagnostic and treatment options.
