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athletes in high school are using steroids
your health and the Side Effects of Performance Enhancing Drugs Forget Popeye and his muscle-building can of
spinach. The world of sport has a whole new menu of performance enhancements
wooing athletes from 10 to 25 years of age and older with dreams of
record-setting feats.
The average layperson might think age 10 a
bit of a stretch. But according to several drug-use experts at The
University of Montana, ergogenics aren't just for college and professional
athletes. Their use starts as early as middle school and is common among
high school athletes as well as non-athletes wanting enhanced performance or
a muscular body. Ergogenics include testosterone and the
derivative anabolic steroids that have been around since the mid-1930s.
Although banned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and
International Olympic Committee, these substances are available in Missoula
by doctor's prescription, on the black market and through the Internet,
which lists pages of sellers to tempt the would-be buyer. And college and
even high school athletes in Missoula are using drugs of this sort, says UM
pharmacy Adjunct Assistant Professor Vince Colucci, a clinical pharmacist
and pharmacotherapy specialist at Western Montana Clinic. But ergogenics also include certain
unregulated dietary or nutritional substances that are readily available at
the neighborhood pharmacy. The fact that they're "nutritional" doesn't
necessarily mean they're safe. Nor does the fact that they're the drugs of
choice for some athletes mean they're effective. And be forewarned, says
pharmacy Associate Professor Cathy Bartels, who directs UM's Drug
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"A lot of these products are banned by the NCAA and IOC, so just because they are dietary supplements does not mean that they are OK for an athlete to take." Here are three common ones at the top of her long list: creatine, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and ephedra. Creatine. This substance -- which, incidentally, can be found in spinach -- is the most popular for younger athletes, according to Bartels, Colucci and Scott Richter, a professor in the health and human performance department. Creatine is popular, they say, because it's easy to get and safe, allegedly. But is it safe? Richter says yes, so far. Short-term studies done on creatine have found muscle cramps to be the only serious side effect. Colucci says maybe not, that some case reports have linked creatine with liver and kidney damage if a user doesn't drink plenty of water. Bartels calls it "one of the safer" ergogenics, which isn't the same as saying it's safe. |
Does it work? Yes and no. No for runners and swimmers, Colucci says, because it may cause weight gain, which negates the extra strength creatine may have helped build. Bartels says maybe yes, but only for weight-lifters by increasing the weight they can lift, the repetitions they an do and the frequency of their workout sessions. But she says not to rule out a placebo effect.
"What happens when you're a weight lifter and you're continuing to work out?" she asks. "You're going to be doing better, and so how do you differentiate between whether creatine really is improving your ability or whether your physical ability is improving because you're continuing to work out?"
DHEA. This product also is popular, Bartels says. Magazines that cater to athletes are rife with ads claiming this dietary supplement burns fat and builds muscle. So far no studies confirm that. On the other hand, Bartels says, as a hormonal product DHEA is potentially dangerous, particularly for people at risk of developing certain hormonal cancers such as breast, uterine, cervical and testicular cancer. Furthermore, Colucci says, hormonal products are metabolized mostly by the liver, so they can cause liver damage.
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The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made an announcement that a series of actions aimed at protecting US citizens from the potential grave risks associated with dietary supplements that contain ephedra.
Steering young people away from using steroids is especially difficult not just because their sports idols may use them, but also because anabolic steroids are very easy for adolescents to get.
The toxicology report on Baltimore Orioles pitching prospect Steve Bechler released today implicates the use of the herbal supplement ephedra in his death, and underscores once more the dangers of ephedra use, particularly when combined with other risk factors.
Proposed a warning label for all ephedra-containing dietary supplements. The proposed label warns about the risks of serious adverse events, including seizure, heart attack, stroke, and even death.
Scientists are increasingly concerned that sophisticated techniques for evading drug tests will make it difficult for testers to catch athletes using steroids and other drugs, especially at future athletic competitions when genetic-based enhancements are expected to be prevalent.
Wadler, who is attending the ACSM Annual Meeting in St. Louis this week, said that the subject of steroid use in baseball peaked in 1998, when Mark McGwire admitted to the use of the testosterone precursor, androstenedione.
Leading research scientists are saying that the detection of EPO and HGH abuse is quite difficult because they appear only in very very small quantities in body fluids. EPO increases oxygen uptake to the working muscles, and HGH improves muscle growth.
An athletic boost in the short term may mean health problems in the long term for teens who use performance-enhancing drugs, warns a youth sports medicine specialist from the University of Michigan Health System
Many physicians feel that some dietary supplements' should be considered drugs' because they contain known active ingredients, whereas dietary supplements' have little or no physiologic effects.
Many believe that freckles just appear in children naturally. But in fact, Voorhees says, the majority of freckles, if not all, are sure signs of sun damage. "When you see that occurring in a child, of course, it's too late for those spots, but certainly that person needs tremendous sun protection."
Tony La Russa insists that Mark McGuire did not use steroids even after the slugger, off-camera, told members of a Congressional committee, "I did steroids."
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