Steriods and High School Athletes
Posted by
Dan FrithApril 30, 2008 6:40 AMI am a workout nut...just ask my wife. We have two sons (20 and 17) and both are athletic and active. Our 17 year old is busy lifting weights and getting ready for next year's high school football team. With this background, you can see why I am more attuned to what is going on with high school athletes and what I see and hear is very bothersome!
I am talking about steroid use by high school athletes...and if you think it is not occurring in your child's high school you are naive. According to a survey by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, steroid use among high school students more than doubled between 1991 and 2003. More than 6% of 15,000 students surveyed admitted (wonder how many lied) trying steroid pills or injections. At the same time, less than 4% of the nation's high schools were testing for steroids, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations' survey of athletic directors.
Anabolic Steroids are a synthetic version of the human hormone called testosterone. Testosterone stimulates and maintains the male sexual organs. It also stimulates development of bones and muscle, promotes skin and hair growth, and can influence emotions. In males, testosterone is produced by the testes and the adrenal gland.
Steroids fool the body into thinking that testosterone is being produced. The body, sensing an excess of testosterone, shuts down bodily functions involving testosterone, such as bone growth. The ends of long bones fuse together and stop growing, resulting in stunted growth. Steroid abuse has many dangerous side effects including:
acne
genital changes
water retention in tissue
yellowing of eyes and skin
oily skin
coronary artery disease
sterility
liver tumors and disease; and
death
Have a discussion with your high school student about the risks of using steroids and other performance enhancing drugs....and DO IT NOW!