'Roids Hammer Coming Down Again Soon

[sandgk]

Originally Posted by OH10

I'll ask the question one more time.... do you support the use of HGH and steroids?

I'm for them - 110%!!

[powerlifter]

Originally Posted by OH10

Here you are again. I'll ask the question one more time.... do you support the use of HGH and steroids? I know your answer already, so why don't you just come out and say it.

My overall opinion has nothing to do with it.Regardless,how I feel or don't feel about the subject wouldn't change my thoughts about what it has done to sports.Just because I don't spout off random banter and say "down with steroids and people who like em" doesn't mean I'm an advocate of them,and even if I was it has no bearing on my feelings towards the use of them in sports. I simply state..Go ahead and try to fix sports..It's not going to happen. There is money to be made in them,and the guys that want them are going to pay whatever it takes to enhance their careers to make more money.Broadcast the few you do bust and cover up what has been under your nose for years. I actually agree with your above post. That's the biggest problem.There's no way to ensure equality in sports anymore.

[OH10]

Originally Posted by powerlifter

My overall opinion has nothing to do with it.Regardless,how I feel or don't feel about the subject wouldn't change my thoughts about what it has done to sports.Just because I don't spout off random banter and say "down with steroids and people who like em" doesn't mean I'm an advocate of them,and even if I was it has no bearing on my feelings towards the use of them in sports. I simply state..Go ahead and try to fix sports..It's not going to happen. There is money to be made in them,and the guys that want them are going to pay whatever it takes to enhance their careers to make more money.Broadcast the few you do bust and cover up what has been under your nose for years. I actually agree with your above post. That's the biggest problem.There's no way to ensure equality in sports anymore.

There's no way to actually win the so-called war on drugs in general. But does that mean we stop enforcing those laws? Just because we can't solve the steroid problem doesn't mean we shouldn't enforce the rules that they shouldn't be used in athletic competition.

[powerlifter]

Originally Posted by OH10

There's no way to actually win the so-called war on drugs in general. But does that mean we stop enforcing those laws? Just because we can't solve the steroid problem doesn't mean we shouldn't enforce the rules that they shouldn't be used in athletic competition.

Nope of course not. I would honestly be all for more detailed testing by all athletes. Regardless of money costs there is enough money in sports to figure something better out.

[Steve19]

Anyone who thinks anabolic steroid use is not harmful should take a simple step suggested by a professor friend who runs a large hospital department and holds a joint appointment with a top American medical school. Visit your nearest hospital and ask to see the head of pathology or chief forensic pathologist. They are the people who examine the results of autopsies, especially any abnormalities observed, and determine the cause of death. Ask whether anabolic steroid use has harmful effects.

Here is what they will tell you. The harmful effects of anabolic steroid use are so well documented that many of the comments in this thread appear to be senseless and irresponsible, especially given that young athletes visit these pages.

Proponents of steroid use would have us believe that there is nothing wrong with their use. Often, they will tell us that they themselves have used steroids for years without any ill-effects. Let's take them at their word, perhaps they are have had a rare experience, but the medical evidence does not support their assertions. Instead, it tells us that when users say, "I have had no ill-effects", we should be hearing them say, "I have had no ill-effects that I can observe, yet."

Let's examine the central thesis advanced here by those supporting anabolic steroid use: i.e., that there are no serious adverse health effects, from a common sense and scientific perspective.

First, common sense. If anabolic steroid use were not dangerous, then why so many limitations on its prescription by law? Bigger, better, faster is in the interest of the NCAA and pro sports bodies. Why would they be outlawing use of anabolic steroids? The answer is that the negative effects of anabolic steroid use are well-described clinically throughout the literature.

Second, the scientific perspective. Contrary to comments in this thread, the medical community is not as divided as the popular press would indicate. There is almost universal agreement that anabolic steroid use is harmful. Any reasonable reading of the medical literature would suggest anabolic steroid use is harmful, even if users are unable to observe the damage. In fact, anyone consulting the medical literature -- not some video foisted on the public by steroid advocates -- will find that it is replete with studies that show otherwise in double-blind studies published in the peer-reviewed, scholarly literature.

What that literature shows is not only confirmed by medical research but by popular lore as well. Most visibly, steroid use causes the organs in the body that produce steroids to atrophy, including your testes. So, if you use steroids, it isn't just a joke that your testes will shrink, they will shrink.

However, the damage isn't limited to your testes. Other glands that produce steroids also will shrink. Perhaps the most serious of these are your adrenal glands. The adrenal gland is part of the the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which regulates many body functions including the chatecholamine hormones that regulate fight-or-flight mechanisms (adrenaline, noradrenaline, dopamine) and the sympathetic nervous system. It is involved in synthesizing corticosteroid hormones from cholesterol. Testosterone production is affected and the body's ability to regulate water and electrolyte concentrations is as well.

When your adrenal glands shrink, production of all of these necessary hormones and other products and the related functioning is impacted. As a result, anabolic steroid users are clinically-proven to have problems with high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, and to develop abnormalities of the left ventricle of the heart. Males commonly have been observed to have increased sexual dysfunction and to grow breast mass (man-boobs).

Anabolic steroid use also has been linked to an increased risk of cancer. It is also well-described in the literature that users have a much higher risk liver hyperplasia (i.e., benign tumors) that impact on liver function and sometimes rupture causing death. Anabolic steroids also affect the mechanisms controlling blood pressure.

In young people, anabolic steroid use can prematurely halt bone growth. How many young athletes want to limit their height below what it might have been? Want to limit their reach? This can be a negative side-effect of steroid use that has been observed by researchers.

Behaviorally, although the stereotypical image of "'roid rage" is an exaggeration, the mechanism by which anabolic steroid use may affect aggression (i.e., fight responses) seems clear, and there are a number of blind studies that show a clear link between anabolic steroid use and inappropriate aggression in response to stress.

There can be no debating the facts of this matter that I have just written and I could have cited many more negative effects. It's time that some of our posters here stopped pretending that there is any debate about anabolic steroids causing harm.

[gost8]

Originally Posted by Steve19

there are a number of blind studies that show a clear link between anabolic steroid use and inappropriate aggression in response to stress.

See Chris Benoit

Excellent read Steve

[MuckFich06]

Something just hit me while watching the Daily Show tonight J Stewart made some crappy joke about Bush on steroids... wasn't George W the owner of the Texas Rangers when Canseco was there bouncing fly balls off his gourd and shooting up with Juan Gone?

Well, here ya go:

Rangers owner suspects Juan Gonzalez used steroids
6/20/2007 4:55 PM
By Stephen Hawkins, The Associated Press
ARLINGTON, Texas (APOnline) -- Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks suspects that two-time AL MVP Juan Gonzalez may have used steroids. "I have no knowledge that Juan used steroids. His number of injuries and early retirement just makes me suspicious," Hicks wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Wednesday. "In any event, we paid him $24 million for very few games."

Hicks was responding to questions about a television interview in which he was asked about decisions he regretted since owning the team, then mentioned the oft-injured outfielder and steroids.

"Juan Gonzalez for $24 million after he came off steroids, probably, we just gave that money away," Hicks said in the interview, aired June 10 on KTVT-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Gonzalez had three extended stays on the disabled list when he returned to the Rangers for the 2002 and 2003 seasons. Sidelined by a torn ligament in right thumb and a right calf injury, he played in only 152 of 324 games, hitting .288 with 32 homers and 105 RBI.

"That kind rhetoric does not deserve a response, because it's so irresponsible," said Gonzalez's agent, Al Nero.

Jose Canseco, who played with Gonzalez and the Rangers in 1992-94 before Hicks owned the team, has admitted using steroids. Canseco claimed in his 2005 book that he used steroids with Gonzalez, who was 35 when he played his last major league game and tore his hamstring in his only at-bat for Cleveland in 2005.

Rangers owner suspects Juan Gonzalez used steroids