Just about all of us remember the 1988 Olympics when track star Ben Johnson was accused to abusing anabolic steroids - a BIG no no in the Olympics. Johnson's date with destiny was forever ripped from him as his connection to steroids became clear.

All of us who watched the Olympics that year will forever associate Johnson's name with the negative publicity that is associated with abuse of these possibly performance - enhancing substances. While use of steroids can be beneficial in certain medical conditions (for example in men with low sperm count, Baechle, 1994) steroid abuse can lead to undesirable health problems. Therefore, we thought we'd bring you up to speed on what steroids are, some background on the subject and some of the possible dangers associated with them.

Steroids are hormones. Hormones, in reality, are nothing more than chemical messengers that cells use to "talk" to each other. There are many different types of hormones in the body with each serving a specific purpose that the body needs to stay healthy. For example, insulin is a hormone that the body makes to facilitate the entrance of sugar (glucose) into our cells so it can in turn be used in the manufacture of energy (get a reference).

Those hormones that are classified as "steroids" include estrogen and progesterone which are used in birth control pills and the antiinflammatory hormone cortisone (Baechle, 1994). Another group of steroids are the anabolic steroids (Baechle, 1994) also known as androgens, androgenic steroids (Baechle, 1994) or simply the "male" sex hormones (Fox, bowers and foss,1993). Steroid hormones are unique in that they actually get inside the nucleus (or brain center) of your cells and activate certian genes (Berne and Levy, 1988).

The term "anabolic" was invented in the 1930's to describe the nitrogen - retaining effect of certain types steroids. The element nitrogen is crucial to the molecular structure of every amino acid in the body (Baechle, 1994). Amino acids in turn, are the building blocks of proteins, such as you would find in your muscles. Therefore, when the body retains more nitrogen than it excretes ( or has what is called a positive nitrogen balance), one can say that sufficient nitrogen (in the form of amino acids) is available for the building of muscle.

Interestingly, the nitrogen retaining effect of anabolic steroids does not last very long and usually returns to normal despite continual use of the drug (NSCA Position statement, 1993). Some have argued that this tendency of steroids to wear off has resulted in the often seen "stacking" routine (combining different steroids ) by athletes wishing to extend the so-called beneficial effects of these drugs (NSCA position statement, 1993).

Steroids are said to have both anabolic and androgenic properties. The term "anabolic" as we have just mentioned, simply means protein buliding (fox, bowers and foss, 1993), a phrase that is almost synomous with muscle buliding. The term "androgenic", referes to the hormone's ability to cause masculinization effects such as beard growth (Fox, Bowers and Foss, 1993).

Unfortunately for many women who wish to use these drugs, scientists do not seem to be able to separate the muscle building effects of steroids from their masculinization effects (NSCA position statement, 1993). This usually prevents female abusers of steroids from looking feminine as they "bulk up".

Basically, anabolic steroids can be classified into two categories: those that are taken orally and those that are injected.

Oral anabolic steroids can be taken orally because they are chemically modified so as to allow them to remain in the circulation longer. (Baechle, 1994). This modification prevents the liver from significantly degrading the steroid as it travels through the bloodstream (Baechle, 1994). Examples or oral steroids are Dianabol, Anavar and Winstrol (Baechle, 1994).

Indictable steroids are more potent than oral steroids (Baechle, 1994) because they are injected directly into the bloodstream. Examples of indictable steroids include testosterone esters and nandrolone esters (Baechle, 1994).

The adverse effects associated with anabolic steroids is related to the type of steroid used (either oral or indictable), the amount of steroid used and the duration of the usage (Kruskemper, 1968). Lets take a short look at some of the problems that have been reported to have been linked to abuse of steroids.

Shortness: With respect to the skeleton, we see early closure of the epiphiseal plates in long bones (such as those in the legs). Epiphyseal plates are found at the ends of bone and are responsible for its growth. When these epiphiseal plates close, no more growth occurs. High doses of anabolic hormones are known to cause these portions of bones to close early and may result in the person taking them to be shorter than he normally would be in the absence of abuse (Baechle, 1994). This is particluarly true in adolescents, so if you are using steroids during your growing years, stop taking them now or you run the risk of being shorter than you were intended to be.

In women, abusing anabolic steroids leads to masculinization (Strauss, liggett, Lanese, 1985) which includes a deeper voice, male pattern baldness, masculinization (Strauss, liggett, Lanese, 1985) and beard growth (Powers and howely,1994). Whats more, the masculinization may be perminate even though steroid use has been discontinued (baechle, 1994).

Fetal exposure to testosterone (the main anabolic steroid - baechle, 1994) has been thought to be associated with ailments such as autoimmune diseases (examples of autoimmune diseases include diabetes, and arthritis), dyslexia and migraine headaches (baechle, 1994).

Increased aggressiveness. While not well studied, case studies of individuals taking anabolic steroids indicate a heightened aggressiveness. To date however, studies linking increased aggressiveness and steroid use have only been clearly demonstrated in animals (Svare, 1990).

Male breast enlargement (also called gynecomastia) has also been associated with steroid abuse. This is because one of the metabolites of testosterone is estrogen - the main FEMALE hormone!

So when you take steroids such as testosterone, you also have elevated levels of estrogen circulating throughout your system. Elevated levels of estrogen in men is associated with strokes; in fact, to date, three cases of stroke have been reported in male athletes that have used steroids (Friedl, 1992).

Another often reported symptom of steroid abuse is testicular shrinkage. This is the result of your body's response to the abnormally high levels of testosterone in the circulation. Basically your body thinks you don't need your testicles anymore and stops your own production of testosterone, which results in their shrinkage.

In general, health effects often reported with oral steroids include a decrease in high density lipoprotein (AKA, "good" cholesterol or HDL) and an increase in liver tumors (Baechle, 1994; Fox, Bowers and Foss, 1993).

While most of the liver tumors that result from oral anabolic steroids usually turn out to be begin, at least one athlete has been reported to have died from the rupture of such as tumor (Creagh, Rubin and Evans, 1988). Given this, you should be warned that anybody who has ever had any liver problems in the past or who has a family history of liver problems is probably at an increased risk of steroid-induced liver ailments. Therefore, steroid abuse by these individuals runs the risk of being particularly dangerous.

While much to date is known concerning steroids, much is still unknown. For instance, to date, no studies have been conducted which compare the effects of different types of steroids on muscle hypertrophy (Baechle, 1994). Therefore, nobody can say for sure which steroid- if any - produces the best effects.

Another as of yet untapped area of research is how athletic performance is effected after an athlete stops using steroids (Baechle, 1994). In other words, nobody really knows for sure if your ability to perform athletically is hindered after you stop using steroids.

Okay, so much about the health problems associated with steroids; what about athletic performance. Does steroid use enhance athletic performance?

Despite the fact that steroids cause increased muscle mass, no study do date has ever rigorously demonstrated that athletic performance is enhanced by steroid supplemmentation (Baechle, 1994). This may or may not be because most of the studies used very low doses of steroids, such as would be used in a clinical setting (Beachle, 1994).

Likewise, there is scant evidence that steroid use increases the number of oxygen -carrying red blood cells in the body (Baechle, 1994). Therefore, anybody using steroids to improve his or her aerobic ability is wasting his money.

So, how can you tell if someone is using steroids? Unfortunately, unless you actually see the person using steroids or run a drug test, there really is no way of telling for sure (Baechle, 1994). Some possible indications however would be a sudden large increase in strength and mass. New acne problems in a person who didn't have acne before is also an indication of steroid abuse. Mood swings and male breast development (gynecomastia) are also possible side effects which might pop up (Baechle, 1994).

In summing up, given all the problems, -both known and suspected -that are assoicated with the use anabolic steroids, one has to wonder why sombody would consider using them. Both the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the National Strength and Condtioning Association (NSCA) have publically come out against the use of steroids by athletes (Powers et al, 1993; NSCA position statement, 1993).

If you are considering using anabolic steroids before all the answers are in, you have to ask yourself this quesion: is it really worth it.........