Men and women who take steroids are in great danger. Some doctors suspect that anabolic steroids trigger or help to trigger heart attacks by causing the arteries to harden and thicken. The result is arteriosclerosis. It has also been found that steroids prompt the body to retain too much water. This retention leads to a rising in blood pressure that, if left unattended, can lead to a heart attack or stroke. A stroke occurs when a blood vessel bursts in the brain. Take body building for instance, muscle and tendon injuries were rare in this sport until lifters began taking steroids. Now, such injuries are everyday occurrences, with the biceps (in the arm) and the quadriceps (at the front of the thigh) being the muscles most frequently harmed. Many lifters have suffered through the experience of seeing their biceps muscle rolled up the arm “like a windowshade” after the tendon holding it to the bone broke away. Others have collapsed during training or competition when the tendons holding their quadriceps in place gave way. All the damage that is done is usually not reversible-meaning that it will not disappear when usage is stopped-when the steroids have been taken heavily for prolonged periods. Some types of damage are reversible in light or infrequent steroid users. [Dolan, Jr., 1986, (3:1:2&3)]

Can testing, monitoring, education, and disciplinary actions curb, or perhaps even end the misuse of steroids in both amateur and professional sports? At the moment, there is no way of telling. Often the measures seem to be succeeding. Often times they seem to be failing; but whatever the success and failures may be, the misuse of steroids will continue to spread through the sports world at all levels. In the eyes of many athletes and fans, the cure can come only if the above measures are joined by a new public attitude toward sports. They feel that athletics have become competitive in all the wrong ways. The accent has been too much on victory, so much so that it has become victory at any cost. The winners are over-idolized and the losers over scorned. Perhaps if we all can learn and communicate these lessons, sports will be able to go on being what they were always intended to be; healthful, exciting, and happy contests of skill and prowess.

Steroids: Play Safe, Play Fair. 2002. Steroids: Play Safe, Play Fair. 13 April 2002:.

What are anabolic steroids? 2000. NIDA Research Report - Anabolic Steroid Abuse. 11 April 2002:.

The History of Steroids. 2002. The Steroid World. 14 April 2002:.

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