Teens have continuous fascination for bulky weight lifters and body builders. They keep wondering how on earth someone could get bulky muscles. Some of them may’ve surely gotten through a planned workout regimen of lifting and diet and few may’ve gotten them by short route abusing the real anabolic-androgenic steroids.
Anabolic is derived from anabolism which means building. The name ‘anabolic’ thus refers to the ability of steroids to help build bulky muscles and ‘androgenic’ refers to male sexual traits. AAS in short are those substances capable of building muscles and male sexual characteristics, and they are synthetic compounds whose action is similar to testosterone (the male sex hormone). So far, the AAS do not find a medical use legitimately, although doctors do prescribe them to treat certain anemia types and also to those who do not produce testosterone naturally in desired concentrations.
In any case there are no instances where doctors prescribe anabolic steroids to healthy teens. Most commonly available anabolic-androgenic steroids include: Anadrol, Dianabol, Anavar, Deca-Durabolin, Winstrol and Equipoise. Teens do have a special interest for taking these and they do so with no regard for their legality. In fact, these teen abusers are known to take doses as high as 10 to 100 times higher than what a doctor would normally prescribe if for any medical reasons.
What could be the steroids effects on teens?
One major health effect could be prematurely stunted growth; due to early maturity of the skeletal system as well as hastened puberty changes. This implies there is a risk of teens remaining short (than what they can be if they have not abused steroids) for rest of their lives should they start taking AAS before they ceased growing.
There could be other minor steroids effects which include jaundice, retention of body fluid, hypertension, acne of face and body, increase in LDL and decrease in the HDL concentrations. There could be liver and kidney carcinomas in severe cases.
Besides the gender-specific steroids effects include, shrinkage of testicles, reduced sperm count, early baldness, gynecomastia, and enhanced risk for prostate carcinoma in males. And growth of body and facial hair, baldness, erratic menstrual cycles, enlargement of clitoris, development of Adam’s apple and voice deepening in females.
In addition to these steroids effects on body, there could be effects on behavior; not limited to extreme mood swings, hysteria and manic-like symptoms that may lead to violence at home and school. They could make person extremely depressed and irritable. There are studies reporting that abusers could suffer from feelings such as paranoia, jealousy, delusions, and poor judgments.
Steroids effects could make a teen’s life deplorable and terrible. Although with the recommended dose, the health benefits a teen can achieve with steroids cannot be debated. Body building or muscle building goals could be achieved by following strict work out and diet regimen and by not including steroids.
