Anabolic Steroids and College Athletes - Research Paper Example

 Anabolic Steroids and College Athletes INTRODUCTION Sports in the United States underwent a significant change in the latter half of the twentieth century with the use of sport enhancement drugs and substances by amateur athletes. Men’s and women’s college athletics rose in popularity, participation and performance. At the same time, advancements in scientific methods and practice created the avenue for sports enhancement substance use. These advancements made it possible for high school and collect athletes to readily and rapidly impact their performance. A plethora of medical, performance, psychological and epidemiological research on anabolic steroids has indicated that anabolic steroids implemented in nutritional and training programs lead to adverse continuous health effects. High school and college administrations should introduce mandatory testing procedures for anabolic steroids usage among athletes. This deterrent policy should become a part of extensive educational preventive program conducted in American high schools and colleges to combat the usage of androgenic-anabolic steroids by young athletes. PREVALENCE OF STEROID USE AMONG YOUNG ATHLETES AND ITS HEALTH CONSEQUENCES Researchers and medical practitioners alike have found a large compelling force within young athletes to use steroids, despite health risks. Pediatric doctor Dale M. Ahrendt found in his study and literature review that “the danger is that once athletes start using a commercial supplement, they will continue to use more, eventually trying something that may not be safe. Many athletes feel pressured to use supplements to maintain a competitive advantage over their supplement-using peers” (Ahrendt, 2001, p. 921). Cultural forces and incentives have reached the point that young athletes commonly believe that regardless of health risks, the use of anabolic aids is essential for victory. Empirical investigation of steroid use in young individuals is sparse and most of the research that exists deals with steroid use in young athletes. Research indicates that steroid use in the young population may be greater than expected. In a comprehensive review of the literature involving the use of androgenic-anabolic steroids in young men, Wroblewska (1997) indicated that 4% to 11% of males in the United States have tried anabolic steroids with the majority experimenting for the first time while in college. Other studies such as the JAMA study (Buckley et al., 1988) found that 6% of high school students have reported using steroids. Similarly a study in 1992 conducted by Komoroski & Richert surveyed 672 male high school juniors and found that 7.6% admitted steroid use (ctd in Neumark-Sztainer et al, 1999). Another study conducted by Neumark-Sztainer et al (1999) surveyed seventh, ninth, and eleventh-grade high school students and found that 2.3% of boys used steroids. These percentages may seem small, yet they are significant given the effects of steroid use on the human body. Even more disturbing than the number of admitted users was the overall attitude of students surveyed in these studies. Steroid use was generally not perceived as being problematic and most students were poorly informed about adverse physical, psychological, and behavioral consequences of steroid use. The Women’s Sport Foundation commissioned a report on “Health Risks and the Teen Athlete” in the year 2000. The report indicated that “young female athletes overall, and highly involved young male athletes, were both nearly one and a half times more likely than their non-athletic counterparts to use steroids; and highly involved female athletes were nearly twice as likely to do so. However, only about 2% of teenage girls used anabolic steroids overall” (The Women’s Sport Foundation, 2000). The use of anabolic steroids by high school-aged female and male athletes has been documented in several other studies. In a tandem study covering both male and female participants, it was determined by Jeroge E. Gomez, M.D. that “in the United States, use of anabolic and androgenic steroids is widespread, ranging from 4% to 12% among male adolescents and from 0.5% to 2% among female adolescents ages 13-17” (Gomez, 2002, p. 3). While the overall usage by female athletes represents only a small portion of the overall female population of any given school, the problem for this particular subculture is significant. The Women’s Sport Foundation study reported that the “heightened risk was most notable for highly involved young female athletes” (The Women’s Sport Foundation, 2000, p. 11). Again, popularly conceived notions are that boys in power sports would be the most susceptible; but the findings in this study indicate that highly active adolescent female athletes are the most susceptible to usage. Usage of harmful steroids for female athletes was attributed to “the pressure to win at all costs, or to sacrifice health for a higher standing on the ladder of organized sports” (The Women’s Sport Foundation, 2007, p. 12). Anabolic steroid use by female athletes has a dramatic set of side effects. Women will often experience specific harmful side-effects from using steroids and hormones: “the effects in women, such as male pattern baldness and deepening of the voice may be irreversible, as may growth retardation in children” (Silver, 2001, p. 65). The NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse), a branch of the National Institute of Health, indicates that those individuals using AAS substances may experience paranoid jealousy, extreme irritability, delusions, and impaired judgment stemming from feelings of invincibility (NIDA, 2000, p. 3). INTERVENTION POLICIES AND PREVENTION PROGRAMS From the critical perspective, there is a lack of a coordinated effort on the parts of educators and the professional medical field to inform and educate young athletes about harmful effects of anabolic steroids. The NIDA (National Institute for Drug Abuse) has attempted to provide schools, public facilities, and even private health clubs with educational literature and posters on the subject. In addition, a number of national organizations and advisory committees have weighed in on the matter of steroid aid usage by high school student-athletes. The Sports Medicine Advisory Committee to the National Federation of State High Schools Association recommended that, “In order to minimize health and safety risks to student-athletes, maintain ethical standards and reduce liability risks, school personnel and coaches should never supply, recommend or permit the use of any drug medication or food supplement solely for performance enhancing purposes” (Cumming, 2000, p. 6). In Michigan, lawmakers have enacted legislation making it illegal for public school coaches, teachers, administrators, and volunteers to promote or distribute performance-enhancing products to student-athletes. There exists an overriding concern that school officials and employees that advise students to use steroids and ergogenic aids come dangerously close to practicing medicine without a license and may be liable to criminal prosecution. Practically, schools and colleges generally maintain an effort to curb illegal psychoactive drug usage (e.g. marijuana, cocaine, alcohol, cigarettes). However, they have made little effort on a national scale to curb the use of illegal steroid and ergogenic aids, although the known dangers of these drugs are well documented. Moreover, the literature suggests that educating athletes, educators, and administrators may not be sufficient. For example, Gomez (2002) indicated, “it is unlikely that increasing adolescents' knowledge of these substances will by itself change use patterns. Our society’s drive to win at all costs must change before a significant reduction in the use of performance-enhancing substances will be seen” (Gomez, 2002, p. 9). Therefore, it is evident that various prevention programs aimed to stop steroids use among college and high school athletes are ineffective. What is necessary from the contemporary perspective, is a national intervention program in the form of continuous and repetitive mandatory testing of all college and high school athletes on steroids and ergogenic aids usage. This intervention program should include the most serious consequences for those young athletes, coaches and training personnel found in using, distributing or endorsing anabolic steroids. From the critical perspective, only when these consequences extends not only to administrative and discipline sanctions, but also to criminal prosecution, this intervention program will be effective. Therefore, state and national policy makers must realize that the issue of harmful steroid aid usage by adolescent athletes is an issue owned by more than the athletic department, by more than the school, the parents, and the community. It is a broad social issue with a ranging history that must be dealt with in a collaborative fashion. CONCLUSION From the critical perspective, there needs to be an acceptance on the part of school administrators that the use of harmful steroid substances by student athletes is both a very real health problem and one that is on the rise. American schools and colleges, frequently the sponsoring agent and driving force behind adolescent athletics, maintain a unique ownership of the issue of steroids use and must do their part to reduce and ultimately stop the use of harmful anabolic and ergogenic steroids by adolescent athletes. Since both young athletics and harmful steroids use are a current and expanding phenomena the quest to understand each has only begun. It is already known that harmful sport enhancement substances pose a danger both physically and mentally, that the use of these substances is increasing for both male and female athletes, and that efforts to stop the usage are either ineffective or not present. The combination of these factors suggests that school leaders need to become familiar with this issue. Moreover, specific steroids testing programs should be implemented in American high school and college system to serve as a fast and effective deterrent for steroid use. REFERENCES Ahrendt, D. M. (2001). Ergogenic aids: Counseling the athlete. American Family Physician, 63, 913-922. Buckley, A. E., Yesalis, C. E., Friedl, K. E., Anderson, A. A., Streit, A. L., & Wright, J. E. (1988). Estimated prevalence of anabolic steroid use among male high school seniors. Journal of the American Medical Association, 260, 3441- 3445 Gomez, J. E. (2002). Performance-enhancing substances in adolescent athletes. A Publication of the Texas Medical Association Symposium on Adolescent Health. Neumark-Sztainer, D., Story, M., Falkner, N. EL, Beuhring, T., & Resnick, M. D. (1999). Sociodernographic and personal characteristics of adolescents engaged in weigh loss and weight/muscle gain behaviors: Who is doing what. Preventive Medicine, 28, 40-50. National Institute On Drug Abuse. (2000). Research report series anabolic steroid abuse, NIH No. 00-3721. Silver, M. D. MD. (2001). Use of ergogenic aids by athletes. Journal of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, 9 (1), 61-70. Women’s Sports Foundation. (2007). Women’s sports & fitness. Facts and Statistics. Retrieved April 20, 2010 from < http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/binary-data/WSF_ARTICLE/pdf_file/28.pdf> Women’s Sports Foundation (2000). Health Risks and the Teen Athlete. Retrieved April 20, 2010 from < http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/Content/Research-Reports/Research-Report-Health-Risks-and-the-Teen-Athlete.aspx> Wroblewska, A. M. (1997). Androgenic-anabolic steroids and body dysmorphia in young men. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 42(3), 225- 234 Read More