Term Papers on About Steroids

Term Paper Title	About Steroids
# of Words	1075
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.3

About Steroids

Many people have had their lives ruined by the use of illegal steroids, yet

the desired effects are so overwhelming that people tend to overlook  the

consequences.  Steroid users believe taking anabolic steroids will enhance their

performance, strength, size,etc.  They regard the use of them as legitimate as any

other aspect of training.

     To begin with, the term "anabolic " means "to build tissue," therefore

anabolic steroids tend to increase constructive metabolic pathways within the

body.  Also, anabolic steroids are synthetic derivatives of the natural male

sex hormone, testosterone.

     Testosterone was the first steroid developed, a natural occuring hormone in

many plants and animals. The first clinical use of testosterone occured in 1958

when physicians injected it into underweight and ill patients to simualte weight

gain.  The first reported use of steroids in a non-medical setting occured during

World War II.  Steroids were adminstered by Nazi doctors into German soldiers to

enhance their aggressiveness.  The Soviet Union noted the Nazis' use of the drug

and recognized that enhanced aggressiveness, increasing in strength, and size

could be desirable in athletic competition.  The Soviets experimented with steroids

in the early 1950's and it is believed that they were used in the 1952 Olympic

games.

     The introduction of steroids into the United States is often attributed to the

late Dr. John Ziegler, the team physician for the United States weightlifting team

at the last Vienna World Power lifting championships.  A Soviet physician told

Ziegler that some of the members fo the Soviet team were using testosterone as an

aid to enhance their strength.  Ziegler was impressed with the results and began

conducting some studies on American lifters.  The results were the development

and introduction of the steroid Dianobol, an anabolic steroid with fewer

masculinizing properties than testosterone.  Dianobol became well known in the

athletic world.  By the 1956 Melbourne Olympic games, steroid use had escalated

to the point that many Olympic competetors in the strength events were either

using them or were aware of their performance ehancing abilties.

     Anabolic steroids are all derivatives of the male sex hormone testosterone.

With the use of  steroids a person will receive two types of effects from the use.

The first is the androgenic effects or masculinizing.  These are the unwanted

effects such as the enlarging of the prostate, growth of male sex glands, deepening

of the voice, and increased facial hair(other steroids were developed in an attempt

to separate these effects of testosterone from the anabolic). The other effect is

anabolic effects, the wanted effects.  There are three major benefits that are

wanted from steroid use and they are:  Frist athletes will attain a greater increase

in lean muscle mass and strength when it is used with a combination of rigorous

training and the drug.  The second major benefit of the steroid use is that the

athlete's body suffers less breakdown.  This decrease in muscle breakdown and

recovery time permits more frequent training sessions at higher intensity and for

longer periods of time.  The third benefit is the increased aggresiveness they are

believed to simulate.  This increased aggresssiveness may drive athletes to train

harder and longer without the usual fatigue.  Other positive effects of using

steroids is increases in; storage of muscle glycogen,...

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