Study: 1 in 10 students have used Steroids

[GREEDY]

I wasn't sure if this belonged in non-whitesox baseball talk or here in slam, feel free to move if not appropriate.

 

Over the years I have taken an interest to the "performance enhanicing drug" debate. A decade ago I was bad d1 athelete, in a non-major sport, and I still saw how rampant drug use was. I went to a small d1 school and lived in dorms with athletes from all sports, where only a very minute percentage had even a pipe dream of playing their sport proffesionally. For example, one of my buddies entered college as a undersized TE from the suburbs, and left four years later, 125lbs worth of pure muscle heavier, as an oversized defensive lineman, with legitimate hopes of being drafted in the NFL.

 

So, now years later I cringe everytime someone on a forum or a radio show speculates something along the lines of: "50% of pro athletes are using steroids", or when people make statements like: "he or she definitely didn't use steroids, I'm sure of it"... because I feel that while some athletes choose to use more than others, and use different drugs than others.... That the number is virtually 100% of the NFL, 100% of the MLB, and 100% of the NBA players, have used some form of a performance enhancing drug that either was currently illegal or banned, or they used one that wasn't but they knew that it would eventually become illegal. And then I could go on a tirade on how it is comical that some have been labeled "cheaters" and some haven't, and the Hall of Fame debate etc. but we have all heard that crap and most are very tired of it.

 

So, that brings me to this story I found today on Reuters today via Yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/one-20-youth-used-st...-052014145.html

 

The headline says 1 in 20 middle and high school students in a survey of around 3000 (in Minnnesota of all places) have admitted to using steroids. But the story (and yahoo's front page headline) reads that it is actually as many as 1 in 10 (5% to 10% is what is actually says, which I don't really get, they either did or didn't) that admitted to using. Which is downright nuts... even for someone like me that thinks that even the waterboy is juicing.

 

Pure speculation here but it gets even crazier when you consider:

 

-The survey apparently spoke to both girls and boys (one could assume the extreme majority of users were boys).

 

-The survey spoke both to middle schoolers and high schools (one could assume that if it the survey was just limited to high schoolers, the numbers would be higher; when I was in 7th grade I didn't have money for candy bar let alone drugs).

 

-The survey seems to have spoke to both those involved in sports and those who were not (you could assume numbers would have been higher if they just spoke to athletes).

 

-Another possiblity, but maybe a stretch, would be that the "sporting culture" is not as demanding in Minnesota as it is in other areas, and that would lead to even less use in the surveyed area, than if the survey was from an area where a much greater percentage of students go on to play sports at a higher level.

 

-You could also assume that those survyed that did not admit to using, that had actually used, would most likely outnumber those that claimed to have used, but actually had not.

 

So, taking all of my speculative (but fair IMHO) theories into consideration, I think it wouldn't be insane to say that maybe even 50% of male, high school, athletes in this survey group have used anabolic steroids.

 

So, if close to half of high schoolers are using performance enhanicing drugs, what percentage of professional atheletes, who have millions of dollars at stake, are using?

 

Still "50%"?

 

LOL.

Edited November 19, 2012 by GREEDY

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

I knew a few people in HS who were doping.

[Steve9347]

A riveting episode of Grey's Anatomy touched on this subject last week.

[RockRaines]

I knew some were, but I had no idea where to get them myself. I also didnt grow into my 6'1" self until years later so not sure what it would have done for my final size.

[Quin]

I used them once to get rid of a rash.

[witesoxfan]

I used them once to get rid of a rash.

 

Congratulations, you and Barry Bonds are both dirty, filthy cheaters.

[daa84]

While I realize that you likely understand that the steroids you took for the rash are completely different than those athletes take, i do want to take a second to clear a few things up for the inevitable future poster who tries to compare the two

 

The steroids used for a rash (corticosteroids), and those used for performance enhancement (anabolic) purposes are completely different.

 

the term "steroid" refers to molecules that are fat soluble and cross the cell membrane to act on an intracytoplasmic receptor, as its primary mechanism of action. most are derived from cholesterol as the parent compound. in your case you likely took a hydrocortisone cream or some derivative of it. The only real thing this has in common with the substances we colloquially know as steroids (ie anabolic steroids aka PEDs), is that they both cross a cell membrane to exert their mechanism of action. Hydrocortisone cream inhibits the immune response, and thus stops all those B and T cells in your body from causing an inappropriate immune response to some unknown noxious stimulus, and thus reducing your rash. Anabolic steroids cross the cell membrane, bind to a receptor which typically is a growth or transcription factor that causes the cell to enter the cell cycle and replicate itself causing growth (hence the name, human growth hormone)

 

when you hear people say "doctors prescribe steroids all the time," this is technically true - but ~ 98% of those steroids function by inhibiting the immune response used for things like rashes, COPD, asthma, auto-immune disease (arthritis, lupus, inflammatory bowel diseases, etc) among others. Doctors rarely prescribe steroids like hGH except for rare circumstances where kids are born with hypothalamic-pituitary deficiencies. This common misconception is somewhat akin to saying its ok to drink alcohol, because doctors say to drink lots of water. 2 similar routes of administration, but 2 completely different mechanisms of action and thus effects

Edited November 20, 2012 by daa84

[Jake]

I have used an oral anabolic steroid. These were and in some cases are still available over the counter and account for a good deal of the "I tested positive from something at GNC" cases.

 

The social stigma associated with steroids will prevent them from ever getting really widely used like you assert in the OP. There are all kinds of people at every level of sport (and even hobbyists, amateur bodybuilders) that just refuse to do it because they think they are immoral. The war on drugs has declared that injectable anabolic steroids are just as bad as drugs like heroin. This is a strong deterrent, even if it is completely asinine.

 

I say they should be made legal and you would pay out of your pocket to use them with doctor supervision, just like you'd do if you wanted fake tits or whatever else you want to look better.

 

Also, don't conflate HGH and steroids. Big difference.