The use of anabolic steroids without a doctor’s prescription and a legitimate medical use has been against the law for some time. Using steroids has been against the rules of sport for even longer. Athletic-enhancing drugs have been written about extensively in the popular press and been the subject of endless debate on television. Nonetheless, it is amazing how little most people—including many physicians, legislators and sports officials—actually know about what these drugs are, what they do and what their medical side effects really are.

How has this happened? Why has there been so much miscommunication—or even disinformation—disseminated regarding these drugs? If so much written and said has been untrue, why haven’t experts who know the truth stepped forward and attempted to set the record straight?

One reason is the fear of seeming to endorse steroid use by appearing not to condemn them with sufficient energy. Unfortunately, steroids have been so incredibly demonized in the media, their dangers and negative effects so exaggerated, that anyone who voices the opinion that they may not be as dangerous as made out to be (in many cases) or that the negative effects are not so terrible as advertised can seem to be acting as an apologist for these drugs.

Medical McCarthyism

A good analogy to this can be drawn from the McCarthy “red-baiting” period of the early 1950s. They had names for people back then who took the position that, “Yes, Soviet Communism is a bad thing and ought to be guarded against, but I don’t really think the State Department is riddled with Communist agents. Those who failed to agree with the virulent anti-Communist position as advocated by the senator from Wisconsin ran the risk of being called fellow travelers, communist sympathizers, Soviet dupes and pinkoes.

The same sort of thing is likely to happen today to those who attempt to put the dangers of using anabolic steroids into some reasonable perspective. Which is one reason why medical scientists, who know better, are loathe to speak out against the exaggerated and often hysterical claims made against these drugs.

If they did speak up, what would these “experts” say? That steroids have some negative side effects, but are not as dangerous as made out to be by the media.

Also, while there are some athletic advantages to their use, steroids are far less effective in enhancing performance than generally believed.

What Are Anabolic Steroids?

In simple terms, anabolic steroids are synthetic analogs of testosterone. Testosterone is a “male hormone” that is nonetheless found in both males and females, although the amount of testosterone in the female body tends to be only about 1/100th of that found in the male.

For purposes of discussion, hormones like this have two different effects on the body: an androgenic effect, which influences sexual characteristics; and an anabolic one, which affects such things as muscle mass and strength.

Anabolic steroids in general have been engineered so as to differ from testosterone by increasing the anabolic effect of the drugs while diminishing the androgenic aspect. Chemists have devised specific anabolic steroids with slightly different molecular structures so that each has more or less effect on such things as mass, strength, and endurance and to have higher or lower androgenic properties.

Anabolic steroids are also anti-inflammatories and have a positive effect on rehabilitation of injuries. Actually, these drugs are very closely related to cortisone, and have many of the same effects, both positive and negative.

What Anabolic Steroids Do?

Anabolic steroids, depending upon the particular drug being used, have a number of effects upon the body.

Among Other Things They:

1. Increase the body’s ability to utilize protein, allowing an athlete to train with greater intensity without going into negative nitrogen balance (losing muscle mass);
2. Increase the ability to build muscle mass;
3. Increase the ability to build strength;
4. Increase the ability to build endurance;
5. Act as an anti-inflammatory, both helping to protect the body from injury and speeding up recovery after injury has occurred.

However, taking these drugs does not automatically produce the effects listed above. Far from it. None of these “athletic benefits” is achieved without a regimen of hard, consistent training, and even then the effects achieved may not be all that dramatic.

Contrary to public opinion, you can’t get bigger or stronger to any degree simply by taking a drug. Instead, what seems to be the case is that anabolic steroids allow athletes to train harder, longer and more often without becoming overtrained, and therefore allow them to derive benefit from this type of more intense workout regimen.