Steroid effects on youths worry Clinic doctor

Young steroid users risk depression, addiction
and criminal behavior.

By DON SHILLING

VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR

Perhaps 10 percent of high school athletes are using steroids to become bigger, stronger and faster.

Often, however, that athletic prowess comes with increased depression, drug addiction and criminal behavior, said Dr. Robert Dimeff, medical director of sports medicine at the Cleveland Clinic.

“That’s what I worry about most — the psychological effects,” Dr. Dimeff said.

Concern about young athletes is being expressed because of a report released Thursday on steroid use in Major League Baseball. The investigator, George Mitchell, said steroid use by professional athletes is encouraging use among youths.

“Many young Americans are placing themselves at risk,” Mitchell said.

Dr. Dimeff said a study a few years ago and indicated that 10 percent of high school male athletes and 6 percent of females had used steroids that were not prescribed for them by a physician. Use among middle-schoolers was 2 percent.

Dr. Dimeff said he’s concerned about the psychological effects because steroids can create havoc in teenage brains that are still developing. Teens with a family history of mental illness or aggression particularly seem to be at risk, he said.

Young athletes aren’t the only ones using steroids, however.

No numbers are known but use among people who work out is thought to be significant.

“There’s a lot of vanity,” said Lance Owens, owner of Club South in Boardman.

He is a member of the International Natural Bodybuilding Federation, which was created for bodybuilders who don’t use illegal substances. Competing against people using steroids just became too tough, he said.

People don’t talk about steroids with him, but he figures plenty of non-bodybuilders are using steroids so they can “get ripped quick.”

“I’m probably talking to people everyday who use them,” he said.

Dr. Dimeff said steroids can be popular with men past their teen-age years because of their decreasing levels of testosterone, the male sex hormone, which peaks between the ages of 16 and 18.

As testosterone levels decrease, muscle tissue breaks down more during workouts, he said. Steroids can stop that and allow people to work out harder and recover more quickly, he said.

Dangers of steroid use, however, go far beyond the psychological, he pointed out. Among the side-effects are sterility, baldness, acne, elevated cholesterol and high-blood pressure.

And perhaps they’ll kill you. Speculation has grown in recent years that steroid use has played a part in the deaths of a large number of pro wrestlers.

The primary concern is that steroids cause the heart to enlarge and weaken, Dr. Dimeff said. Long-term implications of steroid use aren’t known, however, because the right studies can’t be done, Dr. Dimeff said.

He said he’d have plenty of volunteers for a study that proposed giving people high levels of steroids for eight weeks. It would be unethical, however, because of the side effects that already are known, he said.

Users of steroids and human growth hormone, which also is used illegally to build muscle, have experimented enough to develop what they feel are safe ways to use them.

Users will cycle on and off the substances and vary doses. Plenty of information is available through word-of-mouth or online, Dr. Dimeff said.

“They know a lot more than most doctors,” he said.

Still, without long-term studies, doctors can’t be sure if cycling is safe, he said.

Owens, a certified personal fitness instructor, said he doesn’t think people should be taking those risks.

“Steroids are not necessary for hitting home runs,” he said.

Neither are they necessary for looking good, he said.

Natural methods can add 15 pounds to 20 pounds of muscle a year, he said. That’s only about half of what steroid-users might accomplish but still enough to make a difference in how you look and feel, he said.

The keys are to eat right, take the right natural supplements and work out with intensity, he said.

shilling@vindy.coma