The Dangers Of Anabolic Steroid Use Our Youth

For a lot of people who have used anabolic steroids, the best age to start is in the late twenties, this is because the body stops or slows at producing testosterone. This is the time when the body's natural capability to grow muscle starts to go down. If someone wants keep growing muscle mass at the same pace, then an alternate source of hormones might be needed.

But very few know that there are a number of users in this country that are starting way too soon. Some of them start to use steroids at age 15. A lot of these cases are from kids wanting better performance in sports. Some might have friends or siblings with access and experience to steroids, so they might want to take advantage of this in order to jumpstart their sports career while in high school. We see sports figures these days often being drafted right out of high school into the professional leagues, so it makes sense why more and more high school athletes would want to use steroids to gain that performance edge over other people. There is another group of premature steroid users that only use to be more muscular. These are kids that don't really understand much about steroids or about gaining muscle in the first place, so they try to take a shortcut. But in the process of using this shortcut, they damage themselves for life just by spiking the body's hormone production levels. This is very sad to see amongst kids, but also to see becoming more common.

For young people who make the decision to use steroids, there are many side effects involved. Steroid use during puberty can cause a lot of damage. The bones haven't finished developing at this stage, but will stop growing after one cycle of steroid use. The testosterone levels are also very naturally high at this point; so adding to them makes normal side effects of puberty, such as acne, much worse. Some of the other side effects that are just from steroids include damage to sexual organs, losing hair, and damage to the liver. There are many other side effects, but it is hard to determine what they will be as many premature steroid users do not report any acquired illnesses due to them being illegally caused.

There are many risks inherent with steroid use, but most bodybuilders and others who use them are of sufficient age, and are most likely aware of the risks and take precautions to try and avoid them. But when it comes to teenage steroid use, there should be no questions at all. Using steroids at that age can have severe side effects and can cause irrevocable damage to a body that is not ready to handle them.