Are steroids worth getting pumped up ~bout?

by Gavin Mirigliani assistant perspectives editor

The craving for the perfect body affects countless Americans each year, as men desire to play sports like the professional athletes they see on television and women strive to look like supermodels. People want to look like the perfect male or female_depicted by the society in which they live.

Genetics may not allow this to occur, so they turn to a helping hand. For many, this helping hand is the use of anabolic steroids. Steroids are manufactured hormones of testosterone, which the body produces naturally itself. But while the average testosterone level created in the body is about 2.5 to 11 milligrams per day,. steroids cause the count to soar to over l 00 milligrams created within a 24-hour period.

Many students and athletes.

both at Cabrini and at other colleges, have found themselves quickly addicted to steroids, even after only a few uses.

"Last year, I had been working out and taking the quick builder shakes from GNC [General Nutrition Center]; but I was looking for something that would increase mass and power even faster," said a student named "John."

"I truly did not know what I was getting into. My lifting partner had informed me about this 'new vitamin' that would increase power and strength without any side effects. I started taking those 'vitamins' in April of '96 and was using for about three months," John said. "In August of that same year I went to the doctor. I had gained 25 pounds in that time and had a lot of the symptoms of a typical steroid user. Two weeks later, I got a call from my doctor telling me that they had done some tests on what I had been taking and they had a growth hormone in them."

The symptoms the doctor cited included serious mood swings and a severe acne breakout which covered his back. His appetite, as well as his metabolism, increased and he experienced increasingly frequent headaches.

"It got the job done, though. I had doubled what I had been benching in only a couple of weeks," John said.

Many athletes who have gone on to the professional level have also experienced the pressures of using steroids in college. Lyle Alzado, who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, played professionally after using steroids throughout college. In those years, his only goal was to get bigger and to win football games. He finally made it into the pros-in fact, not only did he make it, but he has been named by several coaches as one of the best defensive players of all time. He used steroids throughout his professional career and retired without his secret being discovered.

Upon retirement, he began to feel the depressions that most athletes feel after leaving a sport they have strived to succeed in all of their lives. In the early '90s, he tried to return the sport, but knew that he could not do it by himself. He needed the support of the steroids that had helped him through those rough, physical days.

However, his return was abruptly ended by injuries. Alzado again disappeared into the shadows with those who had ended their careers before him.

Alzado reappeared in 1991, when the world found out that he had brain cancer due to the heavy use of steroids throughout his life. An emotional Alzado broke down in front of cameras, pleading to the youth of America not to follow in his footsteps. "Do not make the mistakes that I have. The overall consequences are not worth the short term benefits," Alzado said.

But it was too late for Alzado. He died the next year, but before his death, he became one of the biggest advocates for changing the popular views of steroids and the misconception many young athletes held of them.

During Alzado's career, no one worried about his steroid use. No one knew that he was breaking down his body as he was building it up. However, for John, the dangers of steroids were caught in enough time to make a difference in his life. For many others, it is too late. This hypocritical drug has claimed the Iives of many athletes and those of many others who seek the perfect body. But with continued support for antisteroid laws and drug testing in professional and amateur sports, the destruction can be ended.