Guys deal with body image issues everyday too. While it is great that issues around body image are being talked about more, often times the entire conversation is focused on females. Just think: ads with super skinny women make girls feel the pressure, and the ads with pictures of men are no different!

Guys often feel that they must look big and strong. Much like compulsive exercise there are often serious pressures for athletes especially to bulk up. Because of these pressures to attain a certain build, guys might think about using performance-enhancers.

But it’s not just guys turning to steroids. It turns out that girls are using them as well. Sometimes it is for the same reasons, to become bigger for sports, but they also can be used by girls (often hand-in-hand with an eating disorder) to lose weight and get the “toned look.”

There are better, healthier, ways to boost performance including strength training (see our fitness page) and eating healthy (check out the healthy eating cause!).

Steroids are not the only way athletes try to train harder and gain muscle mass. A relatively new supplement on the market, creatine is a naturally produced organic acid in the body that directs energy to muscle cells. Creatine has become one of the most fiercely debated topics in high school and college weight rooms today.

Athletes who want to add significant muscle mass in a relatively short period of time have started utilizing creatine supplements such as NO-Xplode and CellTech during their workouts. While we know creatine is effective for its immediate purposes (bodybuilding, weight gaining), researchers have been unable to guarantee the long-term safety of the supplement.

While all high school and college coaches want their athletes to be in the best shape possible, many are reluctant to recommend or even condone the use of creatine. Many agree that creatine is too new, and while size and power are important to a successful athlete, the possible future health problems are not worth the immediate benefits of the supplement.

A safer, natural alternative to creatine supplements is a diet rich in meat, fish, and milk, all of which contain significant amounts of naturally occurring creatine. Many weightlifters also stick to high amounts of protein for increasing muscle mass, eating lots of peanut butter and meat.

The immediate benefits of creatine:

• more energy during work outs (due to greater ATP regeneration)
• enhanced strength
• decreased effects of lactic acid (the burn you feel after heavy exercise)
• quick weight gain
• greater water retention in muscles, resulting in a "swelling" of the muscles
• delays fatigue, allows for shorter workout recovery period

The problems with creatine:

• potential for kidney stones
• no long term studies have been conducted; many researchers see the possibility of heart and kidney problems
• greater susceptibility to injury during contact sports
• causes muscles to develop faster than the tendons that support them resulting in tears and other injury
• greater risk of renal disease
• unknown effects on the blood stream

Some of the serious, long-term effects of anabolic steroid use are:

• premature balding or hair loss
• dizziness
• mood swings, including anger, aggression, and depression
• seeing or hearing things that aren't there (hallucinations)
• extreme feelings of mistrust or fear (paranoia)
• problems sleeping
• nausea and vomiting
• trembling
• high blood pressure that can damage the heart or blood vessels over time
• aching joints
• greater chance of injuring muscles and tendons
• jaundice or yellowing of the skin; liver damage
• urinary problems
• shortening of final adult height
• increased risk of developing heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer

4 specific risks for girls:

1. increased facial hair growth
2. development of masculine traits, such as deepening of the voice, and loss of feminine body characteristics, such as shrinking of the breasts
3. enlargement of the clitoris
4. menstrual cycle changes

5 specific risks for guys:

1. testicular shrinkage
2. pain when urinating
3. breast development
4. impotence (inability to get an erection)
5. sterility (inability to have children)

Other risks:

Steroids can also have serious psychological side effects. Some users become aggressive or combative, developing "roid rage" — extreme, uncontrolled bouts of anger caused by long-term steroid use.

Steroid users who inject the drugs with a needle are at risk for infection with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), the virus that causes AIDS, if they share needles with other users. People who use dirty needles are also at greater risk for contracting hepatitis, a disease of the liver, or bacterial endocarditis, an infection of the inner lining of the heart.

If you, or someone you know, needs help now go to our hotline page for numbers to call for help.

Sources:

kidshealth.org
USA.Today
www.creatinemonohydrate.net
www.bodybuildingforyou.com