Steroids: Positive or Negative?

Group Members: Patrick Hogan, Jared Romine, Chelsea Burg

“Steroids should not be seen as beneficial to the human body because of the negative effects that they cause.”

Steroids - a synthetic derivative of testosterone, sometimes used by athletes to help increase weight and strength.

Benefits- steroids are a class of natural and synthetic steroid hormones that promote cell growth and division, resulting in growth of muscle tissue and sometimes bone size and strength.

Negativity - Side effects of steroids include, stunting of growth in adolescents, unfavorable changes in sexual characteristics, and psychiatric complications.

Steroids increase protein synthesis within cells, which results in a buildup of cellular tissue especially in muscles. When using steroids, there is an increase in muscle mass and physical strength, and are consequently used in sport and bodybuilding to enhance strength or physique. Side effects of steroids include, stunting of growth, being dose-dependent, elevated blood pressure especially in people with pre-existing hypertension, unfavorable change in sexual characteristics in both genders, and harmful changes in cholesterol levels. Personally, we feel that the use of steroids is very harmful to the body. They should only be used for medical uses rather than enhancement uses. Due to information that supports the fact how negative steroids are, they are seen as very dangerous. According to Dr. Niedfeldt, another side effect regarding steroids includes premature growth plate closure in younger athletes. Also along with this information, he states, “There’s really no appropriate use for anabolic steroids, which is if you don’t want to cheat.” Even though steroids are incredibly harmful to the body, they can also be used for positive uses as well. Steroids reduce the risk of respiratory distress in premature babies by giving the mother steroids before birth. Due to the overwhelming risk of steroids, they should not be seen as beneficial to the human body because of the negative effects that they cause.