Steroids

The group of anabolic drugs that most people commonly refer to as "steroids" can actually be classified into two different categories: anabolic/androgenic steroids and corticosteroids.

Corticosteroids, such as cortisone, are medical drugs prescribed to treat inflammation, and are not the drugs that bodybuilders and other athletes use to increase muscle size and strength. In fact corticosteroids do just the opposite - they can break muscle tissue down! This breaking down is called catabolism and is one of the primary reasons why people experiencing extreme stress often lose muscular bodyweight. Their bodies are literally flooded with natural corticosteroid hormones that are breaking down the body’s muscle protein.

Anabolic steroids on the other hand are synthetic hormones that do the opposite - they cause the body to increase muscle size and reduce muscle tissue breakdown. Anabolic steroids were first created to mimic the effects of the male hormone testosterone. Their primary role in medicine is to treat anemia and prevent the muscle wasting that often accompanies such diseases as cancer and AIDS.

Another name for “anabolic steroids” is “androgenic steroids.”  This is because they produce such androgenic effects as stimulating the development of the male sexual characteristics, including growth of facial and pubic hair, enlargement of the genitals, deepening of the voice, increased muscle bulk, and increased sex drive. They also increase the production and secretion of natural skin oil (called sebum), which may cause acne. The most androgenic natural steroid compound is the male hormone, testosterone, and all synthetic anabolic drugs are rated to testosterone by their molecular arrangement. For bodybuilders the best steroids are those that maximize the anabolic effects and muscle size and minimize the androgenic effects.

History of steroids and their debut in sports

The use of compounds, especially drugs, to boost performance in sports is not new. Drug abuse has been reported as far back as the Olympic games in ancient Greece thousands of years ago, when competitors were reported to have used herbs and mushrooms in an attempt to improve their athletic performance.

In the late 19th century, reports circulated of French athletes drinking a concoction of cocoa leaves and wine in order to reduce the sensation of fatigue and hunger. This supposedly allowed them to withstand strenuous forms of exercise and physical activity.

Performance enhancing drug use as we recognize it today probably started back in the 1930's when synthetic testosterone was first synthesized. By the late1940's and early 1950's athletes had begun to recognize the size and strength building benefits of the male hormone. When the Russian weightlifting team, thanks no doubt to synthetic testosterone, dominated the 1952 Olympics, Dr John Ziegler, an American physician decided that American competitors should have the same advantage.

In the late 1950’s, thanks to Ziegler’s help, U.S. pharmaceutical companies began to develop the first anabolic drugs. Although physicians soon realized that they might produce unwanted side effects, it was too late to stop the spread of anabolic drugs throughout the sports world.

The first steroid users were primarily bodybuilders and weightlifters who used the drugs to increase muscle size and strength, but soon football players and track and field athletes began using the drugs to speed up size and strength gains. By the 1970's the demand for steroids exploded as athletes in other sports sought the competitive edge that the drugs provided.

Despite their increased usage in athletics, up until the late 1980’s, anabolic drugs were still one of the “secrets’ shared among sports’ fraternities. But this all changed when Canadian sprinter, Ben Johnson, tested positive for the steroid, Stanazolol, at the 1988 Olympic games in Seoul, Korea. The tremendous media coverage that followed took the drugs from relative locker room obscurity to the front pages of the world’s newspapers. The genie was out of the bottle and competitive sports would never be the same.