People have started to employ steroids like proteins or other nutritional supplements. However, what they don't realize is that they face health risks involving liver damage, high cholesterol and stroke, but also severe infections like HIV and hepatitis.
Teens can experience acne, sudden mood swings, depression and absent sex drive. Other severe side effects are gynecomastia (growth of male breast tissue), testicle shrinkage and sexual dysfunction (impotence).
In the UK, the use of steroid could be more than twice wider spread than official numbers say. British Crime Survey states that there are 42,000 British regular anabolic steroid users. "There could be as many as 100,000. Basically we're looking at numbers being on a par with heroin
users," said drugs expert Jim McVeigh of Liverpool John Moores University.
Treatment centers say that steroid employment has boomed in the last three years and that the issue is particularly severe with users younger than 25, the youngest ones being just 16. The biggest problem is that most people do not admit taking steroids and the chemicals are now much easier to get through internet and gyms. "At any one time in Liverpool there are approximately 1,000 anabolic steroid users - nationally we're looking at over 100,000," McVeigh, told BBC Radio Five Live. "The use among younger people is growing as more and more strive for the "perfect body". It's all about being big, muscular, toned, and they can gain that much quicker using steroids than they ever can working out," said nurse Deborah Jones, from the harm reduction center in Wirral.
"It does take over. They want to have the rippling six pack with the golden body, but most of them end up as the Arnold Schwarzenegger - that's what they see as success."
Steroid use could resemble anorexia: no matter their true size, the consumers see themselves as "tiny, scrawny, weedy". "Parents will pay for gym subscriptions because they don't want them on the streets. They see it as the healthier option, but it can expose them to the steroid culture."
Moreover, most of the consumers are not aware of the risks involved. "In their perceptions, they have very healthy lifestyles. They exercise regularly, they eat healthily, they're very conscious about what they put in their bodies - a lot of them won't smoke or have alcohol."
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