When I was young, I was suffering from the Soar Throat, Nose & Ear infections & Doctor normally give me the Steroids. Then I found out that the dosage of Steroids tended to increase over time. & the body resitance or immunity getting bad.
The other experience I got is the Liver plain. Also when I did the research on others, it is also found that people told me that when they recovered after using Steroids, they have found that their Kidney is weak. These can be understood, as the steroids get into the blood & water. Which Liver & Kidney are the filter's for the Blood & Water in our body.
So my advise to all is that. When in illness. the
1st things is to avoid using Steroids.
For your Great Health please beware of these.
Coaches condemn use of juice
Few local high school athletes turn to steroids
The towering mound of muscles that was former pro football player Lyle Alzado is still a vivid image in North Port weightlifting coach Sascha Hyer's mind.
So is the crumbled and deteriorated man who near the end of his 42-year life, could no longer walk by his own strength.
Alzado died in 1992 of brain cancer brought on by steroid use, and when Hyer addresses his weightlifters and football players, Alzado is posthumously scaring the Bobcats away from premature death.
"I still remember seeing photos of him and how bad he looked," Hyer said. "I show them those photos and say, 'Hey, this is what's going to happen to you if you take steroids.'"
These days, this is the discussion coaches regularly have with their athletes. The hunger for a competitive edge, even among teenagers, is making steroids a more attractive option than diet and exercise alone.
According to several studies in a report released in October by the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, national steroid use rates among eighth, 10th and 12th graders steadily increased from 1991 to 2002. There was a slight dip in those numbers in 2003.
The percentage of students nationally who responded to the University of Michigan survey and said they had used steroids was still low at about two percent in 2003. But for high school seniors, the group that reported the highest rate of steroid use, the percentage of users went from 1.1 percent to 2.1 percent from 1992 to 2003.
Survey respondents also reported that the number of seniors who perceived steroids as dangerous had fallen and that steroids were easy to obtain.
Similar numbers were reported on the state level according to Florida's annual Youth Substance Abuse Survey in 2003.
Just more than one percent of sixth- through 12th-grade students surveyed reported using steroids in the past, while 0.4 percent reported using steroids in the past 30 days.
Based on those percentages, about 19,350 of the state's 1.4 million sixth- through 12th-grade students have used steroids before and 5,600 had used steroids in the past 30 days.
The same study showed steroid use had declined in all grade levels from 2000 to 2003.
It also said males were more likely to be steroid users than females.
All of those numbers, while minute to some, were shocking to state Rep. Marcelo Llorente, R-Miami.
A former high school athlete at Belen Jesuit in Miami and a college baseball player at Tulane University until his graduation in 1998, Llorente admits he never saw or knew of players using steroids on either the prep or college level. But the results of recent studies compelled him to propose a bill to the House of Representatives and state Senate last year to implement steroid testing of high school athletes in Florida.
It's a measure Llorente said needs to be in place for the good of all of Florida's high school athletes.
"I think we need to ensure that there's a deterrent for young people," he said. "They're the most vulnerable and we need to educate them on the lifelong risks associated with steroids."
Dr. Mark Asperilla of Port Charlotte agrees testing is a good deterrent, but he says education is the best way to prevent children from taking steroids.
"It's not being promoted heavily that there are long-term consequences," Asperilla said. "In schools they should sit down and talk to the kids about the dangers of steroids before they get involved in it."
Long-term health problems associated with steroid use include liver damage, sexual dysfunction and kidney damage. Steroids have also been linked to cancer.
Llorente is well aware of the side effects of steroid use, which is why he's been so passionate about the bill. The bill has to be approved by the house and senate. It has been unanimously approved by one committee and is awaiting approval by a second.
Llorente is hoping a pilot program will be in place by this fall, which means the bill would have to be passed by May, the end of the current legislative session.
If all goes as planned, the Florida High School Athletics Association would be required to choose one sport for the pilot program, test all of its athletes and figure out the cost of the testing.
The FHSAA would then have to figure out how to finance such a program for all sports and determine any punishments for students who tested positive for steroids.
Llorente didn't offer any suggestions about where the money should come from to pay for the testing or what the punishments should be for athletes who test positive, saying that's a decision for the FHSAA, which has backed the program.
"I think it's best to leave that up to them," he said. "We may or may not agree with it as representatives, but I'm completely focused on creating a deterrent."
But with prices ranging from $50 to $250 per test, where the money is going to come from to pay for the testing is one of the biggest concerns officials at area high schools have. They point out that high school athletics programs have far less money than college or professional teams, which can easily afford drug testing.
"College and pro teams have millions of dollars, whereas we have thousands," DeSoto football coach Gary Morton said. "You have 15 or 16 programs to run and if you have to fund-raise just so your program stays afloat, how would we drug test? We'd almost be fund raising to drug test our kids."
While the general opinion is testing would deter steroid use, the necessity of that measure has also come into question.
Though rumors are always aflutter, coaches were hard-pressed to think of high school athletes they seriously suspected of using steroids.
"You hear things, but I don't usually see kids that show the signs of it," Lemon Bay football coach Mike Messina said. "We know what to look for, and if I saw somebody that had the characteristics of someone who is taking steroids, I would pull him aside and say something. I don't have a problem with that and the kids know we don't tolerate stuff like that here."
Rapid increases in strength, weight gain, puffiness in the face and acne are all signs coaches look for, but they're just not seen that often, they say.
"I really don't think anyone at DeSoto is using steroids," Morton said, adding with a laugh, "If they are, they're using the wrong ones."
Many student athletes are in favor of the testing, saying it would keep the integrity of high school sports intact.
"This is the era when people are using a lot of performance-enhancing drugs so I see no problem with the testing," said Jason Wood, a Port Charlotte basketball and football player. "The ones who don't use them have nothing to hide and for the ones that do, testing might discourage them."
But some athletes feel unfairly targeted by the proposed legislation, saying that while testing is good, it should be implemented for all students involved in extracurricular activities and should test for more than steroids.
"If you're doing any type of illegal drug, that should be included," said Amanda Huckestein, a Port Charlotte softball player. "Anyone that's representing the school should be tested because if you have someone who's doing drugs, that looks bad for the school."
Messina felt the sting of that kind of embarrassment when one of his former players, Sam Tilly, was arrested last year for possession of marijuana.
Every Friday night during football season, Messina won't let his players leave without telling them it's OK to walk away from drugs.
"Those scare me a lot more than steroids do right now and what the kids are doing on weekends," Messina said. "I'm pretty confident we don't have anybody on steroids, but it's the other stuff that really worries me. I think the performance-enhancing stuff is way down on the list right now."
Many coaches and players feel that steroids lack appeal because most high school athletes here don't play sports beyond high school and the steroids are just too expensive.
Most high school athletes in the area don't feel pressure to make it to a Division I school or don't have a long lineage of athletically successful alumni to emulate like bigger cities do.
For most student athletes, graduation marks the end of their athletic careers.
"We're not going straight to the pros," said Chandler Boehm, a DeSoto baseball player. "I could see that kind of pressure at big schools, where last year they had four guys go sign with the pros, but we don't feel that pressure here."
Knowing they won't be playing sports after high school is over makes getting involved with steroids pointless for a lot of student athletes, especially when they're so expensive. Different cycles and stacks often go for several hundred dollars each and usually have to be purchased on the black market.
"To say it's not out there, I'd be a fool, but I'd hope that my kids would know not to sit there and waste $200 for the pills or the injection when it's not worth it," said Sascha Hyer, North Port weightlifting and assistant football coach. "Especially when you've got three weeks left in your career or three months."
Even for the athletes who have realistic aspirations of playing in college, steroids are unattainable financially.
"You're talking a lot of money and for a kid to be able to do this; they're going to have to have a lot of money on their hands," Morton said. "I find that hard to believe that if a kid has $500 dollars, mom and dad aren't going to know where they got the money from."
And perhaps one of the biggest reasons why students play sports in high school -- a sense of pride in themselves and their school -- is why steroid use is what Morton called a "dead topic" in high schools.
"When I put on my uniform, I think about representing the school, and leaving everything out there" said Mike Whidden, a Charlotte football player and weightlifter. "I try to do as well as I can."
You can e-mail Cristina Ledra at cledra@sun-herald.com.
By CRISTINA LEDRA
Portsmouth Herald Mike Sullivan: Baseball's steroid scandal has plenty of juice left
