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11/25/09
The history of steroids in one form or another can be traced back to ancient Greece. In ancient Greece the steroids were more from nature and not a laboratory. Ancient Greek athletes used natural steroidal substances to enhance androgenic and anabolic growth in the body.
It wasn’t until the 1930’s that two scientist experimenting with dogs discovered that testosterone given under certain conditions would increase muscle mass. This discovery was stumbled upon by accident. Until then it was not known that steroids could be associated with the accumulation of muscle tissue. Given the wide spread abuse of anabolic steroids by athletes in all sports fields it is difficult to remember that anabolic steroids were actually developed for legitimate medical uses.
Puberty gives us a look at changes in the body from childhood into young adulthood. In the male body testosterone is responsible for most of the changes that occur during puberty. In the 19th century experiments revealed the hormone testosterone found in the male testes. This hormone was isolated and then synthesized. It was the synthesizing of testosterone in the 1930’s that has led us to the many forms of today’s steroids. Some have speculated that Hitler may have given solders’ steroids to make them more aggressive, there is no documentation to support these speculations.
Anabolic steroid abuse is said to have first occurred in the 1954 Olympics among weightlifters. The reputation of anabolic steroids grew and so did the wide spread use in all Olympic sports with the exception of ladies field hockey and figure skating.
The abuse of steroids soon spread beyond the Olympic athletes in to other sports venues. It has trickled down from the Olympics to Universities. It has also been detected in high school athletes. Professional athletes have not been immune to the lure of steroids and given the hero worship of adolescents of these professionals it is not surprising that it has even been detected at the Junior High level. Although steroids are most mentioned in relation to athletes, cosmetic use has lead to a new populace that is abusing steroids. The social pressure to achieve unrealistic body types has lead to the cosmetic use of steroids.
Although the abuse of steroids seems to take center stage, there are medical uses for steroids. Steroids are used to treat diseases such as Cancer, AIDS, HIV and other wasting diseases. Testosterone based steroids have a unique ability to reverse the wasting mechanism, thus permitting the body to gain weight and maintain the gain. It is also used to treat Andropause, the male version of Menopause.
Anabolic steroids discovered by accident by two scientists in the 1930’s gave us a drug that has beneficial medical uses. However as with most all drugs, people have found ways to overshadow the positive, with the negative, by over use and abuse of anabolic steroids. To make us stronger and faster is not what steroids was designed for but is what it will go down in history for.
