Kids on steroids willing to risk it all for success
By Jacqueline Stenson
MSNBC contributor
updated 3/3/2008 10:31:21 AM ET
In a nation where the Super Bowl is the
most-watched night on television and
professional athletes in a range of sports rake
in millions of dollars in salaries and
endorsements, it's not hard to see why many
kids grow up idolizing athletes. Some sports
stars may deny they are role models for a
younger generation, but a new study suggests
quite the contrary.
Among students in grades 8 through 12 who
admitted to using anabolic steroids in a
confidential survey, 57 percent said
professional athletes influenced their decision
to use the drugs and 63 percent said pro
athletes influenced their friends' decision to
use them. Eighty percent of users — and 35
percent of non-users — said they believed
steroids could help them achieve their athletic
dreams.
What's more, the steroid users said they were
willing to take extreme risks to reach sports
stardom or other athletic goals. The survey
found that 65 percent of steroid users versus
6 percent of non-users said they would be
willing to use a pill or powder, including
dietary supplements, if it guaranteed they
would reach their athletic goals even if it may
harm their health, and 57 percent of users
versus 4 percent of non-users said they
would take a pill or powder even if it may
shorten their life.
"It's scary," says study author Jay Hoffman,
chair of health and exercise science at the
College of New Jersey in Ewing. "This study
shows that adolescents are willing to take
those risks."
The survey, conducted from 2005 to 2006,
involved more than 3,200 students in 12
states, most of them from New Jersey,
Pennsylvania and New Mexico. Other states
included Iowa, Wisconsin, Connecticut,
Missouri, Ohio, Colorado, New York,
Minnesota and California.
Overall, 1.6 percent of students (2.4 percent of
boys and .8 percent of girls) — about 50
students in total — reported using anabolic
steroids, according to results published in the
January issue of the journal Medicine &
Science in Sports & Exercise. That's lower than
more nationally representative research, such
as the government's National Youth Risk
Behavior Survey, which found in 2005 that 4
percent of kids in grades 9 through 12
reported steroid use.
In the new survey, steroid use increased with
age, especially in boys, with almost 6 percent
of 12th grade males reporting steroid use.
Users say they'd take drugs to excel even if it shortened their lives
Some students reported using other dietary
supplements to boost their game or physical
appearance. Of all students surveyed, 17
percent said they had used supplements such
as protein powders, creatine and amino acids
to gain body mass. And 35 percent said they
had used supplements such as fat burners,
high-energy drinks, ephedra and caffeine pills
in an attempt to lose weight. The more
supplements kids took, the more likely they
were to also use steroids.
The sports world has been rocked by steroid
scandals in recent months. In December, for
instance, the Mitchell Report implicated more
than 80 professional baseball players in the
use of steroids. And last fall, sprinter Marion
Jones admitted to lying about steroid use and
returned her five Olympic medals.
Not all kids see anything wrong with steroids
in sports though. In the new survey, 57
percent of steroid users and 12 percent of
non-users said they believe pro athletes have
the right to use steroids. And 60 percent of
users and 29 percent of non-users actually
thought using anabolic steroids for athletic
purposes is legal.
Role model?
Hoffman blames lack of education about the
dangers of these drugs as well as the influence
of elite athletes who use steroids.
"I believe there is an inherent responsibility of
being a role model," Hoffman says. "Whether
they want it or not, it comes with the territory."
Dr. Linn Goldberg, who's involved with
national programs to counter steroids in
youth sports, says the new study confirms
what he has seen anecdotally.
"Sports role models are very powerful in a
young kid's life," says Goldberg, who is head
of the division of health promotion and sports
medicine at the Oregon Health and Science
University in Portland. "The mindset is that if [a
pro athlete] had to use that, then maybe I
should use that."
Through his program called Athletes Training
and Learning to Avoid Steroids (ATLAS), he is
trying to educate kids that there are
alternatives to steroids, such as sports-
specific training regimens and diets that help
athletes gain muscle naturally.
Red flags
Don Hooton wishes he had known about the
warning signs of steroid abuse. His son,
Taylor, 17, killed himself in 2003, six weeks
after discontinuing steroid use.
"All the signs were there that Taylor was using
steroids," says Hooton, who lives in Plano,
Texas. Taylor, a high school baseball player,
worked out three times a day, gained 30
pounds of muscle in 90 days, developed acne
on his back and started having 'roid rages. "He
would just fly off the handle for seemingly no
reason," says Hooton.
The Hootons knew something was wrong, but
they didn't know what. And they actually
praised him for his muscle development
because they thought it was the pure result of
all his hard work at the gym. They didn't
realize it's impossible to naturally gain so
much muscle so quickly.
Now through the Taylor Hooton Foundation,
the family is working to raise awareness of the
dangers of steroids in youth. Because teens
are still developing and already have raging
hormones, experts worry that steroids —
which, among other possible effects, may
shrink testicles, raise cholesterol, promote
liver tumors, spur breast growth in males, and
shrink breasts and deepen voice in females —
may be particularly dangerous for them.
The foundation also is pushing for more drug
testing for steroids in schools. New Jersey and
Florida are already doing testing, and Texas
and Illinois are making plans to test. "We need
a random testing program not to put a kid in
jail but to give them a chance to get caught,"
says Hooton. If kids face the threat of getting
caught and being kicked off a team or losing a
scholarship, they might think twice before
using steroids or other performance-
enhancers, he says.
Such testing isn't perfect though. It can't
reliably detect human growth hormone, for
instance, which is believed to be catching on
with youth athletes as it seems to be with
adults.
That's why Hooton and others hope the sports
world cracks down harder on doping. "It's not
just about [pro athletes]," Hooton says. "It's
about our kids. It's about Taylor and
hundreds of thousands of kids."
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