Stiff competition among young sportsmen yields children as young as thirteen to turn to anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. The number of high school athletes taking extreme and potentially deadly measures in order to gain competitive edge is continuously soaring.

Researches have shown that 5% of teen boys and 2.5% of teen girls have used some form of anabolic steroids. With a mindset that is focused on how to become stronger, faster and leaner pushes these young athletes to engage in legal but risky supplements to illegal steroids drugs.

According to the sports-physician of Ports Elizabeth, Dr. Konrad Von Hagen, even parents are asking him to inject their child with growth hormones with the objective of improving their child’s jumping skills. This kind of pressure from parents as well as from peers and the environment drove young athletes to do what is needed to get into the team. The temptation of using illegal body-modifying substances is always creeping into the mind of young athletes especially to those who belong in schools where sports are an integral part of the schools heritage.

Charles Whitely, a bay body builder and personal trainer encountered teens that use this kind of supplements for competitive advantage. Even a school rugby coach confided to him that he is also planning to let his child, who is also in rugby sports, use this kind of performance enhancer.

Both specialists advised that this action is not just harmful to the user but to their opponents as well. Steroid user feels more aggressive than usual and feels a lot bigger than their counter part. This attitude may likely result to an injury for both participant. In some cases, even though the player experience concussions during competition, they tend to ignore their injuries in order to be able to continue playing the sport. Von Hagen said these cases of continuous concussions may likely lead to severe cognitive deterioration.

Steroids promise bold results, but there is little proof that they deliver any such benefits to young athletes. Extensive research, however, shows how they can harm developing kids — with some of these ill effects not likely to turn up until years later. Teens can face further side effects from steroids including the permanent stunting of growth. Even the most ardent of steroid supporters will typically advise against steroid use before a person reaches their mid-twenties and the natural growth process has been fully completed. It can even result to the body’s failure to reach natural genetic potential as growth plates are permanently closed.

But what worries researchers most, is that the teens don’t recognize the danger of using steroids. National Institute for Drug Abuse reports 45 percent of high school seniors just don’t think that steroids carry harmful physical risk such as heart problems and liver damage. This may be linked to the aspect of growing up wherein teens tend to get this feeling of invincibility and sense of bravado. Teens usually feel that it will not affect their life and they will soon get over it, according to Barbara Scheidner, a sociologist of University of Chicago. They don’t realize that there is no need to have those quick fixes and the best fixes are always achieved with hard work.

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