
TUESDAY, May 16, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Lured by guarantees of greater muscles and higher performance on the sphere, many athletes and bodybuilders turn to anabolic steroids despite their well-known uncomfortable side effects, including increased risk for heart disease and mood issues.
Now, two recent studies show these harms may persist after athletes stop taking the synthetic hormones.
The message is obvious with regards to the illegal use of anabolic steroids to spice up muscle mass and enhance athletic performance: “Don’t do it,” warned study writer Dr. Yeliz Bulut. She is a doctoral student at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark.
In a single study of 64 healthy men aged 18 to 50 who engaged in recreational strength training, 28 were using anabolic steroids, 22 were former steroid users and 14 had never taken steroids.
Men underwent a test to see how much blood flowed to their heart muscles when resting and exercising. Each former and current steroid users showed poor blood flow to their hearts in comparison with those that have never used them. Most former users had stopped taking steroids multiple 12 months before the study.
In one other study, three groups of men aged 18 to 50 answered questionnaires and gave blood to measure levels of the male sex hormone testosterone. This study included 89 current anabolic steroid users, 61 former steroid users and 30 men who had never used steroids. About three-quarters of former users stopped taking steroids multiple 12 months before participating within the study; the remaining had been clean for greater than two years.
Former steroid users reported worse physical and mental health, including higher levels of fatigue, worse social functioning and poorer emotional well-being. What’s more, men who stopped taking steroids had lower testosterone levels in comparison with those that had never used steroids, the study found.
“Impaired quality of life in previous anabolic steroid users seems to persist several years following cessation,” said Bulut. “We expect the decreased quality of life reported by previous anabolic steroid users may very well be attributable to each withdrawal or … sudden drop in testosterone levels within the blood.”
Researchers plan to conduct a bigger study to take a look at heart disease risk and quality of life in former steroid users.
The studies were presented this weekend on the annual meeting of the European Congress of Endocrinology, in Istanbul, Turkey. Findings presented at medical meetings ought to be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Dr. Richard Auchus agreed that the neatest thing for athletes to do is avoid steroids. He’s a professor of internal medicine on the University of Michigan.
“Although fitness and strength are worthy goals, ultimately, there is absolutely little difference between androgen abuse and every other type of substance abuse,” said Auchus, who has no ties to the brand new studies.
There are plenty of long-term consequences to steroid use. “Still, it’s hard to dissuade young men from doing this, for whom risk-taking behavior is common,” Auchus added.
More information
The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more on the risks related to anabolic steroids.
SOURCES: Yeliz Bulut, MD, PhD, doctoral student, Copenhagen University, Denmark; Richard Joseph Auchus, MD, professor, internal medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; presentation, twenty fifth European Congress of Endocrinology, Istanbul, Turkey