New steroid supplements contain dangerous ingredients

With the increasing competition in high school sports, more teenage athletes are trying to get an edge on the competition. They are trying to get the extra inch or pound that could help them win in competition. To get this advantage, more and more are turning to steroids.  

Between 2012 and 2013 the number of teens using steroids had doubled from five percent to eleven percent. This jump is a result of the increasing competitiveness and pressure of high school sports. With more than 7.7 million students playing high school sports, athletes already put pressure on themselves  

“When you’re talking about the bigger schools, the bigger states where everything is a lot more competitive, like Texas and California, I think [the number of athletes on steroids] is higher,” Central’s Athletic Trainer Bryant Pasho said. 

But the form of the steroids that student athletes are taking has shifted. Originally, harsh anabolic steroid injections were the main method to enhance muscle growth. But now much subtler performance enhancing drugs such as Human Growth Hormone and over-the-counter supplements that feature some anabolic elements. Students might not even realize that the supplements they are using have a steroid element to them. 

“There are people taking supplements that have no idea that it has what it has in it,” Pasho said. “There’s an anabolic agent in there that they either don’t know about or don’t want to know about.” 

Even with the shift of form, these supplements still have the same effects as steroids. 

“[Over the counter supplements] still have the same effect as steroids,” Pasho said.  

While good for muscle builing, steroids bring negative consequences. Some of these side effects include infertility, elevated blood pressure, and premature balding. But teenagers face more risks from steroid use because they are still growing. This often results in more serious injuries. 

“Your growing faster than you’ve grown in a while, and then you start adding in agents that cause you to be stronger than your body is ready for,” Pasho said. “Your tendons and muscles start snapping.” 

Stopping high school athletes from using steroids is difficult to do. Unless a student is caught in the act of using steroids, schools cannot do much to punish student athletes for their use. The Nebraska School Activities Association (N.S.A.A.) does not have a policy for steroid use or testing. The regulation of performance enhancing drugs is left up to the schools to manage. 

“There’s not really a lot of testing in high school because it’s so expensive,” Pasho said. “We can’t test for it because we are a public school and there’s a lot of hoops wed have to jump through to test them.” 

But steroids remain uncommon in Nebraska’s high school sports. Jimmie Foster, the wresting coach, has never seen steroids in his twenty-one years of coaching. Lance Griffin, Central’s Varsity Football Coach, has not encountered anyone using steroids in his twelve seasons.  

“I don’t think [steroid use] is nearly as high around here,” Pasho said. “[Out of state teams] will don anything to get an edge.”