Taking anabolic steroids and later mental impairments are closely linked – this was recently shown by a Swedish study. Steroids Canada online records more sales in recent years. While this is good for their business, these purchases come with a warning. Top athletes who used anabolic steroids in the past had more mental problems than athletes who didn’t take hormones. Many years after taking it, former sports stars were more depressed, more aggressive, and had trouble concentrating.
Using Steroids And The Dangers Involved
Survey showed 20 percent swallowed anabolic steroids
Almost 700 men who were top athletes in wrestling, heavyweight lifting, or throwing between 1960 and 1979 answered the questionnaire of the scientists. Around a fifth of them stated that they had taken anabolic steroids in the past to promote muscle growth.
Mental Problems Years Later
But anabolic steroids not only cause muscles to swell, but they also may have led to mental deficits. The study showed: Within 30 years after their active phase in top-class sport, anabolic steroid users needed therapeutic help more often than non-users. “The athletes who took steroids were more often treated professionally for depressive or aggressive behavior and concentration problems,” says Claudia Fahlke, director of the Education and Research Center of the University of Gothenburg.
A vicious cycle
Whether anabolic steroids actually cause mental difficulties or whether mental problems lead to increased steroid use is still unclear. What is certain, however, is that there is a connection.
The researchers also discovered that former steroid users used drugs more often than the other athletes. Mental symptoms and the use of steroids or other drugs reinforce each other, like in a vicious cycle, says Fahlke. However, the exact connections still have to be investigated.
Subsequent research
The problem with the study is that the athletes were only asked about their behavior in the past afterward. This leads to inaccuracies and it is not possible to distinguish cause and effect. More meaningful would be study designs in which, for example, one group receives steroids and the other a placebo. However, these would not be feasible for ethical reasons.
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Not just mental impairment
Taking these hormones also has significant physical side effects. Among other things, it can lead to disorders of the fat metabolism, damage to the heart muscle, thrombosis, embolism, arteriosclerosis, liver, kidney, or male breast cancer.