Earlier today an article in the Huffington Post came out with some information and stats about student athletes and steroids. According to the CDC about 11 percent of high school males that play a sport are using steroids. This is a very high number of students using steroids because of the obvious risks of using them. Steroids cause problems on the liver, increase chances of heart attack, and cause depression and suicidal thoughts. They found that students are taking steroids because they believe that famous professional athletes are taking them. The numbers that are shocking to me is that in 2002 only 57% of high school athletes believed that steroids were bad for you. This number should be much higher, I am not sure whether it is because they are not educated on the risks of taking steroids or because they see all of the pros benefit from it, but something needs to be done. Two things should be done, 1) make sure they are banned from all pro sports so these athletes will start setting a good example for the people who look up to them, and 2) start educating teens in health classes about the risk of Performance Enhancing Drugs. If you want to read the full article the link is posted below. There will be more posts about steroids to come in the next couple of weeks.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-whyte-md-mph/student-athletes-steroids_b_850952.html
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