Steroids Are Back In Style
White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey recently urged a closer look at the product androstenedione, the steroid-like substance used by baseball star Mark McGwire. Use of "andro" by youngsters has increased five-fold since McGwire's name was linked to it, McCaffrey said, and recent studies have found it could pose adverse health effects.
In another study, by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, researchers found that there has been a 100 percent rise in steroid use by teen-age girls since 1991.
CBS News Saturday Morning Health Contributor Dr. Bernadine Healy attributes the surge in popularity of steroids to their use by celebrities like McGwire, and the availability of the drugs.
Besides those that can be bought over the counter, there is a black market where prescription steroids can be purchased illegally.
Steroids "used to be a guy thing," Healy notes. But women are now using them for cosmetic benefit: to attain a figure that fits a newly popular image. The goal for many teen-age girls now is not a rounded girlish figure but the chiseled look of Linda Hamilton in the Terminator movies.
Healy warns that steroids can harm teens, causing stunted growth, acne, baldness in males, a deeper voice in females, reproductive system problems and, in the long term, heart and liver disease.
Another effect could be behavioral changes including increased aggression, which has been termed "'roid rage."
More information on steroids can be found on The National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information Web site.
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