ANABOLIC STEROIDS

When the public hears the word ‘steroid’ they usually think only of the drugs that have strengthening properties like the male hormone testosterone. Anabolic steroids build up muscles and make certain aspects of the body more masculine like deepening of the voice and enlargement of the testes.

Anabolic steroids are not cortisone steroids and work very differently. For the last 30-40 years athletes from all over the world have used anabolic steroids to enhance their abilities to perform in many sports.

Joyous distrust is a sign of health. Everything absolute belongs to pathology.

Nietzsche

The most well known athlete was Lance Armstrong who won many biking championships and medals and was later found guilty of using these outlawed steroids. Most anabolic steroid users, however, are not athletes. It is estimated that up to 3 million people have misused these drugs in attempts to obtain the masculinizing results cited above.

The medical and approved uses of these anabolic steroids are for bone marrow stimulation, growth stimulation, male contraception, stimulation of a leaner body mass, and hormone replacement.

Anabolic steroids have serious side effects including liver problems, growth defects, and tumors of the brain. They create major problems in the cardiovascular system causing strokes, and a whole host of minor problems.

By Dr Marvin Rapaport, MD|2021-10-19T03:16:57-07:00June 13th, 2015|Red Skin Syndrome Causes|Comments Off

About the Author: Dr Marvin Rapaport, MD

In 1978 I initiated and set up the contact and photo dermatitis clinic at UCLA. There was a need to evaluate a large group of patients who exhibited severe eczematoid rashes, especially on the face. Patients were referred from all over Southern California. All patients underwent a lengthy history and examination. Further evaluations included blood studies, allergy patch testing, special sunlight (photo) testing and skin biopsies. From the start it was apparent that most patients experienced a mild dermatitis on various parts of the body that progressively worsened. Their histories always included numerous doctor visits, multiple physicians, and therapy consisting of an increasing amount of corticosteroids. My testing failed to reveal any specific culprit chemicals, cosmetics, perfumes, workplace or recreational exposures. It became increasingly clear that the physician’s therapy, the corticosteroids, was invariably causing the problem. I wrote 7 scientific articles that were published in the most august peer-reviewed dermatologic journals and I gave many lectures at various dermatology meetings. To this day an unfortunate reluctance exists on the part of most physicians to accept this simple concept.