Baseball players are affected by steroid use.
The spotlight on steroid use was switched on from reports of top Major League Baseball players using the performance enhancer. While no research can provide a specific time when steroid use began, the public has become more aware of its effect on baseball players. Infertility, liver damage and aggression, are only some of the side effects baseball players experience when using the drug.
Athletic Ability
Research into the athletic ability of baseball players who use steroids is ongoing. Studies have linked high athletic performance to the use of steroids, but none are confirmed. Tufts University physicist Roger Tobin claimed that steroid use increases a baseball player's ability to hit a home run by 50 percent, according to news-medical.net. Tobin's research from September 2007 cited that the home-run era of the mid-1990's was also the dawn of the "steroid era." Tobin stated that steroid use increases muscle mass in baseball players. The force put forth from the muscle increases the player's athletic ability and chance of hitting a home run. "A change of only a few percent in the average speed of the batted ball, which can reasonably be expected from steroid use, is enough to increase home run production by at least 50 percent," Tobin said.
Stunted Growth
Adult baseball players are not the only athletes experimenting with steroids. A survey by Blue Cross Blue Shied, featured on kidzworld.com, states that nearly one million children in the U.S. use steroids and other performance enhancers. A negative side effect of using steroids is its impact on bone growth. This hormone stimulates children's natural growth hormones. Growth can become stunted because the bones mature too fast and stop growing at an early age, according to kidshealth.org.
Hair Loss
Baseball players who use steroids have been linked to early male pattern baldness. This side effect can also occur in teenagers who use steroids, according to kidshealth.org. Steroids increase the body's testosterone levels, which leads to more muscle mass and heightened athletic ability. However, hormone levels affect hair growth positively and negatively. Hairlosspecialists.com states that the hair hormone DHT (dihydrotestosterone) becomes greater in steroid users. DHT causes hair strands to weaken and break down. Baseball players who are prone to male pattern baldness experience greater hair loss while using steroids, according to hairlossspecialists.com.
Tags: baseball players, athletic ability, according kidshealth, Baseball players, male pattern, male pattern baldness