Androstenedione
What is Androstenedione?
Androstenedione is a natural chemical found in the body that produces testosterone. This chemical can also be found naturally in some meat and even some plants. Androstenedione, also called Andro, can boost testosterone levels when taken orally sometimes making the person stronger. Andro was first seen in capsule form in the US in the 1990's. Its popularity has grown ever since Mark McGwire, the new Major League Baseball home run record holder, admitted to taking the supplement. The companies that are selling Andro are making huge profits off the supplement that claims to increase lean muscle mass 300%. Although most people who take the drug do not complain of any side effects at all, this drug has been reported to carry dangerous side effects. Most Major League sports have banned the supplement saying it gives athletes a "unfair advantage". The NBA, the MLB, and the NHL in the US have not ruled this supplement as "unfair". There are many questions that remain about this supplement such as the long-term side effects, and how much muscle is gained by taking the drug. This supplement can be bought over the counter and is not controlled by the FDA, making Andro easy to access. Some drug chains have taken this drug off the shelf due to fear of long-term side effects. Andro can be found in some local drug chains and also on the World Wide Web. One person from our poll explains, "Andro's advantages make up for the side effects."
What about the health risk?
Most of the health risks for Androstenedione are not known, and the long-term effects are not known at all.
· It might convert to the female hormone, estrogen in males and females.
· Too much Andro can shut down the production of testosterone in the body.
· In adolescents, it is known to stunt growth.
How does Andro work?
Andro is first consumed orally. It is then taken to the liver where it picks up two carbons. The two carbons added to Andro are testosterone. Andro is also already made in your body. The natural production of Andro is different.
What about Baseball and Andro?
For more than a year St. Louis Cardinals, power hitter Mark McGwire has taken the legal, supplement Androstenedione. Many people believe that the drug gave him an unfair advantage last year when he shattered Roger Maris's single season home run record.
To fully understand this book, people must go behind the book and find the true state of mind of the author. Unfortunately in this case, the author is the one and only Jose Canseco. Jose Canseco is what I like to call, “The black sheep in the family of baseball.” Canseco’s history can be related to such incidents of drug using, heavy drinking, numerous sexual encounters with hundreds of partners, and unreasonable acts of violence. This book goes into grave detail on how steroids have changed his life and how it is currently changing baseball.
Taking illegal substances gives players a distinct advantage over others and should not be recognized in the Hall of Fame. Steroids have been a part of the game for years and more and more players are using them. It is inevitable that they are an easy way to help improve a players numbers. Based on statistics gathered from Major League Baseball, during a three-year span Melky Cabrera increased his slugging percentage by 100 points (Victor). Slugging percentage is the number of total baseball divided by a players number of at bats (“Slugging Percentage”). Cabrera was an outfielder for the Chicago White Sox. In Melky’s case, he quickly went from an average player to one of the games best. 100 points is a drastic change in only a few seasons. These steroids improve a players strength and recovery time. This is a major advantage because the MLB is season is very long and taxing on the body. Steroids help promote quicker muscle recover so players can be stronger and fresher game after game. In the same way, taking steroids also gives a player an upper hand when it comes to hitting home runs. It is the improvement in this power category that most people think of in regards
Major League Baseball (MLB) has widely been regarded as America’s pastime for the longest time, however it is now becoming known as the sport tainted by one thing, anabolic steroids. An anabolic steroid is related to the natural steroid, testosterone. They are able to stimulate growth in the muscle tissue. They usually increase muscle mass and strength. The MLB has created some of the most historic American icons, such as Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. Players like them showed us what it was like to play baseball the right way. They played with passion, heart, and above all they had fun playing. Players today in the MLB focus way too much on becoming the best player ever to play. They see what the greats did before them and they want to match them, so they turn to anabolic steroids. An example of this is Alex Rodriguez. In 2003 he tested positive for anabolic steroids because he was “naïve” and couldn’t take the pressure of his expectations of being called the best. He felt the pressure from the game and he turned to steroids. Anabolic steroids are ruining the game of baseball. They are tainting the records and the changing the game for the worse.
Baseball?s reputation has been painted with a red asterisk. The non-medical use of steroids has been banned according to the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990. Many baseball athletes have been caught or presumed illegal users of HGH or Steroids since the act passed in 1990. All these athletes have one thing in common, they want to have an edge or advantage on the game. Some athletes even admit to administering the drug to other athletes and themselves. Jose Conseco testified to personally injecting the steroids into Mark McGuire (Cote).
The issue of performance enhancing substances in baseball has been mostly present over the past ten years. The reason for players taking steroids is simple, by taking steroids, hitters like Barry Bonds gained more strength to hit better averages and more home runs, while pitchers like Roger Clemens gained better stam...
Steroids have become prevalent in baseball, with more players getting involved with them. Although they entered the game through trainer Curtis Wenzlaff in 1992, they have become a big part of the Major League today in 2014. However, players and the game's image suffer when they become caught up in steroids. Some of the best players to ever play the game, including Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire, have been caught up in steroids. These players are supposed to be role models for younger kids, yet when they see their idols using steroids, they are tempted to use them as well.
...ing two similar ones from Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx for being the youngest player to hit 500 home runs and then later 600 home runs. He is a phenomenal player but unfortunately again there will always be a question of whether this was because of his talent after several years or if his records should be more attributed to the drugs.
Recently the topic of steroid use in baseball has been everywhere in the news. It has finally come to the attention of Major League Baseball, and now the general public, that a vast percentage of players have been using illegal performance-enhancing drugs. This not only casts a cloud of suspicion over which players are using steroids, and makes one wonder which players are genuine, but it tar...
The MLB arguably has conveyed a series of mixed messages with regard to its players and their use of steroids. On the one hand, the League apparently cooperates with lawmakers on the issue of regulating drug use among its players; on the other, some of the best athletes in the MLB are suspected of drug use and yet continue to be marketed and revered. Examples of drugs used by MLB stars have included: Anavar, Andriol, Clomid, Depo-Testosterone, Insulin, Stanozolol, and Testosterone1. These drugs are steroids, typically prescribed by medical professionals to patients fighting specific disorders (such as low testosterone or infertility) or provide relief for immense pain or other severe symptoms; they are used “off-label” by athletes for increa...
Health effects are damage to do the endocrine system like kidney and liver, DNA damage, breast cell proliferation, and birth defects.
Anabolic steroids are a group of muscle building chemicals, which are synthetic versions of the male hormone, testosterone. Developed in the 1930’s, they were prescribed to aid in muscle tissue repair by those who had undergone surgery or had degenerative diseases. Now the patients do not only use them but also athletes. Starting in the 1940’s steroids were introduced into sports. Steroids were one of the main reasons that Russia’s 1952 Olympic weightlifting team came out with pile of medals. With these results other nations thought their competitors should have the same advantage, and the use of steroids spread like wildfire.(NIDA pg 2) But now steroids are illegal to use if not prescribed by a physician, and have been banned by nearly all-athletic organizations, both professional and amateur.
The use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs is a common trend that is currently fascinating athletes all over the world. Athletes who are using these drugs are damaging the sport and harming their bodies at the same time. Seeking a greater athletic physique and ability, athletes turned to the use of steroids. Once the dangers and possible health risks arose, athletes then turned to performance enhancers. Two specific supplements have taken the sports world by storm and now are being used by athletes of all ages. They are androstenedione and creatine. It took years until people began to understand how dangerous steroids really were. These performance enhancers, like androstenedione and creatine are going to produce the same results.
Although steroids have many negative effects, they have many needed medical purposes. Androgens have many legitimate medical uses, such as the use for treatment of hypogonadal men to compensate for the lack of endogenous production. Anabolic steroids are also helpful for the treatment of certain adolescent diseases, some types of anemias, and for a relatively rare form of edema. Other clinical uses focus on the tissue building and anti-catabolic effects, such as in the treatment of burn victims, AIDS, or HIV positive patients, or patients malnourished from disease or old age (Bellino 1).
“Steroids are any type of a large group of fat-soluble organic compounds, as the sterols, bile acids, and sex hormones most of which have specific physiological action” (Dictionary.com). When our bodies are still developing, the effects of steroids can be dangerous and can also be permanent (“Above”). Steroids are made out of substances such as nandrolone, stanozolol, testosterone, fluoxymestrone, and oxandrolone. Sometimes people say when you can’t pronounce something, you probably shouldn’t use it. In the 1940’s testosterone began to be widely used in competitive sports, but the dangers of loading up on testosterone were not yet clear (“History”). Instead of using steroids for a bad reason, there is a medicinal purpose. Cortisteroids can treat arthritis, asthma, lupus and multiple sclerosis, eczema and rashes, and some types of cancer (“Steroids: Medline”). Also, steroids can be used to treat anemia, to improve weight loss due to severe illness, and to treat osteoporosis. Steroids can only be sold to you by a pharmacist f...
dangerous for the body, and can many times lead to being very ill or death.