Risking addiction for the sake of fitness

By KRISTI DELK

“They take your body beyond its natural limit and break the plateau,” said Jeff McClesky when asked what the purpose of taking steroids is.

Steroids are a common drug used by people within the fitness world to gain muscle. To those who use them, there are only positive things to be said about them.  To fitness gurus who don’t, the mention of steroids is a sin.

McClesky is the sales manager at Required Fitness in Kennesaw, Ga., who also practices the sport of body building. Fitness has always been important to him, but he started taking steroids when he felt he could no longer achieve his goals on his own.

“Testosterone gives me an overall feeling of well-being and raises my confidence levels. Not to mention my sex drive and libio,” said McClesky when asked what the benefits of taking steroids were.  He explained that while he had a shorter temper as a result of steroids, he was more emotional and loving because of his increased sex drive.

Contrary to popular belief, there are those in the fitness world who don’t use steroids for muscle gain.

“It’s a mental addiction. You lose sight of what health and fitness really is due to vanity,” said general manager at Required Fitness and personal trainer D’Nean Cerbone.

Cerbone had no positive remarks to make about the use of steroids.  She explained that not only can they be addictive, they can increase the risk of cancer in those predisposed to the disease and can sometimes decrease your libido, contrary to McClesky’s experience.

The use of steroids can effect men and women in different ways. Men can develop gynecomastia, which is the overdevelopment of breast tissue in males according to gynecomastia.org, a medical website run by three doctors.

Women experience different side-effects such as facial hair, as well as breast and chest hair, voice change and aggression. Each gender can experience enlarging of the heart, coronary disease and the devastation of all organs.

Hearing all these side effects should make a person want to stop using steroids because of all the damage it causes the body. McClesky and Cerbone agree on this one thing: steroids are psychologically addictive.

McClesky claims that they only become dangerous when they are mixed wrong.

There are three steroids that are mainly used. Antibolic, which breaks the plateau McClesky mentioned earlier. Peptides, a growth hormone that tells your body to create new tissue for muscle, and insulin, which significantly increase the uptake and absorption of amino acids, or protein, into the cells of your muscles.

McClesky explains that if mixed the wrong way, your body will stop producing these things on its own and depend on the steroids.

Cerbone completely disagrees and believes that using just one of these will cause the organs to shut down and the body to become dependent on the drug.

So why do people like McClesky continue to use steroids when they know all the harm it can cause?

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