ng to improve their athletic performance, while the rest use for other reasons, such as preventing sports injuries. Many athletes want to increase their physical power. Runners use it to run faster, while football players use it for power and speed. “Steroid use permeates all levels of sports, threatening the futures of hundreds of thousands of teenagers,” said Biden (Nardo 31). Biden feels that since steroids are used so much by the pro’s, teens won’t see steroids downfalls and they will use them. Teenagers tend to follow in their heroes’ footsteps.Even though steroids can make you look good, they ruin your body. Steroids have many negative effects on the body, and if you overdose on them, you can die. Externally, they are known to cause very oily skin, and people can break out into hives if they are allergic to steroids. The acne can become very severe and it could appear on the face, neck, chest and back. It can become so bad that you can have permanent scars. Steroids can also cause permanent hair loss. Internally, steroids can cause high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high numbers of sugar and fat cells. These problems can weaken the heart, and many steroid users die at young ages. If these problems exist, the user is chancing a heart attack or stroke. Doctor Lawrence Clayton explains, some users “…were even taking steroids that were intended only for race horses. Several were taking twice the amount that would be medically safe for a horse. They were making themselves sick, and some had died”(14). If steroids are used at high doses or are used too frequently, they can cause your heart to beat at a very fast rate, or worse, they can cause a heart attack. Through a personal experience Steve Courson explains what happened to him when he used steroids; “My heart was going 160 beats per minute and it scared the hell out of me” (Nuwer 75). Courson real...
