The steroids era is taking its toll on children who emulate sports celebrities and icons by taking performance-enhancing drugs to achieve the well-built physique that their sports heroes have. This is a very distressing report supported by statistics that there has been an increase in the number of teenage boys being brought to emergency rooms for having ingested these dangerous substances.

In the past five years, teenagers who have been poisoned of steroid substances have increased from 97 to 138. The growth was almost twofold. What is alarming is the fact that 11-year-old kids are also taking steroids.

From Metro:

DrugScope chief executive Martin Barnes said: ‘Steroids may be viewed as offering a shortcut to the perfect body image, but the reality can be quite different.’

The figures were revealed in a parliamentary answer from public health minister Dawn Primarolo to Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Tom Brake.

He said: ‘The dramatic increase in the number of children being admitted to hospitals for steroid misuse is extremely concerning.

‘It’s clear that many children feel increasingly pressured by society’s obsession with the perfect body and some are using steroids to try to deal with it.

‘Ministers need to wake up to the fact that this is no longer just a problem that affects sports like body building but also an issue for the whole of society.’

Anabolics are very dangerous substances when taken in elevated dosages. An adult body can tolerate the toxicity of these compounds. However, adolescents have not matured physically and their endocrine system has not fully developed to process the toxins being introduced to the body. Bodybuilders and athletes experience aggression and estrogenic side effects. But steroids can stunt the growth of children and may cause liver and kidney damage.

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