The use of anabolic steroids have been dated way back 1940’s. It was not until the 1950’s that they took off and during the 60’s and 70’s, demand became higher and higher. It was believed that injectable steroids cause less damage to the liver than oral ones because it goes directly to the bloodstream and do not pass through the liver.

There are, however, harmful effects of long term steroids use, not only to the liver but also to the heart, may it be taken orally or in injectable form.

First, it is found to cause enlargement of the heart due to hypertrophy of cardiac muscles. AAS will cause a rapid growth of heart muscles but will leave the heart vessels at its normal size. This could lead to heart tissue death because the blood supply would be lesser and poorer.

Second, it causes blood pressure to rise due to increased water retention in the body. Sometimes, it may also cause fatty deposits to build inside the vessels which could eventually cause arterial blockage.

Anabolic steroids also delay the relaxation of the heart after a pump. This would take longer time for the heart to refill and diastolic pressure increases. A combination of hypertension and longer time for relaxation could lead to numerous potential problems such as a fatal heart attack.

From Knol:

If you’re a bodybuilder using AAS and worried about your heart, you should realize that you are likely affecting it in some way – the degree to which you’re affecting it is the only detail which can be debated. Use common sense and understand the trade-offs involved with using AAS.

Dan Hooton is not new the in the world of anabolic steroid use especially when it comes to the youth using these drugs. He is not a steroid user himself but someone whom he dearly loved once was– Taylor Hooton. Does the name ring a bell? For most, maybe not. That is because news of steroid use in professional athletes stays around longer than news of normal citizens suffering from the side effects of the drugs. Taylor Hooton was Dan’s 17 year old son. Taylor was pitcher in his high school baseball team. In order to make a cut, he began using anabolic steroids to increase in size and strength. Seven months later, the effect was not what everyone expected. Taylor was found dead in his room and the reason was due to the side effects of the steroid he used. Dan grieved for a while then turned his sadness into an advocacy to spread the word against steroid use. He formed the Taylor Hooton Foundation and has been active in different anti-steroid events since then. Just recently, Dan had contacted Alex Rodriguez to be part of this advocacy. A-Rod had gladly accepted the challenge.

From Kansascity.com:

Drugs have cost Rodriguez credibility and fans, maybe even a spot in the Hall of Fame. But it didn’t cost Rodriguez what it cost Taylor Hooton, and that’s why Rodriguez called Don Hooton last week and said he wanted to shake Don’s hand, sign up and spread the word.

Don told him to join the train; these days they need as many voices as they can get. And in some ways, Hooton said Friday, it’s good for the foundation’s target demographic — high school athletes — that Rodriguez messed up, got caught and came clean.

“It’s good for us when this is in the headlines,” Hooton said, nursing a cup of water and living the last week out of his leather briefcase. “When it’s in the headlines, we get to talk to people. As long as it’s on the front pages, the public has some appetite for talking about this. As soon as it’s not on the front pages, nobody wants to talk about it anymore.

“It’s painful for the public, but this is reality.”

Dan really doesn’t care if the professional athletes use steroids. He does mind, however, that the youth looks up to these athletes as their models. When their idols start using steroids, the youth think that it’s okay to do so. Dan’s main concern is making kids everywhere realize the negative effects of anabolic steroid use and he does this by sharing his story as well as the stories of those like him.

Out of the 3,693 letters sent for a recent survey of retired NFL players, 2,552 responded openly and about 20.3% of them admitted to have used steroids at one point in their careers. The survey was sent out to members of the NFL Retired Players Association and those who participated played during the 1980’s, when drug testing was still not done. From the survey, the majority of steroid users were offensive linemen or defensive linemen. These two groups also registered with having the highest number of injuries on several joints mainly involving the ligaments and cartilages.

From CBC Sports:

The injury patterns suggest that joint ligaments and cartilage, rather than tendons, might not adapt to muscle changes brought about by steroids, making them “weakest link in the chain,” said lead author Dr. Scott Horn of the UNC School of Medicine.

The survey indicated no steroid related increase in the risk of injury to the muscle (biceps and triceps) and no increase of injury to shoulders and tendons.

Based on previous studies, the researchers suspected that tendons might be at increased risk to cope with a rapid increase in muscle size and strength.

The findings of the research correlated the injuries caused by steroid use with other negative health effects through a “snowball effect”. This means that injuries that have occurred led to the development of more health problems later on in life. This was further determined when respondents who had used steroids also admitted to suffering various systemic diseases such as osteoarthritis and depression, and having a generally physically inactive lifestyle years after the injuries have occurred. The development of these medical entities which also include obesity and diabetes is gradual.