Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Kids As Young As 10 Using Bodybuilding Drugs
Some boys and girls as
young as 10 are taking illegal
steroids to do better in
sports, according to the first
survey to look at use of the
bodybuilding drugs as early
as fifth grade.
The survey found that 2.7 percent of 965 youngsters
questioned at four Massachusetts middle schools are using
anabolic steroids. Experts said that represents a
significant
problem.
"We have thought that it has been a problem primarily
of high school and college students," said Dr. Robert W.
Blum, professor of pediatrics and director of adolescent
health at the University of Minnesota.
Besides building muscles, steroids can harm the liver, stunt
growth and cause a host of other long-term ailments.
In some cases, coaches and parents may be buying steroids
on the black market and then passing them along to the child
athletes.
"A cycle of steroids costs a few hundred dollars," said
University of Massachusetts researcher Avery Faigenbaum,
whose study was published Monday in the journal
Pediatrics.
"I don't know a lot of 10-year-olds who have a couple of
hundred dollars. I think we have to look at brothers and
sisters, I think we have to look at parents, I think we
have to look at youth coaches," he said.
Dr. Charles E. Yesalis, a Pennsylvania State University
expert on steroids, said: "This sounds the klaxon. It's a
warning to parents, doctors and school administrators."
While high school students have been surveyed, and Yesalis
has surveyed seventh-graders, researchers said this is the
first
survey to focus on the problem down to fifth grade.
Experts said that there was no reason to doubt that the
results
of the anonymous survey taken with teachers absent were
accurate. Yesalis said they were consistent with his own
observations. "I'm not shocked, I'm sorry to say," he
added.
A major finding was that use among middle-school girls was
almost as prevalent as it was among boys. Steroid use was
reported by 2.8 percent of boys and 2.6 percent of girls.
Surveys of high-school students have found steroid use more
common among boys than among girls. For example, a study
published last year by Penn State University researchers
found that 2.4 percent of girls in ninth to 12th grades
nationally about 175,000 teen-agers had used steroids at
least once. The numbers for boys were twice as high.
Faigenbaum said more emphasis on girls' sports may have
evened the amount of use.
He said programs to fight steroid use are in place in high
school and college, "but I think we have to start
younger."
--
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