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CNN Live Today

Steroid Use Increase Seen in Younger Age Groups

Aired May 31, 2002 - 10:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Earlier this week, we talked about steroids and athletes. Well, let's talk about it again, shall we? They are banned from all professional sports accept Major League Baseball, and while they make you stronger, are steroids safe? We are paging Dr. Gupta today to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LYLE ALZADO, FORMER FOOTBALL PLAYER: If I can save one little kid...

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Steroids can kill. Football star Lyle Alzado believed steroid abuse caused the brain cancer that eventually killed him. Even if they don't kill you, anabolic steroids have very unpleasant side effects: liver damage, fits of anger known as 'roid rage, breasts on men, even loss of manhood.

Billy Rice (ph) does not use steroids, but he has seen other body builders give in to the temptation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you are comparing yourself to other guys that you know they may be using, you kind of sometimes get a self- esteem -- you kind of compare yourself, like, Man, I've been working out for so long.

But actually, I find that really for me that I really wouldn't want to be, probably, that big, and the idea of putting something in my body that I know in the down run, is going to effect my kidneys, my liver, it is going to cause a lot of other side effects. It's just not worth it to me.

GUPTA: Deon Kelley is a personal trainer who also does not use steroids, but he has known other bodybuilders who became addicted to them.

DEON KELLEY, PERSONAL TRAINER: As soon as you stop taking them, believe me, the muscles do deflate. So, if you going maybe six months to a year on steroids, so you get very pumped, you better believe you are going to have to continue to do the same thing.

GUPTA: Natural Bodybuilding, the name of a movement encouraging athletes to take pride in achieving this kind of physique without drugs. It takes time. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Around five years.

KELLEY: Maybe a good five to six years of some hard work, and I mean hard work.

GUPTA: Strong commitment.

GLENN PAUL, LEE HANEY WORLD CLASS FITNESS: It's all a matter of patience and the proper amount of nutrition. Five or six meals a day, more protein from different sources, fish, turkey, and lean meat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You just have to eat right, and exercise -- maybe like three, four times a week.

GUPTA: And acceptance of the fact that bigger is not always better, especially for men who dream of looking like the incredible hulk, just to attract women.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just -- it's just too much. They start to look unreal. Not -- you know, it doesn't even look healthy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: Not only does it not look healthy, it probably isn't healthy, Fredricka, as we have heard so much about. But what it is even more remarkable, I think, is that these steroids are really trying to find their way -- or starting to find their way into younger and younger kids.

2.7 percent of high school seniors are using steroids, have admitted to using steroids, possibly leading to a lifetime of bad health effects.

WHITFIELD: And this is no joke, and apparently a lot of these young athletes, these high school kids you are talking about are not thinking of death as a side effect, and it is.

GUPTA: It certainly, possibly, could be. Admittedly, the case of Lyle Alzado is probably an unusual case, and a lot of the folks who are using steroids are getting smarter about it. They are starting to cycle the steroids, as opposed to taking them consistently, which is probably safer, but still, Fredricka, as we've seen, as has been proven so many times now, these steroids can have very, very negative side effects in the long run.

WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Gupta, we are going to be seeing you again in a moment.

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