history of steroids

            To be the best, is what most athletes strive for. Athletes go through rigorous workouts and intense dieting all for the sake of being able to proudly hold their index finger in the air exclaimingwe?re number one!? But is an athlete's desire of being the absolute compromised by science, in an effort to get the edge on the competition. Athletes will go so far as to knowingly poison their body, with steroids in the name of the game. Big name bodybuilder like Arnold Swartzenegger has even admitted to using them. Bodybuilding is not the only professional sport where steroids are being used consistently. Swimmers, Rugby players, Baseball players, and especially pro Football players are often using steroids. The use of anabolic steroids is a controversial topic in the sports world today, but just a few decades ago were viewed as the miracle drug for sportsmen. .
             Anabolic steroid is the familiar name for synthetic substances related to the male sex hormones. Steroids were first developed in the 1930's. Anabolic steroids were developed primarily to treat hypogonadism, a condition in which the testes do not produce sufficient testosterone for normal growth, development, and sexual functioning. The first medical uses of these compounds are to treat delayed puberty, and some types of impotence. The Germans first experimented on dogs then on their own soldiers in the Second World War. They also used them on their prisoners, the Jewish people, to help them stay healthy because they suffered from significant malnutrition. During the 1930s, scientists discovered that anabolic steroids could facilitate the growth of skeletal muscle in laboratory animals, this led to their use first by bodybuilders and weightlifters and then by athletes in other sports.
             Then in the 1950's many Russian and European athletes began to find that steroids were very beneficial to their goals and soon after began dominating the sport of power lifting.