History of Steroids

It may be fascinating to know that the first use of steroids was by professional athletes in ancient Greece. It is supposed that Olympic athletes used plant derivatives, all meat diets and animal testicles to boost their performance.

However, modern use of Anabolic steroids can be dated to the early 1930's. In 1935 two scientists who were researching on dogs discovered that giving testosterone under certain circumstances could increase muscle mass. It is also alleged that Adolf Hitler might have used Anabolic steroids on himself and his soldiers to increase their overall execution by making them more aggressive. But this could never be proved.

The phenomenon of this steroid actually came into being in 1950's. This was in the year 1954, at a world weightlifting competition, that people took note of Russian weightlifters performing better than the rest of the contestants. It was only in 1958, when FDA approved the use of methandrostenolone or Dianabol, that Anabolic steroid got its prominence. John Ziegler, an American physician, wanted to give his players the same advantage as his Soviet counter patriots. He began working with various pharmaceutical companies to improve the quality of the substance to be proficient. A U.S pharmaceutical company finally came up with anabolic steroids in 1958. By the time the physician realized its negative side effects, it had spread far into the world of sports.

Most of the users of this drug were bodybuilders, weight lighters, football players, shot put or javelin throwers. They were mostly players who depended heavily on strength, power and massiveness.

By the 1970's the popularity of this drug grew in leaps and bounds. Athletes from other sports too eagerly sought out this drug for the winning edge it seemed to have. Many athletes started to use this drug in prestigious sporting events such as the Olympics. But in 1972 the IOC started a full scale drug-testing program making it difficult for sports persons to use this drug.

The Germans beat them to it and were well ahead of IOC. They continued to use the anabolic steroid. A study on their athletes showed that using a form of testosterone would leave the body quickly. Thus they would be ready for the IOC test within three days of their last injection. The farce continued till early 1990's. Ultimately, the Germans were caught. Ironically, it was at this very time that anabolic legal steroids were being used for medical purposes such as in AIDS and Cancer patients. Legal steroids are used for various medical purposes too.

Due to various malpractices in the sporting field, the U.S congress passed the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990 and placed them as controlled substances under Schedule III. This means that possession of legal steroids without prescription is a punishable offense in the United States.

It is not known how the history of anabolic steroid will trace its route in future. In 2005, the CSA has been amended into Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004 which places it as controlled substances.