The debate on anabolic steroids continues. The anabolic steroids are one of the most debatable drugs of the recent times. ?Are anabolic steroids good or bad?? is one of the most debated questions, often debated hotly in the United States, Canada, UK, Australia, and various countries of the world,

Anabolic steroids are pharmaceutical chemicals resembling naturally occurring hormone, testosterone. Testosterone is the male sex hormone, which has many anabolic and androgenic effects. Responsible for androgenic or masculinizing features during puberty, testosterone causes development of sex organs, voice deepening, hair growth, and sperm production. It has anabolic, or muscle building, effects during adolescence.

Anabolic steroids are the drugs with a number of good and bad characteristics. The good characteristics of anabolic steroids are associated with the legal and medical use of anabolic steroids, but the bad characteristics are associated with steroid abuse or wrong use of steroids.

Legally - Medically, anabolic steroids are often part of a regimen to help restoring vitality in aging men and women. Anabolic steroids are also used to treat the patients of diseases, such as Breast Cancer, Osteoporosis, Hereditary Angioedaema, Inflammation, Anemia, Thrombosis, and Endometriosis. Other good characteristics of anabolic steroids are that ? anabolic steroids especially help in the treatment of AIDS wasting syndrome; anabolic steroids are helpful in muscle rebuilding; anabolic steroids help fighting HIV infections and hormonal deficiencies in men; and they help reducing joint pain in women due to osteoporosis in the joints like knees, elbows, hips and more.

Dr. Alan Mintz, the founder of the Las Vegas-based Cenegenics Medical Institute, says that anabolic steroids give power to have a healthy life in the later years of life. There's a tremendous benefit, if anabolic steroids are used in the right and proper way. However, anabolic steroids abuse or overuse can lead to serious health problems.

Anabolic steroids are one of the most abused drugs. Often, widely used (abused) as performance enhancing drugs by bodybuilders and sports persons, anabolic steroids have many side effects and serious consequences, which are bad characteristics of anabolic steroids. Some of the common side effects of anabolic steroid include cancer, liver tumors, kidney tumors, jaundice, high blood pressure, coronary failure - increase in LDL (bad cholesterol) & decreases in HDL (good cholesterol), severe acne, trembling, nervousness, irritability, mood swings, fatigue, restlessness, and depression, etc. The visible bad characteristics of anabolic steroids in females include menstrual abnormalities, deepening of voice, breasts shrinkage, male-pattern baldness, and increase in sex drive, acne, body hair, and clitoris size.

Commenting on the good and bad features of anabolic steroids, Dr. John Baxter, the former president of the Endocrine Society & the professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, says, ?The concern I have is that hysteria over the use of anabolic steroids will cause people to lose sight of the potential good side of these hormones. It's really going to scare people away from their legitimate medical use.?