What’s the appeal of performance enhancing drugs for big-name athletes? Allegations have been made about Major League Baseball players and the owner of a Florida-based anti-aging clinic. Greg Landry, professor of pediatrics and orthopedics at UW Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health, was asked why players like Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez would feel the need to – allegedly – take performance enhancing anabolic steroids.
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“That’s a good question,” Landry said. “They’re so driven to do better and better. And I think part of the problem is, many of these drugs work.” Landry said PED use has been part of the culture in Major League Baseball for a long time, and MLB was relatively late to implement testing and drug bans.
Landry said in the past he has been asked about using steroids by collegiate athletes. “I tell them, if you succeed, don’t you want to know because of hard work and good training and good diet, and not because you cheated and took a shortcut.”
Landry also cautions – there can be serious side effects to steroid use, including an increased likelihood of blood clots, and psychiatric side effects. “People get quite depressed when they use and try to stop using, and there’s been a number of suicides amongst users.”