Steroids and Their Affect on the Limbic System
The limbic system is a group of brain structures that govern emotions and behavior. It is made up mainly of the amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus and hypothalamus. The limbic system is responsible for controlling various functions in the body, including interpreting emotional responses, regulating hormones and storing memories. The limbic system is also involved with sensory perception, olfaction (sense of smell) and motor function.
The amygdala and hippocampus play important roles in memory. The amygdala is responsible for determining which memories are stored and where in the brain those memories are kept. The hippocampus sends memories to the appropriate part of the brain for long-term storage and retrieves them when necessary. If this area of the brain is damaged, a person may be unable to form new memories.
The thalamus connects areas of the brain that are involved in sensory perception and movement with other parts of the brain and spinal cord that also have a role in sensation and movement. The hypothalamus is very small but plays a major role in regulating hormones, body temperature, the pituitary gland, the adrenal glands and many other activities, including appetite, levels of pleasure, sexual satisfaction, response to pain, anger and aggressive behavior. One of the hormones that the hypothalamus controls is the production of testosterone.
Testosterone is a hormone that brings out male sexual traits and causes muscles to grow. There are synthetic versions of the hormone testosterone called anabolic steroids. “Anabolic” means building or growing. Anabolic steroids are used medically to treat anemia and osteoporosis, to control breast cancer and to boost weight gain in cases of severe illness. Use of steroids for nonmedical reasons can have severe consequences.
Some people, athletes for example, take anabolic steroids to try to build muscle faster. These steroids come in the form of pills, injections and gels or creams that are applied to the skin. In addition to being illegal, the abuse of anabolic steroids can lead to serious health problems, some of which are irreversible.
In animals, steroids have been shown to affect the limbic system by impairing learning and memory. They can also lead to changes in mood, such as feelings of irritability or depression. Anabolic steroids in the brain may trigger very aggressive behavior. Some outbursts can be so severe that they have become known in the media as “roid rages,” a spoof on the well-known “road rage” displayed by angry drivers.
Steroid abuse can alter the messages that the hypothalamus sends to the brain, thereby disrupting the body’s normal production of hormones. This can lead to infertility and testicle shrinkage in men as well as masculinization in women, including loss of menstruation, loss of scalp hair, growth of facial and body hair and deepening of the voice.
Known on the street as Juice, stackers, gym candy and pumpers, steroid doses taken by abusers can be 10 to 100 times higher than the doses taken for medical reasons. While athletes tend to be the most likely group to abuse steroids in order to improve their athletic ability, studies have shown that these numbers may be in a decline as drug testing for athletes becomes more common and more sophisticated.
Persons suffering from muscle dysmorphia, a behavioral syndrome that causes people to have a distorted image of their bodies, tend to abuse anabolic steroids. Men with muscle dysmorphia think that they look small and weak, even if they are big and muscular, while women think they look fat and flabby, even though they are fit and muscular. Another known group of steroid abusers are some victims of physical or sexual abuse. They believe that being bigger and stronger will discourage further attacks. Teens may abuse steroids as part of an overall pattern of engaging in risky behaviors, like drinking and abuse of other illegal drugs.
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