Abstract

Dr. Muhammad Hanif Sultan, *Azhar Hussain and Dr. Ammara Habib

ABSTRACT

Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (ASS) have unfortunately become the breakfast of some youngsters inspiring to become champions. This causes various lasting problems for them and this act of usually teenage become regret for the rest of life. This study explores the basic knowledge about the various side effects of anabolic androgenic steroids both in abusers and non-abusers coming to the gyms and fitness centers of Lahore. The study was conductive from 18th Feb, 2018 to 29th March, 2018 in 4 gyms (1-Gymnasium of UET Taxila,2-Gymnasium of UET Lahore,3-Powerhouse Fitness club Lahore and 4-Smart Ladies & Gents Fitness Centre, Lahore). This was a cross-sectional study descriptive study. Sample was collected by non-probability way. A grand total of 104 body builders were interviewed and standardized questionnaires were filled. Overall the majorities of bodybuilders was between the ages of 21-25 years and were yet completing their studies. Most of them had education upto intermediate level and were unmarried. Interestingly majority of both abusers and non-abusers had no constant source of income. Another interesting aspect was that almost 40% of people heard about steroids from their friends and major other sources were lame too but among the 16 abusers only 5(31.3%) of people consulted any physician for the prescription or advise. However, as expected a higher percentage of the abusers were aware of the concept of stacking 9 (56.3%) and cycling 7(43.8%) as compared to non-abusers for whom the figures were 29(27.9%) and 18(17.3%) for stacking and cycling respectively.