What was once only thought to be an epidemic in professional sports, specifically in Major League Baseball, use of human growth hormone (HGH) has drastically increased over the past year among teens in the United States, according to a national survey of high school students.
Based on the confidential responses of 3,705 high school students in 2013, the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids released their large-scale national survey and found that over the past year American teens experimenting or using human growth hormone has doubled, particularly to boost their appearance or athletic performance. The survey asked students, "In your lifetime, how many times, if any, have you done each of the following ... used (steroids/human growth hormone) for athletic performance of physical appearance when a doctor did not prescribe them for you?"
Perhaps the behavior of modern day professional athletes has influenced a number of youngsters to consider using such drugs. However, PED use has been going on since as long as we can remember, with the first rule against doping in sports being issued in 1928. The FDA approved the first anabolic steroid for sale in the US in 1958 that was used for experimentation in US weightlifters. Ten years later the first drug testing at the Olympic Games was orchestrated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Cocaine made its way into Major League Baseball in the 1970s, and former New York Met Keith Hernandez said about 40% of big leaguers were using cocaine to enhance their performance by 1980. Then came Jose Canseco and the MLB's steroid scandal, which has been an issue ever since the late 80s (as far as we know), and remains paramount today with star players such as Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun being punished for PED use in the past year.
In the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids survey, 11% of respondents reported using synthetic HGH at least once and 7% reported using steroids. Both numbers were up from 5% in four preceding annual surveys. African-American and Hispanic teens were more likely to report using synthetic HGH at least once, with 15% and 13% having done so (9% of Caucasian teens reported such behavior as well). Out of all the respondents, 12% of boys reported synthetic HGH use and 9% of girls did as well.
HGH is a natural peptide hormone that stimulates growth and cell production in children/adolescents, but synthetic HGH use can negatively affect one's health if not prescribed for a specific medical use. CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Travis Tygart, is concerned but not surprised by the survey's results.
"It's what you get when you combine aggressive promotion from for-profit companies with a vulnerable target -- kids who want a quick fix and don't care about health risk," said Tygart in this Fox News article. "It's a very easy sell, unfortunately."
Tygart and the agency have been working to reduce occurrences of doping, particularly in international cycling and Olympic sports. He and other experts might have to begin focusing more on PED use among US teenagers to avoid it from becoming commonplace.
