Just a few years ago, Jose Canseco brought national, and even worldwide, attention to the issue of steroid use in baseball and professional sports in general. His best selling book, “Juiced” revealed his own experience with anabolic steroids and exposed the names of some of the top players in baseball as being steroid users.

Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi, Mark McGuire and Barry Bonds were just some of the names exposed in the novel. For his efforts, Canseco would be labeled “The Godfather of Steroids”, “The Bad Boy of Baseball” and several other names that are considerably less flattering than what his reputation might’ve been before writing “Juiced”.

In an interview with Mike Wallace, Canseco was asked if he felt shame about the fact that illegal drugs fueled his career. “I tried to do everything possible to become the best player in the world,” responded Canseco. “Do I believe steroids and growth hormones helped me achieve that? Yes. Were there a lot of other players doing it that I had to compete against? Yes.” But what exactly are steroids and how do they help athletes enhance their performance?

 
The three most common types of steroids are Anabolic, Androgenic and Cortico. Developed in the 1930s, Anabolic steroids were originally created to treat hypogonadism; a condition where the testicles don’t produce enough testosterone for normal growth and development. Impotence and delayed puberty are just some of the legitimate reasons for Anabolic steroid use.

Once it was discovered that Anabolic steroids could be used to grow skeletal muscles, bodybuilders, weightlifters and athletes alike began to use it to increase their performance.

Cortico Steroids are used in treating colitis, kidney disease, allergies, asthma, eczema and many other diseases. Cortico steroids replicate the natural production of Cortisone in the body. Androgenic steroids stimulate masculine characteristics. Testosterone is the most well known Androgen.

Most people who use steroids do so in order to push their bodies past their normal limits, which brings us back to Canseco. Now retired, he is usually seen in one of two ways, as an important figure in exposing the use of performance enhancing drugs in professional sports or as a snitch.

“I don’t recommend steroids for everyone, and I don’t recommend growth hormones for everyone,” said Canseco during his 60 minutes interview. “But for certain individuals, I truly believe, because I’ve experimented with it for so many years, that it can make an average athlete a super athlete. It can make a super athlete – incredible. Just legendary.”