Prolonged Steroid Use may Weaken Heart and Lower Life Expectancy

The latest medical reports indicate that prolonged steroid use may weaken heart muscles even more drastically than researchers previously believed. Although steroids have been blamed for “roid rage” and kidney problems in the past, it seems that now they are also linked to higher likelihood of developing heart failure.

According to studies that were conducted at a number of hospitals, the long term use of steroids leads to weakening of the heart’s left ventricle. This chamber of the heart is the main pumping mechanism and when it begins to falter it results in erratic heartbeats, congestive heart failure and poor circulation.

The main study at Massachusetts General Hospital involved 12 healthy men of different ages, although this group did have a median age of 40. These individuals were all active weight lifters with essentially negative medical histories. However it was known that each member of the group had been using 600-700 mg of anabolic steroids weekly for the past 9 years. There was also a control group of weight lifters who took part in the same study but these individuals had never used any type of steroid substance.

Of the dozen steroid users an astonishing 83% all were noted to have a much lower ventricular pumping capacities than those who were steroid free. There were no other causative factors that would have created the weakness of the left ventricle which means that the researchers were able to ascertain that long-term steroid use may weaken heart function no matter what the age of the individuals involved.