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Dr. Kim Mulvihill reportingSteroid use among professional athletes has been in the news quite a bit lately, but steroid use among teens is also becoming a big problem.
Teens are using steroids to try to sculpt the perfect body and look like their favorite movie star.
The good news is that a lot of kids are lifting weights and getting into strength training. The bad news is that some are turning to potentially dangersous supplements and drugs in their quest to look good.
Rsearchers surveyed more than ten thousand American boys and girls. Eight percent of girls and twelve percent of boys said they used a product to build muscles or improve their shape in the past year.
The most popular product - - protein powders and shakes. But some kids are also using creatine, dhea, growth hormone and steroids.
Andrea Garber, PhD./ UCSF Nutritionist: "They want to be in shape. But where they're going wrong is they're looking for that magic pill, that magic bullet. They're trying to find something, a product, whether it's a powder, a shake, even a steroid, that will give them that extra little edge."
Dr. Andrea Garber is a specialist in adolescent medicine at UCSF. She says the media plays a tremendous role.
Dr. Garber: "The popular images right now, the women especially who are really famous, are representing what is almost a completely unachievable body type."
The bottom line-- there is no magic pill. And parents who find strange supplements and powders need to talk to their kids.
