Long-Term Steroid Use May Weaken Heart

Some athletes use anabolic steroids to help build muscle. But long-term use weakens the body’s most important muscle, the heart, a small study concludes. The study included 19 male weight lifters. Seven said they never used steroids. The other 12 said they had taken the drugs for about 9 years. Researchers used echocardiograms to view each man’s heart function. They looked at a measurement called ejection fraction. This is the amount of blood pumped with each heartbeat. In 10 of the 12 steroid users and 1 of 9 non-users, the ejection fraction was below normal. The steroid users’ hearts also relaxed only half as much as normal between beats. These signs of heart weakness could lead to heart failure. Researchers said more study is needed on larger groups of steroid users. The journal Circulation: Heart Failure published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it April 27.