Health Minister outlines dangers of PEDs

NASSAU, The Bahamas --- Minister of Health, Dr the Hon Hubert A Minnis has issued a stern warning against the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).

They can negatively impact the mental, physical and sociological being of users in terms of violent behaviours, aggressiveness, overt psychosis, anxiety and depression, he said in Parliament, Wednesday.

Other side effects could include infertility, cancer and damage to the liver and other organs, he warned.

“Today and we see many of our role models, many of our athletes who were very successful between the ages of 20-23, and we look at them at ages 30-35 and they cannot walk, or are crippled and must be assisted by wheelchair,” Dr. Minnis said.

“PEDs can cause damage to the major joints, the hips, the knees,” he said during debate on the Anti-Doping Bill. He supported the establishment of the Anti-Doping Commission.

“Our young people must understand that today’s glory is tomorrow’s destruction,” the Health Minister said.

While some persons may experience short-term benefits from the use of PEDs and other supplements/stimulants, the long-term effects are “just too dangerous to take the chance,” he said.

He warned that over the long-term, users can become “overtly psychotic” and may not necessarily understand the mood changes and violent patterns they may be experiencing.

This inability can negatively impact the home and community within which they live, he said.

“There is such a thing as conditional response whereby the children growing up in the home environment with that person and those within the community itself, can exhibit that type of violent, aggressive and destructive behaviour as they believe that type of behaviour is normal because that is what the superstar athlete or great scholar did,” Dr. Minnis said.

He explained that once the liver is compromised in men as a result of PED use, their female hormones become elevated which can result in the growth of breasts and changes to sexual patterns.

In female users, because the hormone cannot be destroyed, metabolized or mobilized, he said, “you will find that they can experience many menstrual irregularities and can be primed for infertility.

“So, athletes who are doing well today, may one day wonder why they cannot reproduce,” he said. “It will be because of the enhancement drugs that they took.”

Dr. Minnis said medical research has shown that in the United States of America students were using supplements/stimulants to enhance their academic performances.

The study indicated that as many as 10 per cent of the eleventh grade students targeted were using some form of stimulants to enhance their academic capability, he said.

While local statistics may not be that high, he said, “the country must take a proactive look at the use of PEDs.

“It is paramount that physicians, academics and athletes be aware of all banned substances and the doping systems and apparatuses that are being used so that they do not fall into that trap,” Dr. Minnis said.