There are different types of steroids - prednisone, prednisolone, etc. are of the anti-inflammatory class, the corticosteroids, and are not of concern here. You take these for asthma, lupus, some allergies, inflammatory arthritis, etc. Because they dampen down some immune system responses, a common side effect is infection when on long-term use.
The anabolic steroids increase cellular protein synthesis, and one of the side effects is muscle mass increase. Good if you have a horse who is older and thin, not doing well, a light-framed horse that was really wrung-out by a race, etc. That's a valid therapeutic use.
But just using them on a regular basis to make you bigger, stronger (like Bonds) should be illegal. These are the "designer" steroids made to escape detection by current testing capabilities.
So we should be clear we are talking only the "anabolic" steroids here, not all steroidal-class drugs.
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"Have the clean racing people run any ads explaining that giving a horse a Starbucks and a chocolate poppyseed muffin for breakfast would likely result in a ten year suspension for the trainer?" - Dr. Andrew Roberts
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