Steroids Linked To Heart Damage Among Weightlifters, Study Warns

Anabolic steroids might help weightlifters bulk up, but long-term use can do serious damage to the heart, a new study warns.

Men who used steroids while strength training wound up with thicker walls in the lower left chamber of their hearts, researchers reported Oct. 12 in the European Heart Journal.

This can make it harder for the heart to pump efficiently, and is linked to health problems like high blood pressure, heart attack and heart failure, according to the American Heart Association.

But there’s good news — the new study also found that men who stopped using steroids reversed this heart muscle thickening.

“Discontinuation of [anabolic steroid] use was associated with a reduction in heart muscle thickening and improvements in cardiac function, suggesting that at least some of these adverse effects may be reversible after stopping, and may even become comparable with the non-users in the control group,” said researcher Dr. Vibeke Almaas, a senior consultant with Oslo University Hospital in Norway.

For the new study, researchers followed up on a group of weightlifters who took part in an earlier study between 2017 and 2019.

Of those men, 70 had used steroids during the earlier study and 35 had never used the performance-enhancing drugs, researchers said.

Results showed that those men who kept using steroids had thicker left ventricle walls and less blood being pumped out of the heart.

“We found that continued use of anabolic steroids among adult and middle-aged male strength athletes, even at lower dosages, was associated with a persistent thickening of the heart muscle, impaired contractions and worsening of the heart’s ability to relax,” Almaas said in a news release. “As many as 17% of those who continued using AAS had severely reduced heart function.”

But researchers also found that men who’d used steroids but quit had a significant reduction in their heart muscle thickness, as well as a 13% improvement in the amount of blood their heart pumped out.

These results show that heart damage from steroids “could be reversed if the men stopped using anabolic steroids and continued to abstain from them over the long term,” Almaas said.

Their pumping ability, called left ventricle ejection fraction, was 54% — comparable to 60% for men who never used steroids, the study says.

Treatment for high blood pressure did help men who used anabolic steroids, researchers found. Those who treated their high blood pressure had an 11% improvement in their heart’s pumping ability, while those who didn’t had an 8% deterioration.

“Antihypertensive therapy among ongoing (anabolic steroid) users was associated with improved left ventricular systolic function,” Almaas said.

The results show why athletes should think twice before turning to steroids, said researcher Astrid Bjørnebekk, head of the Anabolic Androgenic Steroid Research Group at Oslo University Hospital.

“Anabolic steroids have been prohibited in competitive sports for decades, and since 2013, non-medical use and possession have also been illegal in Norway,” Bjørnebekk said in a news release. “Despite this, national reports indicate continued use of performance- and appearance-enhancing drugs, and increasing interest in them.”

Anabolic steroids are illegal to possess and use in the United States without a valid prescription, as they are classified as a Schedule III controlled substance under federal law.

More information

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has more on steroids.

SOURCES: European Society of Cardiology, news release, Oct. 13, 2026; European Heart Journal, Oct. 12, 2026