If you happen to know anyone taking steroids and have been telling them for who-knows-how-long to get off the stuff, well you now have another potent factor to add to your arsenal of reasons of why exactly they should not take the banned medication: steroids kill massive amounts of brain cells.

A study that has recently been published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry by Yale School of Medicine showed that high levels of the hormone testosterone kills nerve cells. Testosterone, by the way, is boosted to dangerous levels by steroids.

Researchers have discovered that nerve cells which were exposed to testosterone were triggered into going into programmed cell death known as apoptosis. Normally, apoptosis is the body's way of getting rid of damaged cells, but in the case of testosterone-induced apoptosis, even healthy cells were prompted into committing suicide, which in turn, can then cause severe neurological ailments such as Alzheimer's and Huntingdon's disease.

Besides the fact that it damages your brain at a cellular level, massive amounts of testosterone is also what prompt aggressive behavior among anyone who gets too much of this hormone, be it male, female or hamster. Yes, another study published in the Journal of Behavioural Neuroscience showed that after giving the normally-calm hamsters doses of anabolic steroids, they began exhibiting extremely aggressive behavior, an effect which lasted two weeks or half of their adolescent lives. This sudden aggression can be equated to the same effect that steroids and testosterone have on humans, which is known as "roid rage" in the sports world.

And sadly, with this kind of damage, not even anti-stupid pills can help.