Article: reasons not to take steroids

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Peak_Power

New Member
This is a really moving article about a Pro BBer who's kidney's failed on him due to the massive amount of painkillers and drugs he was taking. It really makes you think about the direction that BBing has gone, that they have to abuse their bodies this way to be competative.

http://www.findarticles.com/p....g_1

We've all been tempted by the prospect of quick growth, but I think this article gives definite pause to that temptation.
 
Yeah, Peak...sad news hey?

Typical case of "waking up too late", this one is worst with the pain killers behind the whole thing what a retched mixture.
 
Thanks Peak, that could be the most important piece of information that someone ever finds here.

The author's note on page 6 is especially stunning. I don't follow bodybuilding comps but the listing of problems suffered by other top NPC heavyweights from '95 was amazing. One rushed unconscious to a hospital, one kidney transplant, one dead of a heart attack at 36.

It's just not worth it.
 
Steroids seem to have been mentioned once in the entire six page article. It's important to remember that you cannot take an informal case report where a guy is sucking down quadrillion times the recommended dose of all kinds of meds and going to extremes of training and diet, and doing this for years and then blame his problems on steroids. Might as well guzzle alcohol your whole life and then blame your liver problems on the acetaminophen you took for your aching joints. Possible? Yes. However ignoring the other blatant contributing factors is disingenuous.
 
xahrx, you have a valid point.

What I'd say is in general it's hazardous to try to be your own doctor without having any medical qualifications.

That would include, but not be limited to, the use of AAS not under a doctor's supervision, and excessive use of painkillers.
 
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(xahrx @ Sep. 12 2006,10:33)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Steroids seem to have been mentioned once in the entire six page article.  It's important to remember that you cannot take an informal case report where a guy is sucking down quadrillion times the recommended dose of all kinds of meds and going to extremes of training and diet, and doing this for years and then blame his problems on steroids.  Might as well guzzle alcohol your whole life and then blame your liver problems on the acetaminophen you took for your aching joints.  Possible?  Yes.  However ignoring the other blatant contributing factors is disingenuous.</div>
well put! steroid use actually causes very few deaths,but its like anything else if you abuse it,you will cause permanent damage.look at smoking and alchohol they kill 1000's and 1000,compare that to steroids.no arguement.
 
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(lcars @ Sep. 12 2006,14:47)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">well put! steroid use actually causes very few deaths,but its like anything else if you abuse it,you will cause permanent damage.look at smoking and alchohol  they kill 1000's and 1000,compare that to steroids.no arguement.</div>
I just wish people would stop using orals. Injectables and transdermals are far easier on the lipids and liver, blood pressure then becomes your main concern.
 
Yeah I should have said that its the whole way these guys abuse their bodies, not just the steroids. Its actually a shame because the effects of low doses of steroids seem to be fully reversible, so apart from it being cheating and unnatural there may have come a time when it became totally acceptable to use low doses of steroids legally, like the way we use creatine, but the the guys who abuse it have ruined it for everyone, and themselves.
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">there may have come a time when it became totally acceptable to use low doses of steroids legally, like the way we use creatine, but the the guys who abuse it have ruined it for everyone, and themselves. </div>

Exactly the point here, there are many guys even here on Test because of low levels (normal after a certain age), those are legal hormones! And they are prescribed by a Dr. in a specific dose!

Being your own doctor is highly dangerous, specially if you don't know what you are doing, this is why some medications are not allowed over the counter! On the other hand, as I sai d previously this is a good case of a start off with cheap advice, and then as the problems appeared they were masked by the use of Ibuprofen (hate to see what is stomach lining looks like).
 
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(Peak_Power @ Sep. 12 2006,23:50)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Yeah I should have said that its the whole way these guys abuse their bodies, not just the steroids. Its actually a shame because the effects of low doses of steroids seem to be fully reversible, so apart from it being cheating and unnatural there may have come a time when it became totally acceptable to use low doses of steroids legally, like the way we use creatine, but the the guys who abuse it have ruined it for everyone, and themselves.</div>
I understand the whole point about abuse versus use in moderation. For example, I partake of alcohol on occasion, in moderation. Some people can't do this.

One problem with self-dosing is that data on what is safe in the long-term may not be very available. Good data from controlled scientific studies of the use of illegal substances by human beings is probably hard to come by. Also, I'd think that quality control of anything that is sold illegally is highly suspect.

Now maybe relatively good information is out there, and it's relatively safe if you can restrain yourself and use good sense. I'm just reluctant to risk my health in the hope that this is the case, relying on someone selling drugs illegally to safeguard my health.
 
All that article says to me is that one shouldn't abuse drugs, it didn't say &quot;hey, steroids will make ur kidneys fail, bro&quot; or anything like that. Do you realize the massive amount of drugs he was probably taking? Painkillers, duiretics, stimulants, thyroid hormones and obviously steroids, but who knows what else. You can't use that as a representative take on what steroids do to your body. You may as well blame his kidney failure on the painkillers, it makes just as much sense.

Yeah, so this makes me question the logic of modern bodybuilding and it's attitude that well-being is not important, but it doesn't make me think that all steroids are evil, no matter what.
 
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(Totentanz @ Sep. 13 2006,10:07)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">All that article says to me is that one shouldn't abuse drugs, it didn't say &quot;hey, steroids will make ur kidneys fail, bro&quot; or anything like that.  Do you realize the massive amount of drugs he was probably taking?  Painkillers, duiretics, stimulants, thyroid hormones and obviously steroids, but who knows what else.  You can't use that as a representative take on what steroids do to your body.  You may as well blame his kidney failure on the painkillers, it makes just as much sense.

Yeah, so this makes me question the logic of modern bodybuilding and it's attitude that well-being is not important, but it doesn't make me think that all steroids are evil, no matter what.</div>
Diuretics mixed with NSAIDs can be very problematic. In fact I think kidney damage is specific to a bad interaction between those two types of substances.

Lifting N Tx said:
One problem with self-dosing is that data on what is safe in the long-term may not be very available. Good data from controlled scientific studies of the use of illegal substances by human beings is probably hard to come by. Also, I'd think that quality control of anything that is sold illegally is highly suspect.
Click to expand...

There is little to no evidence about steroids. No long term studies. Short term studies and case reports are all we have, and they do indicate a likelihood of cardiovascular risk for long term use, especially regarding orals. But, like you say no one knows what threshold is, and the case reports are almost always about some extreme level of use.
 
Interestingly enough, as a heart patient (I'm on a pacer), my cardiologist told me that when he operates on steroid user's hearts, they're all enlarged, which makes them inefficient. It seems that the heart is a muscle too, and isn't meant to be grown. And there's a high incidence of heart failures amongst juicers, according to him.
 
What he isn't telling you is that some enlargement of the heart is common in all athletes. No surprise, since most doctors are just as prejudiced as the public against steroids. I've heard of doctors who genuinely believed that steroids caused cancer and other dumb crap like that.
 
Lets not forget the liver damage. I'm not pro or anti steroid use. I've been given var by my doc before in a specific dosage to treat leg weakness. When it didn't help, I stopped using it. I'm now on testosterone at a high TRT dosage...again, legally by prescription. People using steroids sensibly would be using maybe 2-3 times the dosage I'm on. Anything more does risk damaging the body after long term use.

The exact damage done, well there are no long term studies. Anecdotally, those that did things sensibly are OK. Those that went to IFBB levels with it - well, they aren't.

However lets not forget that most oral prescription pain killers are very harsh on either the liver or kidneys - not because of narcotic content but because of the other drugs with them.

Examples: toradol - very bad for the kidneys with long term usage, same for ultram. Percocet, loricet, loritab... all have tylenol in them - very bad for the liver with long term use or in high dosages.

Ever seen anyone die from a tylenol overdose? I have, it's very bad, a miserable, painful death.
 
The liver only really gets beaten up by orals. But like you said, plenty of over the counter drugs also harm the liver, which is why they often have warnings not to take them with alcohol, etc etc. Are we talking about banning painkillers because they can be dangerous? No.

For what it is worth, injectable steroids are fairly safe - within reason of course.

I think the take home point is not that steroids themselves should be condemned, but this culture of &quot;more is better&quot; and &quot;whatever it takes&quot; that has evolved in bodybuilding (and in the rest of the world) that should be condemned.
 
And it would stand to reason that the way they have to do that is to ban the drugs, since the track record of the BB'ers (those in the public eye) shows that they will not control their usage. I think that still we should have the choice unless you are in a natural competition.
Here again; detection is an issue for that. But if steroids are to be legal, there should be more public education on the use of them; there are not any specific guidelines to go by, unless you consider months of surfing BB websites and the opinions of random guys in the gyms, a few &quot;experts&quot; with &quot;doctorates&quot;, and negative opinions of the doctors.
 
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(quadancer @ Sep. 14 2006,19:44)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Interestingly enough, as a heart patient (I'm on a pacer), my cardiologist told me that when he operates on steroid user's hearts, they're all enlarged, which makes them inefficient. It seems that the heart is a muscle too, and isn't meant to be grown. And there's a high incidence of heart failures amongst juicers, according to him.</div>
Unfortunately for him all resistance exercise will cause some heart enlargement, usually of the left ventricle. Also unfortunately for him whether or not there's a higher incidence of cardiovascular problems in steroid users is something that's never been studied.
 
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(quadancer @ Sep. 15 2006,02:51)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">And it would stand to reason that the way they have to do that is to ban the drugs, since the track record of the BB'ers (those in the public eye) shows that they will not control their usage. I think that still we should have the choice unless you are in a natural competition.
Here again; detection is an issue for that. But if steroids are to be legal, there should be more public education on the use of them; there are not any specific guidelines to go by, unless you consider months of surfing BB websites and the opinions of random guys in the gyms, a few &quot;experts&quot; with &quot;doctorates&quot;, and negative opinions of the doctors.</div>
Well I remember doctors stating in a fairly well publicized case not too long ago that creatine abuse caused new bone growth in some kid's legs. Doctors are generally just fools with MDs who once they leave school, and sometimes in school itself, get their information from the same sources we do. They are people, just as fallible as anyone else. They also tend to be a bit off when judging clinical studies, often forgetting that the dose determines the poison and that just because some rats responded poorly to X dose of some substance doesn't mean people will be harmed by a dose of X/100 or X/1000 of that same substance.
 
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