ExRx.net

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1671137,00.html?cnn=yes

Read this and tell me what you think. I find it unbelievable and ridiculous.

It is 100% true, every word. If you talk to a lot of advanced bodybuilders and powerlifters somewhere they feel pretty anonymous, they are more willing to talk about it.

Im a little confused on your response Ironman. Your saying that they tend to hide taking them but are more willing to talk about them?

My problem with the whole thing is the online survey part since you don't know who is lying and such. Also it would be nice to get more info from where this data came from. And what is the percent of non-competitive athletes that take them. Same with the competitive ones.

They talk about them on sites where nobody can find out who they are. Pick your bodybuilding site pretty much. Or if you would like, look up a site that is specifically about steroids. Or just go to a gym and see all the guys who are never cut enough to compete, but are too big to be natural.

Ahh gotcha

Sounds about right. Also, it's not surprising that users downplay the risks involved.

I've often wondered how many actors may be using. It's not uncommon to see an actor pack on 10+ lbs of muscle in a few months for an action movie only to lose it all for his next roll.

The article is right on the money. I'm older than most of you, and up until the 80's steroids were legal with a prescription, and lots of people used. It really wasn't considered to be a big thing. In the mid 80's all that changed, and it became a feloney. I am neither pro or con steroids, but if a person could get past the "more is better" syndrome, they could be used, quite safely, under a physicians care I think it's becoming more of an ethical question more than anything else these days.
Tim

They are still prescription, it's just that in 1990 they became schedule 3 controlled substances. They aren't dangerous so much as they have the potential to be dangerous. The effects both good and bad are VERY overstated in pop culture.

That's a fact about both sides of the coin being overrated. They can be dangerous, especially with the more is better attitude most people around seem to have, but on the other hand, unless you already have the skills for your sport and work extremely hard, they won't turn a mediocre player into a champ overnight. Look at Bonds. Yeah, he's taking a lot of heat, but he was an increible athlete to begin with, and the (alleged) steroid use , if anything, pushed him over the top, they didn't just magically take him from the bottom to the top.The late Al Oerter (4 time Olympic champ in discus) once made the statement that if athletes thought eating brillo pads would help them win, they'd be eating them by the boxload.
Tim

True, but when the difference between 1st place and 10th is measured in hundreths of a second, any advantage can make a huge difference. This creates a lot of controversy over issues of fairness and sportsmanship, which is probably why so much of the news coverage on the topic has focused on compedative sports. This article is interesting because it approaches the subject from different angle, focusing on steroid use as a public health issue.

Matt, that's what we were saying. The pro's and con's (think dangers) have been blown out of all proportion by the news media hype. It becomes a question of ethics, not to mention it's a feloney nowadays.
Tim

I agree the dangers are often overstated in the media, but there are real risks, something a lot of users seem to be in denial about. Many seem to have the "It will never happen to me" attitude, which seems to be typical of drug users in general, not just steroid users.

There aren't risks in the straight forward sense. It is more like you are almost certain to get problem A, if you do X,Y and Z, or don't do A, B and C. So if you just do it willy nilly, it isn't risk so much as a near certainty. However if you do things right you are not going to have that problem.

For example the most common and oldest steroid is testosterone. It is just the male hormone, and you inject it. It just raises your test levels real high. In most people, as it is used it will convert to estrogen and cause gynecomastia (boobs). However you can take something to reduce that effect and not get boobs. After a while it shuts down your natural test production. So when you come off, you have to take a fertility drug to stimulate natural testosterone production. If you are prone to hair loss, you might get some temporary balding, which there is something for that too. It is most likely going to cause some body acne, which is hardly a big deal, but you can scrub yourself with Nizoral shampoo to help clear that up.

That however is for a man at least early 20's or older with a good base of natural gains. People who do not fit into that category can have serious unpreventable problems and should not take it.

Then other compounds have other issues, and some things interact with each other. So it is not that there are risks so much as stupid people are putting things into their bodies that they don't understand.

What you're describing sounds like a house of cards.