12 pages, i didnt write it
The Media Has Put a Bad Name on Anabolic Steroids
The media tells us all the time about how bad anabolic and androgenic steroids (AAS) are for the human body. The question is, can we really trust what they are telling us? Numerous clinical and scientific studies have been done, and every time the health hazards come back they are very minimal. Very interesting, is it not? We need to ask ourselves, why are there so many false beliefs about these performance enhancing drugs? Why does the public eye look down on anabolic and androgenic steroid users? It all boils down to the media! The media has told us how steroids are not good for the human body, and have almost told us what to think about them. They have fed the public numerous untruths about steroids and have not shown us actual clinical and scientific research that backs up their statements. Have they shown us examples or references so that we, the people, can do our own research and make up our own minds about how we feel about the use of steroids? Clearly, the media has placed a false belief about anabolic and androgenic steroids in our minds without even giving proof that what they are saying is true.
Anabolic (tissue structure) and androgenic (masculinizing) are the qualities that testosterone possess. Primary muscle growth comes from the anabolic effects. Deepening of the voice, facial and body hair, are the androgenic effects of secondary male sex characteristics. Cosmetic appearance and sports performance come from the beneficial effects of anabolic steroids. John Ziegler, M.D., who in correspondence with the pharmaceutical supplier CIBA; introduced to bodybuilders the oral steroid Dianabol in 1956. Scientists had constructed many unique anabolic/androgenic steroids and thousands of athletes were taking them during the mid 1960’s (Collins).
By the turn of the century, scientists were able to produce the first experimental androgen injection. A lot of time was spent researching steroids and steroid production. The androgens were actualized through filtering urine or by extracting testosterone from animal testicles. Much time went on, and research continued with not very much to show but the idea and the theory that testosterone could be added to a test subject and it would grow faster. In the mid 1930’s, chemists finally, after the idea more than 130 years ago, synthesized the structure of testosterone. This was a breakthrough development in the scientific world of anabolic (Zulak).
Germans first experimented on their own dogs and then on soldiers during World War 2 to help them stay healthy and combat malnutrition while fighting in the war. This was the first time steroids were used in the medical field. As you read, they were used to keep their soldiers healthy while fighting. Steroids did keep them healthy too. It would be harder for something like malnutrition to set in on a soldier that was on an anabolic steroid because he is working out in the field. When the muscles are working, and that person has more testosterone in his body, the muscles have no choice but to grow. Testosterone is what makes muscles grow more rapidly. More testosterone yields more muscle if they are working and doing strenuous activities like soldiers do. Athletes in the 1950’s found that steroids were beneficial to them meeting the personal goals that they set for themselves (Zulak).
The world of medicine has taken advantage of the discovery of anabolic steroids. Oxymetholone, also known as Androl 50, is known to treat cases of anemia and it also increases red blood cell production. It is an oral androgen that is one of the strongest, steroid available. The medical field has found many beneficial uses for steroids. So why does the media put such a bad reputation on steroids if doctors are still prescribing them, and they are benefiting the users? This is a very important question that should be asked. Androl also has exceptional anti-wasting properties in HIV Positive and AIDS patients (Zulak).
The benefits versus the health hazards analogous with anabolic steroid use are what society today is largely misinformed about. As in all drugs, steroids have side effects. Extravagant horror stories about undeviating side effects and even death are not evident by the true nature of AAS. Professional bodybuilders taking enormous doses of many different drugs in addition to diuretics are the persons that have been hospitalized or have died from steroid related causes. Athletes in amateur, collegiate, Olympic, and professional have all reached the primary levels of their sports with steroids. Elite military commandos, martial artist, and police officers (ironically), have also become bigger, faster, and stronger by way of steroid use (Anabolik).
AAS are not remotely as hazardous to your body as you might have believed. Taking too much of anything is bad for you, look at frequent aspirin users. Of the people that have died in all the wars fought in the twentieth century combined, more people will die this year from the effects of alcohol and tobacco use. The Propaganda that the media gives out regarding AAS has brainwashed most of the public. They simply don’t have a clue. Society has no idea on how prevalent AAS use is. Most of the general populace does not understand why athletes are so exceedingly bigger, faster, and stronger than just a few decades ago. Natural adaptation does not work that instantaneously. Humans use AAS because they work in today‘s world. Until something better comes along, steroid use is here to remain (Anabolik).
In the early 1990’s, U.S. legislators who voted to control AAS were so oblivious about these drugs that they initially misspelled the legislation to control “antibiotic steroids.” AAS have been legislated into a controlled substance equal to heroin, cocaine, and LSD. How can the U.S. Government compare AAS to addictive, harmful drugs? In the early 1990’s, the United States Government made alcohol illegal for fourteen years. This did very little to stop the consumption of intoxicating drinks. The Government achieved in equipping organized crime with the multi-billion dollar black-market enterprises of supplying alcohol. Moreover, strong laws on AAS have created an underground industry to satisfy the traffic for AAS (Anabolik).
Orally taken A/A steroids advance through the gastrointestinal tract to the liver, then journey immediately into the blood stream. The cells within the tissues of our anatomy have receptor sites with a liking for steroid molecules in our skeletal muscle cells. An A/A Steroid molecule is carried via blood enters the muscle cell by diffusion and attaches to a receptor site. To force certain metabolic changes within the cell, a connection is designed that permits the steroid molecule to transfer a cellular command to the receptor sites. The metabolic changes that increases protein synthesis and nitrogen retention leads to enhanced size and strength of the skeletal muscle cell. Once the A/A steroid dispenses its cellular order, it moves to other receptor sites via blood flow, delivering its command until it is converted into another substance or is given off by means of waste (Collins).
Extreme exercise causes the body to generate a catabolic molecule called cortical, which causes muscle tissue failure. Anabolics, having an anticatabolic effect, prevent the collapse of muscle tissue by removing cortisol from its receptors. Thus, restoration processes are accelerated and injuries, including the microscopic muscle damage incurred from intense training, regenerate rapidly (Collins).
In certain adolescent diseases and some types of anemia, the use of AS can successfully treat them. Similar clinical uses focus on the tissue construction and anti-catabolic effects, such as in the medical care of burn victims, AIDS patients, or patients undernourished from disease or progressed age. As means of male contraception, testosterone supplementation has been extensively tested. Recent research has begun to explore the use of androgen replacement as a safe and effective anti-aging therapy for middle-aged men, as endogenous testosterone production decreases with age (Collins).
By two-dimensional echocardiography, researchers examined 4 elite endurance-trained athletes. Previously, they studied 13 bodybuilders, and examined the individual left ventricular dimensions. The 4 elite endurance-trained athletes had a left ventricular wall thickness outside 13mm. One of the 13 bodybuilders had a left ventricular wall thickness of 16mm, the largest ever reported. Considering past events, 43% of the steroid-free bodybuilders and 100% of the steroid users had a left ventricular wall thickness beyond the normal range of 11mm. Furthermore, 1 steroid-free subject and 3 steroid users were beyond the critical mark of 13mm. None of the athletes had symptoms of diastolic dysfunction. 13mm can be discovered ordinarily in elite endurance-trained athletes who do not use AAS (Haycock).
Gynecomastia is a common disease of the male breast where there is a benign glandular enlargement of that breast. It usually consists of the appearance of a flat pad of glandular tissue beneath a nipple, which becomes tender at the same time. The development may be unilateral or bilateral. There is rarely a continued growth of the breast tissue; ordinarily the process is of brief duration and stops short of the production of permanent enlargement of the breast. A great number of patients who suffer from this disease have a disturbance in the proper ratio of androgen and estrogen levels. The normal ratio of the two hormones in plasma is approximately 100:1. "The etiology of gyecomastia in patients with a known documented cause appears to be related to increased estrogen stimulation, decreased testosterone levels, or some alteration of the estrogens and androgen so that the androgen-estrogen ratio is decreased. From this information it was discovered that there is also a lower ratio of weaker adrenal androgens (delta 4-androstenedione and dehydroepiandrosterone) found in youths with this disease. It was once believed that there was an imbalance in the ratios of testosterone to estrogen or estradiol, but this is now known to be untrue (Williams).
Gynecomastia is found only in males, and the signs can appear any time in a male's lifetime. It is the leading breast disorder in males and it accounts for 60% of all disorders of the male breast. About 85% of male breast masses are due to gynecomastia. Forty percent of the cases affect pubescent boys occurring most often between the ages of 14 to 15.5. Approximately 40% of normal men and up to 70% of hospitalized men have palpable breast tissue. Active gynecomastia in autopsy data is between 5 and 9%. "More than 80% of there hospitalized patients with a body mass index of 25 kg/m2 or greater had gynocamastia."(Williams) About 70% of pubertal males required no treatment. "If the threshold for judging that the breast is enlarged is set at 2.0cm in diameter, the incidence is 32-36% in normal aged men 17-58 years." A bloody discharge is present in about 60% of patients, while a milky discharge is present in about 1% of patients (Williams).
In the case of gynecomastia the disease can occur in a newborn baby, at puberty or at any time in a man's life. In the newborn, transient enlargement of the breast is due to the action of maternal and/or placental estrogens. The enlargement usually disappears within a few weeks. Adolescent gynecomastia is common during puberty with the onset at the median age of 14. It is often asymmetrical and frequently tender. It regresses so that by the age of 20 only a small number of men have palpable vestiges of gynecomastia in one or both the breasts. Gynecomastia of aging also occurs in otherwise healthy men. Forty percent or more of aged men have gynecomastia. One explanation is the increase in age in the conversion of androgens to estrogens in extra- glandular tissues. Drug therapy and abnormal liver functioning can also be causes of gynecomastia in older men. When the disease is pathologic the patient can have increased estrogen secretions, increased conversion of androgens to estrogens or decreased androgen activity due to a failure in protein receptors. Increased estrogen secretions are found in such diseases and disorders as Hermaphroditism, Kleinfelter's syndrome, congenital adrenal hyperlasia, and adrenal carcinoma or testicular tumors. In the second case some examples are adrenal carcinoma, liver disorders, malnutrition and thyroidtoxicosis. Decreased androgen activity can be found in complete testicular feminization, incomplete testicular feminization and Reifenstein's syndrome (Williams).
Serious swimmers wear extrinsic suits that make them swim faster and longer. The truth is that nothing is dishonest with that. Fiberglass poles are used instead of the hickory shafts used 80 years ago in track and field. No one argues that vaulters go back to hickory poles on the basis that fiberglass are unnatural. The runner who set a world record in the 100-yard dash in 1928 was disallowed starting blocks instead of digging holes in the ground. Eight years later, it became illegal to dig holes in the ground. What had been an unjust advantage was now a requisite. Sometimes called unfair because they may not have been earned, advantages may still be legitimate, as in the case with genetics. Because of some advantages that cannot be compensated for are why most competitions are won. AAS don’t work like magic. Even if you take massive amounts of AAS they will never make you look like a bodybuilder unless you work out hard (Gendin). The noted health risks associated with these “deadly drugs” provided a presumably valid basis for the legislation, while the chief objective of Congress in classifying AS as controlled substances was seemingly to resolve the pharmacological “cheating” problem in competition sports (Collins).
Historically the medical and scientific community has been less than truthful in presenting information about AS to the general public. For example, for many years their position was that steroids do not build muscle. In 1984, the well-known anti-steroid text: Death in the Locker Room, then medical student Bob Goldman purposed his theory about how steroids work in a section devoted to the “placebo effect.” It is uncertain whether such faulty opinions were based upon ignorance of the staggering descriptive evidence or upon an attempt to harbor the general public by concealing the truth. “The medical community lost much credibility as a result of repeated denials that AS enhance performance.” Obviously, the athletes themselves knew years earlier about the effects of anabolics on sports achievement and appearance. While today the medical community admits that there is no question that AS do in fact work, its earlier position created a immense mistrust within the athletic establishment and led to an debate between the groups that may never be undone (Collins).
Creatine, Andro, and Protein powder do not promote largely to the anatomy of a man that weights 265 pounds at 4% body fat. Long before the laws to contain steroids, misinformation and hypocrisy existed. The real risks versus the rewards and common steroid use are what society is extremely uneducated about. Ignorance is bliss, but the truth will always stand (Anabolik).
Bodybuilders are constantly in search of substances that will increase anabolism. We take our creatine, glutamine, pyruvate, and a host of other nutritional supplements in our quest for more muscle. Bodybuilders who choose to go the "enhanced" route are always searching for the anabolic drug that will take their physique to the next level. With all of the means at our disposal to increase muscular bodyweight, one simple fact often gets overlooked. Food is the most anabolic substance we can put in our bodies (Collins).
A very popular untruth about steroids is that the testes permanently shrink. It is a fact that the testes do shrink. This is caused by the addition of outside testosterone to the body. The body realizes there is more being added, so it does not need to produce as much, causing the testes to shrink. Clomiphene citrate (Clomid) is a drug that is able to bring testosterone production back to normal levels as well as testicle size back to normal. In studies, Clomid therapy post cycle will bring natural testosterone production back to normal, also bring testicle size back to normal as well. In men, the application of Clomid causes an elevation of follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone. As a result, natural testosterone production is also increased. This effect is obviously beneficial to the athlete, especially at the conclusion of a cycle when endogenous testosterone levels are subnormal. When an athlete discontinues the use of steroids, his testosterone levels will most likely be suppressed. If endogenous testosterone levels are not brought to normal, a dramatic loss in size and strength may occur (Zulak).
People think that they should not use AAS because of birth defects to future children. Anabolic steroids can cause the sperm count to decrease, but it is not linked to birth defects. A good example is Arnold Schwarzenegger. This man is a former Mr. Universe, Mr. Olympia, and also Mr. World. He has taken numerous cycles of steroids, and now has a wife and children. His kids are not deformed in any way and are not defected (Zulak).
AAS are obviously the "bastard child" of controlled drugs. Analysis of federal and state substance schedules reveals that almost all controlled drugs are catalogues in subordinate classifications. It depicts them in terms of their instant psychoactive effects: hallucinogens, stimulants, narcotics, depressants, and opiates. How did AAS come to be classified amongst this collection of unlike drugs when they have no immediate mood-altering effects (Williams)?
Over 3 million athletes and bodybuilders in the United States have used Anabolic steroids, according to recent statistic reports. 90% of elite athletes have at one time taken some form of illegal muscle-endurance enhancing drugs, according to a recent Sports Illustrated article. New steroid legislation, steroid testing, scare tactics, and education programs have been placed to directly put an end to AAS usage. Efforts that have been made to stop the usage of AAS have been unproductive. The reality is that AAS use in the U.S. is still spreading and will continue to do so until something better comes along. Due to their powerful reaction on the body to help promote muscle mass and strength, is what make AAS vastly popular to athletes (Roid).
It is clear that steroids are the “bastard child” of controlled substances. The majority of the controlled substances are such things as marijuana, cocaine, LSD, and methamphetimines. These are all drugs that play a large role in the way the users think and act. Do steroids affect the way a human being can think and act? No, they do not. Drugs such as marijuana are socially acceptable and are readily available everywhere in the world. It seems as though doing these drugs are the cool things to do, and other people do not put them down. It also seems like the media is somewhat promoting marijuana. There are shirts and hats with marijuana leaves on them, there are also clothes made out of hemp. Stores that only sell products made out of hemp are very popular. When people find out about a person being on steroids, it is automatically wrong and they look at the person in a totally different way. What is the big deal about a person putting a drug in their body to make themselves look better and perform better? It seems as though people do not even care about others putting drugs into their bodies that will physically and mentally harm them without proper research and/or medically supervised. The media wants the biggest, fastest, and strongest athletes than that of years previous but how can that be without the aid of AAS. It seems that the media has a double-standard when it comes to being the best and the strongest.
Works Cited
Anabolic Advantage. "A brief commentary about anabolic steroids." 1999. <
http://www.anabolik.com/> (Sept. 5, 2001). Anabolic Steroids. “Just the Facts." <
http://www.roid.com/> (Sept. 5, 2001). Collins, Rick. Anabolic Steroids, Bodybuilding and the Law. 2000. <
http://www.steroidlaw.com/> (Sept. 8, 2001). Croce, Matt, Ph.D. Bridging the Gap Between Science and Practice."'Bad' Steroids help AIDS Patients Live."2001. <
http://www.thinkmuscle.com/> (Sept. 6, 2001). Gendin, Sidney, Ph.D. Bridging the Gap Between Science and Practice. "Let's Ban Those Who Don't Use Drugs."2001. <
http://www.thinkmuscle.com/> (Sept. 6, 2001). Haycock, Bryan, Ph.D. Bridging the Gap Between Science and Practice. "Have Doctors Been...?" 2001. <
http://www.thinkmuscle.com/> (Sept. 6, 2001). Williams, David, Ph.D. Sports In America. San Diego, LA Greenhaven Press, 1994. Zulak, Greg. "Uncensored." MuscleMag. April 2000.
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