Winnesota-
Your post is quite uninformed. I haven’t seen the movie but I can tell that they’ve pulled a “Michael Moore” and sensationalized half truths for the sake of making a better more entertaining movie.
Is taking steroids really that bad for you as far as health effects go?
As with any drug the hazzards are completely dose (and variant) dependent.
According to the movie, there really isnt anything documented that says steroids are any worse for you than vitamin C. Yes, excess hair growth, acne, smaller testicles, but all are reversible.
Simply not true. From the ACSM: “Anabolic steroid use has been implicated in early heart disease, including sudden death, the increase of bad cholesterol profiles (increased LDL, lower HDL), an increase in tendon injuries, liver tumors, testicular atrophy, gynecomastia (abnormal enlargement of breasts in males), male pattern baldness, severe acne, premature closure of growth plates in adolescents, emotional disturbances and other significant health risks.” Note that MOST of those affects are irreversible. Also, note that MOST of the studies performed on AS use have been forced to use very small doses to get by IRB’s and the doses prescribed to subjects used in studies likely aren’t what are commonly used by elite athletes…especially in sports like powerlifting, OLing, bodybuilding, football and in some cases track.
In fact, Steroids are rated below that of multivitmains for causes of death. You hear all of these stories about steroids causing disease or death, but there is no proof to back it up. You have one or two doctors telling conrgess this, but there really is no foundation for that argument and there are no studies out there concerning harmful effects of steroids because of the ban.
Do some research on pubmed and you’ll quickly find that you’re buying in to what the movie is trying to sell rather than knowing the facts. Now I’m not damning AS at all because in smaller regulated doses they can actually have plenty of healthy side affects, but to say that there’s no research on them at all or that they haven’t been linked to health problems is just plain false.
On another note, is taking steroids really any different than taking vitamins or creatine or many other supplements?
Yes. At the most simplistic level one is illegal and the other is not.
It gives you an advantage right? Well so does vitamins, minerals, steroids(not all), creatine, etc. which all occur naturally.
The ‘natural’ argument is a ridiculous load of crap that we’ve been sold by pseudo-health practitioners for a long time but doesn’t mean a thing. Tobacco is natural. Arsenic is natural. They’re certainly not good for you.
They all ‘enhance’ oneself to do more than otherwise possible.
The issue is not enhancement. The issue is health. The argument against steroids is that if you take them you force others to take them if they want to compete against you. That means just because you have the potential to force me out of the sport if I do not choose to sacrifice my health over my love for competition. An extreme, over-board example? Maybe, but that’s the issue…not enhancement.
How about cortizone shots? Those are steroids and they are legal.
That’s because they’re corticosteroids. That’s completely different. For our purposes they are really only related to anabolics by name alone.
It was interesting, in the movie they revealed that around 1988 when Ben Johnson tested positive for steroids, the IOC or WADA or whatever committee it was had over 2000 athletes, INCLUDING Carl Lewis who tested positive for PED’s, but covered them up.
This has been made public for some time however it’s important to note that the drug Carl was taking was an OTC stimulant that could be found in many cough suppressants and has since been removed from the banned list. Kinda ridiculous to compare that to AS.
Why cant someone take EPO to boost t cells, but can sleep in an altitude chamber to do the same thing, or better yet train at the Olympic training center?
1) because EPO is a controlled and illegal substance and 2). because when unregulated it will turn your blood to sludge and cause heart failure. This has happened to several elite cyclists.
ELITETRACK Founder