"Yet this does not stop them taking them.” https://www.inverse.com/article/55955-anabolic-steroid-survey-misuse In the United States alone, between 3 to 4 million people use anabolic-androgenic steroids to increase their muscle mass. Worldwide, steroid users make up 3.3 percent of the global population. They are banned by professional athletics organizations, and scientists have warned of their health effects, but the quest to become shockingly swole continues. As new research shows, steroid users are actually very well aware of the consequences. On Sunday, at the European Congress of Endocrinology, a team of Russian scientists will present “The Price of a Beautiful Body” — a summary of their research on the use of anabolic-androgenic steroids. These steroids are synthetic variations of the male sex hormone testosterone. Sometimes they are prescribed by healthcare providers to treat hormonal issues and disease that cause muscle loss. However, these drugs are also misused by athletes and bodybuilders looking to boost performance and change their appearance. “Anabolic” refers to muscle building, while “androgenic” refers to increased male characteristics. When the researchers from the Pavlov First Saint Petersburg State Medical University passed out an anonymous survey to 550 men who regularly attend the gym, they found that within this group, 30.4 percent said they used steroids. And more importantly, 70.2 percent of this group knew about the negative side effects linked to the steroids. “These findings were surprising,” first author Dr. Mykola Lykhonosovexplains. “Not only was the prevalence of steroid abuse high, [but] knowledge of the damaging side effects was also high, yet this does not stop them taking them.” The list of damaging side effects runs long. Misuse of the steroids could lead to negative mental effects like paranoia, extreme irritability, and mania. There’s also evidence that steroid misuse has physical health consequences including, but not limited to reduced sperm count, erectile dysfunction, baldness, breast development, and an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and liver or kidney failure. According to the United States National Institute on Drug Abuse, there’s still much to be learned about how these drugs affect the body. Most data on their long-term effects comes from case reports, meaning that the adverse effects listed could actually be underreported. In the US, it’s difficult to measure steroid misuse because national surveys don’t measure it. But it’s been established that when people misuse them — either by taking them orally, injecting them into muscles, or applying them as a gel — the dose is ten to 100 times higher than the doses prescribed to treat medical conditions. The silver lining of this study is that 54.8 percent of the respondents who used steroids indicated that they still wanted to receive more expert information on the drugs. The main source of information they received on steroids, 48.7 percent reported, was the internet. Lykhonosov and his team argue that scientifically sound information online can still be a “main tool in limiting the use of doping drugs” — even if it might seem like a lost cause. People may know what they do is bad for them, but they are willing to change their mind. Partial abstract: Background: The motivation for the use of AAS by men engaged in recreational activities is the improvement of body composition and strength indicators. A deterrent to the use of AAS can be awareness of the side effects of their use, in particular the development of secondary hypogonadism. Results: 762 questionnaires were provided for the assessment. 550 questionnaires were met the criteria. AAS was used by 30.4% of respondents (n=167). The main consumers of AAS were men aged 22 to 35 years old - 74.3%. The most common drugs were Testosterone propionate (51.5%). The most common dosage of injectable testosterone was 1000 mg per week (23.9%). The use of AAS over 9 months was indicated by 11% (n=19) of men. The main source of information on AAS was indicated by the Internet (48.7%). A negative attitude towards AAS was formed by 17.3% of respondents. 69.3% (n=381) of respondents gave a positive answer to the question about awareness about AAS, 30.7% - negative (n=169). Almost all respondents using AAS indicated that they have information on AAS - 96.4% (n=161). In the group of non-AAS users, the majority of respondents are informed about AAS - 57.4% (n=220), 42.6% (n=163) are not informed. Among all respondents to a clarifying question about awareness of side effects and complications of using AAS, an affirmative answer was 73.8% (n=406), negative - 26.2% (n=144). AAS users are more aware of AAS (χ2=82.954, p<0.001) and their side effects (χ2=70,207, p<0.001) compared to non-users. 22% (n=121) of the respondents were not informed with the side effects of steroids. 54.8% respondents expressed desire to receive qualified information about the AAS. Conclusion: The survey data indicates a high awareness of the side effects of using AAS, which, surprisingly, does not lead to the conscious abandonment of their use by people engaged in recreational activity. However, a significant percentage of those wishing to receive qualified information about the dangers of steroids gives hope that the information can still become the main tool in limiting the use of doping drugs.
Another article on the same story: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-05-men-health-steroid-abuse-pursuit.html
What especially annoys me is that most people are not remotely aware of what is truly the upper edge of natural. If you look for what a "natural" bodybuilder looks like on the 'net, you will almost certainly get a picture of someone who takes steroids, just not as much as what some of the mastodons take. At the very least, you will get a much greater proportion of pics of users than non-users. Reality has gotten obscured. Here, have a look at some of the bullshit: https://fitnessonsteroids.com/natural-bodybuilders/ http://www.aestheticbodybuilding.org/2014/05/top-5-natural-bodybuilders.html Even several of these guys: https://www.muscleandstrength.com/natural/athletes/natural-bodybuilders.html And so on.
Funny, your post about Frank Zane brought me to the link below, not sure how they came up with the natural appellation. I had more to comment btw, will possibly get back tomorrow, interesting topic : http://nattyornot.com/top-9-natural...me-frank-zane-look-like-a-malnourished-cadet/
Frank Zane? The Chemist? I trained side by side of him for a few days in the late 70s. He was tiny. He was shredded. He was on the sauce.
Of course he was on steroids. No one ever won the Olympia without them. But tiny? Come on, how can you describe this guy as tiny: https://www.greatestphysiques.com/male-physiques/frank-zane/ Compared to what? P.S. I really like his quote, as shown in the link: “Numbers are an abstraction, especially to muscles. Your body doesn’t know the absolute weight of what you lift; it only recognizes how heavy it feels. The secret is to make lighter weights feel heavy.” I only read this for the first time today, but it is the direction that I have been leaning towards for a while now.
Compared to many guys in the gym. He came in wearing a navy blue track suit and glasses, at first I didn't recognize him. He was that slim and narrow. When he stripped down, that's when he was amazing. The muscle separation and definition was crazy. I am a Zane fan, don't get me wrong, but he is far from big.
Okay. Just that, from my own perspective, I can't imagine anyone wanting to look bigger. Of course there are people who do; I'm just not one of them. Consider women who undergo surgery to increase their bust size. Even for people who like women to have larger busts, at some point bigger won't be better. But on the muscle front, there are men (and women!) who want to get as large as their drug budget will take them, symmetry and proportion be damned. What's up with that? Which brings us to: https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/bigorexia-when-bodybuilding-goes-too-far.328923/ I'm not suggesting that Zane's size is the cutoff point but, aesthetically speaking, it is for me. He might look small and narrow in a roomful of over-sized bodybuilders, but I'm guessing he would look relatively different than that in a roomful of "normal" people. I think we're probably on the same page here, just that we're looking at it from opposite directions.