I just read the article. Interesting. The biggest thing that I have against using PED's is they're against the rules. I don't disagree with the guys who say PED's may not be very harmful. We hear of the real horror stories from people who have used PED's, and those certainly exist. But lots of people use drugs and never have any real long-term effects. But I would be willing to bet that most professional athletes use a pretty big dose, which makes them more dangerous. At least the people I know (mainly amateur bodybuilders and softball players) use some pretty serious stuff in large amounts.

Thing is, the long-term effects of drug use aren't known yet. Those kinds of studies are years and years away. It is interesting to look at the older generation of bodybuilders, guys from the Governator's generation. Some of them, most notably Arnold himself, have admitted to steroid use during their careers. How are they doing today? Arnold appears to be doing just fine. I don't follow bodybuilding anymore, so I don't know what the older guys are up to. But I don't think they have suffered many long-term side effects. But they also used much smaller doses than today's athletes.

You could probably successfully argue that people suffer worse long-term effects from a poor diet or lack of exercise than anything associated with PED's. It will be interesting to see what happens to the current crop of bodybuilders as they age. Those guys use some powerful stuff in dosages that are simply mind-boggling.

The ethics of using PED's -- well, drugs are against the rules. That means it's unethical to use them. There are lots of things that are against the rules that won't kill you. But it's still unethical to break the rules.

If they were legal and within the rules of sport, I'd have no problem with them. But they aren't, so people shouldn't use them.

But I did find the article to be a very interesting read. Thanks for posting it.

RP

The gist of it seems to be that steroids aren't really all that dangerous,

Once you get past the scare tactics of "roid rage" and "penis shrinkage" (myth), steroid use is not as dangerous as advertised. Steroid abuse, however, is as dangerous as advertised.

I remember when Arnold had heart surgery all of the anti-steroid crowd came out of the wood work, almost enthusiastic with joy that Arnold has health problems.

The thing about steroids is this [1] people usually just don't use one steroid (usually a "stack", and then some other stuff to inhibit the unwanted side effects), [2] most do not gradually build up to a moderate-large amount (they just dive right in), and [3] most don't use just one cycle. Working out on steroids and working out off of steroids is night and day. I don't know any of my friends that use steroids that stopped after the one cycle they said they were gonna do. I guess it would be like riding "the world's best bike" and then trying to muster up the same enthusiasm for working out on your "grandfather's schwinn".

I self-admittingly am on the very fringe of "drug knowledge". I used to know quite a bit about it and kept up with what guys were using and in what reputed amounts, and Dan Duchaine and the like ... but I decided it's not for me, and put my interest/time elsewhere.

Trying to link steroids to health problems as we age is darn near impossible.

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I'm just not sure which doctors they are talking to regarding anabolic steroids.

http://www.sportsci.org/...eff/anabstereff.html

http://espn.go.com/...sports/steroids.html

http://menshealth.about.com/.../a/anab_steroids.htm

Most of these are talking aboutthe kind of things that cause serious health affects, you know, like your liver function.

One of the affects mentioned in passing in the ESPN is the weakened connective tissues should be of great concern to anyone prone to over use injuries, which would include almost anyone doing endurance sports. Notice any baseball players or football players having odd connective tissue probles, Ken Griffey tearing hamstrings off the bone when he runs to first, Dean Palmer tearing biceps tendons swinging a bat, Mark McGwire's incurable plantar fasciaitis, Jose Canseco shredding an elbow tendon pitching an inning, David Boston's patellar tendon, etc., etc., etc.

Yeah, they aren't dangerous.


Edit to add - and the article simply misstates what has been linked to Giambi's tumor. He was taking Clomid to enhance the affects of the steroids. Clomid itself is not a steroid and is normally used in fertility treatments for women.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.