// posted March 19, 2007 by Lou Schuler

The L.A. Times this morning has a bold story for a mainstream newspaper. It asks the questions that lots of guys in lots of gym have asked about steroids: What if they aren't as dangerous as we've been told? What if the side effects are exaggerated? What if they merely offer a faster and more efficient way to get the look a lifter wants, with little danger of growing man-boobs (gynecomastia) or having an upper body that looks like it's been assaulted with acid-tipped darts (steroid acne).

Here's a sample:

Many gym-goers who use performance enhancers see them as no riskier -- and perhaps less so -- than surgical cosmetic fixes.


Los Angeles personal trainer Rob Parr describes an acquaintance with a "waistline like Santa Claus" who used steroids over several years to transform himself into a Rambo look-alike. The man, in his 30s, avoided alcohol and ate a healthful diet, Parr says, and simply didn't think steroids posed a threat. There's even an attitude in gyms that there is "steroid use" and "steroid abuse," and that the muscle men are the go-to guys for "safe," reasonable steroid advice, as opposed to doctors and others in the medical community whom they believe exaggerate the dangers.


The medical community's credibility gap with gym-goers dates back to the 1970s and '80s, when early studies concluded that steroids didn't boost muscle mass and may be no better than placebos, says Cedric Bryant, chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise, a nonprofit fitness group based in San Diego.


"All the people in the gym knew that was nonsense," Bryant says. The problem with the studies is they involved medicinal doses, he says, not the amounts athletes and bodybuilders take -- which could be 10 to 100 times higher.

Most of the story is the usual blah-blah-blah about all the dangers we don't know about, and how steroids become addictive and lead to ever-riskier drugs and behaviors. But one quote caught my attention:

Jay Hoffman, professor and chairman of the department of health and exercise science at the College of New Jersey in Ewing, believes steroids are safer when cycled.


Hoffman, who took steroids himself for three years while attending NFL training camps in the early '80s, says steroids were widely used in professional football before they were banned. "If they were so dangerous, we'd be seeing a lot of people in their 50s dropping dead and we're not seeing that," he says.

We aren't seeing mass deaths, but there have been enough to make me suspicious, as I've written here many times. The problem with looking at NFL deaths retrospectively is that there's no way to tell how many drugs a dead 50-year-old did in his athletic prime a quarter-century before. And even if you knew every drug an individual took, it would be impossible to determine which drugs did what damage. And even if you could somehow know that, then you're stuck with the unanswerable question: Were the deadly effects of those particular drugs unique to that individual, or would they be dangerous to most of the people who use them?

With NFL players, it's hard to know where to start when assessing the health issues that would plague a player long after retirement. The sport itself is intense and violent, with a high risk of concussions. The excess body weight of linemen seems to be a factor in some premature deaths. With a sport that's played once a week, there may be more temptation to indulge in risky lifestyle choices, although I have no idea if NFL players use more recreational drugs than young and wealthy athletes in other sports. And, heck, some of the guys who played in the '60s and '70s might've been exposed to toxic pesticides on their playing fields. You just never know.

But in a sport that requires an unnatural combination of speed and body mass to succeed, and in which fearlessness and aggression are richly rewarded, who can rule out steroids as a serious health risk?

That doesn't have anything to do with the adults in health clubs who choose to use steroids to put an extra inch on their biceps, but whenever you talk about steroids, it's probably the most interesting part of the conversation.

Tags: exercise