All About Being Natty And The Problems With PED's

IN TODAY’S ISSUE
All About Being Natty

The rise of anabolic steroids over the past decade has been ridiculous. Partly fueled by social media, with teenagers thinking they need to get PED’s (Performance Enhancing Drugs) in their system as soon as they can, to look a certain way. Go to any local gym now a days and a large proportion of the gyms members will take or have taken PED’s.

This is ofcourse a personal choice, a choice that comes with its upsides and downsides. The main problem that has come with social media and PED’s is the expectation of what you should look like or be able to lift after so many months / years of training- and that expectation has been warped.

What You'll Find Out

• 🤓 Some Background And Understanding Of PED's

• 👉 What The Science Has To Say

• ✍️ TL:DR - Key Takeaways & Practical Applications

BASICS
Ethical Problems, Testing And Background Of PED’s

Anabolics are abused by athletes from various sports including the Olympics, Crossfit, Powerlifting, Bodybuilding, Cycling, Swimming… pretty much every sport you can think of, there will be an athlete trying to cheat their way to the top.

However it doesn’t just stop at professional and amature sports, PT’s, influencers and your everyday gym goers have been increasingly turning to PED’s to keep up with societal expectations of what they should look like.

THE THREE MAIN ETHICAL PROBLEMS WITH PED’S

Those who use it in a tested sport and don’t disclose it have an unfair advantage against those who are clean, potentially robbing them from a winning position.

In the fitness industry as a whole, there is unrealistic expectations set from those taking PED’s who lie about it, in order words, they just don’t disclose it to their audience or clients (In fact one study by the WADA, found that 56% of anabolic steroid users reported that they had never disclosed their use to their physician or doctor). This in turn has caused a trend for people to see these results as attainable while being natural, and set the “normal” of what someone who lifts should look like.

The third major problem this has caused is what I’ll label , “get on the bandwagon or bail” attitude and it’s affecting the livelihoods of those who are clean. It causes those who want to make their careers as a personal trainer, coach or influencer suffer if they don’t take part in PED’s. Think about it, your in the gym and want to get a PT, generally you will go to the biggest guy in the room because “he must know what he’s doing” over the other PT’s cause he’s the biggest. But what you don’t realise is, the other PT’s may have more knowledge and could help you more, however they are natural. In turn, those not taking PED’s may lose out on business.

I THOUGHT ATHLETES WERE TESTED?

New steroids are being synthesised all the time by pass testing, while anti-doping agencies are busy improving techniques to detect the anabolic-androgenic steroids they know about, yet scientists are creating new ones they don’t even know about yet.

Case in point? Barry Bonds, in the 2000’s was busy hitting home runs in the MLB, however Barry along with other athletes were using a newly synthesized steroid, tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), designed specifically for anabolic effects and with anti-doping testing protocols in mind. Nicknamed “The Clear”, this steroid could not be detected in urine samples initially because the anti-doping program had no knowledge of its existence.

Of all the PED’s, Anabolic-androgenic steroids are the most studied class of performance enhancing drugs, mostly used to improve appearance by building muscle mass or to enhance athletic performance.

THE FACTS
What The Science Has To Say

It’s not just elite athletes that are doping with PED’s, in fact they account for a very small fraction of the estimated 3 million steroid users in the US. And with that, those who disclose their use of steroids, (Kanayama et al., 2009) found that 30% of users develop a dependency on them.

This is a topic, no matter how you feel about it, that needs addressed and for everyone to be educated on.

Research carried out by (Piatkowski et al., 2023) included 17 participants, 8 males, 9 females with an average age of 33 who all competed in a strength sport (powerlifting, bodybuilding, strongman / strongwoman) with on average approximately 7 years competing in their respective sports at an elite level.

All athletes admitted to using PED’s, and noted that although the drugs being used allowed them to recover more, all the athletes who participated in the research were aware of the elevated stress on their bodies when using them.

The authors of the research also noted that most of the athletes suffered elevated anxiety regarding PED use.

A systematic review and meta-analysis by (Christou et al., 2017) which included 33 studies and 3879 participants, (1766 of which admitted to used steroids).

The majority of steroid users found to have low gonadotropin and testosterone levels even after the discontinuation. Administration of exogenous steroids results in downregulation of the HPA axis leading to reduced endogenous production of testosterone by suppressing the normal testicular function (reduced testicular volume, sperm, and testosterone production).

Quick Shot

Further information with evidenced links to keep this article short if you wish to investigate further.

• Long term steroid use is associated with accelerated brain aging (Bjørnebekk et al., 2021).

• Increased risk of Coronary Artery Disease, through an increase in LDL cholesterol and decrease of HDL cholesterol (Vanberg et al., 2010)

TL:DR
Key Takeaways & Practical Applications

With the information and scientific data available today, personally I would say the risk does not out way the reward.

Sure, you may recovery better, get stronger quicker and grow more muscle than you would naturally, but at what cost? Your overall health is and should be more important to you than an extra inch on your arms.

That’s it for today ✌️

If you have any questions you’d like answered, topics you would like discussed, or perhaps some feedback, email them over to me at: [email protected]

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