Steroid education expert Linn Goldberg is in the news again. The NFL recently earmarked $1.4 million for Goldberg’s ATLAS and ATHENA steroid education programs. The programs do have some empirical support showing that they reduce teen steroid use. However, we are concerned with some of the inaccurate side effects promoted by Dr. Goldberg in the media, like the “fact” that steroids cause “paranoia.”
“Unlike many other drugs, kids don’t admit it because it’s not cool to be on steroids, not to mention the fact that it makes you paranoid,” explained Linn Goldberg, professor of medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.
But according to his dad, it is his love of yams which has really propelled him to stardom. “It is definitely the Trelawny yam,” Wellesley Bolt told reporters. The yam grown in Trelawny is one of the staples for citizens of the area, who believe that it has medicinal properties.
If yams were indeed responsible for the world records, then investigative reporters believed there must be steroids in those yams! Ironically, yams contain diosgenin which is the compound used by many companies to synthesize practically any steroid from testosterone to exotic designer steroids. However, the body is unable to convert diosgenin in vivo.
Senator Biden has admitted that his anti-steroid zealotry originated with his failure to make the sports team in college; he was certain he was outperformed by some steroid user! As a senator, he has used his power and influence to get back at those superior athletes in sports who may have been using steroids. Of course, he is only figuratively punishing those athletes from his college days by criminalizing anabolic steroids for all individuals who use steroids for non-medical purposes.
Mild to moderate acne, particularly on the back and shoulders, is a common side effect of anabolic steroids that is aggravated when more androgenic compounds like testosterone or methandrostenolone are used. Most steroid users are able to manage steroid-induced acne during a steroid cycle. Even though most steroid users do not experience severe acne, a beginning steroid user should never assume that they will react to steroids like “most people.” Severe acne is exceedingly rare (especially on the chest), it regrettably afflicted a 21-year old German bodybuilder who happened to use anabolic steroids giving a prestigious medical journal the opportunity to blame the resulting infection and scarring on steroids (”Bodybuilder scarred from steroids,” August 21).
Dr Peter Arne Gerber, from the Department of Dermatology at Heinrich-Heine-University in Düsseldorf, Germany, said moderate amounts of the drug could cause big problems.
“Usually in people taking moderate doses of the drug you see some sort of mild acne but in severe cases it can ulcerate.
Steroids may have initially induced acne in the case of the German bodybuilder but should NOT be held responsible for the resulting untreated infection that was inexplicably allowed to reach this graphic stage of ulcerations.
Big Nation Radio hosts Special Ed and Blockhead discuss drug testing at the Olympics with Ali Amini. They explore the methods in which athletes using banned performance enhancing drugs and still avoid detection. The guests feel that doping is widespread at the Beijing Olympics in spite of the 4,500 tests that officials plan on administering to athletes. The podcast episode can be downloaded here. (”How Athletes Beat Olympic Drug Testing,” August 19).
The Physician Awareness of Steroids and Supplements (PASS) anti-steroid education program administered by Powered by Me! was launched this week in Maryland with much fanfare. Unfortunately, it is setting itself up for failure by demonizing dietary supplements as part of its steroid education efforts. The credibility of the PASS program is compromised by attempts to convince teens of the alleged “dangers” of dietary supplements such as creatine monohydrate and Muscle Milk protein powder (”Campaign on for health, sportsmanship,” August 20).
More than 1,000 packages of information were sent out to Maryland pediatricians yesterday, Gimbel said, including a small, pocket-size card with a list of steroid- use warning signs, symptoms and side effects.
“It will remind [doctors]… to share that information about steroids and supplements,” Gimbel said, adding that PASS seeks to reach every aspect of the community that touches youth, including pharmacists and psychiatrists, as well as parents. “They play a critical role.”
Discussing the alleged dangers of supplements as if they were comparable to powerful performance enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids will only serve to trivialize the side effects of steroids.
The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and Ad Council have teamed up to create a new, interactive multimedia anti-steroid public awareness campaign targeted at teenagers. The anti-steroid campaign was funded by United States Olympic sponsor Johnson & Johnson and created pro bono by Omnicom’s TBWA\Chiat\Day agency (”USOC and Ad Council take on roids,” August 18).
The ad agency had a lot of fun creating DontBeAnAsterisk.com anti-steroid campaign and so can you! They created an interactive flash-based soccer game where visitors try to score goals while avoiding the “asterisks” (which represent anabolic steroids). Unfortunately, it is a whole lot more fun to run into the asterisks and get “juiced up” because your soccer player’s muscles magically increase in size to bodybuilder proportions! This is according to my six-year old who kept running into the asterisks explaining that ”it’s fun to watch [the player] get bigger.” Cute. This certainly will send kids the message that steroids are bad.
“You’re hitting your body with a biochemical sledge hammer and you’re pushing things way beyond where they were designed to be,” Runbeck said.
Dr. Runbeck should consider directing an anti-steroid public service announcement. Perhaps use a raw egg to represent the brain. And the the sledge hammer could represent steroids. And maybe hire Rachel Leigh Cook to star in the commercial. She could go into “roid rage” and proceed to use the sledge hammer to destroy the egg and everything around her as she lists the evil side effects of anabolic steroids. That would be hot. … Read the rest of this entry »
Efforts are underway to convince internet security companies to block anabolic steroid websites from being accessible to internet users. LegitScript.com and KnujOn.com want the web filtering software (censorware) to prevent consumers from accessing steroid-related websites. Security companies with content filtering software include such names as Websense, Cyberpatrol, Scansafe, Barracuda, Blue Coat, Trend Micro and Secure Computing.
Garth Bruen, creator of KnujOn, says that if ICANN won’t expand its role to help shutter these illicit sites — which KnujOn and LegitScript now count at 156 selling Schedule III substances — the security industry itself may instead take action of its own.
Some Internet security companies, which he wouldn’t name, are considering blocking the steroid sites themselves in their own Web and email content-filtering products. “They say ‘we’re tired of trying to get a single IP shut down,’ so they are [looking at] shutting off a whole IP range from certain providers — that’s how bad it’s gotten.”
We present the Steroid.com “Steroids Are Evil” Quote of the Day in an effort to highlight individuals who demonize steroids with outrageous claims. Today’s quote comes from INES GEIPEL, a member of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) 4×100 meter women’s relay team:
[Anabolic steroids] cause neural damage to the brain and that means definite and almost always extreme addiction sickness.
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