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.

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Steroids Are Evil Quote of the Day - Linn Goldberg

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt smashed the world records for the 100 meter and 200 meter track events at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Bolt’s amazing performances were not normal and simply unbelievable leading to widespread suspicion that he must have used anabolic steroids. He has denied steroid use although his father has attributed Usain Bolt’s incredible speed to Trelawny yams.

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.

Yams do contain a precursor to steroids called diosgenin, although no study has proven the body can convert it into a steroid hormone, according to Jim Duke, a North Carolina ethnobotanist and expert on plants’ medicinal properties.

Chemist Jason Thomas explains the significance of diosgenin and its discovery in the wild yam for synthesizing anabolic steroids.

Russell Marker’s work with the Mexican yam for a birth control agent marked the beginning of the explosion of synthetic steroid production. Why? Because while Marker was only concerned with developing a birth control agent, endocrinologists and other scientists realized that Marker had found an efficient and cost effective route to progesterone, the parent compound of testosterone and to all anabolic steroids. The same is true in your body: from cholesterol you have to run it to progesterone before you make anything else. Progesterone is a natural branching point for other steroids and that is why Marker’s work was so huge for endocrinologists and chemists. Today many companies that make pure anabolic steroids still use the Mexican yam. Now that we know the recipe, it doesn’t take a Ph.D. chemist to do it. It’s a simple conversion from the diosgenin of the Mexican yam to whatever steroid you want to make. The 4-ring carbon chain, an otherwise complex structure to make chemically, is already in place for you in nature. You just have to mess around with things to change that

There is nothing magical about the yams unless an organic chemist  has set up a steroid lab in the Trelawny parish in Jamaica to take advantage of the plentiful local supply of diosgenin. At any rate, I think Jamaica may see an increase in yam exports thanks to Usain Bolt!

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Steroids Discovered in Usain Bolt’s Yams

Democratic presidential candidate Barrack Obama selected Senator Joseph Biden as his vice presidential nominee. Senator Biden is, without exaggeration, the worst possible pick for those who are hoping for anabolic steroid law reform (or any type of drug law reform for that matter). Biden was instrumental in the passage of the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990 and the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004 which he authored. His legislative record shows that Biden has been on an anti-steroid crusade for at least two decades.

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.

Steroid.com has been critical of Senator Joseph Biden for some time for his crusade against anabolic steroids. Several “Injected” episodes have explored Biden’s anti-steroid fanatacism and the consequences of the Anabolic Steroid Control Act.

Joseph Biden and Anabolic Steroids

Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990

Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004

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Joseph Biden Worst Possible Pick for Steroid Law Reform

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.

Dr Gerber added that the man did not stop taking the steroids once the skin problems developed because he was more concerned with losing muscle mass.

This type of severe acne is alarming and will probably be blamed solely on steroids. This case study is certainly to provide fodder for steroid education scare tactics. However, I think a steroid education program would be more effective if pictures of the more common cases of mild to moderate steroid-induced acne were used; using rare and unlikely instances of side effects to deter teenage steroid use is less likely to work.

UK experts said steroids were associated with this kind of acne but it was extremely rare to see such a severe case.

[...]

Jim McVeigh, head of substance use at Liverpool John Moores University, said: “It’s well documented that some individuals can experience severe acne.

“Often this is just a transient problem - most people wouldn’t consider it a significant barrier to using anabolic steroids.”

The BBC article would have been more balanced if it noted that steroids did not result in the severe skin infection in which proper medical treatment could have avoided or minimized.

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Worst Case of Steroid-Induced Acne Ever?

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).

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How Athletes Beat Olympic Drug Testing Radio Podcast

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.

Educational information should be available to teens about legal stimulants such as caffeine that represent the active ingredient in energy drinks such as Rockstar Energy, Red Bull and Full Throttle. But let’s not forget that Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Mountain Dew and coffeee also contain caffeine while the energy drink category is demonized.

U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, noting his participation in the Congressional witch-hunt on steroids in baseball, took the opportunity to demonize energy drinks and creatine monohydrate by using a display of popular products from these categories on a table in front of him; he suggested their use would damage teen’s health.

Stationed near the school’s football field, a table was laden with examples of so-called energy- boosting substances: cans of Rockstar Energy, Red Bull and Full Throttle drinks, creatine powder and supplement pills such as taurine and ephedra.

“Your lives are in front of you,” Cummings said to the student athletes before him, who sported jerseys that read “Warriors.” “This is your body, and it is your body for a lifetime. … We want you to be healthy.”

Michael Sye, the athletic director for Woodlawn High School where the launch of the PASS program was announced, tells people seeking additional information on energy drinks to visit the Woodlawn High Athletic Department website. Imagine my surprise when I go to the website only to find a direct link to a commercial website selling an alternative to energy drinks that is “not recommended for… children under the age of 18″ and advertised as a supplement that could manipulate hormone levels. Unbelievable.

Energy Drink Nutrition: The dangers you need to know and the best choices

The Woodlawn High School website tells people to visit a commercial website where an alternative to caffeinated energy drinks containing dong quai is promoted!! This is practically a tacit endorsement of dong quai. According to the Body Ecology commercial website, dong quai:

• is not recommended for pregnant and nursing mothers or children under the age of 18;
• contains phytoestrogens, estrogen-like plant compounds;
• may help to supply an additional mild source of estrogen to balance out levels in the body;
• promotes proper balance of the female hormones and the female reproductive cycle;
• provides relief of PMS;
• supports men’s fertility and prostate health

It is with sad irony that the school hosting the launch of an anti-steroid program would demonize energy drinks only to recommend an alternative that marketers claim will manipulate hormone levels and fertility!

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Physician Awareness of Steroids and Supplements Program in Maryland

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.

The Ad Council is clueless about the problem of steroid use in sports and society suggesting that steroid use has previously been restricted to “male wrestlers” only to have expanded recently to other aspects of society.

“There is an increasing number of teens using steroids — it’s not just male wrestlers anymore,” said Priscilla Natkins, EVP and director of client services at the Ad Council.

I don’t think anyone ever thought the use of anabolic steroids was limited to “male wrestlers.” The statement is probably reflective of the amount of research that went into the campaign.

The anti-steroid campaign is typical of drug prohibition scare tactics. DontBeAnAsterisk.com demonizes anabolic steroids with the message that “steroids seriously destroy your body.” But the main goal of the campaign is to convince teenagers that steroid use will result in a loss of credibility. The campaign attempts to convince visitors that a steroid user is “inauthentic,” “fake,” a “poser” and a “joke.”

The campaign includes the typical questionable steroid side effects such as “liver tumors” along with some new side effects of “extra fat around the face” and “enlargement of facial bones.” There must be scientific documentation somewhere on the website to support these two new side effects. Surely, they did not just make up these side effects up based on sportwriters assertions that Barry Bonds head grew as a result of anabolic steroids.

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USOC and Ad Council Have Fun with Steroids and So Can You

Dr. Craig Runbeck of the Arizona Naturopathic Physicians Board of Medical Examiners is on a mission to prove that anabolic steroids caused patients from Revolution Medical Center to die. Dr. Runbeck knows that he must provide the demonizing rhetoric providing for the Steroids are Evil Quote of the Day.

“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.

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Steroids Are Evil Quote of the Day - Craig Runbeck

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.”

LegitScript.com and KnujOn.com have failed in their attempt to convince GoDaddy of their legal, social and moral obligation to shutdown steroid websites that they have determined are responsible for selling steroids to U.S. residents. GoDaddy responded by refuting claims that steroid websites violate their terms of service.

“Each of the sites in the report have been investigated by our 24×7 abuse department and do not appear to be violating our terms of service. We hope in the future, through reform from Congress, we can easily identify rogue vendors selling drugs illegally,” says a GoDaddy spokesperson.

The apparent next step in their agenda of censoring steroid websites from the internet is appealing to the aforementioned the manufacturers of web content filtering software.

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Steroid Websites Blocked by Internet Security and Content Filtering Companies?

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.

The secret administration of anabolic steroids to East German athletes, especially young girls, is a tragic period in the history of sports. The virilizing and masculinizing effects suffered by women are real. But suggesting that steroids are “almost always” extremely addictive is dishonest.

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Steroids Are Evil Quote of the Day - Ines Geipel