Anabolic Steroid Blog. InfoFitness.Net

How many are there really?
By Daniel Engber

On Monday, the Associated Press reported that, according to “various government and university studies,” 5 percent of high-school girls and 7 percent of middle-school girls have tried anabolic steroids. House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis repeated the statistics at Wednesday’s hearing on steroid use in the National Football League. Are teenage girls really that into steroids?

It depends on what studies you look at. Neither Davis nor the AP cited specific studies, but there are two ongoing, large-scale efforts to quantify risky behavior among teenagers in the United States. A 2003 survey of 15,240 high-school students by the Centers for Disease Control found that 7.1 percent of ninth-grade girls and 6.1 percent of all high-school girls have used steroids without a doctor’s prescription. A 2004 survey of about 50,000 students by the University of Michigan’s “Monitoring the Future” program found lower rates. Among the eighth-grade boys and girls, 1.9 percent said they had used steroids, versus 3.4 percent of the 12th-graders.

A study out of Washington State University and the University of Minnesota in 2002 asked about 4,000 kids if they had used steroids in the last year. Among the middle-school girls, 5.7 percent said they had, as opposed to 1.4 percent of their high-school counterparts. Are middle-schoolers really more likely to use steroids than older students? The study’s authors conclude that younger girls may be more concerned about their bodies, but they may also be less likely to understand the term “steroids.” (Over-the-counter “anabolic amplifers” and “prosteroids,” for example, might be confused with illegal, anabolic steroids.)
The CDC and University of Michigan surveys use different language in their steroid questions. The CDC asks the question without defining “steroids”: “During your life, how many times have you taken steroid pills or shots without a doctor’s prescription?” The Michigan survey introduces the question with a longer description of what steroids are and what they’re used for. Research has shown that ambiguous descriptions on drug-use questionnaires lead to increased rates of “recanting” among admitted users.

It’s often tricky to get people to report on full extent of their own illegal drug use. Studies have shown, for example, that adults are more likely to admit to drug use when asked in person rather than over the phone. Teenagers are more likely to admit to using drugs when they’re asked at school than when they’re asked at home, and younger kids are less likely to answer questionnaires seriously.

I started to cry. I haven’t cried in a long time. I don’t know why it happened, but something about his story leveled me. It made me horrified, saddened, inspired and reflective, all at the same time. Maybe you’ll feel the same way. Adam Frey, a junior and Cornell wrestler, has always been a man of incredible physical and mental strength. On March 25, only a few days after competing in the NCAA championships, Adam was in a car crash. A car came at him in the wrong lane, and going 55 mph his car fishtailed, rolled, hit a tree and sent him flying to the back of the vehicle. The first time I read the words describing this, I was sitting in my chair at my desk, unaware of what I would learn next. It was Thursday, two days after the accident. Luckily, the account of the accident was written by Frey, and it had good news to tell. “My whole body was numb except for an incredible pain in my neck. After realizing I was not paralyzed, I exited the car and called my roommate to come pick me up. My stuff was scattered as far as 50 feet out the back of the car from the roll and my car [was] totaled.” Those are the words from Adam’s blog. In fact, Frey barely had a scratch on him, just some whiplash. The doctor who checked him out at the hospital marveled that he must be one of the toughest, strongest people around to have survived a crash like that. Just to be sure though, a CAT scan was preformed, and came back negative for injuries. It’s amazing, I remember thinking. He’s so lucky. and then my heart sank, because Adam Frey’s negative CAT scan changed his life forever. You see, the scan came back negative for injuries. It came back positive for something else though: cancer. Advanced, Stage III, metastasized cancer, with tumors on his lung, liver and between his kidneys. “At the age of 22, and with never smoking, chewing, doing drugs, and being as healthy as anyone in wrestling shape, I have cancer.” (His blog again.) I stopped reading right there. I think I put my hands on my cheeks, went numb and lost focus, but I don’t really remember. Eventually, I stood up, and sat back down. Then I cried. I have never met Adam Frey. I have many close ties with Cornell athletics, but really none with wrestling. I didn’t really know much about him at that point, other than what I heard from Sports writers and read in the paper, just like many of you. Yet, here I was, crying. To this day I think about it, and I still can’t tell you why I cried. I can’t even explain why I have the emotions I feel now. Maybe it is the thought of experiencing such a life-threatening event, surviving in almost superhuman fashion, and then finding out you’re on the verge of death again. Perhaps it is the irony of needing to face death in order to save your life. Maybe it’s because Adam is someone like me — about 22 years old, college student, healthy, never smoked — and it just didn’t matter. Maybe it’s because Adam just isn’t like me though: he’s an athlete, one of national prominence, so strong that he can enter a bodybuilding competition, deadlift more than 300 pounds without a problem, has eight inches of back muscles to penetrate on his biopsy instead of the usual three and survives a high-speed car wreck with little more than a neck strain. At the time, I guess all I could do was cry when I thought about it all. I sobbed awhile, and then did the only other thing I could think of: I called my Dad, who specializes in drug resistance in cancer patients. Since then, doctors have confirmed Frey has testicular cancer that spread around his body, but is not in his testicles. It’s genetic: he was born with it, and there was no way to prevent it once that happened. It’s also very aggressive, but fortunately, very treatable if caught early. I have read his blog every single day since then. He updates it daily, despite undergoing the most aggressive chemotherapy offered. I have come to know and admire Adam through his blog, through his ups and downs. I got the opportunity to speak to Adam yesterday, one month after his accident. “I walked out of that car accident Josh, and I felt like Bruce Willis in Unbreakable. Then I walked into the hospital …” Frey said with a pause. “You’ve got to keep your chin up. You’ve got to be positive. … The support I have really helps me to stay positive. The blog helps me to stay positive. … I can help people. I can help share my faith in God. and I can raise awareness of this disease. Maybe that’s why I’m here. Maybe that’s why I got it, because it’s kind of hard to help people when your only ambition is beating the hell out of them on the wrestling mat.” This is one of the biggest reasons I admire Adam Frey. Sure, he has some bad days that get to him, like the day he found out the potential consequences of his cancer and the side-effects of its treatment, or the day a few people yelled at him and one of them called him “lazy” for being in bed at 11 a.m. For the most part though, his positive outlook on seemingly the entire situation, along with his humor and self-disclosure of personal and sometimes incredible events (read the April 6 post, for example) has been truly remarkable. It’s not just me who has grown to admire and support him. The outpour of goodwill has been seemingly endless: over 3,000 people have joined the “Adam Frey Support Group” on Facebook. His blog has received over a million hits, including 500,000 in the 14 days after his accident. Hundreds, if not thousands of comments can be found around the site, wishing him well. Talking on the phone from home, he spoke adamantly about wanting to spread awareness of testicular cancer — which is highly treatable when caught early — as well as all cancers, and hopes his blog and newfound attention can help him do that. He also spoke about being a role model, and even an inspiration for some people. More than anything though, he feels the whole situation has changed his perspective. “Sometimes it’s a struggle, sometimes it’s a blessing in disguise,” Frey said. “It’s kind of strange to think how close I was to dying. If they didn’t catch it until a month later, it would have been,

Liver Function

AS may exert a profound adverse effect on the liver. This is particularly true for orally administered AS. The parenterally administered AS seem to have less serious effects on the liver. Testosterone cypionate, testosterone enanthate and other injectable anabolic steroids seem to have little adverse effects on the liver. However, lesions of the liver have been reported after parenteral nortestosterone administration, and also occasionally after injection of testosterone esters. The influence of AS on liver function has been studied extensively. The majority of the studies involve hospitalized patients who are treated for prolonged periods for various diseases, such as anemia, renal insufficiency, impotence, and dysfunction of the pituitary gland. In clinical trials, treatment with anabolic steroids resulted in a decreased hepatic excretory function. In addition, intra hepatic cholestasis, reflected by itch and jaundice, and hepatic peliosis were observed. Hepatic peliosis is a hemorrhagic cystic degeneration of the liver, which may lead to fibrosis and portal hypertension. Rupture of a cyst may lead to fatal bleeding.
Benign (adenoma’s) and malign tumors (hepatocellular carcinoma) have been reported. There are rather strong indications that tumors of the liver are caused when the anabolic steroids contain a 17-alpha-alkyl group. Usually, the tumors are benign adenoma’s, that reverse after stopping with steroid administration. However, there are some indications that administration of anabolic steroids in athletes may lead to hepatic carcinoma. Often these abnormalities remain asymptomatic, since peliosis hepatis and liver tumors do not always result in abnormalities in the blood variables that are generally used to measure liver function.
AS use is often associated with an increase in plasma activity of liver enzymes such as aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (AP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT). These enzymes are present in hepatocytes in relatively high concentrations, and an increase in plasma levels of these enzymes reflect hepatocellular damage or at least increased permeability of the hepatocellular membrane.
In longitudinal studies of athletes treated with anabolic steroids, contradictory results were obtained on the plasma activity of liver enzymes (AST, AST, LDH, GGT, AP). In some studies, enzymes were increased, whereas in others no changes were found. When increases were found, the values were moderately increased and normalized within weeks after abstinence. There are some suggestions that the occurrence of hepatic enzyme leakage, is partly determined by the pre-treatment condition of the liver. Therefore, individuals with abnormal liver function appear to be at risk.

3 Most Popular Steroids
The three most popular steroids are following:
- Dianabol (Methandienone)
- Deca Durabolin (Nandrolone Decanoate)
- Winstrol (Stanozolol)

1. Dianabol:
Methandienone (Methandrostenolone) or also known as Dianabol/D-bol is considered the grandfather of all anabolic steroids, and most bodybuilders who have used steroids got their first start with Dianabol. The compound was originally formulated by Dr. John Ziegler and released by the Ciba Corporation in the late 1950’s. Dr. Ziegler developed this steroid after talking to some Russian weightlifting coaches after the Russian weightlifters suddenly started dominating the sport in the early 1950’s.
Dianabol was all the hype in gyms during the 1970’s. In fact numerous stories are still told of the little blue tablets being sold at the main counters in the bigger bodybuilding gyms. Dianabol is probably the most popular steroid ever created and most pro bodybuilders, like Arnold, who are willing to talk, have admitted to using it as a main steroid in their cycles.
Ironically, It’s popularity was also the key to it’s downfall. During the 1980’s, Ciba discontinued the original D-bol when the FDA decided that its therapeutic uses were minimal compared to the common use by bodybuilders and the dosages that some bodybuilders were taking. But generic methandrostenolone has never been out of production. It’s reported that the Russians became quite fond of Dianaboll and that’s why “Russian D-bol” is now still one of the popular versions Dianabol on the black-market. However, most commonly used version today and most available is Methanabol from British Dragon, a Thailand underground production.
Dianabol is without a doubt one of the most effective steroids for bodybuilders and other athletes trying to gain on the high amount of muscle mass in the shortest time possible. Users usually report muscle weight gains of 2 to 4 pounds per week. It’s much desired effects are
- drastic increase in protein synthesis
- enhancement of glycogenolysis (restores glycogen stores after training)
- strength stimulation in a very direct and fast-acting way
The drug is not recommended for people in aerobic events, as there is some evidence to suggest that it may diminish cell respiration. Dianabol is often used at the beginning of steroid cycles which also contain injectables since the effects produced by injectables usually take 10-15 days to get noticed. But the effects of Dianabol are immediate.

The average dosage used by bodybuilders is 15-40mg/day (three to eight, 5mg tablets). Beginners do not need more than 15-20mg per day since their steroid receptors have not been exposed to the drug before and will experience dramatic results using small dosages over a 6 to 8 week period. When the effects begin to slow down (mostly because the steroid receptors have become saturated), and the individual wants to continue the cycle, the dosage should NOT be increased. Instead an injectable such as Deca-Durabolin or Primabolan may be added to the cycle.

2. Deca Durabolin:
With the possible exception of Dianabol, Deca-Durabolin is probably the most popular steroid available. Although most sources of Deca available are marketed under the generic name nandrolone decanoate, most bodybuilders still use the trade name Deca, which first became famous by the Organon Company. It’s huge popularity can be linked to its outstanding muscle building effects and relative lack of side effects. Bodybuilders place it very high on the cost-benefit scale of performance enhancing drugs.
Deca Durabolin (nandrolone decanoate) works by causing the muscle cells to increase retention of the nitrogen. This is what’s called positive nitrogen balance. A positive nitrogen balance is needed for increased muscle growth because muscle cells use nitrogen to promote muscle tissue synthesis. Bodybuilders have discovered that for Deca to work most effectively they must eat a sufficient amount of protein with their diet.
Although bodybuilders have been known to do crazy things with their cycles, most users take between 200 and 600 mg/week of Deca. Many users have discovered that an intake of 2-mg per pound of body weight, seems to provide the best gains with the fewest side effects possible. Those who take less than 200 mg/week usually only report slight anabolic effects. On the other hand, those who throw caution to the wind and inject 1000mg/week or more report great muscle gains accompanied by noticeable side effects. Most users experience great results by taking an average of 400 mg/week.
Most users don’t just use one steroid, but they combine multiple drugs into groups called stacks and use it during a time period, called cycles. One of the most popular mass-gaining stacks consists of Deca-Durabolin, Dianabol and a testosterone derivative. For example bodybuilders report a phenomenal gain in muscle size and strength when they take 400 mg Deca/week, 30 mg Dianabol/day, and 500 mg of Sustanon/week.
If Deca Durabolin has one big disadvantage for competitive athletes it’s that the drug is one of the easiest to detect in drug tests. Unlike some steroids that will be eliminated from the body within a few weeks or even days, the metabolites (breakdown products) for Deca can be traced back as far as 18 months from the last usage. Some users have reported being caught after two years of being off the steroids. So despite its popularity among noncompetitive and non-drug-tested athletes Deca is usually not used by those who know they will be subjected to a drug test.
Even those who take so-called “natural steroid replacers” are at risk for being caught in a drug test as one of the main ingredients in many steroid replacers is nandrolone.

3. Winstrol:
Winstrol (generic name Stanozolol), also known as Winstrol V or Winny, is one of the most popular anabolic steroids currently available and ranks right up there with Dianabol and Deca Durabolin in status when bodybuilders buy anabolic steroids. The number of high-profile positive drug tests involving Stanozolol will give some idea of its popularity. Canadian sprinter, Ben Johnson, went from national hero to social leper after testing positive for Stanozolol after blowing away everyone in the 100-meter sprint at the 1988 Olympics. During the IFBB’s short-lived drug testing attempt at the 1990 Arnold Classic, the winner, Shawn Ray, and Canadian pro, Nimrod King, tested positive for Stanozolol. The reason for its popularity is simple - effectiveness and relative safety. Winstrol is a very safe and effective steroid - considering it is used correctly.
We have distinguished between the two versions of Stanozolol that bodybuilders use in their cycles today. Injectable Stanozolol is reportedly more effective than the oral form. One unique characteristic about the Injectable form is that unlike most other steroids, which are usually dissolved in oil, Stanozolol is dissolved in water, which means that the frequency of injection for Stanozolol can be much higher than oil-based steroids. Those steroids dissolved in water must be injected at least every second day, but the best results are usually seen when the injections are daily.
Winstrol (Stanozolol) is one of the favorite steroids with pre-contest bodybuilders because it doesn’t aromatize into estrogens and cause water retention and other side effects. Injectable Winstrol is reported to give the muscles a harder and more vascular appearance as well as speed up the oxidation rate (burning) of fat. Stanozolol is usually not used alone during the pre-competition period as its low androgenic components make it weak for preserving muscle mass. For this reason many bodybuilders stack it with another steroid such as Parabolan, Primobolan, or Deca Durabolin. Because of the low toxicity levels, higher dosages can be used and it’s also good for women. Men should take 20-50mg daily and women should not go over 20mg daily.
There are many fake steroids on the black market today, however real injectable Winstrol is easily recognized. Unlike most Injectable steroids which come in small bottles, Stanozolol comes in glass ampoules containing a milky, white, watery solution, which if not shaken for a period of time shows separation of the drug crystals and water. Faking all this and the ampoules is extremely difficult to do.
Because it should be injected every day or every second day, Winstrol can be one of the more expensive anabolic steroids to use. All those injections may also result in scar tissue developing at the injection sites. It’s because of this that many bodybuilders have adopted a sort of “round the clock” pattern of injecting the steroid. This means they rotate injections between their glutes, calves, shoulders, arms, and legs.

Diuretics
Diuretics are drugs that change your body’s natural balance of fluids and salts (electrolytes) and can lead to dehydration. This loss of water may allow an athlete to compete in a lighter weight class, which many athletes prefer. Diuretics also help athletes pass drug tests by diluting their urine.

Diuretics are commonly used to treat high blood pressure and conditions that cause fluid retention (edema), such as congestive heart failure. When taken in small amounts, they have relatively few side effects, although electrolyte disturbances can occur.

When taken at the higher doses preferred by some athletes, however, the adverse effects may be significant.

Using diuretics to achieve weight loss may cause:

Muscle cramps
Exhaustion
Decreased ability to regulate body temperature
Potassium deficiency
Heart arrhythmias
Some of the most common diuretics include acetazolamide (Diamox, Storzolamide), benzthiazide (Marazide, Aquastat), spironolactone (Aldactone), dichlorphenamide (Daranide) and furosemide (Lasix, Fumide).