The need to succeed makes it easy to abuse the body-This is what the media feeds...

windwords7

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
...to the public. No wonder we have the problems we do today. 

==================================

Izenberg: The need to succeed makes it easy to abuse the body <B></B>Sunday, November 24, 2002



<B>BY JERRY IZENBERG </B>
<B>Star-Ledger Staff</B>

Starting with the first public disclosures, all but the dumbest of the dumb understood the permanent damage to mind and body that anabolic steroids were capable of generating.

From the moment Lyle Alzado, emaciated and dying, went public, what began as the dark, dirty secret of body-building gyms and football locker rooms was exposed for what it was.

It did not take long to understand its role in kidney failure, cancer of the liver, testicles and pancreas among male athletes, let alone its ability to act just as dangerously on females.

But still they tried it.

Then in the wake of that knowledge came a second wave of horror.

"Roid" rage

It was a steroid-induced sociopathic form of behavior.

But still, illegal steroids did not disappear

Then came the "diet supplements."

Who can forget the battle over a supplement colloquially known as andro, used by Mark McGwire (and other major-league players) during the season of the great home run chase? It was banned by the International Olympic Committee, the NCAA and most other pro sports, but baseball refused to take action because it said it "needed more study" on the matter.

If you believe that rationale, then I know a guy who would like to sell you a bridge named after George Washington and a tunnel named after Abe Lincoln. Could it be that baseball didn't want to open the door to charges of better and longer home runs through chemistry?

In a tragic and pathetic way, much of the above has roots in an unregulated industry that manufactures what it calls "nutritional supplements." Somehow, some way these folks can make and sell whatever they want without regulation from the FDA. Just as long as they do not promise it will treat or cure anything.

This comes to mind today because the NFL banned a substance called ephedrine, and now the NFL Players' Association thinks the league's penalties are too harsh. Gene Upshaw, the only players' association president in any sport to have played the game, wants penalties reduced because sometimes players cannot tell the "supplements" they have taken contain ephedrine.

One suspects this might happen through collective bargaining next year, but it was something else Upshaw said that ought to set off a few bells:

"What our guys are doing is not normal. Our guys are not going to work every day and sitting behind a desk and then going home. Our players need these things, whether it's for anti-inflammatory reasons or for joints or any number of other things. Are you telling me we shouldn't even take vitamins, either?"

Those needs Upshaw speaks of can be addressed by the NFL's medical and training staffs through a new agreement. That isn't that difficult if players learn not to listen to the guy in the locker next to them and the league is more specific about determining what supplements can and cannot be taken.

What triggers an uneasy note of warning here is Upshaw's explanation that players will always seek supplements and "that's not going to change."

Go back to steroids now and their widespread use after the knowledge of what they can do became clear...go back to andro...go to blood doping...go to all the others. There is no shortage of options.

The bottom line here is very different than the harmless search for home remedies.

The bottom line is the relentless search by athletes for a magical edge that will make them bigger, faster, increase their respiration, in effect, do things that training and routine and dedication cannot get done...do things to give them an edge they haven't earned.

Some people might interpret the above as a plea for fair play.

But this is far beyond that notion and far beyond cheating.

This is mostly about money.

When the old Eastern bloc Olympic countries changed the physiology of their women athletes to the point where they took on the voices and the physical characteristics of the bass section of the Red Army Chorus, they did it for Olympic gold, propaganda and money.

When pro football players first took steroids, they did it because they thought it would keep them on the team, make them better and, thus, make more money.

When McGwire took andro, he said it made him feel better. But he did it for the home run record and stopped after he set it.

In short, sports have long since reached the place where the reward is the spur.

So what happened to us? Whatever happened to good, old-fashioned, wholesome cheating, you know, cheating where the grounds crew wets down the infield so the other guys' base-stealer might as well be running with a jukebox tied to his ankle...where you sneak a guy inside the scoreboard with field glasses to steal the catcher's signs...where the home-team timekeeper uses a heavy thumb...where the promoter buys the officials' votes at a heavyweight championship match?

Where has tradition gone?

Where? Swallowed up by the better results from better chemistry in the never-ending search by individual athletes to emerge as the prototype of a master athletic race...to seek the edge whatever the physical cost. It has gone to potential suicide by ingestion.

This last gives the lie to every coach who looks his players in their eyes and says, "Men, you've got to be intelligent to play this game."

It's the pills, stupid.

<I>Jerry Izenberg appears regularly </I>

in The Star-Ledger.
 

windwords7

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
Boys bulking up with steroids--another one....

<H1>Boys bulking up with steroids</H1>November 22, 2002<!-- Print article content in HTML-on-the-fly form :f --><!-- in-story ad starts here --><!--BEGIN COMPATIBLES--><!--<img src="http://timesargus.nybor.com/img/advertisement.jpg" align="right" width="69" height="20" border="0" alt="Advertisement">[/URL]<br clear="all">

<a href="http://www.smartwaytogo.com/adm/timesargus" target="_blank"><img src="http://timesargus.nybor.com/img/compatibles.jpg" align="right" width="239" height="239" border="0" alt="Compatibles">[/URL]--><!-- article starts here -->By TIMOTHY EGAN

The New York Times

CLEARFIELD, Utah — They want to be buff. They want to be ripped. They want to glisten with six-pack abs and granite pecs like the hulks on Wrestlemania.

But more than ever, American boys are trying to find designer bodies not just in a gym but in a syringe of illegal steroids, or a bottle of the legal equivalent from a mall nutrition store, law enforcement officials, doctors and teenagers themselves say.

Steroid use has long been widespread among athletes looking for a quick way to add strength or speed. Athletes “on the juice,” as the term goes, can be found in nearly any high school or college or among the ranks of top professional athletes.

But now boys as young as 10, and high school students who do not play team sports, are also bulking up with steroids or legal derivatives like androstenedione — known as steroid precursors — simply because they want to look good.

The growing use of such substances, which doctors say can lead to freakish side effects in growing bodies, has also created problems for law enforcement.

The narcotics police who usually spend their days raiding methamphetamine labs in this prosperous county along the Wa-satch Mountain front got some idea of the market demand earlier this year when they broke up a high school steroid ring.

Three students were caught after returning from Mexico in a van with steroids and other drugs that they had bought at a veterinary supply store in Tijuana, the police said.

The plan was to sell the steroids — the possession or dealing of which is a felony — to fellow high school students throughout Davis County, the police said.

“These are injectable steroids, very powerful, and these kids weren’t just going to sell them to the football players,” said Dave Edwards, an officer with the Davis Metro Narcotics Strike Force. “They had a lot of customers, kids who will do anything to get that buff look.”

New York has its suburban gyms where some body-builders drink protein shakes laced with steroids or androandrostenedione, known as andro, and California has its beach body shops where people take a similar path to what has been called reverse anorexia.

But it is in the high schools of middle America, and the gyms that cater to students off campus, where use of body-enhancing drugs has taken off — particularly among non-athletes. And for all the recent concern about an epidemic of youth obesity, the mania over instant bulk shows another side of the struggle for self-image.

“Everybody wants to be big now,” said Zeb Nava, a senior at Clearfield High School who has added nearly 50 pounds of muscle mass over the last two years by weight lifting, he said. “The majority now are guys that don’t do it for sports. They do it for girls. For the look.”

Nearly half a million teenagers in the United States use steroids each year, according to the latest national survey done for federal drug agencies. While the use of other illegal drugs has fallen or leveled off, the number of high school seniors who had used steroids within a month in the survey increased nearly 50 percent last year.

Among high school sophomores, steroid use more than doubled nationwide from 1992 to 2000, according to the annual survey used by the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

Another survey, done last year for Blue Cross Blue Shield, found that use of steroids and similar drugs increased by 25 percent from 1999 to 2000 among boys aged 12 to 17. This study — a national survey of 1,787 students — also found that 20 percent of the teenagers who admitted taking body-enhancing drugs did it simply because they wanted to look bigger, and not because of sports.

Preston Alberts, a senior at Clearfield High who has been working with weights in the school gym for three years, said he had seen a different kind of lifter of late in the weight room — the vanity body-builder.

“We notice a lot of kids now, they just want this certain type of body — with the abs and the ripped chest — and they want to get it quick,” Alberts said. “You know the ones who are trying something because their bodies change so quick. It makes you wonder.”

Sales of legal, largely unregulated steroid precursors like andro have soared among the young, according to recent congressional testimony by doctors and officials in the supplement industry, prompting a move in Congress to have them treated as an illegal drug when they are not prescribed.

These precursors, which metabolize into steroids once ingested, are perhaps the main reason why sports nutrition supplements are the largest-growing segment of the $18 billion dietary supplement industry.

Andro use increased after Mark McGwire, the former St. Louis Cardinals slugger, said he used it. McGwire cautioned that people under 18 should not follow his example. Steroid precursors like andro can bought over the counter at health stores or supermarkets. While the labels say people under 18 should not take precursors, they are aggressively marketed over the Internet with promises like “You’ll get huge!”

Rep. John E. Sweeney, R-N.Y., said he found out about the popularity of bodybuilding drugs through his teenage son.

“My 16-year-old son, who goes to a Catholic military school, told me some of his fellow students were using andro, and he wanted to know what I thought,” Sweeney said. “I was stunned. He said some of the kids were taking andro and getting really big.”

Last month, Sweeney co-sponsored a bill, along with Rep. Tom Osborne, R-Neb., to make over-the-counter sales of steroid precursors illegal. Osborne, who was coach of the University of Nebraska football team for 25 years, said the precursors “have the same effects and dangers as steroids,” but are sold in nearly every mall in America.

And in congressional testimony last summer, a number of pediatricians said they did not distinguish between illegal steroids and legal precursors because they had the same side effects and risks.

While some of the products guarantee a rack of rippling muscles in five weeks or less, many of these compounds can actually stifle bone growth, lead to testicular shrinkage, liver tumors and development of male breasts, doctors warn.
 

windwords7

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
[font="verdana, arial, helvetica"]Excerpt from: "Bay area lawyer takes a gamble on class actions"
Pamela Griner Leavy Staff Writer
The Business Journal-Tampa Bay


....Goldsmith represents both defendants and plaintiffs in class actions.

He filed "deceptive trade and unlawful trade" class actions in seven states against manufacturers and retailers of prohormones — supplements advertised in magazines and sold in stores – that promote muscle growth.

Research done by companies selling the product has shown they don't work but sales continued, said Goldsmith.
[/font]
 

wardog

Active member
Awards
1
  • Established
So "Andro" is really that good? Damn, the first PH I ever took was Joe Weiders androsteindione and all it did was give me itchy nips..go figure.

I agree it is an issue..kids taking juice..way too many potential problems. However, people believing PH or AAS are a magic bullet, are sadly misinformed. I bust my ass TWICE as hard when I am "on". My diet goes from "good" to "excellent" just because I know the money I spent, and not wanting to waste a drop of that good stuff.

Once again, the press blows things out of proportion, but, what else is new.
 

YellowJacket

Banned
Awards
0
I just think its funny to see the desparation of the "big" guru's behind the supplement companies scrambling with paranoia to make sure they stay in business for years to come to keep providing those teens with PH's. They all act like they care, knowing damn well they wouldnt hesitate to advertise or sell to a teen to make a quick dollar. This is great.
 

Sean

Member
Awards
0
The ignorance of the media...
"New York has its suburban gyms where some body-builders drink protein shakes laced with steroids or androandrostenedione, known as andro, and California has its beach body shops where people take a similar path to what has been called reverse anorexia. "

What kind of idiot drinks shakes laced with juice?
 
Lifeguard

Lifeguard

Active member
Awards
1
  • Established
Originally posted by Sean
The ignorance of the media...
"New York has its suburban gyms where some body-builders drink protein shakes laced with steroids or androandrostenedione, known as andro, and California has its beach body shops where people take a similar path to what has been called reverse anorexia. "

What kind of idiot drinks shakes laced with juice?
I'll bet money that they made that up (the protein drink thing) just for the article....fuckers :mad:

 

LG :mad:
 
Lifeguard

Lifeguard

Active member
Awards
1
  • Established
Originally posted by windwords7
The need to succeed makes it easy to abuse the body


Ya know what....?

 

"The Need to Succeed" is forced upon all athletes...by all the spectators...

EVERYBODY wants to see a faster runner, more home runs hit, more gold medals, more, more, more....

People are so goddam naive it pisses me off sometimes, they dont realize that as long as they want that faster runner or one extra home run, the athletes will do whatever it takes to make that happen, to get more people in the stands, to make more money....

and when some heart-broken fan finds out that his/her favorite athlete(of many years) has been using steroids (for many years)...that athlete is automatically branded as a "cheater"...

...oh and of course....if a guy is using Testosterone for "Hormone Replacement Therapy" there are no complaints...but if he does "Steroids" then people look down upon him....talk about duality...:rolleyes:

 

LG. :rolleyes:

 
 

wardog

Active member
Awards
1
  • Established
If they didn't..where does one buy these "steroid laced shakes"?? Gotta get me some of those.
 

windwords7

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
Originally posted by wardog
If they didn't..where does one buy these "steroid laced shakes"?? Gotta get me some of those.
LOL! No joke. Steriod laced shakes.:rolleyes:
 

windwords7

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
Originally posted by Lifeguard


I'll bet money that they made that up (the protein drink thing) just for the article....fuckers :mad:

 

LG :mad:
They may have......
 

Blazer88

New member
Awards
0
Sure would be tough as hell to fit a blender full of protein shake in a needle.

Also, high school kids need to grow the **** up and understand their body hasn't even developed yet. Andro will do more harm than good. They need to first get their diet straight, and then their training. They will get plenty of results just from that. Sorry to vent, I just hate the question, "I'm 14, should I use 1-ad??" Dumb shits.
 
Lifeguard

Lifeguard

Active member
Awards
1
  • Established
Originally posted by Blazer88
Sure would be tough as hell to fit a blender full of protein shake in a needle. 

I think they mean oral roids dissolved in shakes, bro ;)

 

LG :cool:
 

YellowJacket

Banned
Awards
0

Also, high school kids need to grow the **** up and understand their body hasn't even developed yet. Andro will do more harm than good. They need to first get their diet straight, and then their training. They will get plenty of results just from that. Sorry to vent, I just hate the question, "I'm 14, should I use 1-ad??" Dumb shits.
Exactly....and how come when you say it you dont get banned but I do? ;)
 

windwords7

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
Originally posted by YellowJacket

Exactly....and how come when you say it you dont get banned but I do? ;)
LOL!
 

Sir Savage

Board Sponsor
Awards
1
  • Established
Good post.

It never ceases to amaze me how f*cking ignorant some people can be. This guy speaks as if he knows WTF he's talking about, but in actuality he probably doesn't know the first thing about steroids.

So what if athletes, pro and amateur alike, use steroids? It's called the progression of humanity! As technology progressed, steroids were developed, and now that we have them, we might as well use them. They are not inherently evil. As long as they're being used responsibly, there is no issue here about "cheating" or safety.

As far as young teens and steroids go, that will never be stopped. The only way to reduce it, IMO, is to let the idiots screw themselves up, so they cannot reproduce and infest the world further with their idiot genes.
 
Bean

Bean

Ectomorph man
Awards
1
  • Established
oooooooo not Andro! the 1st generation prohormone that is lightyears BEHIND what is currently out :rolleyes:

all these "recent" articles talking about an OLD substance makes me laugh sometimes... when I hear people say "ANDRO" I just wanna slap them for being so ghey
they use the word Andro a lot of times to generalize ALL prohormones... :confused:
 

labrad

Member
Awards
1
  • Established
We got made by the Washington Post Dec. 6 article. We are no longer under the radar. This is a shame.
 
Lifeguard

Lifeguard

Active member
Awards
1
  • Established
Originally posted by labrad
We got made by the Washington Post Dec. 6 article. We are no longer under the radar. This is a shame.
 

Can you summarize the article...?????....

in like 4-5 sentences maybe????

 

LG :cool:
 
Bean

Bean

Ectomorph man
Awards
1
  • Established
its over in the PH forum i believe, check it out

basically acknowledges 1-test's existence... Washington Post did their homework; and it wasn't biased at all... it had opinions stated in quotes from both sides of the line... stated the facts... and some of the quotes from the roid/PH R&D type people really gave some positive points; maybe lots of people will read the article
 

Similar threads


Top