[quote]pushharder wrote:
Soooooo…no more water, Gatorade or salt tablets at football practice, huh?[/quote]
From an interview I did a while back.
Testosterone: All right, now let’s talk a bit about performance-enhancing substances, including but not limited to anabolic steroids. Would you say that the controversy surrounding them is primarily a legal issue, a moral issue, or a health issue?
Chris Lockwood: I’m gonna have to go with “none of the above” here. Come on, man, this is a political issue. Politicians are simply playing the tune that the ignorant masses, which is to say their constituents, want to hear.
Oh, hey, you’ll like this. Want to hear something ironic? There’s a big push right now for preventative birth control pills for men. You know the method being proposed and studied? Testosterone. Just as females take supraphysiological doses of estrogen as birth control, the same mechanism works in men, with Testosterone. What will all the anti-steroid legislators and “for the children” commentators say when little Johnny’s dad is taking him down to the doctor for his prescription of birth control pills?
This classic shortsightedness and utter waste of taxpayer dollars â?? especially when everyone’s claiming we’re entering a recession â?? is almost criminal.
It isn’t that I support illegal-steroid use. I’m a real square when it comes to abiding by the law. However, I find it utterly absurd that artificially increasing Testosterone to build bigger muscles on men is unacceptable while artificially increasing estrogen to grow fake boobs on women is not only acceptable, but totally out of control.
Infant formulas and kids’ foods are riddled with phytoestrogens, environmental xenoestrogens are everywhere, and nobody notices. But God forbid we increase a male hormone.
Testosterone: Right. Everyone’s so concerned with the imagined threat of “Testosterone poisoning” that they ignore the very real dangers of estrogen poisoning. Dr. Z, what do you think? Legal, moral, health, or other?
Tim Ziegenfuss: Well, it’s obviously a legal issue now. If you get caught with a vial of test, or even a bottle of andro that is listed on the new Anabolic Steroids Control Act, you’re an instant felon. And yes, it’s also a moral issue. Some folks think using performance-enhancing substances (PES) is “cheating.”
I say if you can use PES within the confines of the rules, then do it.
As for it being a health issue, well, maybe and maybe not. Listen, as I’ve said many times before, the majority of PES carry less health risk than participating in many contact sports or regularly eating at fast food joints. I used to drive sport bikes and pull the front end up doing 70 MPH on the freeway. It was really stupid and I’m lucky to tell the story, but would I have been safer not riding and using PES? Probably.
Testosterone: So where does one draw the line between a “sports supplement” and a “performance-enhancing substance?” Or is there a line?
Chris Lockwood: A supplement may have some effect, or no effect, on supporting the body, whereas an ergogenic aid directly or indirectly improves some measure of physical performance. Of course, by that definition, carbohydrates, protein, fat, and even water are all ergogenic. Thus, this debate about banning “performance-enhancing substances” is somewhat dubious if the only things on that list are hormonal in nature.
