Long-Term Use Complications

Pharma / TRT
1

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study provides more evidence that long-term use of anabolic steroids can cause heart and blood vessel disease, and may even boost the risk of sudden death.

UK researchers found that bodybuilders who used the muscle-building steroids had increased levels of homocysteine, a protein tied to increased mortality, heart disease risk and blood vessel damage, compared with bodybuilders who didn’t use the performance-enhancing drugs.

Three steroid users died suddenly during the course of the study, and all had homocysteine levels that were higher than the average for steroid-using study participants.

“The findings of this study suggest that anabolic-androgenic steroids are detrimental to cardiovascular health and appear to be implicated in cardiovascular mortality in long-term anabolic-androgenic steroid abuse,” Dr. Michael R. Graham of the University Glamorgan in Pontypridd, Wales and colleagues conclude.

There have been reports suggesting that steroid users face an increased risk of sudden death as well as acute clotting-related health problems such as stroke and heart attack, Graham and his team note.

To determine whether steroid users might have increased homocysteine levels, which could contribute to the risk of heart and blood vessel problems, the researchers measured levels of homocysteine and several other substances in the blood in bodybuilders who had been using steroids for more than 20 years.

They were compared to steroid-using bodybuilders who had abstained from the drugs for three months, bodybuilders who had never used steroids, and sedentary, non-steroid-using men.

Current and past steroid users had higher homocysteine levels than other study participants, as well as “dramatically elevated” levels of hematocrit.

As mentioned, three of the steroid-using bodybuilders died during the study period and all of them had significantly higher levels of homocysteine than the average for the steroid-using group.

Sudden death and acute clotting events “may represent under-appreciated risks” of anabolic steroid use, the team warns.

SOURCE: British Journal of Sports Medicine, July 2006.

today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?
type=healthNews&storyid=2006-08- 11T164304Z_01_COL160043_RTRUKOC_0_US-ANABOLIC- STEROIDS.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

What do you think?

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I find it dubious that it doesn’t even specify what drugs they were on, or their dosage level. Whole thing doesn’t seem very scientific at all. But I’m obviously biased.

3

“hree of the steroid-using bodybuilders died during the study period”

How did they die? It doesn’t say but you are lead to beleive it was conected to steroid use. Why doesn’t the article say what they died from. Seems pretty coincidental that they all died during the study. How long was the study? This smells fishy as hell.

4

Betaine HCL has been shown to maintain “healthy” homocysteine levels.

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Here is some info to help with study details.

  1. There were two anabolic steroid groups. One that was still using at the time of the study and one that had not used for at least 3 months.

  2. The anabolic steroid groups had participants that were around 42 years old, had been training for 22-25 years and using AAS for over 20 (about 21 on average) years in varying doses and in a cyclical fashion (cycling).

  3. Average weight was 107 and 109 kilos and body fat was 14 and 14.7% on average. It said that the participants were amateur, national, and international bodybuilding competitors some in the past and some in the present.

  4. Out of the group that was currently using AAS, 5 were using Deca, 6 using testosterone, 4 D-bol, 2 Anadrol, 3 Winstrol, 5 using Primobolan, 2 using EQ and 1 using tren.

  5. No differences between groups with folate and B12.

  6. Homocysteine was higher in both AAS groups compared with controls. Hematocrit was much higher in the AAS group of current users compared with control groups.

  7. In the three men that died suddenly their homocysteine levels were even higher than the average homocysteine levels of the current AAS group on average. Their avg. age was 43 and the cause of death was ruled as cardiovascular disease.

  8. This quote caught my attention “The mechanism of death could be related to the production of reactive oxygen species caused by the elevated homocysteine, which may be attenuated by the use of antioxidants”
    BUT they go on to comment about hematocrit and increased platelet aggregation combined with decreased endothelial function suggest atherothrombotic mechanisms for sudden death.

  9. The two control groups were drug-free bodybuilders and sedentary men.

Any questions I’ll try to help.

6

well i think of it this way if i didnt body build i would still be eating mcdonalds and that promote heart diease and death more than steroids. So when i choose to start doing steroids i wont be worried becasue my life style is much healthier now than the past.

its probably a study with very bias to make steroids bad becasue that is the findings they want to find. Maybe the guys were powerlifters who ate chndybars all day.

the control could be flawed becuase there are numerous factors they don’t have control over, supplements, nutrtion, training, amount of cardio they do. for all you know they might have higher levels from novla or clomid or something else they all take.