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04/29/09
Well, steroids have been around for over 50 years now. Granted, they have been around 70 or 80 if you want to count the Olympic Games and small research groups. However, in the sport of bodybuilding and in gyms all over the world, where mainstream use began in the 1960s with a slew of men named Pearl and Schwarzenegger, it’s only been fifty years. What has happened in those 50 years? Let’s look at a few arenas and see how anabolic steroids have changed things
On the bodybuilding stage…
The physiques began as artstic and powerful in the 1960s and 1970s, when steroids first entered the sport. Today, the men are big beyond belief. Tomorrow, who knows?
In the sports world…
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, drug use in professional sports – particularly football – was rampant. Over time, sporting organizations such as the NFL and MLB clamped down on their players’ drug use. However, with the presence of multi-million dollar contacts on the line, men are tempted and often convinced to use a small “something” to help them recover better from injury and perform bigger, stronger, and faster on the playing field!
In the political world…
Anabolic steroids used to be a non-issue when it came to Congress. They were seen as an unregulated medical aid that some people in athletics used to perform their trade longer, and at a higher level. As time passed and more media attention was drawn to this use, it because politically attractive to rally against AAS use, and many politicians did it. The passage of several anti-steroid bills was passed, many of which stand to this day.
For aging men…
Fifty years ago, virtually no people in general non-medical society used artificial testosterone for quality of life improvement. Today, doctors prescribe it all the time for patients who either lack virility, or just need a boost. It’s the “IN” thing to do among 40- and 50-something types looking to keep up with their younger counterparts in the nightclub.
For our youth…
Steroids are a common discussion topic among the youth today, just as many other topics once considered taboo. They see the news stories, and they know that many professional athletes use them. Steroids are available online, so you have more high school students than ever ordering orals and injectables from manufacturing plants in China, Mexico, and other hotspots around the world. Use among youth is certainly up, with no end in sight.
In the world of health…
We’ve been told for over 50 years that steroids are bad for us and will lead to a host of medical issues. Has this materialized? Have we seen legions of young muscle men falling over with heart attacks and liver cancer? For the most part, we have not. While there are always isolated cases of incidents occurring, the vast majority of bodybuilding icons from decades past are still alive and kicking, many of them looking much younger and healthier than their counterparts. You can believe who you want to when it comes to the side effects, but many of these men consumed 5 to 10 times the daily recommended consumption amounts of these steroids. And today, they’re just as healthy as everyone else their age!
