By by Dana Ohl, M.D. Associate Professor of Surgery University of Michigan

I. Introduction

Androgen use is very prevalent in society. Much of this is due to androgen abuse among athletes and bodybuilders, where black market androgen abuse has reached epidemic proportions. Indeed, in various studies of high school boys, it has been found that 4-12% had used androgens at least once (JAMA 27O:12l7, 1993). Androgens have also been prescribed for many conditions by physicians throughout the last several decades.

Despite the prevalence of legal and illegal androgen use, the science of androgen effects has greatly lagged behind the understanding of biological effects of estrogen and indications for estrogen replacement therapy. Female oral contraceptives have been in use for many years, but only recently have we seen studies regarding hormone contraceptive agents in men. Although there are a few very well-defined clinical syndromes of male hypogonadism which require androgen therapy, the use in other clinical situations, such as mild hypogonadism and hypogonadism associated with aging is less well established.

The Positive Effects of Testosterone on the Heart
by Doug Kalman MS, RD

Steroids will cause your kidneys to implode, your heart to blow a ventricle, and your liver to squirt out of your arse, fly across the room, and knock the cat off the futon. We read it on the Internet and saw an after school special about it, so it must be true, right?

Actually, the more you learn about steroids, the more you come to realize that, like all drugs, there's a difference between their intelligent use and outright abuse. In this article, Doug Kalman takes a look at the effects of Testosterone on the heart. What he found may surprise you.

Over the years we've all heard the repeated mantra that anabolic steroids are bad for the heart. Some physicians will tell you that gear raises your risk of heart disease by lowering your good cholesterol (HDL) and raising your bad cholesterol (LDL). In fact, as some docs will tell you, steroids are known to even induce cardiac hypertrophy (enlargement of the heart). And since you can't flex your heart in an effort to woo women, who'd want that?

I never met Mohammed Benaziza or Andreas Munzer--top IFBB pros in the 1990s, both now dead--and I've yet to meet Michael Francois or Don Long or Dennis Newman, all of whom suffered major health problems that dramatically shortened their careers and nearly their lives. I've only once spoken to Orville Burke, weeks before he lapsed into a coma, and have exchanged few words with Flex Wheeler--the best bodybuilder to never win the Olympia and now, like Long, a kidney transplant survivor.

Tom Prince is different. Prince is someone I speak with in Gold's Gym, Venice, nearly every day, and when we talk, it's rarely about hack squats or carb loading. Prince is the first pro bodybuilder that I considered a true friend. That's why it crushed me when his kidneys failed in April 2003. That's why it made me question much about modern bodybuilding. It's why I was conflicted about the controversial article I wrote on Prince ("To Hell and Back ... Now What?," January 2004) and still more conflicted about writing the article you're reading now. But whether you see the journey detailed here as courageous or reckless, noble or futile, his tale needs to be told, now more than ever.

Anabolic Steroid Therapy and Moods

Hermann and Beach (1976), in a review of the psychotropic effects of androgens, concluded that ?????¦androgen deficiency appears to cause a slowing down of both physical and mental functions, a reduction in libido and potency, and a tendency towards moodiness and depression. Conversely, androgen excess seems to stimulate physical and mental function, and to induce assertiveness rather than passivity, although the degree to which these people are overtly aggressive is somewhat unclear.??™ Hermann and Beach also concluded that, ???As yet no work, to our knowledge, has been done on the possible contribution that the reported variations in hormone levels make to the changed behaviour of those who become mentally disordered, nor to their exact role in metabolic changes which are supposed to accompany such illness.??™ Unfortunately, although a number of studies have been conducted over the intervening years, little can be added to their conclusion at this point in time. This following section summarises research and clinical observations and effects in individuals with androgen deficiencies receiving androgen therapy.

Anabolic Steroids, Growth Hormone, and Hypertrophy of the Heart

by Willem Koert

Willem Koert is a Dutch science writer. Although his favorite subject is muscle enhancement and life extension, in his professional life he writes primarily about health, the food industry and biotechnology. In his spare time, he publishes Ergogenics, a newsletter on bodybuilding related science.

The debate on the effect of anabolic substances on the structure of the heart reached another phase, since Finnish scientists studied twenty local bodybuilders who had just finished their cycles. Steroids don??™t damage the heart, the researchers found. But the combination of steroids and growth hormone does.

Ban Athletes Who Don't Use Steroids

by Sidney Gendin, Ph.D.

Sidney is is a professor of philosophy of law at Eastern Michigan University. He has taught philosophy for 36 years, specializing in philosophy of law. He has co-edited several books and authored about 20 articles appearing in leading philosophy journals.

Isn't it time for the brainwashed public to know the truth about steroids? In their ideological zeal to ban "performance enhancing" drugs, national governments and the various local and international sports federations have ignorantly and self-righteously declared that steroid use is cheating, dangerous, and stupid. In fact, in general, it is neither dangerous nor stupid and it is cheating only because it has been capriciously commanded to be so.