Muscle supplements

A MEDICAL OLYMPICS’ WORRIES DOCTOR

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 04:02:21 +0000

A MEDICAL OLYMPICS’ WORRIES DOCTOR
American swimmers return from international competition and talk about how their Eastern European opponents have facial hair and deep voices.
Unusual? Yes the subjects are women An Ease German swimmer defects to the Weal, and describes extensive use of anabolic steroids
Three of the world’s top women s 1,500-meter runners are disqualified. They are from Eastern Europe and their crime is use of anabolic steroids. It isn’t unusuai they just hap pen to get caught
The use of drugs by many Communist bloc countries is changing the balance of athletic power between East and -West, ad as the 1980 Olympics approach, it becomes one of the key issues.
“We are very concerned that the Olympics are becoming a medical Olympics,” siid Anthony Daly, the physician for the U S. Olympic team and an Inglcwood, Calif., orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine
Daly is also the North and South American representative on the medi cal committee of the International Amateur Athletic Union
And what he sees is an alarming growth of drugs used io manipulate athletes. The most prevalent drug is an anabolic steroid, and while its use has been found nearly everywhere, it is in the Communist bloc countries where it is prevalent
“We know they’ve been using it ” Daly said. “But the scary part is now it’s being used by distance runners “Previously it had been confined to these in the weight events It gave them added strength But this is the first time it has been used in dis tance events and heavily in females
Anabolic steroids’ incorporate a synthetic form of the male hormone testosterone. They increase strength in men and produce masculine char acteristks in women.
The term anabolic pertains to body building and metabolism If an athlete wants to increase strength and muscle bulk, (he dosage is modi fied for more anabolic effects, Daly said
The drug is taken in pill form, but can be injected. For the athlete Daly said, there is no medical reason for taking anabolic steroids. “It only artificially improves their perform ance ” he said
The effects of anabolic steroids arc widespread ranging from physical to mental to political.

It has long been felt that Commun ist bloc countries particularly the “Soviet Union and East Germany ~ and recently Third World nations have used sports as a platform for political messages
Thus, American athletes are up against more than another top athlete in international competition. They are competing against a sys tern, a philosophy
“Our athletes would like to see it stopped,” Daly said ‘ But they feel trapped in the situation “Maybe they will try it because they know it will improve their per formance They ask themselves ‘Do I warn to compete on a world class level or drop down They are trapped
Some American athletes have ined steroids, Daly said
“But the big problem here is that if you want to use them there’s no one to prescribe for them ” he said
Causes impotency
The athlete begins to benefit – from the steroids two to three weeks after the first dose, Daly said And he or’ she returns to normal in four to six weeks after discontinuing it
But it’s not that simple Daly said anabolic steroids also affect the liver and can cause impotency and sterility in men and upset the menstrual function in women
“It’s supposed to be reversible ” – said Daly but no one knows the long term effects In 25 years from now will there be increased evidence of tumors’ That’s a quesaon we don t know the answer to ‘
Will its’use stop’ Probably not While the current tests used for international competition, including the Olympics can detect anabolic steroids, athletes have found a wa> around it
Daly said they discontinued use of the steroid a couple of weeks before the test But they maintain their added strength by switching to straight testosterone in the meantime
Since testosterone is a naturallv occurring substance in both sexes an abnormal amount cannot be delected After the event, the athlete swuches.back to the anabolic steroid

The hormone that makes men virile may kill them

admin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:40:19 +0000

The hormone that makes men virile may kill them
“I like testosterone. Every home should have some,” quips Dr. Estelle Ramey, a specialist in hormone research at Georgetown Medical School in Washington, D.C,
But this scientist is out to warn men that they have too much of a good thing. The hormone of desire, she believes, has a lethal side: Men’s testosterone may make them more vulnerable than women to heart attacks and strokes. By studying hormonal differences between the sexes, Ramey hopes to help men live longer.
For more than two decades, Ramey has watched the interplay of stress and steroids (hormones, including the sex hormones, that have a distinctive ringlike chemical structure), After studying patients with adrenal-gland disorders, she joined with Dr. Peter Ram well, another Georgetown endocrinologist, to focus on what steroids do to the cardiovascular system. “We wanted to find out why men die earlier than women, particularly why men between the ages of 35 and 55 are twice as likely as women to die of heart disease,” she says. In the last eight years, they’ve zeroed in on testosterone and have argued that the hormone that makes men virile may also kill them. “Maleness is a biological risk factor,” says Ramey. She notes that whenever male and female animals are exposed to the same stresses, the males succumb first. Forced to swim continuously in one experiment, male rats consistently sank to the bottom early, while the females kept paddling for as long as 12 days. Given testosterone injections, females became as susceptible as males. Given estrogen, the males became hardier. Men face subtler stresses than these laboratory rats. But their homes may also make them vulnerable to a possible result of the stressful life: cardiovascular disease. Ramey’s research suggests that testosterone acts through other chemicals in the blood, particularly after age 40, to increase blood clotting and help
form fatty deposits inside artery walls. Both can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Women face a muclrlower risk. Estrogen protects
them during their childbearing years, and they have relatively low testosterone levels to begin with. But remove a woman’s ovaries before she’s 20, and she’s just as likely as a man to develop heart disease before 50. And if she smokes, in Ramey’s words, she “throws away all her evolutionary aces.”

An obvious solution might be to give men estrogen, which may directly shrink fat deposits in the arteries. But it’s not that simple. Even in small amounts, the female hormone makes men impotent.
So Ramey and Ramwell are taking another tack. They’ve found that testosterone acts largely through the prostaglandins, chemicals involved in blood clotting, to produce its dangerous effects. Drugs like aspirin, which block the prostaglandins, may help save the heart.
One of the reasons we don’t know more than we now do says Ramey, is sex bias in scientific research. Too often, researchers act as though only men are worth studying and miss key clues. “There’s been shockingly little research on women’s heart success,” Ramey notes.
Ramey does believe the recent evidence that levels of sex hormones may significantly affect brain development. But she does not believe that the biological advantages men may have particularly in visual-spatial perception explain their social advantages. Women, she remains convinced, are better at some skills than men, but are socially restrained from using them fully,
An example: “Women are born with greater linguistic ability. But they don’t become great politicians or speechmakers; they’re more likely to be thought of as gossips. Women also have greater dexterity, but they’re still more likely to do needlepoint than neurosurgery. The hormonal effects on our behavior are a reality, but they don’t explain the roles our society assigns to men and women in decision making.”
Some pundits now argue that the stress of changing status will physically hurt women. If they live and work like men, so the line runs, they will die like them. But Ramey’s research shows otherwise: It’s testosterone, not stress, that gives men more heart attacks, High-powered jobs, in fact, may be healthy,
Ramey cites a Metropolitan Life study that found that people listed in “Who’s Who” had mortality rates 29 percent lower than their peers, even though they were ostensibly the most driven and driving Americans. “It isn’t responsibility and power that kill,” Ramey says, “it’s lack of control. The driver of a car isn’t under as much stress as the passengers. Look at the presidency. That’s supposed to be the most stressful job in the world, but they have to drag the incumbents out kicking and screaming.”
Ramey hopes a woman president will one day help demonstrate that women can lead as ably as men and that someone with less testosterone in her veins might even do the job better. Meanwhile, she continues to work for the equality of the sexes in very different arenas: to help women advance in science, business and politics, and to give men the chance of living as long and as healthfully as women do now.

HORMONES: Testosterone takes the lead in romantic love and is

admin — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 10:45:44 +0000

HORMONES: Testosterone takes the lead in romantic love and is the stuff of our desire
Maleness begins when the Y chromosome gives the genetic order: Develop the testes. The testes, in turn, produce testosterone.
Testosterone levels before birth may also help shape our sexual identities. “There must be some amount of influence though not 100 percent from the hormones (in which) the brain is bathed during the critical time when the sexual pathways are formed,” says Dr. John Money, founder and director of the Psychohormonal Research Unit at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University. He cites as evidence his continuing study of women whose adrenal glands produced extraordinarily high androgenic levels before their birth. (Remember: androgen is a male hormone.) An unusually large proportion of these 30 women 37 percent have homosexual or bisexual fantasies.
We may learn a basic sexual vocabulary very early, but we don’t use it much until the start of our second decade when testosterone triggers the transformation of girls into women and boys into men.
For girls, about two years later, femininity takes over as their estrogen levels rise. The female hormone hardens the cartilage at the tips of the long bones so that they stop growing, and increases fat deposits in the breasts, buttocks and hips, giving a once-coltish girl the rounded contours of a woman’s body. Menstruation also begins. For teen-age boys the hormonal equation adds up differently. As a result of the testosterone surge at puberty, a teen-age boy shoots up a few inches in height and grows hair on his face and body. His muscles become larger, his larynx expands, his voice deepens.
Men continue to manufacture testosterone throughout their lives, but experience daily and seasonal fluctuations, Male testosterone levels tend to be highest in the early morning, a surge that may give roosters something to crow about at dawn.
What happens when disease or removal of the testes knocks a man’s testosterone levels below the essential minimum? He won’t suddenly lose his ability to perform, but he will lose his desire. He’ll stop initiating sex, stop masturbating, eventually even stop thinking about sex. His fantasy life also comes to a halt. If injections of synthetic testosterone hike him back to normal levels, he regains his fantasies, desire and sexual initiative in that order.
Hormonal influences on a women’s desire are more complex and less understood. For some time, scientists wrongly assumed that women’s estrogens not testosterone governed their desire. In other species, such as monkeys, the estrogens that control reproduction also control a female’s interest in sex. But human beings are unique in that sex is not just a matter of reproduction. We are the only primates that will engage in sex at any time in the female’s cycle.
Estrogens influence a woman’s attractiveness. They keep her skin soft, hair full and shiny, breasts round and firm. But they seem to have little, if anything, to do with desire.
Long after estrogen production stops at menopause or after surgical removal of the ovaries, women remain interested in sex. But once a woman’s testosterone-producing adrenal glands stop working, she will lose her libido. Conversely, women treated for medical disorders with synthetic testosterone typically experience a surge in desire that may come as quite a surprise.
Many researchers have argued that estrogen must stimulate sexual appetite because women are more sexually active around ovulation time. The research of Dr. Harold Persky, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, and his colleagues points
to a different answer. Their study of married women indicates a midcycle peak in testosterone, rather than the coincidental increase in estrogen, is the probable reason women become more
aroused and arousable.

At other times in the cycle, testosterone levels are also related to sexual interest, but estrogen levels are not.
Perksky also found, unexpectedly, that some women in his sample produced 10 times more testosterone than others, though all were within normal ranges. The high-testosterone producers were a happy lot. They had cheerful dispositions, formed relationships with greater ease than others, were more interested in sex, made love more often throughout their cycles and got more pleasure out of it.
Testosterone “bonds” in another way: It may bring men and women sexually into sync. In the late 1970s, Persky and his fellow researchers studied sex-hormone levels in 11 couples. All were between ages 21 and 31 and married an average of four years. When the researchers charted the women’s testosterone levels through the menstrual cycle, they noted a peak at midcycle the prime time for ovulation and conception and another peak about a week later. In a remarkable display of hormonal activity, the husbands’ testosterone levels usually also rose when their wives were ovulating. When both partners peaked simultaneously, the men initiated sex more often, the women responded more enthusiastically and both reported that they had better sex lives,

Minerals don’t cost – they pay!

admin — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 12:19:14 +0000

Minerals don’t cost – they pay!
Minerals, which are just as essential to animal productivity as energy, protein, vitamins and water, only cost producers money when not used or used improperly.
Animals’ specific needs for minerals are related to age, rate of growth, stage of pregnancy -and level of milk production. Mineral imbalances and deficiencies in feed result in poor appetite, resulting in reduced rate of gain or milk production, cows not recycling early or silent heats, lower disease resistance, and poor bone growth.
Decreases in production caused by imbalances or lack of minerals are often not specific to a single cause. This often results in many producers misinterpreting the situation. ! Each spring, for example, there ;are numerous calls from pro-
ducers who have had feeders on a high energy grain ration for the winter, and in the last few months find animals with sore feet and legs. There can be several causes for this. But, examining the ration commonly shows an imbalance in the mineral levels between what the ration provides and what the animal requires. The high energy ration and the resulting rapid growth, with lack of minerals for proper bone formation, eventually produces lameness. Proper mineral supplementation is not difficult provided the following basics are kept in mind.
Proper supplementation of the three major minerals – salt, calcium and phosphorus – is a crucial concern.
Of all the minerals required by farm animals, salt is needed in the greatest quantity. The functions of salt in the body are numerous, the most important being its necessity for a good
i appetite. Salt by itself is white. Red salt contains iodine. Blue ‘ salt contains iodine plus cobalt. : Since both iodine and cobalt are : necessary trace minerals, when

feeding salt free choice use blue ‘ salt. Mature cattle and horses s will normally eat 28-85 grams : (1-3 oz.) of salt per day. Calcium is especially important for bone formation and maintenance. Approximately 99 per cent of the calcium in the
body is present in the bones and in teeth. Calcium is also essential
for milk production, blood clotting, nerve function and muscle contraction.

Phosphorus is involved in practically all the life processes. Eighty per cent of the phosphorus’in the body is present in the bones and teeth. Cattle lacking adequate phosphorus may chew bones or wood. Lack of phosphorus is a major cause of poor reproductive performance. A deficiency of phosphorus results in cows not
coming into heat for 30-fi0 days longer than normal, silent heats, and poor conception rates.
The animal body contains aboui 2 parts calcium to I pari phosphorus. On a practical feeding basis, 1.5-5 parts of calcium to 1 part phosphorus is acceptable for cattle. This wide ratio docs not apply to other animals such as poultry or swine, Staying within this ratio is important. An excess of calcium interferes with uptake of phosphorus, while more phosphorus than calcium in the diet causes problems with use of calcium. Adequate Vitamin D is necessary for the absorption of both calcium and phosphorus from the gut.
The composition of the mineral supplement required depends on the type of feed being used. The level of calcium and phosphorus are relatively predictable with certain general classes of feedstuffs.
Feeds grown in Manitoba generally fall in one of these three categories:
Grass type forages such as brome grass, corn and cereal crops cut for forage generally contain bout the same amount of calcium as phosphorus (0.20-0.30 per cent).
Legumes such as alfalfa contain high levels of calcium (1.25-2.0 per cent) but low levels of phosphorus as in the grass forages.
Cereal grains contain low levels of calcium (0.05-0. IO”?o) but relatively high levels of phosphorus (0.35-0.4 per cent).
The type of mineral supplement required depends on which one, or what combination of these three categories of feeds are used to make up the total diet of the animal.
The three common types of mineral supplements are high calcium with low phosphorus, equal parts of calcium and phosphorus, or low calcium with high phosphorus.
High calcium – low phosphorus is the mineral to use when cattle are on a high grain ration such as in a feedlot. If a commercial supplement were to be used, a mix containing 2 parts calcium to 1 part

When are nutritional supplements superfluous?

admin — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:05:44 +0000

When are nutritional supplements superfluous?
BODYBUILDER Jell Kompher doesn’t care what the exports say. He swallows his daily dose of Amino 1000 and Metatxilol knowing that some people argue they ate useless and potentially harmful. But Kompher preters to listen to his own body. “I base my opinion on how they help me and what I hear from from friends.” said Kempher, an Air Force sergeant with the 86th Component Repair Sq at Ramstein AB. West Germany.
Stall Sgt. Joe Dawson doesn’t heed the warnings, either He. too. says the amino pills he takes every morning provide strength, decrease recovery time between workouts and build muscle.

These servicemen aren’t taking steroids or black market drugs. Rather, they are consumers of overtho counter nutritional supplements, the kind sold on military bases everywhere.
Health professionals say that such nutritional supplements are useless lor healthy individuals, il not actually dangerous A balanced diet provides all the nutrients an athlete needs better than any pill or powder, they say
Forty percent of Americans take some type of supplement, and an even higher percentage of athletes use products ranging from vitamins, protein powders to amino acids, writes sports nutritionist Nancy Clark in her book, Sports Nutrition Guidebook.
Nutritional supplements and diet aids lor athletes are big business. Bodybuilding and fitness magazines are filled with advertisements of men and women with laut, bulging muscles who supposedly look that way because they took supplements.
AAFES began selling nutritional supplements this past summer in 38 exchanges in Europe because ol customer demand, said Maj. Jim Heaborg. spokesman for AAFES’ Dallas headquarters.
“These products are selling extremely well everywhere wo carry them.” said Gary Tunnell, senior buyer lor sporting goods at AAFES headquarters.
Sales figures were not yet available for the first six months Nutritional supplements and diet aids are also sold in most military sports shops.
Athletes who are using these supplements or planning to use them should think twice, say health professionals
“All supplements should be looked at skeptically by the average athlete,” said Maj Jane Imholte, a nutritionist at the Army hospital in Bad Cannstatt, West Germany.
Athletes say they lake supplements (or three reasons: they cannot get all the nutrients they need through balanced meals, they do not have time to eat nutritious meals, or they gain a competitive edge by using supplements.

Process of muscle contractions remains mystery to scientists

admin — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:15:00 +0000

Process of muscle contractions remains mystery to scientists
When a dog wags its tail, a baby toddles across the floor, or you scratch your nose, the process is more complex than the workings of a hydrogen bomb. All are examples of muscular contraction so common place and yet so mysterious that it has baffled the most gifted scientists.
Writing of the “miracle of muscle” in a recent Reader’s Digest, J. D. Ratcliff says that more than half the luiman body is muscle. From birth to death, muscle plays a critical role in all we do.
We speak of “muscles of iron.”

Yet the working element in muscle is a soft jelly. How this jelly contracts to lift 1,000 times its own weight is one of the miracles of the universe.
There are three types of human muscle: the muscles of motion such as those which propel us when we walk’; the “smooth” muscles which control such involuntary actions as digestion; and the type of muscle found in the heart. All types are “startlingly efficient machines,” says Reader’s Digest, for converting chemical energy (food) into mechanical energy (work). Muscle process unexplained
No book of the hundreds written on muscle has ever explained fully the process by which muscle contractshow you wiggle a toe. Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel Prizewinner and authority on muscle, has come close to creating “living” tissue in the laboratory by mixing muscle proteins and adding a droplet of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a
substance which is the body’s “engine” for muscle. At the touch of ATP a violent contraction of the muscle proteins occurred. Yet this scientist is the first to admit that “We have the picture of this deep and puzzling mystery in merest outline.”
Experiments like Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi’s may open a new frontier of attack on some of mankind’s greatest ills, the* Digest says, and may even lead to longer life. The article adds that muscles should be exercised, but they should be rested too. One should not wait until they are weakened before giving the care and consideration they deserve. For, to a great degree, we are what our muscles make ussick or well, vigorous or droopy, alive or dead.

ISOMETRIC EXERCISE It Can Help Figure

admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:23:13 +0000

ISOMETRIC EXERCISE It Can Help Figure
Anyone for instant exercise? We have instant coffee and instant foods. Who knows? Maybe we will soon have instant people! What about isometric exercise? What is it? How did it all start? What can it really do for a woman’s figure?
In the first place, isometric exercise is not new. It has been used in tHerapy in some form for many years. As early as the 1920′s scientists were studying muscles and the effect activity and inactivity had on them. There is the very interesting story of the frog. 1 have read two versions, but maybe there were two different studies. In any event, the idea and the result were the same.
IN ONE STUDY the legs of some frogs were tied together for a fairly long time. When the restraining bindings were removed, it was discovered that the legs of the frogs had developed amazingly. In another instance one leg was tied down while the other was left free. The muscles of the bound leg underwent much greater development than those of the leg which was free to kick. The straining against (lie binding, which was an immovable object, was an isometric exercise.
In 1953 Hettinger and Muller, two physiologists, applied this principle to humans, Their study showed that intense contraction of a muscle against a fixed object could increase the strength of. the muscle 5 per cent in a-week. Some investigators were even more enthusiastic. Anyway there seems to be no doubt that this is a rapid way to develop muscles and tone flabby tissue.
FltOM THEN ON, isometrics have been used by champion swimmers and track stars, by Olympic stars, by pennant-winning teams and by Marines in boot camp. They have been used with success with geriatric patients. Too, they have been found to be valuable for those who have had to wear a cast for some time.
Now isometrics are being used to beautify the feminine form divine. This form of exercise has an exciting place in figure control.

If you would like to have my new booklet which gives you isometric exercises I have selected especially for women, send 20 cents and a stamped, self-addressed envelope with your request. Address .lose-phine Lowman in care of this newspaper.

Use Isotonics Too

admin — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:25:50 +0000

Use Isotonics Too
No doubt the popularity of isometric exercise is due, in part anyway, to the very human trail of wanting something for nothing. The idea that you ean contract a few muscles for six seconds a day and develop a lovely figure or become physically fit is most alluring indeed! Also, you do not need any special equipment or special clothes, and you can steal six seconds out of the busiest day almost any time, and scatter these six-second exercises through the day.
Some isometric exercises are important in preventing, improving or banishing the most usual feminine figure defects!
An isometric exercise is simply a contraction of a muscle, or a group of muscles, againsl an immovable object, or against muscle. This creales tension within the muscle or muscles, without any movement.
THIS IS VERY different from the exercise to which you have been accustomed, such as walking, swimming, golfing, badminton, ping-pong, calislhenics and all sports. These have been titled isotonic exercises. Both types of exercise should be included in any figure improvement routine or physical fitness program.
This is why! First let’s talk about physical fitness. There is more to that than mere muscle strength. Isometric exercises were never planned to take the place of the movement or exertion exercises which promote circulation, the health of the heart and the entire cardiovascular system, plus build stamina and endurance. They do build muscle strength quickly.
SO FAR AS your figure is concerned, how you look does not depend entirely on your weight. It also depends on your skeleton and your muscles. Isometric exercises will not make you lose weight, but they ean take up the slack in your muscles and are therefore slimming to the abdomen and the waist. They can also firm your ti’iighline, upper arms, chin-line and improve facial contour.
The following is an isometric exercise for flabby arms:

Stand in a doorway. Raise your arms sideward until the backs of your hand touch the doorjamb. Arms are straight throughout this exercise. Now push against the doorjamb. Hold at point of great est tension for six seconds. This is an isometric exercise in which you contract your muscles gainst an immovable object.

Isometric exercises

admin — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 01:11:00 +0000

Isometric exercises
We know that lack of muscle tone can make us look older in the face and neck, but had you realized that slack muscles are also aging to the figure?

Isometric exercises are great for women because the effort is focused on individual muscles or muscle groups. Therefore, they can be specific in figure molding. Abdominal isometric exercises are slimming to the abdomen and the waist because they take up the slack in the muscles. They are valuable for reconditioning after childbirth, Of course, in this lalter instance you must have your doctor’s permission.
ISOMETRIC EXERCISES are excellent for flabby thighs or arms, for increasing the calves and bust measurement, improving the chinline and facial contour, slimming the waist and flattening the abdomen.
Because isometric exercises require no motion, yoa may be fooled by them. They are more strenous than they appear. Therefore you should check with your doctor just as you always should before beginning any exercise plan. However, many women who cannot take more active e* ercise are permitted to take these. This is true of many older people.
The following exercise is one for the thighs. Sit on the edge of a chair. Hold onto the chair with your hands, Straighten both legs out in front of you, knees straighi and heels on the floor. Cross your ankles, hooking one foot over the other. Keep the feet in this position as you try to pull them apart. Hold tension for six seconds. TMe is a splendid liiigh exercise.

Steroids may cause death

admin — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 02:05:55 +0000

Steroids may cause death
Michael’s suicide devastated and confused his parents, who had recently watched him attain unprecedented success at school, work and what had become his life’s passion: powerlifting.
Michael’s parents, who asked not to be identified, have had numerous conversations with their son’s friends from the gym and from his night job at the state Department of Revenue. They are now struggling to come to grips with this likelihood: that the weightlifting obsession that fueled their son’s life for three years was also the power behind his death.
They believe Michael’s muscle-bound body was the product of anabolic steroids massive doses of which he is believed to have been taking for most of the last three years of his life.
Michael’s death,; which his friends and parents say was not preceded by notable bouts of depression or anger, is one of many cases beginning to surface nationwide in which steroids are blamed for causing psychiatric disorders including paranoia, overaggres-siveness, mood swings and major depression.
Doctors and scientists involved in sports medicine believe that cases like Michael’s are symptomatic of increasing steroid use by teenagers.

More importantly, his death illustrates the little-known psychological dangers connected with the muscle- and strength-building drugs, which are available by prescription but more often are obtained and used illegally.
Michael’s involvement with steroids dates back to 1986, when he asked an employee of Vic Tanny Health and Racquetball Club to make a connection for him with a steroid dealer.
“He wanted to get big so fast,” recalls Robert Mitchell, who had been powerlifting for almost a year when Michael began coining to the club. “He felt like he needed to impress everybody in the gym.”
Mitchell, who is now 26 and no longer works at the club, said he and Michael quickly became friends, often working out together after the gym was closed.
From a dealer he won’t identify, Mitchell bought Michael a $25 bottle of the anabolic steroid Dianabol, enough for a four-week cycle, and the teen-ager incorporated the drug into his six-day-a-week workouts. He expected instant results, and was impatient when he did not get them.
“Mike would come in and say, ‘Robert, I’m not feeling anything,’ and I’d say, ‘Give it three weeks.’”
Before obtaining the steroids for Michael, Mitchell had undergone a six-week cycle on Dianabol and had made remarkable gains in both strength and size.
‘If people think getting steroids is a problem because they are illegal, it’s not,’ the 19-year-old writes in his term paper. ‘If you are into bodybuilding and powerlifting and want them, you can get them as easily as buying a gallon of milk.’