Fiveyearlurker, this was a bit disappointing. Perhaps you could try and repost it in GC.
I think I got out of it what I can hope to. There are some nuggets of truth to some of what was brought up:
- Cost. I haven’t looked into this at all, and have no concept of what it costs. If the hundreds/month number mentioned here is correct, it probably isn’t worth it.
- What happens when you go off? I wasn’t planning on staying on steroids the rest of my life. Just want to put on 20 pounds and stop. The impression that I get here is that it wouldn’t work that way.
- Legal risks probably make it not worth it.
- Side effects. Though I’m relatively convinced that there are no serious side effects, the less serious ones (gynecomastia, acne and hair loss) are unattractive.
That being said, I think there is a lot of Reefer Madness like hysteria around steroids. Personally I wouldn’t vote McGwire into the HOF because of the issue, but if he is just some guy who wants to do it and isn’t trying to pull one over on historical records or current athletes, I have no problems with it.
One more thing: Is there anywhere here to suggest a staff report? I think a straightdope report on the truth behind steroids would be interesting.
Do you want to take steroids primarily to make yourself look better, or to increase your running ability? If to increase your running ability, why would taking something make you feel more accomplished? Isn’t the point of running marathons to challenge yourself, to see what your body can do, to feel pride in your long training towards a goal? What if you keep your training exactly the same, add moderate steroids, and then run the best marathon of your life? Would you feel the same pride about it you did when you ran your best on your own?
I guess I just wonder where is the pride in self accomplishment when you take steroids. You say it wouldn’t matter if you took them because you still wouldn’t beat the Ethiopian runners in the marathons, but you still will be beating out other people that you wouldn’t have otherwise. If you found out the top 10% of people in the marathons you participate in were all on steriods, would that make you admire them more or less? Would you want to run in marathons where taking steroids was the norm?
I guess I would also look at the emotional reasons why you train and run and not just the physical complications of it. I personally wouldn’t feel pride for an accomplishment knowing that I could not have done it without an introduced substance, and that as soon as I stopped taking it I would be back to my old limitations. I mean, if someone gave me a pill that made me an Olympic level runner with no side effects(I know it’s an exaggeration of what steriods can do) it might be fun to do it for the experience, but I would never look back and say “That’s something I worked for and did by my ability and talent” It would just be hey, this is something that this drug made me able to do.
It would also be hard to go back once you got used to the higher level of performance. Taking steroids for a while is only going to give you a temporary boost at best, and may leave you will permanent side effects at worst. You really don’t have much to gain but you do have a lot to lose.
One of the guys I train with uses steriods. He’s big as a house. His face is scarred by acne at 32. The most digusting thing is his back, uglyass blueberry zits. Want to impress women, go lean and fit, that’s what they like anyways.
I’ve been married 8 years. My days of impressing women are over!
Er… dissolving salt in water doesn’t involve a chemical reaction. The salt is still NaCl whether or not it’s in solution.
That study is listed in later papers as being one of several offering “conflicting” results. In other words, some studies have found a similar result (steroids like this, taken in non-excessive doses, do not change mood or behavior), and some have found that there is an effect. You seem like a careful person so I’m curious that you would weigh this study above others, and not accept what the medical community seems to believe-which is that the jury is still out.
Furthermore, addresseing your very specific claim here? I suspect my friend was taking more than the moderate dose being described in that paper. Ergo, I disagree with your asessment–I don’t think that paper offers sound evidence that his behavior had nothing to do with steroids. Neither would its authors, as I’m reading their methodology. It may provide some evidence that your planned dosage may not effect you (although as noted above, you can find studies to the contrary), but I don’t see how it excludes steroids as a possible cause for his behavior.
Because this one was placebo controlled, double blinded. I’m open to the possibility that there are conflicting results from other placebo controlled, double blinded studies, but I haven’t seen any. If you have a cite, I’m interested in seeing it.
But to me, if you placebo control it, and double blind it, that trumps any other study.