Does Canseco have a point about steroids being beneficial for general health?

[astro]

Re this article does Canseco have a valid point re using steroids to boost general health?

The Juice and I - Jose Canseco and steroids, a love story. Are we being too timid and negative about using steroids?

Upon reaching the majors, Canseco proclaimed himself the “godfather” of steroids and set about evangelizing their glory to his teammates. “I probably know more about steroids and what steroids can do for the human body than any layman in the world,” he boasts. For Canseco, steroids weren’t just about padding his home run and RBI totals. Injecting was a near-religious experience. Steroids eased his degenerative disc disease and extended his life: “I needed steroids and growth hormone just to live,” he writes. With the zeal of the converted, Canseco credits steroids with helping him avoid temptations, like hard liquor and amphetamines, and notes that the majors are a cleaner, more sober place since the drinking and pill-popping old-timers were replaced by the younger generation of 'roiders.

For Canseco, even steroids’ most gruesome side effects have a silver lining. For example: “[O]ne definite side effect of steroid use is the atrophying of your testicles.” Uh-oh. “But here’s the point I want to emphasize: what happens to your testes has nothing to do with any shrinking of the penis. That’s a misconception.” Well, I suppose that’s slightly less revolting. “As a matter of fact, the reverse can be true. Using growth hormone can make your penis bigger, and make you more easily aroused. So to the guys out there who are worried about their manhood, all I can say is: Growth hormone worked for me.” Why, doctor, get me some steroids!

[Duckster]

I thought Canseco was a retired baseball player?

He has a medical degree, too?

[BobT]

I don’t think many reputable physicians are going to prescribe anabolic steroids for a degenerative disc condition in your back.

And I don’t see how such a condition is life-threatening. Debilitating, yes. Painful, yes. Life-threatening, I don’t think so.

IANAD, but then again JCINADE

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

From:why are anabolic steroid illegal?

@QtM

Side-effects. Common ones inclue HDL cholesterol (the good kind) goes down, blood thickens, and then won’t clot properly, the liver gets inflamed, the heart muscle gets too big and doesn’t pump efficiently anymore, the prostate enlarges, the testicles shrink, and the thyroid gets deranged. Not all the time, and not in everyone, but often enough, and sometimes the changes are irreversible.

[Wesley_Clark]

The shrinking testes can be avoided with a drug that increases LH levels like clomid (clomiphene citrate) or HCG. Even I know that, I must be the only layman who knows more about this stuff, yay me.

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

@Wesley Clark

The shrinking testes can be avoided with a drug that increases LH levels like clomid (clomiphene citrate) or HCG. Even I know that, I must be the only layman who knows more about this stuff, yay me.

Um, those meds have their own side-effect problems. And the meds which treat those side-effects have their own side-effect problems.

Polypharmacy often results in disaster.

[Wesley_Clark]

@Qadgop the Mercotan

Um, those meds have their own side-effect problems. And the meds which treat those side-effects have their own side-effect problems.

Polypharmacy often results in disaster.

Yeah I know. I’m just saying that those side affects can be averted with drugs designed to promote ovulation in women is all.

[Dignan]

I think it was on ESPN where some talking heads were going back and forth about whether or not there was any substance to Canseco’s comments. One of the guys pointed out that cortizone is a steroid (which I didn’t realize), but apparently it isn’t an anabolic steroid. I guess there’s a difference, not that I would understand it though.

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

@Dignan

I think it was on ESPN where some talking heads were going back and forth about whether or not there was any substance to Canseco’s comments. One of the guys pointed out that cortizone is a steroid (which I didn’t realize), but apparently it isn’t an anabolic steroid. I guess there’s a difference, not that I would understand it though.

Cortisone is a steroid, but as you note, not an anabolic one.

Even so, when cortisone-type steroids are used in moderate to high doses over long periods of time, they cause cataracts, diabetes, bone loss, weight gain (fat gain actually), and the ever popular “steroid psychosis”.

So the ESPN talking head comment really only re-inforces the need for control of these meds. Oral cortisone-style steroids, and the stronger potency topical cortisone-style steroids are all available by prescription only in the US.

[barbitu8]

@Qadgop the Mercotan

Even so, when cortisone-type steroids are used in moderate to high doses over long periods of time, they cause cataracts, diabetes, bone loss, weight gain (fat gain actually), and the ever popular “steroid psychosis”.

Cushing’s syndrome, too, but I guess that’s included in fat gain.

[Duckster]

<hijack=deadbeat>

Jose Canseco may need to use his book advance to pay back taxes. The former major league slugger owes $32,783 to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, The Sun of Lowell reported Saturday, saying his name appears on the DOR’s "cybershame’’ online database of people and businesses that underreported or failed to report income. Source: Sports Illustrated

Use http://dorapps.dor.state.ma.us/disclosure/home.asp and search for Canseco.

</hijack>

[Dr_Paprika]

No.

Canseco doesn’t seem to say how steroids extended his life, which seems to be a work in progress. Degenerative disc disease can be managed using milder medicines and physiotherapy, and rarely kills people. People who have the zeal of the converted can have a physiological (not pharmacological) addiction, and addictive personalities are not known for being able to fight tempting liquor and speed. If the majors are “cleaner” now, perhaps there is less tolerance for alcoholism in players paid well (and far better than yesteryear) to perform. There are also definite downsides to growth hormone.

I have met plenty of weightlifters who claim to use steroids intelligently and thus maximize benefit while minimizing risk. These same weighlifters may take large doses of supplements every time a new study shows some putative benefit of physiological level of a chemical. More is not better, and accurately second guessing the body, which works rather well most of the time, requires a lot more knowledge than we have.

[Oat1957]

Lyle Alzado

[ultrafilter]

At this point, Dr_Paprika is right: futzing around with hormones is an inexact science, and you can do yourself some pretty serious harm. There is some evidence that anabolic steroids might have health benefits, but it’s pretty far from proof, and there is proof that the risks are real. Best to stick with the less risky methods for now.