[These guys](Master Men`s Bodybuilding, over 60 year, open Final)are huge for their age. I don’t know if any of them are taking steroids or growth hormones etc., but if they are is it really going to be all that bad for them post 60?
Since the male body is naturally making less testosterone at this age is taking growth hormone and steroids that big a deal health-wise for a 60 plus bodybuilder? Could it actually be beneficial at that age?
Ask Lyle Alzado.
Testosterone-replacement therapy is not similar to the levels of steroid/testosterone use needed for bodybuilding purposes. While the link you provided didn’t work for me, I’d guess that the men you are referring to aren’t simply using TRT but abusing steroids. Regardless of one’s age, abuse of anabolic steroids comes with health risks.
Link here for body builders
Master Men`s Bodybuilding, over 60 year, open Final
Well that’s most certainly not a drug-tested competition, that’s for sure. And they also certainly didn’t attain that level of muscle mass from simply replacing age-related lost testosterone.
Ironically, yesterday I was looking up a lot of the bodybuilders I used to follow in the 90s (back then I was more into this subject). A lot had serious health problems in their 30s and 40s. However I think their health problems were due more to diuretic abuse than due to steroid abuse.
the level of testosterone you need to replace your levels are far lower than what bodybuilders use. Therapy for low testosterone involves doses of about 75-100mg a week of enanthate. Serious bodybuilders tend to use a gram or more a week.
Those diuretic drugs are mostly used to combat the water-retention side effects of certain steroids. So either way…
Yeah I saw where Mike Matarazzo… (never a Mr Olympia but a huge guy with big arms who did a lot of covers) can’t lift anymore. He’s had three heart attacks. Flex Wheeler had to have a kidney? replaced. Yeah… and sheesh… has anyone seen Lex Luger… he’s at least out of the wheelchair…
Why?
The question you pose strikes me as a leading question. “Will juicing really be that bad for you after 60?” seems to me (perhaps wrongly) to imply that juicing undoubtedly is terribly bad for you when you’re younger.
I’m just curious about how thoroughly you’ve looked into the effects that steroids have on younger people. About five years ago I dated a guy on steroids, and when I took to google and researched the effects of steroids I was actually surprised about how little conclusive evidence had been found linking steroids to health issues.
Here’s a documentary on steroids that attempts to distinguish media propagated myths from valid criticism of steroid use. I don’t know if you’re interested enough in the subject to watch a 1:45 documentary on it, but I found it interesting and it certainly made me look at steroid use differently.
^ Did you click the link in the post above yours? My wife is an NP and one of her patients is a man in his 50s that will probably die due to the damage done to his liver by anabolic steroids use.
You know, the link you provided actually reminds me of something that struck me as unusual at the time I was looking into steroid use. (Now please keep in mind that I have not looked into this topic recently, so I may be misremembering what I read, or additional information may have come out since then.)
What I remember was that we encountered some situations in which people were suffering untimely deaths. In investigating the causes, steroid misuse was detected. So instead of conducting studies to determine if there were circumstances in which steroids could be used safely, they were straight-up banned. (In case it’s not obvious, I’m referring to a specific kind of steroids. Yes, there are steroids used in some over-the-counter medications, but there are not the same type that bodybuilders take to enhance performance.)
To be honest, there’s an excellent chance that the people shown in the OP’s video were using steroids to unhealthy excess. Even the people I know who take steroids have enough sense to cycle on and off of them, to be careful when loading the needles to avoid any air from entering into the blood stream, to monitor the dosage, etc.
I have no doubt in my mind that you will encounter people who encountered health problems because they self-administered steroids too liberally or carelessly. But I do wonder if, given the information available, it’s really fair to conclude that performance enhancing drugs are dangerous in any amount.
Every time a bodybuilder dies, it’s always blamed on steroid use.
I would have thought that making anabolic steroids a controlled substance would have cured death.
I see you went from “little conclusive evidence had been found linking steroids to health issues” to “those who have suffered health issues just weren’t using them right.” You realize that the doses bodybuilders use to get the results they do is misuse, right? They’re doing heavy doses and using anabolic steroids without a prescription, often made in underground labs, is “misuse.” You brought up monitoring the dosage. Where is there information about what acceptable doses are?
So far as I know, there isn’t any. That’s what I’m trying to say. It was banned before any research was done to determine whether steroids were dangerous in any amount, or only in excess amount with insufficient precautions taken to cycle on and off.
Hint: take a shovel.
^ I know he’s dead. That doesn’t answer my question. Either Little Nemo is claiming that there are reasons to believe that Alzado suffered negative health effects due to steroids use or specifically that steroids use caused the brain tumor that killed him. If the former, I’d like details.
Never done a steroid but I am over 60 and a weightlifter. The ability to get stronger and lift better has increased for me with age, but I still look like a typical pudgy 60 yr old. Every older person I know that looks ripped abuses steroids. I just guessed they care a lot more about how they look than I do.
Damn. Stuff like this is exactly why I (27 years old, but age isn’t really relevant) would never consider using steroids, or any other unnatural supplements. Of course, I am not a competitive bodybuilder, only lift weights for the sake of doing it and don’t starve myself to < 5% bodyfat, which is also unhealthy (an online calculator says I am around 15%, I have noticeable muscles but not ripped, nor do I want to look like a freak). I don’t even take any protein supplements (protein powder) but eat a relatively high protein diet; food tastes better anyway (and many bodybuilders intake more protein than they can actually use and can harm their kidneys by doing so).