Macho Man Dies

[101lifts2]

Originally Posted by Kaneman

Your contention is that there is no relation between heavy long-term steroid use and heart disease/weakened heart valves?

Anyone that's studied steroids knows that long-term studies are lacking due to their status as an illegal drug, causal effects are murky when examined over prolonged durations for that reason combined with poor controls, and the "heart disease" risk isn't some mystical concept - it's an increased cholesterol level that contributes to plaque build up in arteries. It's not something particularly related to increased androgens in the blood stream that does damage, it's something that can be brought under control much like typical cholesterol levels are brought under control by normal individuals. Let's cut through the shit - steroids are synthetic testosterone, and have very much the same physical effects as testosterone, only posing significant health risks at supraphysiological dosages. This knowledge forms the basis of HRT, by the way, which doctors administer by calculating the dosage necessary to maintain a physiological level of testosterone.

And the "weakened heart valves" line is bullshit - cardio hypertrophy occurs regularly in athletes (hint: people using steroids aren't doing it to sit on the couch), and can result in death for any individual that has an enlarged heart as a result. See: the multiple high school athletes that have died as a result of this phenomena.

Also, for shits and giggles I googled it just to see where your hilariously specific mention came from: protip - know what you're talking about thoroughly before using google. Hint: the study placed no control on the dosages of long term users, and therefore the likelihood supraphysiological dosages were administered is more likely, in addition to not examining the cardio training done by said "weight lifters". Studies are shit without effective controls.

It's Lyle Alzado all over again - people choosing to blame steroids for the death, when cocaine, something we know for a fact leads to heart attacks and causes permanent heart damage regardless of dosage, is the more likely culprit. In Lyle Alzado's case it was the concussions brought about playing in the NFL that led to brain cancer, not the steroids.

Same shit. Same misattributed cause.