Drugs and the Body

Handled evidence-led, and deliberately restrictive. Metandienone was first described in 1955 and synthesised by researchers at CIBA in Basel, marketed as Dianabol from 1958; John Ziegler introduced it to American athletes but did not create it, and his account of Vienna in 1954 is his own later recollection. Documented early use includes Sid Gillman giving it to the San Diego Chargers from 1963. Then the 1990 Anabolic Steroid Control Act, which both the AMA and the DEA opposed; the WBF of 1990 to 1992, which claimed testing without testing, imposed real testing in March 1992 and visibly deflated; and the IFBB Pro League, which still does not routinely test. On the human cost: Andreas Munzer's autopsy found a 636 gram heart against a normal 300 to 350, and liver tumours; Rich Piana's found heart and liver each roughly twice normal size, but the hospital destroyed the toxicology specimens and no cause was ever established. Nothing here is instructional, and no allegation is presented as fact.

Part of Bodybuilding

77 moments in this segment.

  1. - #Docu: Bigger, Stronger, Faster* (Chris Bell, 2008). Bigger, Stronger, Faster, Chris Bell's 2008 documentary on anabolic steroids in American sport and in his own family. It is the most widely seen film on the subject and it argues that the public understanding of the drugs is shaped more by moral panic than by evidence.
  2. - Bigger Stronger Faster* (2008) Official Trailer #1 - Steroids Documentary Movie HD. The 2008 trailer for Bigger, Stronger, Faster.
  3. - BIGGER STRONGER FASTER* deleted scene: "Roid Rage". A deleted scene from Bigger, Stronger, Faster on roid rage, examining how firmly the link between steroids and violence is actually established. The documented psychiatric findings include aggression, mania and less frequently psychosis and suicide.
  4. - BIGGER STRONGER FASTER* deleted scene: "Steroids for HIV". A deleted scene from Bigger, Stronger, Faster on anabolic steroids prescribed for HIV wasting, a legitimate clinical use of the same class of drug.
  5. - BIGGER STRONGER FASTER* Deleted Scene-Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler. A deleted scene from Bigger, Stronger, Faster featuring Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler.
  6. - High-protein nutritional fluid. Bob Hoffman's Hi-Proteen and Rheo Blair's protein powders are the commercial origin of the sports supplement category in the mid twentieth century.
  7. - Capsules. The FDA has repeatedly found products sold as dietary supplements to contain undeclared pharmaceutical ingredients, including in categories marketed for muscle building.
  8. - Tainted products marketed as dietary supplements. An FDA display of products sold as dietary supplements and found to contain undeclared pharmaceutical ingredients. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 placed the burden on the FDA to prove a supplement unsafe rather than on the manufacturer to prove it safe.
  9. - FDA laboratory. An FDA testing laboratory. Post-market testing is the principal regulatory tool available for supplements under the 1994 statute.
  10. - Home gym. Muscle dysmorphia and disordered eating are documented in the population that trains, not only in the population that competes.
  11. - Arm and shoulder musculature. Munzer's autopsy found virtually no subcutaneous fat, a liver containing numerous tumours, a heart weighing 636 grams against a normal 300 to 350, and severely deranged electrolytes with dangerously elevated potassium.
  12. - Amino acid supplements. Amino acid products. In 1972 US postal inspectors investigated claims that Weider Formula No. 7 would let users gain a pound a day.
  13. - Rich Piana. Piana died on 25 August 2017 aged 46 after a cardiac arrest earlier that month. The medical examiner's report was inconclusive and no definitive cause of death was established. The autopsy found heart and liver each roughly twice normal size for an adult male, and mild atherosclerotic disease; the hospital disposed of all toxicology specimens, preventing analysis that might have clarified matters.
  14. - Drug Enforcement Administration museum. The 1990 Anabolic Steroid Control Act placed anabolic steroids in Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. Both the American Medical Association and the DEA opposed the bill.
  15. - Body Dysmorphic Disorder - Psychologist Explains - Ben Buchanan. Psychologist Ben Buchanan explaining body dysmorphic disorder, the broader diagnosis under which muscle dysmorphia sits.
  16. - National Geographic: science of steroids. National Geographic on the science of steroids, hosted on the channel of the Taylor Hooton Foundation, which was founded after the death of a teenage user.
  17. - Muscle Dysmorphia & BDD Brain Research. On brain research into muscle dysmorphia and body dysmorphic disorder.
  18. - Prepared meals. Contest preparation is an extended energy deficit ending at extremely low body fat. Documented physiological consequences in case studies include suppressed reproductive hormones, reduced resting metabolic rate, mood disturbance and disordered eating patterns.
  19. - Supplement product. Under the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act the FDA must prove a supplement unsafe rather than the manufacturer prove it safe. Nearly everything about the modern supplement market follows from that statute.
  20. - Muscle dysmorphia explained by psychologist. A psychologist explaining muscle dysmorphia.
  21. - 'Bigorexia': Muscle dysmorphia 'now affects one in 10 gym-going men' - BBC News. BBC News reporting a claim that muscle dysmorphia affects one in ten gym going men. Note the range in the research: this is one figure among many that differ by an order of magnitude.
  22. - Pre-workout supplement. A pre-workout product. American College of Sports Medicine guidance puts useful protein intake in the range of 1.2 to 1.8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight, with diminishing returns beyond that.
  23. - Pre-workout marketed to women. The same category, marketed separately to women. The tone and bulk framing that underpins this segmentation is not physiologically meaningful.
  24. - Dietary supplements, fact versus fiction. A US Air Force public information event on supplements. Military services run supplement education programmes because service members are a heavily marketed-to population.
  25. - Weights and a measuring tape. Measurement is the sport's oldest habit. Sandow's own published measurements were promotional, as was the entire music hall strongman economy that produced them.
  26. - It's Not Just Pro Athletes That Use Steroids. A documentary arguing that steroid use extends well beyond professional athletes into recreational gym populations.
  27. - BDD Conference 2016: Muscle Dysmorphia & Areas of Concern Common in Men with BDD - Dr Rob Willson. A conference presentation on muscle dysmorphia at the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation. Key researchers in the field include Harrison Pope, Katharine Phillips and Roberto Olivardia, whose book The Adonis Complex appeared in 2000.
  28. - Chronic anabolic steroid use may damage heart, arteries. Massachusetts General Hospital summarising research finding that chronic anabolic steroid use may damage the heart and arteries. Documented cardiac findings include left ventricular hypertrophy, raised LDL cholesterol and increased risk of myocardial infarction.
  29. - Juiced Up - The Consequences of Steroids: SWOLE Ep. 3. VICE Sports on the consequences of steroid use, the third episode of SWOLE.
  30. - Food supplements. In 1985 Weider settled with the Federal Trade Commission over misleading muscle-building claims for products including Anabolic Mega-Pak, agreeing to pay a minimum of 400,000 dollars in refunds and to stop making unsubstantiated claims.
  31. - Training. Andreas Munzer, who died on 14 March 1996 aged 31, is the best-documented case in the sport because a full autopsy was performed. Cause of death was recorded as dystrophic multiple organ failure.
  32. - Gym interior. The bodybuilding literature records intensified body image problems among young adults, driven specifically by a lack of transparency about enhancement. Some figures now argue for openness about drug use on exactly those public-health grounds.
  33. - Muscle Dysmorphia – The Male Eating Disorder | Scott Griffiths | TEDxSydney. Researcher Scott Griffiths on muscle dysmorphia as a male eating disorder. Prevalence estimates range from one percent to 54 percent depending on the population studied, and that range is itself the finding: the condition is poorly measured.
  34. - Prof Harrison Pope on effects of steroid use and need for research and knowledgeable physicians. Professor Harrison Pope on the effects of anabolic steroid use and the need for more research and better informed clinicians. Pope is one of the researchers who defined muscle dysmorphia in the 1990s.
  35. - Steroids Documentary Steroids In The UK Documentary) 1. A documentary on anabolic steroid use in the United Kingdom, where possession for personal use is treated differently in law than in the United States.
  36. - FDA at an international mail facility. FDA inspection of imported products at a mail facility. The 1990 Anabolic Steroid Control Act placed anabolic steroids in Schedule III of the US Controlled Substances Act; both the American Medical Association and the Drug Enforcement Administration opposed the bill.
  37. - Bodybuilding supplements in a store. Retail supplement shelves. The athlete's income comes chiefly from supplement sponsorship, guest posing, coaching and social media rather than prize money, which is the relationship Joe Weider built in the 1940s.
  38. - The Origin Of Steroids. An account of where anabolic steroids came from. The story that Ziegler learned of Soviet testosterone use from a Soviet team doctor at Vienna in 1954 rests on Ziegler's own later recollection, and it frames American doping as a defensive response to the Soviets.
  39. - Contest preparation
  40. - Late in preparation. Peak week manipulation of fluid and electrolytes to achieve the dry look is the practice most directly implicated in competition-adjacent deaths, because it produces electrolyte derangement in an already stressed cardiovascular system.
  41. - Ep. 29- The Science & History of Steroids (And Drug Testing). The Iron Culture podcast on the science and history of anabolic steroids and of drug testing, from researchers in the field.
  42. - Muscle dysmorphia: when you’re never big enough. ABC Science on muscle dysmorphia. The condition was conceptualised in the late 1990s, initially under the term reverse anorexia, and is recognised in DSM-5 as a specifier of body dysmorphic disorder where the concern is that the body is too small or insufficiently muscular.
  43. - #28–Mark & Chris Bell: steroids, powerlifting, addiction, diet, training, & helping others live well. A long interview with Mark and Chris Bell covering steroids, powerlifting and addiction, twelve years after the film.
  44. - Conditioned physique. Extreme weight fluctuation between off-season and contest is named in the literature as a contributor to mortality in the sport.
  45. - Supplement retail. The athlete is economically dependent on the supplement industry, which is the same relationship Weider built in the 1940s, merely disintermediated by social media.
  46. - Bigorexia - Official Trailer (HD) | Bodybuilding Documentary. The trailer for Bigorexia, a documentary on muscle dysmorphia in the bodybuilding world.
  47. - How do steroids affect your muscles - and the rest of your body? - Anees Bahji. A TED-Ed explainer on what anabolic steroids do to muscle and to the rest of the body, written by psychiatrist Anees Bahji.
  48. - The global prevalence of anabolic androgenic steroid use. A research presentation on the global prevalence of anabolic androgenic steroid use. Estimates put use in the United States at one to three million people, roughly one percent of the population, which is the general population and not bodybuilders.
  49. - Protein powder. The supplement industry's economics depend on people believing the useful protein number is far higher than the evidence supports.
  50. - HOW CHEMISTRY CAME TO DOMINATE U.S. SPORTS. On how pharmacology came to dominate American sport.
  51. - How Steroids Became More Popular Than Heroin | News on Drugs. VICE News reporting on the scale of anabolic steroid use in the United States relative to other controlled drugs.
  52. - Muscle Dysmorphia in Men: The Han Swolo Effect. MedPage Today on muscle dysmorphia in men, addressed to a clinical audience.
  53. - Stories of muscle dysmorphia (bigorexia) | Health Science Explained #191. First person accounts of living with muscle dysmorphia.
  54. - How to reduce the harm of anabolic steroid use | Julio Amaral | TEDxUCLStudio. A TEDx talk on reducing the harm of anabolic steroid use, framed as a public health rather than an enforcement question.
  55. - Finding a way out of Bigorexia and Muscle Dysmorphia | Dr Scott Griffiths. Researcher Scott Griffiths on treatment and recovery from muscle dysmorphia. Bodybuilding prescribes rigid food rules, weighing and compulsive exercise, which is exactly what makes those patterns hard to identify as pathology within the sport.
  56. - Final defendant from Mass. company sentenced in tainted steroid case. Local news reporting the sentencing of the final defendant in a Massachusetts tainted steroid case. Contamination in an unregulated supply is a documented consequence of prohibition rather than of the drug.
  57. - What is muscle dysmorphia? The untold crisis of male body obsession | ABCNL. ABC News on male body obsession and what clinicians are seeing.
  58. - Muscle dysmorphia awareness on the rise as men struggle with 'strong' body image | Nightline. ABC News on rising awareness of muscle dysmorphia among men.
  59. - Gambone Law Podcast S2 E4-Is the proposed DEA regulation part of the government’s war on masculinity. A legal podcast on proposed DEA regulation of steroid-adjacent compounds, discussing how scheduling decisions are actually made.
  60. - Bigger Stronger Faster - A 15 Year Retrospective - Part 2. A retrospective on Bigger, Stronger, Faster fifteen years after release, assessing what it got right and what it missed.
  61. - The history of steroids | Peter Attia & Derek MPMD. Peter Attia and a guest on the history of anabolic steroids. Documented early adopters include Oklahoma University players and Sid Gillman, who gave the drug to the San Diego Chargers from 1963.
  62. - The Billion Dollar Black Market: Steroids (Full Episode) | Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller. National Geographic's Trafficked on the black market in anabolic steroids. The 1990 legislation arose in part from a 1987 federal indictment targeting a market then estimated at 100 million dollars.
  63. - What Steroids Do to the Body. The Institute of Human Anatomy on the physiological effects of anabolic steroids, using cadaveric material.
  64. - Get Big Or Die Trying - The Story of Whistleblower Bostin Loyd (2024). On Bostin Loyd, a competitor who published detailed accounts of his own drug use and died in 2022. The film is about a person who chose to make himself a public case study, and it reports what he said about himself.
  65. - Bill St. John Man of Iron Interview - Dr. John Ziegler, Hoffman, Vasilef, golden age bodybuilding. A long oral history interview covering John Ziegler, Bob Hoffman and the York Barbell circle. Metandienone was first described in 1955 and synthesised by researchers at CIBA in Basel, Switzerland, which filed a US patent in 1957 and marketed it as Dianabol from 1958. Ziegler's defensible role is introducing it to athletes, not creating it.
  66. - Inside the Deadly Market for Experimental Bodybuilding Drugs | Fault Lines Documentary. Al Jazeera's Fault Lines on the market in experimental compounds sold to bodybuilders, including peptides marketed outside any approval process.
  67. - Pressure to use steroids is growing. How dangerous are they? | The Current. CBC's The Current on growing pressure on young men to use steroids, and what the medical evidence says about the risks.
  68. - Inside the Dangerous World of Bodybuilding. A documentary on the risks inside competitive bodybuilding.
  69. - Study: Amateur BodyBuilders have 10 X Risk of sudden cardiac death & Pros have 90 X! Why?. A physician discussing a study reporting sharply elevated sudden cardiac death rates among competitive bodybuilders. Studies from the 2010s onward have documented elevated mortality, attributed to sudden cardiac death, extreme weight fluctuation, intentional dehydration and drug use.
  70. - Androgenic anabolic steroids: a clinical practice guideline for primary care. A clinical practice guideline on androgenic anabolic steroids for primary care doctors, addressed to clinicians who encounter users rather than to users.
  71. - Anabolic Steroids: The Muscle Market | ARTE.tv Documentary. ARTE investigating the European market in anabolic steroids.
  72. - Breaking Down a Classic Dianabol Study - What Did They Really Figure Out?. A close reading of an early Dianabol study, examining what the research actually established rather than what it is usually cited for.
  73. - Body Dysmorphia: The Hidden Epidemic | FULL DOCUMENTARY. A full ABC documentary on body dysmorphia, covering the muscle dysmorphia presentation among men.
  74. - The Steroid Lawyer: Rick Collins and the Fight Over Anabolic Laws. Rick Collins on the legal history of anabolic steroid regulation. Later statutes followed in 2004 and 2014, the latter creating penalties up to 500,000 dollars for false labelling.
  75. - ROIDCheck: Building the World’s First Steroid Drug Checking Program. On ROIDCheck, described as the first drug checking programme for anabolic steroids. A harm reduction response to an unregulated supply, the same model applied to other illicit drugs.
  76. - Lawyer & Bodybuilder Rick Collins: The Government Went To Far Criminalizing Steroids. Lawyer Rick Collins on the criminalisation of anabolic steroids in the United States. The Anabolic Steroids Control Act of 1990 placed them in Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act, and it was opposed by both the American Medical Association and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Congress passed it anyway.
  77. - When Did Humans Start Using Anabolic Steroids?. On when humans began using anabolic steroids and what preceded them.
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