Steroid Report

Two of my favorite steroid writers are John Hoberman, PhD and Charles Yesalis, PhD. I read their books. I read their articles. I have “Google Alerts” set to notify me when they are quoted by the media. I have even invited them to write for my website (and I’ve been fortunate to have Dr. Hoberman write a few feature articles for me).

Several of my friends and colleagues wonder why I enjoy works from these “anti-steroid guys.” While I may have a different perspective regarding the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports, Dr. Yesalis and Dr. Hoberman represent the few prominent “steroid experts” that generally stay above the histrionics and scaremongering.

Dr. Yesalis recently discussed the topic of steroids in an interview published on Testosterone Nation website: Read the rest of this entry »

HBO Films is planning to make a movie about Barry Bonds and all the characters involved in the BALCO steroid scandal. They recently purchased the rights to the book “Game of Shadows” written by the investigative reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Hollywood is already promoting this as a “Barry Bonds” movie. I think everyone will be overloaded with stories about Bonds, if not already, by the time the movie is released on HBO. How many people will really want to see a movie about Barry Bonds?

Game of Shadows is well-written and interesting book that is about much more than Barry Bonds.  I hope that director Ron Shelton is able to breathe life into movie adaption with an engaging depiction of  the BALCO steroid scandal. I am hopeful as he has had some notable success with sports films: Read the rest of this entry »

David Jacobs, training partner of IFBB Pro bodybuilder Branch Warren, admitted to selling 40,000 vials of anabolic steroids and several thousand units of growth hormone as part of a sealed plea agreement earlier this month. The Plano-based national level bodybuilding competitor and personal trainer pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids. He was indicted in May 2007 as part of Operation Raw Deal. Read the rest of this entry »

The medical journal Circulation published a new study this week entitled “Endogenous Testosterone and Mortality Due to All Causes, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer in Men.” The role of testosterone in health has long been a controversial topic and the recent steroid hysteria has only fueled the love-hate relationship with steroids in our society.

Reuters reports that “high testosterone linked to men’s lower death risk.” I hope steroid-using bodybuilders do not conclude that higher testosterone levels, even supraphysiologic levels from exogenous testosterone adminstration, are always better than low testosterone levels. Read the rest of this entry »

My first introduction to Dan Duchaine was through the photocopied pages of Underground Steroid Handbook that circulated among bodybuilding circles at the University of Texas. I was impressed by the matter of fact, straightforward discussion of anabolic steroid information for muscle-building and performance-enhancing purposes. There was a lot of accurate information contained within those pages, much moreso than contemporary journal articles and information provided by physicians. And for this, we generally overlooked the errors and mistakes made by Duchaine.

As one of the first writers to disseminate uncensored information on the use of anabolic steroids, we looked forward to everything Dan wrote from articles in Muscle Media 2000 to Dirty Dieting Newsletter to misc.fitness.weights usenet newsgroups. Read the rest of this entry »